Each year, at the end of January or early February, the Göteborg Film Festival celebrates its prize winners, a period that also coincides with the announcement of the Guldbagge Awards—the Swedish Oscars—making it one of the busiest times in the Scandinavian film calendar. Although both awards hold considerable prestige, they differ significantly: the Nordic Film Competition embraces films from all Scandinavian countries rather than exclusively from Sweden, while the Guldbagge Awards reflect on the previous year’s achievements, in contrast to Göteborg’s focus on what lies ahead and their exclusive selection of premiers.
A notable illustration of these differing timelines occurred during the Guldbagge Awards on 13 January 2025. At that event, the comedy Hypnosen (Hypnosis; Ernst De Geer), which had competed in the previous year’s Göteborg Nordic Film Competition, received eight nominations—the same amount as The Swedish Torpedo (Den svenska torpeden; Frida Kempff), a film that premiered at the Stockholm Film Festival in November 2024. Meanwhile, the Best Film winner, Crossing (directed by Levan Akin), had not appeared at either festival, having made its world debut in the Panorama section of the Berlinale and later been released in Sweden in March 2024.
These different prizes and different festivals could raise some questions for a FIPRESCI juror (like myself), when stepping into the Scandinavian film landscape to award a prize. Next to the individual merit of each selected production, one could ask how visionary and pioneering the Göteborg Film Festival truly can be with its Nordic competition when it comes to other (international) festivals and prizes that could disqualify a selection for its festival.
First, let’s go back to 1989 to sketch the situation and background of the Nordic Competition. At the ten year anniversary of the Göteborg International Film Festival, the Nordic Film Prize was established. From then on the festival grew on to becoming Scandivania’s biggest, with a strong focus on the Nordic region. Tobias Åkesson, programmer for what’s now called the Nordic Competition, programming for the festival since 2010, adds: “Back then the festival found it could make a difference in this area. It has developed in a way that the Nordics have become more and more important and a greater, greater part of the festival. Almost half of the films are from either Nordic or Swedish origin if you include short films as well.”
Was it clear from the start that this competition should have a Nordic focus, not just a Swedish one?
Tobias Åkesson: “We had a Swedish competition before, I don’t know the whole story, but I think there was a Swedish competition awarding the best film from our country, but there was also a competition for the Nordic region. Next to that, we also have a collaboration with the Church of Sweden that’s handing out a ecumenical film prize every year to either a fiction feature or documentary of Swedish origin.”
To get things clear, the other International Swedish Film Festival in Stockholm doesn’t have a Nordic competition right?
TA: “No, they don’t have a special prize for Nordic films. Nordic films can only win if they are included in their International Competition.”
A question for the sake of diversity in the Nordic Film Competition. And I have to say this strikes me time and again at several festivals: comedies feel like the other dog in most official competitions. Last year Hypnosis was in your competition, but you can’t secure having a comedy in your program every year?
TA: “Unfortunately no but if we find a good comedy we would love to have it in competition. We have had some comedies like the Finnish dramedy The Missile (Ohjus; Miia Tervo) last year, Miia Tervo’s Aurora from 2019 was our opening film in 2019. So we love comedies.”
As an international Fipresci Jury we had a private cinema for the screenings of the jury. We actually missed the audience reaction. Not to influence us but to get a feeling of the audience’s reaction.
TA: “I understand that. And that is also why we keep the jury secluded. Also for that exact same reason, that you don’t get affected by the audience.”
But would that be a bad thing? This year’s jury Fipresci jury didn’t have a Swedish jury member to give us context when needed so some things might have got lost in translation.
TA: “Maybe that’s true. But to give you an example, among the competition titles were the Swedish world premieres of two films: Live a Little (Leva lite; Fanny Ovesen) and Kevlar Soul (Kevlarsjäl; Maria Eriksson-Hecht). They have their whole team in the cinema, creating such a good atmosphere. That might make judging all the films more difficult compared to films that already had a previous screening and don’t have an attending team at the screenings. That’s why we have chosen to have secluded screenings for the jury, just to make it fair.”
A final question to wrap up this interview for some insights: the big requirement for the selection of Gothenburg’s Nordic Film program and competition is that a film has to have its Swedish national premiere at the festival. Is there enough choice to make a selection with a festival worthy signature or are you sometimes doomed to showcase the catch of the day?
TA: “There are several films to choose from but sometimes of course you wish to receive a film that maybe will be released before our festival. You can’t always control that. Sometimes we collaborate with a distributor and to them it’s a good way to promote a film by having it at the festival and make it in competition. Next to that, our festival also has the Nordic Film Market, promoting films to come and work in progress presentations of films that will have their premiere within a year or so. Depending on many variables, some of them could definitely be in the festival next year.
“Right now, our festival has a very good reputation. Many filmmakers from this region keep the festival in mind. They know the festival is coming and they are planning for it. They will send in their films even though they may not be completely finished yet. Somehow the festival is a kind of deadline to them.”
Alexander Zwart
©FIPRESCI 2025