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The 44th Göteborg Film Festival, the largest film festival in Scandinavia, will run as an online festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The programme comprises a lineup of 70 films from 39 countries during 11 days, January 29 - February 8. Göteborg Film Festival has previously announced this year’s focus: Social Distances and The Isolated Cinema.

Read the full programme here

Seven Films in Nordic Competition

For the 33rd time, Göteborg Film Festival will present the award for Best Nordic Film: Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. All in all, seven films are included in the competition, which offers a prize sum of 400.000 SEK (approx. 36 000 €) which is handed out in cooperation with Region Västra Götaland and City of Gothenburg.

This year’s nominees are: Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark), Tigers by Ronnie Sandahl (Sweden), Persona Non Grata by Lisa Jespersen (Denmark), Gritt by Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (Norway), Pleasure by Ninja Thyberg (Sweden), Sweat by Magnus von Horn (Sweden/Poland) and Tove by Zaida Bergroth (Finland).

Read more about the Nordic Competition

Nordic Honorary Dragon Award: Ruben Östlund

As one of Europe’s foremost auteurs, Rubin Östlund is this year’s recipient of the Göteborg Film Festival’s Nordic Honorary Dragon Award.

A Directors Talk with Östlund will take place February 4.

Read more >

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Tove to Open the festival, Knocking to Close

This year's inaugural film will be the Swedish premiere of Tove, directed by Zaida Bergroth. Tove tells the story about one of Finland's most beloved artists, Tove Jansson. The film has, despite the pandemic, broken box-office records in Finnish cinemas and is the most popular film in the Finland Swedish-language for the last 40 years. Tove depicts a unique woman and her search for desire and freedom, as well as the creation of one of the world's most beloved artists. A journey through Tove Jansson's life and straight into the world of The Moomins. Tove is Finland’s official Academy Award entry and will be a part of the Nordic Competition at the 2021 online edition of Göteborg Film Festival.

The closing film will be the European premiere of Knocking, directed by Frida Kempff. This nerve-wrecking psycho drama is about Molly, who after a traumatic experience and time spent in a nursing home moves to an apartment on her own. But her mental wounds still affect her and something in the new house is not as it should be. There are knocks and strange noises from the floor above. While Molly tries to understand where the sounds are coming from the neighbors' suspicion of her mental state grows.

Nordic Documentary Competition

Six films are nominated for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary. The winner receives services from the post production company Chimney for a value of 250,000 SEK (approx. 24,000 €) which makes the prize one of the largest in the Nordic countries for documentary film. The nominees are:

A Song Called Hate by Anna Hildur (Iceland)
Aalto by Virpi Suutari (Finland)
Be My Voice by Nahid Persson (Sweden), Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Denmark)
Into the Fog by Maciej Kalymon (Sweden)
Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani (Norway).

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Ingmar Bergman Competition

Ingmar Bergman was the honorary president of Göteborg Film Festival until his death in 2007. In cooperation with him, the festival established an international film award for “a debuting filmmaker who in their film treats an existential theme with a dynamic or experimental approach to the cinematic means of expression.” The six films nominated are:

Gagarine by Jérémy Trouilh och Fanny Liatard (France),
Liborio by Nino Martínez Sosa (Dominican Republic),
Mama by Li Dongmei (China),
Limbo by Ben Sharrock (UK),
The Last Bath by David Bonneville (Portugal/France),
The Salt in Our Waters by Rezwan Shahriar Sumit (Bangladesh/France).

International Competition

The International Competition includes six international films and the winner will be selected by the festival audience. The price, Dragon Award Best International Film, is handed out along with 50 000 SEK (approx. 4800 euros) is awarded to the winner. Dragon Award Best International Film is presented by the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten.

The nominated films are: Beginning by Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia), Never Gonna Snow Again by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert (Poland/Germany), Night of the Kings by Philippe Lacôte (Côte d'Ivoire/France/Senegal/Canada), Quo vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Slalom by Charlène Favier (France/Belgium), The Macaluso Sisters by Emma Dante (Italy).

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