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GÖTEBORG 2019 Göteborg Industry

Göteborg prepares to get its 20th-anniversary Nordic Film Market under way

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- After a packed programme of all things cinema kicked off on Friday night, Göteborg is now getting ready to welcome industry representatives to its grand 42nd edition

Göteborg prepares to get its 20th-anniversary Nordic Film Market under way
The County by Grímur Hákonarson, which will be presented in Works in Progress at Göteborg

January in Sweden may imply snow and low temperatures, but in Göteborg, it’s warm springtime when it comes to all things cinema. Between 25 January and 4 February, movie-theatre seats across the city are expected to be filled some 160,000 times, and on Friday night, brand-new Minister of Culture Amanda Lind proclaimed the 42nd edition of the Göteborg Film Festival open.

“It was her very first official public appearance,” says artistic director Jonas Holmberg. “Needless to say, we were thrilled. The week before, Sweden didn’t even have a minister of culture.” Lind and her government colleagues went into office early last week, after over four months of a “hung” situation following an inconclusive election in the Swedish parliament in September. “The interest in her presence and what she had to say was enormous, not least from all of us in the Swedish film industry,” says Holmberg.

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The Göteborg Film Festival hosts what has become the leading Nordic industry event, the Nordic Film Market, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and will run from 31 January-3 February. A total of 300 delegates are coming along for a packed programme bristling with new and upcoming films available for distribution, works in progress and projects in development from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Nineteen freshly finished feature films are set to be presented, including most of the titles playing in the festival's Nordic competition, among them opener Aurora [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miia Tervo
film profile
]
 and closer Swoon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein
film profile
]
.

The Works in Progress programme sports 16 contenders, with new material courtesy of Jesper Ganslandt (Falkenberg Farewell [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Jens Jonsson (The King of Ping Pong [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Rojda Sekersöz (Beyond Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Evin Ahmad
film profile
]
), Grímur Hákonarson (Rams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Grimur Hakonarson
film profile
]
), Jesper W Nielsen (Okay) and JP Valkeapää (They Have Escaped [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: J-P Valkeapää
film profile
]
). The 11 projects in development due to be presented at the Discovery co-financing platform include the debut feature by Hanna Sköld (Granny's Dancing on the Table [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) and Simon Vahlne (director of the Palme d’Or competitor and EFA-nominated short Fight on a Swedish Beach!!). For the full catalogue of Nordic Film Market titles across all sections, please click here.

Other special events include TV Drama Vision (30-31 January), a two-day seminar and co-production event showcasing TV drama from the Nordic countries. As part of TV Drama Vision, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize is presented. Six Nordic drama series are in the running for the €20,000 award, which goes to the main writer(s) of the series. Also due to be presented is the sixth edition of the Nostradamus project, a multi-year international initiative to document and analyse industry changes, and make projections for the future. 

Panels, discussions and seminars are taking place throughout the festival, focusing on topics such as “Into the Apocalypse” and “Critics with Issues”. Master classes with the likes of Ukrainian master animator Igor Kovalyov and legendary BBC producer Jon Plowman (Absolutely Fabulous [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), plus a session featuring Australian editor Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge) in conversation with Swedish editor Lena Runge (The Wife [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Björn Runge
film profile
]
), are also on the menu.

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