The Stockholm International Film Festival unveils new Festival Program

Today, October 26, the program for the 21st edition of the Stockholm International Film Festival will be revealed. Tomorrow, October 27 at 11 AM, the ticket sales begin online and at Kulturhuset. This year's festival program presents 180 films from more than 50 countries, 108 Nordic premiers, and 16 world premiers. We look forward 12 exciting days of quality film.

- The Stockholm International Film Festival is the meeting point for next generation's film creators. Our 21st program is fully loaded, and we also open this year's festival with a film from Xavier Dolan, "another 21 year old", says festival director Git Scheynius.

This year's opening film is the celebrated Heartbeats by Xavier Dolan, Winter's Bone by Debra Granik is this year's centerpiece gala, and the festival closes with The Town by Ben Affleck.

Below is a presentation of this year's sections and a selection of films:

Stockholm XXI Competition
In the festival's competition section 18 films compete for the prestigious Bronze Horse. Among this year's films is Our Day Will Come by Romain Gavras, this year's opening film the ménage à trois-drama Heartbeats by the talented Xavier Dolan, and the rhythmic Sound Of Noise by the Swedish team Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson. Also Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree starring the fantastic actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, and the post-apocalyptic Monsters by Gareth Edwards compete for the Bronze Horse.
 
Open Zone
Feature films from acclaimed directors in contemporary cinema from around the world. The section includes the intense 1940s thriller Shanghai by Mikael Håfström with John Cusack in the leading role, as well as the criminal drama The Town by Ben Affleck. Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein's thriller Shelter, starring Julianne Moore, Swedish director Tova Magnusson's romantic comedy Four More Years, Mike Leigh's As the Year's Go By, as well as Route Irish by one of society's biggest critics, Ken Loach.

American Independents
The section for new independent films from up-and-coming as well as established American directors. Watch Casey Affleck's much talked-about mockumentary I'm Still Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, Howl by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Fridman based on the buzz about the trial against poet Allen Ginsberg's first collection of poems, the Twin Peaks-inspired college comedy Kaboom by Gregg Araki, and The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer starring Malin Åkerman, Anna Paquin and Katie Holmes among others.

Asian Images
This section is the audience's chance to indulge in films from one of the most creative and prolific filmmaking regions in the world. Here you will find Japan's Oscar contribution Confessions by Tetsuya Nakashima, Caterpillar by director Koji Wakamatsu is a strong account of the Second Sino-Japanese War's aftershock, Hahaha by Hong Sangsoo is about a film critic and a director that meet in a bar and swap fishing stories, The Rice Paddy about a China at the breaking point between tradition and modernism by Xiaoling Zhu, as well as Outrage, Takeshi Kitano's most merciless work so far about Japan's underworld.

Latin Visions
The best films from the Spanish and South American film industry. We screen Biutiful by Mexican director Alejandro Gonsalez Inarritu and starring celebrated actor Javier Bardem, Marimbas from Hell by Julio Hernandez Cordon, the beautiful reflection over current days, and October by brothers Daniel and Diego Vega Vidal, the artistic answer to Baby's Day Out.

Spotlight: Extreme Politic
This year's spotlight is extreme politics. Some of the films in this highly topical section are the radical Chris Morris's political satire Four Lions about four stupid suicide bombers, The Last Circus, Alex de la Iglesias's ultra violent allegory about Spain's past, and Of Gods and Men, Xavier Beauvois's shocking piece based on true stories. The new film about the recent Swedish election, Thank You, Goodbye, Go Home, by the Swedish directors Ingrid Holmberg and Moa Junström is also in the section.

Documania
This section boasts some of the most memorable documentaries. British director Lucy Walker screens two documentaries at this year's festival, Countdown to Zero and the award-winning Waste Land, French director Sarah Bertrand presents Rolling with Stone about director Oliver Stone, and we will also show Jeff and Michael Zimbalist's The Two Escobars about the soccer player that was assassinated after accidentally scoring a goal against his own team.

Twilight Zone
fear, camp and genre film in a ruthless mix
In this section you'll find the much talked-about The Killer Inside Me by Michael Winterbottom, a sadomasochistic cowboy noir starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba, this year's most shocking movie, A Serbian Film, by Srdjan Spasojevic, the film that British censorship refused to pass, as well as the internet buzz The Last Exorcism by Daniel Stamm.

ifestival
In year 2000 the Stockholm International Film Festival created one of the world's first film festivals exclusively for the Web. Ifestival consists of nine short films that are screened over the Web with the whole world as an audience. Festival visitors can both see the films and vote for their favorites during the entire festival at http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/.

Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award
This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Swedish actress Harriet Andersson. After having played more than 100 characters in film and theater she has become an icon in Swedish film and is strongly associated with director Ingmar Bergman. She had her breakthrough in 1953 in Bergman's Summer with Monika. Since then she has played in such films as Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Dogville (2003).

Stockholm Visionary Award
The recipient of the 2010 Stockholm Visionary Award is Gus Van Sant. Throughout the history of the Stockholm International Film Festival Gus Van Sant has had a strong presence. My Own Private Idaho participated in competition in 1991, Elephant closed the festival in 2003, and Paranoid Park was shown on the silver screen in 2007. Gus Van Sant will visit Stockholm and the festival to receive the award and to meet the audience in a Face2Face.

Tickets
The ticket sales start on October 27 at 11 AM on http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/, and at the festival center at Kulturhuset (street level by the information desk). Already registered members can buy tickets on our website 24 hours before the official ticket release. Beginning November 17 you will also be able to buy tickets at the cinemas in connection with the film screenings. New this year is that if you have a membership card that is registered on our site you can choose to load the tickets you purchase directly on the card. Then you don't need to collect your tickets-we simply scan the code on your card, and you're on your way into the cinema.