During a ceremony this week at Filmhuset, the three young film graduates were each awarded a development grant of SEK 400,000 from the Swedish Film Institute’s talent scheme Wild Card, towards the making of their feature debut.
Abramovitch had won in September a Nordic Talents Special Mention for her feature project A Soviet Love Story.
Angelika Abramovitch studied directing at Stockholm Academy of the Arts; she will graduate next year from the Alma script programme.
Her winning project A Soviet Love Story (Länge leve Gurzuf) is produced by Linus Andersson for Lampray. The story is set in 1968, in the Soviet coastal town of Gurzuf. When Anja & Anton’s son is diagnosed with leukaemia after the Chernobyl tragedy, their relationship is put to test.
Lina Vain Illalla is a graduate from Gothenburg’s Valand directing course and served as assistant screenwriter on Charter by Amanda Kernell. Their project Anatomy of Pain (Smärtans anatomi) features the rise and fall of a restaurant which hires people who have fallen between the cracks in society.
Loran Batti studied documentary filmmaking at Öland Folk High School, then drama at Biskops Arnö, and this year, he took part in a workshop at the Riksteatern residence. His feature project G - first ever documentary backed by Wild Card - is set in Uppsala’s suburb of Gottsunda, viewed as one of Sweden's most vulnerable areas. The project is produced by Always Amber’s Göran Hugo Olsson and Melissa Lindgren for Story AB.
The Wild Card feature film Jury consisted of the SFI’s talent manager and film commissioners for fiction: children and young people, short films and new formats, feature films and Moving Sweden. The documentary jury comprised the film commissioners for documentary film and two controllers.
The Wild Card Awards ceremony was held November 16 during the Stockholm International Film Festival, which ends this Sunday.
Among earlier Wild Card winners are Fanny Ovesen (Nach, She-Pack), Nathalie Álvarez Mesén (Clara Sola), and Ernst De Geer (Nach, The Culture).
Moving Sweden Film Commissioner Helen Ahlsson who has been running the SFI’s Wild Card talent development scheme since its inception -alongside Lina Norberg Johansson- will be finishing her Film Commissioning term in February 2022. She will be replaced by Hanna Sohlberg.
