23/12/2002 - Swedish festival (24 January-3 February 2003) will showcase over 700 films including Kopps from Josef Fares

Preparations are almost finished for the 26th edition of the Gothenburg Film Festival, scheduled to be held in Sweden in January 2003. During a press conference held in Filmhuset in Stockholm last week, Jannike Ahlud, the festival’s director, presented some of the 700 films selected for screening at next year’s event.
Swedish director Josef Fares will open the festival on 24 January with his long awaited film, Kopps, his first feature since the 2000 release of his box office hit Jalla! Jalla!. Fares’s new film, an action comedy about a small police station in danger of being closed because crime in the area is virtually non-existent, was produced by Memfis Film and co-produced by Film i Vast, Zentropa and the Nordisk Film & TV Fund.
This edition will also inaugurate a new section, Asian Hots. As the name implies, it will specialise in films from China, Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand and this year, especially Korea, a market that has taken off in a big way in recent years.
The organisers hope to repeat last year’s success and to that end the Swedish Film Institute will once again present the young director of the best first feature screened at Gothenburg with the Novel prize: SKR150,000. This award also introduces Swedish filmgoers to the latest new trends in the domestic production market. Directors of short films are invited to compete for the best Nordic Short award, a cash prize of SKR 50,000.