A good year for art house and a lesser year for audience numbers mark the Swedish film year of 2024. As for 2025, the Swedish film industry looks forward to the outcome of the national government film inquiry, presented in March.

“Same procedure as last time” or why not “another round” could both be fitting expressions, prize-wise, for director Levan Akin and his latest outing Crossing (Passage), largely repeating his 2019 award record for And Then We Danced. At the 2025 Guldbagge awards ceremony, held Monday night, Crossing got four handsome awards, for best film, best directing, best cinematography, and best sound design.

Crossing is a story that takes both the viewer and the two protagonists, a retired female history teacher and an adolescent teenage boy, from the sleepy Georgian countryside to the hustle-bustle of Istanbul, where they try to track down the teacher’s wayward (trans) niece. The film premiered at Berlin’s Panorama section in 2024, and also won the festival’s special Teddy Award, devoted to queer-themed cinema. Since then, the praise has just continued to flow, with a number of festival accolades and very healthy sales pouring in.

The main producer behind the film, Mathilde Dedye and her company French Quarter, have performed quite a few crossings herself, when it comes to multi-territorial collaborations. Sweden’s Swedish RMV Film, Denmark’s Adomeit Film, France’s Easy Riders Films, Georgia’s 1991 Productions, and Turkey’s Bir Films are all on board as co-producers. Additional support is provided by Sveriges Television, SVT, The Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

“The film required a budget of a certain size, and getting it from Sweden alone wouldn’t have been able to cover it. The other way is to bring a whole lot of countries together, which on the other hand will have its own cost, as we will have to employ people from all the different territories. Along the way, it dawned on us that we probably could have managed by making it as, if not an entirely Swedish, at least a Nordic or Scandinavian co-production.”

Crossing was a comparatively smooth endeavour, both Dedye and Akin agree, and the success of And Then We Dancedcertainly didn’t hurt. “It gets a little easier every time, I feel,” says Akin, and Dedye concurs. “Despite the crisis that Swedish film endures at the moment, at least those of us who are creating art house films enjoy a support. And here I even compare with countries like France and Denmark. The Danish film industry may have more money on the whole, but when it comes to this particular brand of cinema, I have several Danish producer colleagues who have to struggle quite a bit in order to realise their projects. Admittedly, The Swedish Film Institute suffers from a shortage of funds, but those few films that get support, and Crossing is one of them, get quite a reasonable amount.”

Other art house fare can be experienced in Ernst De Geer’s first feature The Hypnosis (Hypnosen), which opened in Göteborg and had good success at Karlovy Vary, winning three awards for this dark comedy of social discomfort. Doing good was also Frida Kempf’s biopic on 1930s swimming ace Sally Bauer, The Swedish Torpedo (Den svenska torpeden), which world-premied at Toronto and got four awards. Probably the biggest 2025 Guldbagge contender, Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson’s feel-good box office hit The Last Journey (Den sista resan) “only” got the best documentary award and a highly expected audience award, and recently broke the 400,000 domestic ticket sale. Compared to those figures, Crossings has performed more modestly. “On the other hand, we have sold the film to a little over 50 territories,” says Akin. “And on the MUBI streaming platform, it has performed well. Really well, actually. And in that respect, it’s a great success for Swedish film internationally.”

“My own assessment is that people simply don’t attend the cinemas anymore,” says Dedye, “something our national film politics regrettably still centres around. And that’s a problem, because people simply don’t watch cinema films that way these days. They still love cinema, but they watch it on other screens. I greatly look forward to the outcomes of the current government inquiry on the state of Swedish cinema. In my opinion, the whole online streaming market has been entirely neglected and more or less handed on a silver plate to Netflix. And that’s a shame, I feel. Perhaps we should look at France here, they’ve regulated this better, is my impression.”

As for Hammar and Wikingsson, the cherished duo behind The Last Journey, they take their “loss” in stride. “I’m good with things,” said Wikingsson. “Just like most others, I haven’t seen the other films. So I can’t really judge whether we or they are the better ones.”

While both Hammar and Wikingsson as well as Akin and Dedye already are preparing their next productions, Peter Fornstam, the CEO of cinema operator Svenska Bio as well as the Chairman of Swedish Cinema Association, has just published the Swedish box office numbers for 2024. 10.6 million cinema visits were made, meaning about 600,000 less than in 2023. The pandemic, the inflation, the Hollywood strike and the streaming services are reasons given for the decrease, but Fornstam is another one taking things in stride. “We expected some dour numbers, but actually lower ones than we actually got.”

Fornstam too, as well as more or less every one else in the Swedish film industry, is looking forward to the final outcome of the government inquiry instigated in January 2024 by Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand, due for publication in March 2025 (a partial report was also published in June 2024). “There have been many meetings with industry representatives during this time, and my impression is that many of the issues raised have been taken to heart. If the problems are approached with as much acquired knowledge as possible, it can only be a good thing. All that being said, and not taking all the political anchoring that is required into consideration, I will say ‘So far, so good’, and will greatly anticipate the 4th of March and what may materialise on that day.”

All the winners are listed below:

BEST FILM
Crossing
Producer Mathilde Dedeye

BEST DIRECTOR
Levan Akin
for Crossing

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Bianca Kronlöf
for Hanne in Heartbeat (Så länge hjärtat slår)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Herbert Nordrum
for André in The Hypnosis

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Eva Melander
for Helena in Trouble (Strul)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
David Fukamachi Regnfors
for Julian in The Hypnosis

BEST SCREENPLAY
Ernst De Geer and Mads Stegger
for The Hypnosis

BEST EDITING
Orvar Anklew and Kalle Lindberg
for Avicii – I'm Tim

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Lisabi Fridell
for Crossing

BEST SOUND DESIGN
Anne Gry Friis Kristensen and Sigrid DPA Jensen
for Crossing

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Lisa Montan
for JerryMaya's Detective Agency – The Lost Mascot (LasseMajas detektivbyrå – Maskoten som försvann)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Sami Haartemo, Mikko Löppönen, Teemu Pitkänen, Ville Pätsi and Jacob Danell
for The Swedish Torpedo

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Eugene Tamberg
for The Swedish Torpedo

BEST SET DESIGN
Elle Furudahl
for The Swedish Torpedo

BEST MAKEUP
Kaire Hendrikson
for The Swedish Torpedo

BEST SHORT FILM
The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp
Directed by Dennis Harvey

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
The Last Journey
Directed by Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson

THE GULDBAGGE AUDIENCE AWARD
The Last Journey
Produced by Lars Beckung and Petra Måhl

GULLSPIRA – for extraordinary contributions in films for children
Johanna Bergenstråhle, producer

GULDPIGA – for emerging talents
Loran Batti, director
For G - 21 Scenes from Gottsunda (G – 21 scener från Gottsunda)

THE AWARD OF HONOUR
Lasse Hallström, director