Göteborg rocks with docs
by Annika Pham
Documentaries are hot at this year’s Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF). Nahid Person Sarvestani’s The Queen and I opens the biggest festival in Scandinavia today, which will end on February 2 with The Film I Don’t Talk About Anymore, co-directed by Martin Degrell and Jesper Ganslandt (Falkenberg Farewell [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).
A total of 450 films (shorts, features and documentaries) from 65 countries will bring to life the 21 different sections of the 32nd GIFF. Eight of the latest productions from the Nordic region will compete for the main Nordic Film Award, and its accompanying SEK 100,000 (just under €10,000).
This year’s contenders from Sweden are The Queen and I (which just screened in competition at Sundance) and the feature debuts In Your Veins by Beata Gårdeler and Guidance by Johan Jonasson.
Finland will present Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää’s The Visitor [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Dome Karukoski’s Forbidden Fruit; Iceland has Country Wedding [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by editor-turned-director Valdis Oskarsdottir; Norway will unspool Eva Isaksen’s House of Fools [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and Denmark The Blessing by Heidi Maria Faisst.
Last year’s winner of the Nordic Film Award was the internationally acclaimed Let the Right One In [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Nordling
interview: Tomas Alfredson
film profile].
Eight international films will compete for the other main prize, the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award. Those include The Stranger in Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Germany), I’ve Loved You So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France), Los Bastardos [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (US/France/Mexico) and Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
The jury for this award comprises directors Bille August, Enrique Rivero, Emily Atek and Najwa Najjar.
Other highlights of this year’s edition of Göteborg include a special focus on Turkey, a Gala screening programme that will open with Danny Boyle’s Oscar contender Slumdog Millionaire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danny Boyle
film profile], and the animation sidebar Animania, where master animators Bill Plympton (from the US) and Pritt Pärn (Estonia) will discuss their work.
The annual Nordic Film Market will take place from January 29-February 1.
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