39th Göteborg Film Festival

The 39th edition of the GIFF/Goteborg International Film Festival (29th Jan-8th Feb, 2016), as a continuation of its traditions, has again been dedicated predominantly to the latest Swedish and Scandinavian film productions. As one of leading film festivals in the Nordic countries, the Goteborg International Film Festival brings films from all over the world to Goteborg and the main goal is also to be the springboard that sends new Nordic films out into the world. The festival began in 1979 and has since drawn in thousands of moviegoers to Goteborg each year. This year they sold again over 130,000 tickets to over 30,000 visitors, offering more than 500 films from 90 counties. But the festival is not just about film, the organizers have a wider scale, offering around 40 seminars as well as music, art, a film exhibition and many other activities surrounding the core of the films. The festival’s industry section with the Nordic Film Market on the vanguard, growing each year, was again an important meeting place and networking platform for the Scandinavian and international film industry, as the principal market for industry visitors from all over the world, interested in Nordic feature films and TV drama and vice versa, the programming group works all the year round to choose quality films from across the globe, so, the visitors very often have the privilege to see films that never reach the large cinemas. To attend the Nordic Film Market is an excellent opportunity to meet, mingle and interact with industry professionals involved in Nordic film and TV productions. Invited buyers, distributors, sales agents and festival programmers from all over the world get an exclusive opportunity to see new and upcoming films and discover fresh talent from the Scandinavian region. This year, hotel Scandic Rubinen was the new location for the press center and the Nordic Film Market, which had four intensive days (Feb 4th-7th, 2016).

In the focus of this year’s very rich general program, were again the three main competitions: Dragon Award Best Nordic Film, The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award and Best Nordic Documentary, each having eight selected films and its own international jury. The Jury of the Best Nordic Film Competition was composed of six members: Laurie Anderson, composer and director (USA), Saga Becker, actress (Sweden), Christian Braad Thomsen, director (Denmark), Sigurjon Kjartansson, producer (Iceland), Anna Myking, art photographer (Norway) and Sara Norberg, director of the Helsinki film festival (Finland). The Dragon Award for Best Nordic film plus one million SEK/120,000 Dollars (this award is financed by the Volvo Car Group, which makes it one of world’s largest money film prize), gave to the Danish director Martin Zandvliet for his film Land of Mine (Under Sandet). The Jury of the Best Nordic Documentary Competition was composed of: Anna Eborn, director (Sweden), Ingvil Giske, producer (Norway) and Carl Javer, director (Sweden). The Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary was given to the Swedish director Jerzy Sladkowski for his film Don Juan. The Jury of The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award Competition was composed of: Athina Rachel Tsangari, director (Greece), Mary Ramos, composer (USA) and Kristian Petri, director (Sweden). This year’s Ingmar Bergman award for best debut was given to the Italian director Pietro Marcello for his film Lost and Beautiful (Bella e perduta). In the Competition for Best Swedish short, directors Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson won the jury prize for their film Ten Meter Tower.

Finally, this year’s Honorary Nordic Dragons went to directors Susanne Bier, director (Denmark) and Tom Hooper, director (USA). (Blagoja Kunovski, edited by Steven Yates)

Göteborg Film Festival: www.giff.se