19/10/2012 - Unspooling between November 7-18, the 23rd Stockholm International Film Festival will screen more than 170 films from over 50 countries

Spearheaded by three new – as yet unreleased - Swedish features, European cinema dominates the Bronze Horse competition at the 23rd Stockholm International Film Festival, which unspools between November 7-18: Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Karzan Kader’s Bekas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karzan Kader
film profile] (both debuts) and Måns Månsson>’s Roland Hassel will all have their premieres during the Swedish showcase, which last year registered 39,700 admissions.

US director Benh Zeitlin’s multi-award-winning Beasts of the Southern Wild is also eyeing the 7.3-kilo grand prix, with another three American entries, including Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, Craig Zobel’s Compliance and Ava Duvernay’s The Middle of Nowhere. Norwegian director Eva Sørhaug has made the only other Nordic entry, 90 Minutes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

"This year's programme is perhaps our most daring to date - here the filmmakers take greater risks than ever," said Festival Director Git Scheynius, when announcing the selection in Stockholm on October 17. "It is also remarkable that a third of the titles are made by woman directors. The festival opener is a Swedish political thriller, Marcimain’s Call Girl; the centre piece gala is Robert Zemeckis’s Flight, with Denzel Washington as a drunk airline pilot and the big buzz is undoubtedly Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, which will close the festival,” concluded Scheynius, who co-founded the event in 1990.

Besides the international and the short films competitions, more than 170 films from over 50 countries will be presented in 12 sidebars such as Open Zone ('the hottest from filmmakers worldwide'), American Independents, Asian Images, Latin Visions, the Twilight Zone ('for subculture films') and Documania (documentaries).