Göteborg turns hybrid, selects Sweat for Dragon Award competition

With Covid-19 infections going up in Sweden as well and uncertainties prevailing regarding the situation early 2021, the Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF) has just announced the shape of its 44^th edition, set to unspool January 29-February 8, 2021.

Its industry sidebar TV Drama Vision will unfold February 3-4 and Nordic Film Market February 4-6.

The GIFF programme will be scaled down by approximately one third to favour staggered start times of film screenings in cinemas in Göteborg, and a new curated digital programme for audiences all over Sweden will be available parallel to the cinema shows.

Jonas Holmberg, the festival’s artistic director said:”Facing the biggest crisis in the history of cinema, we've set out to design a film festival viable in the midst of a global pandemic. We want to support filmmakers and the industry by creating an innovative festival that will be safe while remaining a powerful manifestation of the art of cinema during this unprecedented crisis.

Meanwhile the Nordic Film Market, TV Drama Vision, Nostradamus and a selection of the industry activities will also be held both digitally and in a limited on-site format, that will favour on-site pitchers, where possible.

Cia Edström, Head of Industry said: "We will present a hybrid model for the years to come as we believe new formats for markets and industry platforms are here to stay. As always, we will showcase Scandinavian talent with upcoming films, drama series, creative talents and global industry trends, online and on-site."

The accreditation for online participation will open early December and a limited number of on-site accreditations will be released early January.

The Göteborg Film Festival has also announced the first batch of films in the new section ‘Focus: Social Distances’.

Magnus von Horn’s Cannes selected Sweat is among the first selected titles, and will also compete for a Dragon Award-Best Nordic Feature Film. The Swedish/Polish film was the opening film of Haugesund’s New Nordic Films in August.

Other films in the Social Distances programme include Molecules by Andrea Segre (Italy), Time to Pause by Alistair Morrison (UK), Conference by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy (Russia/Estonia/UK/Italy) and the ‘Lock Down Cinema’ selection of short films by Ildikó Enyedi, Jia Zhangke, Annemarie Jacir, Denis Coté among others.

The full programme will be announced January 12, 2021.