Göteborg Film Fest back in full swing with 250+ films, Alicia Vikander, Jan Troell

For its first full year back to normal after two years of disruption due to Covid, the biggest film festival in the Nordic region will be roaring back to life from January 27 to February 5 with an impressive line-up of Nordic and international films and VIPs.

The Göteborg Film Festival’s opening film Exodus by Abbe Hassan (A Hustler’s Diary) will kick-start the event and lead the slate of titles illustrating this year’s overarching theme of ‘Homecoming’.

The film produced by B-Reel Films is a heart-felt story of a friendship that develops between a refugee smuggler and a 12-year-old girl Syrian refugee, starring Clash of the Titans’s Ashraf Barhom and the young revelation Jwan Alqatami. TriArt will release the drama domestically March 10 and Levelk handles global sales.

The film is backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, alongside five other films vying for the SEK 400,000 (€39,000) Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film: the multi-awarded Danish/Icelandic film Godland by Hlynur Pálmason which world premiered at Cannes’s Un Certain Regard, the Finnish relationship drama Four Little Adults by Selma Vilhunen and Danish film Copenhagen Doesn’t Exist by Martin Skovbjerg, two titles that will come straight from their Rotterdam world premiere, as well as Frederikke Aspöck's Empire from Denmark and Ole Giæver's Let the River Flow from Norway, two titles exploring their country's colonial past.

Among the six films vying for the SEK 250,000 (€22,000) Best Nordic Documentary is the IDFA Best Film winner Appolonia, Appolonia by Danish filmmaker Lea Glob.

The Ingmar Bergman competition for debut filmmakers takes in eight films such as Sister, What Grows Where the Land is Sick by Norwegian rising talent Franciska Eliassen which earned a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival.

As a platform not only for the best new Nordic films but also for some of the best auteur films from around the world, Göteborg will also showcase 18 titles running for the SEK 50,000 (€4,500) Best International Film Dragon Award such as Austria’s Corsage, France’s The Five Devils and Italy’s L’immensità. All films can be watched online in Sweden at the festival’s own platform for arthouse films Draken Film.

Within the non-competitive sections, the ‘Northern Light’ has no less than eight world premieres, such as the festival's closing film Camino by Birgitte Stærmose, produced by Motor for Viaplay.

Standout Swedish world premieres to be unveiled at the ‘Homecoming’ programme are One Day All This Will Be Yours directed by Andreas Öhman for Grand Slam Films with backing from Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and Dennis Harvey’s I Must Away produced by Story AB.

Among the numerous stars set to bring glitz and glam is Alicia Vikander who will attend the presentation of the student films taking part in the first Alicia Vikander Film lab, and Cannes winning actress for Holy Spider Zar Amir Ebrahimi. The Iranian-born will lead a demonstration in support of the detained filmmakers and people in Iran, and preside over the jury of the Nordic Competition

Co-jury members include Danish actress Sophie Gråbøl (The Killing, Rose), Ukrainian filmmaker Antonio Lukish (Luxembourg, Luxembourg), one of four filmmakers from warn-torn Ukraine who received an artistic residency in Gothenburg by the festival, and Swedish pianist/composer Matti Bye (Young Royals).

This year’s recipient of the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award is veteran filmmaker Jan Troell, who will deliver a ‘Director’s Talk’ following the screening of Everlasting Moments, January 28.

As announced earlier, the festival’s Honorary President and two-time Palme d’or winner Ruben Östlund will also be in on hand and direct the Draken cinema audience during a special This is cinema! event January 28. See our story: CLICK HERE.

While the Göteborg Film Festival will pay tribute to displacement and search for identity, in the midst of war in Ukraine, the parallel industry event TV Drama Vision (February 1-2) will focus on ‘navigating disruption and cultivating talent’.

The full programme of the must-attend TV event will soon be announced, alongside the list of films part of the Nordic Film Market (February 2-5).

Full list of Nordic Competition:

• Copenhagen Does Not Exist by Martin Skovbjerg (Denmark)
• Dogborn by Isabella Carbonell (Sweden)
• Empire by Frederikke Aspöck (Denmark)
• Exodus by Abbe Hassan (Sweden)
• Four Little Adults by Selma Vilhunen (Finland/Sweden/France)
• Godland by Hlynur Pálmason (Denmark/Iceland/France/Sweden)
• Let the River Flow by Ole Giæver (Norway)
• Munch by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Norway)
• Unruly by Malou Reymann (Denmark/Sweden)

Full list of Nordic Documentary Competition:

• Apolonia, Apolonia by Lea Glob (Denmark/Poland/France)
• Bong Thom (The Brother) by Zaradasht Ahmed (Norway/ Sweden/The Netherlands)
• Hypernoon by Mia Engberg (Sweden)
• Labor by Tove Pils (Sweden)
• Monica in the South Seas by Mika Taanila and Sami van Ingen (Finland).
• The King by Karin af Klintberg (Sweden)

For the full programme, check: www.goteborgfilmfestival.se