With its 49th edition due to play out between 23 January and 1 February, the Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled its 2026 programme, offering up a succulent spread of film fare, including political panels, prominent personalities and hand-picked productions spanning a little under 80 worldwide territories. True to the festival’s specific mission and expertise, significant focus will be placed on the Nordic region, most notably in the Nordic Competition and Nordic Lights sections.

A good dozen world premieres are set to be presented, with Maria Sødahl’s The Last Resort and Alli Haapasalo’s Tell Everyone both screening in the main competition, alongside Itonje Søimer Guttormsen’s Butterfly, starring a reportedly highly unglamorous Renate Reinsve, set to compete at the upcoming IFFR, and 2025 A-list festival players Hlynur Pálmason with The Love That Remains [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hlynur Pálmason
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scheda film]. Two first features from the host nation have also been selected: The Patron by Julia Thelin and The Quiet Beekeeper by Magnus Carlson (also the festival’s opening film), both of which are supported by the Swedish Film Institute’s Moving Sweden talent initiative.

“We’ve certainly seen some dire times”, noted festival director Pia Lundberg vis-à-vis the state of the Swedish film industry, which has suffered from meagre ticket sales and generalised sub-par funding. “But I do see some light ahead, especially from young and emerging talent. I’d even go out on a limb, especially after seeing the shorts submitted to us, and promise very good growth in the years to come.”

One seemingly unstoppable Swedish force is Ruben Östlund, whose likely success by the time of the next Cannes competition is as sure-fire as it comes. The two-time Palme d’or winner will take to the Göteborg stage for a special presentation of his forthcoming work, The Entertainment System Is Down, during which further details of this airplane drama will be revealed.

The Nordic Documentary Competition will offer up world premieres of Even G Benestad and August Baustø Hanssen’s The Curse of Kane, revolving around the most curious but immensely legendary Norwegian western hero, Morgan Kane, and Hogir Hirori’s A Song for Love, painting the portrait of a young Kurdish dervish. In the Nordic Lights section, Danish director Malthe Wermuth Saxer’s Love Untamed has created quite a buzz, and we’ll also find fresh festival favourites like Janicke Askevold’s Solomamma [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Janicke Askevold
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scheda series]. Meanwhile, the rare Netflix production by Thérèse Ahlbeck and Marcus Olsson - a World War II drama called The Swedish Connection - will be treated to a big-screen world premiere on home ground.

Last but not least, special honorary awards will be given to Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Swedish acting dynamo Noomi Rapace, both of which will be accompanied by retrospectives; the Ingmar Bergman Competition jury will be headed up by US writer-producer and great Scandinavian cinema aficionado James Schamus, and a special focus will explore the concept of “Truth” in our time and age, with recent works such as Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kaouther Ben Hania
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Going out on a limb once again, Pia Lundberg ventured the opinion that “2026 looks quite promising”. Further information can be found here.