Tove to kick start Göteborg Film Festival

Bergroth’s inspiring and life-affirming film about the Moomins’ creator-author and illustrator Tove Jansson, will also compete for the Dragon Award-Best Nordic Film.

The news was just unveiled this morning by the largest Scandinavian Film Festival, as well as local distributor Non-Stop Entertainment.

The Göteborg Film Festival’s artistic director Jonas Holmberg, said: "We are very proud to have Tove as our opening film. In these challenging times, it feels liberating to open the festival with a dancing tribute to cross-border creativity. Tove is a sharp and touching depiction of a unique life story."

Director Zaida Bergroth who shot the film in Jansson’s native Swedish language said: "Sweden played a big part in Tove Jansson's life and I can't wait to show our film in Göteborg. I feel like Finns and Swedes share the same kind of pride when it comes to Tove, she said. “There are so many of us who have a strong relation to her work. I hope our Tove will shine a light to a part of Tove Jansson's life that is not so well known." Based on a screenplay by Eeva Putro, the film boasts a towering performance from Alma Pöysti in the title role.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR ZAIDA BERGROTH.

The film has received rave reviews in the Finnish media and is still number one at the Finnish box office after six weeks on screens. Released by Nordisk Film early October, straight after its world premiere in Toronto, the film has sold 151,588 tickets, despite screen capacity more than halved due to the pandemic.

Tove was produced by Helsinki-filmi’s Andrea Reuter and Aleksi Bardy, in co-production with Anagram Sverige and support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

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The film is due to open in the rest of the Nordics in the spring 2021 via non-Stop Entertainment in Sweden and Non-Stop’s sub-distributors Another World in Norway and Andersen Film in Denmark. The full programme of the 44^th Göteborg Film Festival will be unveiled January 12, 2021.