Three films lead Guldbagge nominations

by Annika Pham

10/01/2007 - Jesper Ganslandt’s nostalgic feature debut Falkenberg Farewell [trailer], Ylva Gustafsson and Catti Edfeldt’s youth film Kids In Da Hood [trailer] and Anders Nilsson’s thriller When Darkness Falls lead this year’s Guldbagge Awards nominations with four nominations each.

Produced by Memfis Film, Falkenberg Farewell first screened in the Venice Days sidebar and is Sweden’s contender for the upcoming Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination. The film is competing for the Best Film, Best Director and Best Script Guldbagges against Kids In Da Hood, which will screen in Berlin’s Generation Section next month.

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Also running for Best Film is Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein’s thriller Storm [trailer], produced by Peter Holthausen and Pontus Sjöman for Breidablick Film.

Three up-and-coming talents will compete in the Best Actor and Actress categories: 26 year-old Iranian born actress Oldoz Javidi (When Darkness Falls), who will run against the experienced Amanda Ooms (Search); Gustaf Skarsgård (also 26), this year’s Swedish Shooting Star who plays the lead in Kids In Da Hood; and 19 year-old Anastasios Soulis, currently on Swedish screens playing against Michael Nyqvist in Wonderful Beloved.

Sonet Film , the leading distributor of Swedish films, has a record 16 nominations and all films (apart from Falkenberg Farewell) are produced or co-produced by the company. A surprise absence among nominees is Colin Nutley’s crowd pleaser Heartbreak Hotel [trailer], the biggest local hit in 2006 with over 462,000 admissions.

In the Best Foreign film category, Pedro Almodovar’s Volver [trailer, film focus] (see focus) will compete against Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others [trailer, film focus] (see focus) and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel.

This year’s 42nd Guldbagge Awards will introduce a new Audience Award – under the initiative of the Swedish Film Institute’s new managing director, Cissi Elwin – and the winning film will be announced during the awards ceremony on January 22.