38th Göteborg Film Festival

The 38th Göteborg Film Festival opened with “Key House Mirror” in the crowded theatre Draken, named after the mythical beast that also lends its name to the festival awards. This year’s honorary guest was Liv Ullmann, who received the prestigious Nordic Honorary Dragon Award. In her speech she said “Film for me is life, and life for me is film.” Her latest film “Miss Julie” (an adaptation of the famous one-act play by August Strindberg) premiered at the festival.

The jury consisted of the director Pernille Fischer Christensen, the director Pirjo Honkasalo, the actor Maryam Moghaddam, the director Anja Breien and the director Benedikt Erlingsson. It handed out the 27th award for Best Nordic Film. Eight Nordic films (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland) were competing for the prize sum of one million SEK, making it the world’s largest film award. These films were: “Homesick”, “Key House Mirror”, “Paris of the North”, “In Your Arms”, “My Skinny Sister”, “They Have Escaped”, “Women in Oversized Men’s Shirts” and “Underdog”.

The nominated films were also competing for the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award, the International Film Critics’ prize (FIPRESCI) and the Scandinavian Locations Award.

Beside the Nordic fiction competition, there was a Dragon Award for the best Nordic Documentary. The best debut feature went home with the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award; in the jury were directors Naomi Kawase and Gust Van Den Berghe, and Mads Mikkelsen, who is program director at another festival.

With the so called “Startsladden” (prize which carries a purse of 500,000 SEK), there was attention for best Swedish short film. There were sections for Swedish premieres, Norwegian films, Nordic films out of competition, art films, animated films, Japanese films and European features, next to seminars by directors like Liv Ullmann and Naomi Kawase. During the critics week, seven professional film critics presented their favorite film at the festival. (Luuk Imhann)

Göteborg Film Festival: www.giff.se