The programme for the 42nd Göteborg Film Festival, the largest film festival in the Nordic countries, has been announced. The festival will show 376 films from 83 countries during 11 intense days, January 25 –February 4. In addition there will be seminars, panels, parties and live music.
Göteborg Film Festival hosts the Audentia Award
Göteborg Film Festival will host the Audentia Award for 2019. The Award, instigated by Eurimages, has previously been presented at Istanbul Film Festival (2016), Locarno Film Festival (2017) and Toronto Film Festival (2018).
Audentia – meaning “courage” and “bravery” in Latin – reflects two vital qualities for any woman wishing to pursue a career in film directing. With the Audentia Award, Eurimages intends to celebrate women who have had the courage to make that choice, by giving their work greater visibility and inspiring other women to follow in their footsteps.
The nominees for the Audentia Award are: Crystal Swan by Darya V. Zhuk (Belarus/USA/Germany/Russia), Joyby Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria), Blind Spot by Tuva Novotny (Norway), Endzeit – Ever After by Carolina Hellsgård (Germany), Real Love by Claire Burger (France/Belgium), Aurora by Miia Tervo (Finland), Queen of Hearts by May El-Toukhy (Denmark), Golden Youth by Eva Ionesco (France/Belgium), Out of Tune by Frederikke Aspöck (Denmark) and Lucky One by Mia Engberg (Sweden)
The Audentia Award jury: Mark Cousins (director, United Kingdom), Iram Haq (director, Norway) and Kristina Börjeson (the Swedish representative to Eurimages)
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Ten Films Compete for One Million SEK
For the 31st time, Göteborg Film Festival will hand out the award for best Nordic film, Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. All in all, ten films are included in the competition, which offers a prize sum of one million SEK that is handed out in cooperation with Volvo Car Group, Region Västra Götaland and City of Gothenburg.
This year’s nominees are: Aurora by Miia Tervo (Finland), Aniara by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja (Sweden), Blind Spot by Tuva Nuvotny (Norway), Koko-di Koko-da by Johannes Nyholm (Sweden/Denmark), Harajaku by Eirik Svensson (Norway), Lucky One by Mia Engberg (Sweden), Season by John Skoog (Sweden), Queen of Hearts by May El-Toukhy (Denmark), Sons of Denmark by Ulaa Salim (Denmark), Sonja – The White Swan by Anne Sewitsky (Norway)
The Nordic Competition jury: Adina Pintilie (director, Romania), Nick James (Editor of Sight & Sound, UK), Dominga Sotomayor (director, Chile), Joyti Mistry (director & professor, South Africa) and Hanne-Vibeke Holst(author, Denmark)
The winner of the award will be announced at the Dragon Award gala on Saturday, February 2.
Presenting partner for Dragon Award Best Nordic Film is Volvo Car Group.
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Aurora to Open the festival, Swoon to Close
This year's Opening Film is the world premiere of the Finnish film Aurora by Miia Tervo. A partying nail technician with attachment issues becomes a match-maker for an Iranian refugee in this irresistible debut. With exuberant energy and disarming, dark humor, Miia Tervo tells a story of loneliness, everyday racism, and alcoholism in an intelligent romantic comedy that plays with prejudices and genre conventions.
This year's Closing Film is the world premiere of the Swedish film Swoon by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein. Spectacular scenery and smouldering romance in this colorful love story about the heirs of two rival amusement parks. The directing duo Mårlind and Stein (Underworld Awakening, Shed No Tears) let go of the reins and dive into the most dizzying romance of the year.
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International Competition
The International Competition includes 20 international films and the winner will be selected by the festival audience. Dragon Award Best International Film along with 50 000 SEK (approx. 5000 euros) is awarded to the winner. Dragon Award Best International Film is presented by the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten.
Petra by Jaime Rosales (Spain), Sorry Angel by Christophe Honoré (France), Leto by Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia/France), Joy by Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria), The Harvesters by Etienne Kallos(South Africa/France/Greece), Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu(Kenya/South Africa/France), Our Struggles by Guillaume Senez (Belgium/France), Rojo by Benjamin Naishtat (Argentina/Belgium/Germany), A Land Imagined by Siew Hua Yeo(Singapore/France/The Netherlands), The Man Who Surprised Everyone by Natasha Merkulova and Alexey Chupov (Russia/Estonia/France), Maya by Mia Hansen-Løve (France), Angelo by Markus Scheinzer(Austria/Luxembourg), Giant Little Ones by Keith Behrman (Canada), The River by Emir Baigazin(Kazakhstan/Poland/Norway), In Fabric by Peter Strickland (United Kingdom), Claire Darling by Julie Bertucelli (France), Real Love by Claire Burger(France/Belgium), Golden Youth by Eva Ionesco(France/Belgium), Fireflies by Bani Khoshnoudi(Mexico/USA/Greece) and Too Late to Die Young by Dominga Sotomayor (Chile/Brazil/Argentina).
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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 eight films nominated for the award, which will be handed out for the 12th time:
Guerilla by György Mór Kárpáti (Hungary)
A Family Submerged by Maria Alché(Brazil/Norway/Germany)
Fig Tree by Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian(Israel/Germany/France/Ethiopia)
Second Life by Park Young-ju (South Corea)
Winter After Winter by Jian Ting (China)
Siblings of the Cape by Shinzo Katayama (Japan)
Coureur by Kenneth Mercken (Belgium)
Aren’t You Happy? by Susanne Heinrich (Germany)
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Göteborg Film Festival launches gender neutral acting award
This year Göteborg Film Festival launches a new award, Dragon Award Best Acting. The Award will go to an actor or actress in the participating films in the Nordic Competition. The jury for the award is the same as for the Nordic Competition.
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Nordic Honorary Dragon Award 2019: Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Mikkelsen is undoubtedly one of the Nordic countries’ foremost actors, with a great career in his homeland Denmark as well as internationally. Mads Mikkelsen is this year's recipient of the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award.
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Focus: Apocalypse
Is the world coming to an end? Temperatures and sea levels are rising, extreme weather is increasingly common. The reports keep coming in and there is an impending sense of doom. This is the backdrop to Göteborg Film Festival’s Focus: Apocalypse.
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Focus: Nordic Comedy
"Nordic Crime" has become an international phenomenon. But the last couple of years' Nordic films show a new tendency: we have stopped scaring and started joking. Focus: Nordic Comedy is a tribute to contemporary Nordic comedy.
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The World’s Most Claustrophobic Cinema
Alone, confined and exposed. Watch the epic sci-fi odyssey Aniara and experience the end of the world, trapped in a custom-made sarcophagus, at the world’s most claustrophobic cinema, presented by the Göteborg Film Festival
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Register for Scandinavia's leading film festival!
With its 160 000 admissions Göteborg Film Festival is the leading festival and the primary networking platform for the film and TV industry in the Nordic countries, presenting new film and drama series from the region. Throughout the festival week 2000 accredited producers, commissioners, directors, screenwriters and other industry experts attend the festival.
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