13/01/2022 - Running from 28 January-6 February, the Swedish gathering is ready to get physical, digital and, at times, even hypnotic

With its team having spent days in preparations, not least concerning the different pandemic-related scenarios, the Göteborg Film Festival is now ready to kick off its 45^th edition in a hybrid form of physical and digital events. “Last year’s completely digital edition became a unique audience success, with over 400,000 visits,” notes artistic director Jonas Holmberg, who gained a creative concept in the process. “It showed us how great the interest in festival films really is all over the country. We want to continue to explore this practice. We think it will benefit both audience and filmmakers, even though it does challenge some traditional ways of industry thinking.” The ten-day event runs from 28 January-6 February, with 200 films from 80 countries set to be screened. Of these, about 50 titles will be available in the digital “salon” for Swedish viewers, with three to four online premieres per day, playing in parallel with theatre screenings for 24 hours. For physical visitors, safety routines and vaccination checks together with updated guidelines and regulations issued by the Swedish authorities must be adhered to.

Opening the festival is Sweden’s So Damn Easy Going (see the news), the feature debut by Christoffer Sandler, a coming-of-age tale about the vagaries of ADHD and young love, and one of the 50 world premieres on the agenda this year. Sandler’s film is also one of the eight contenders for the 400,000 SEK Dragon Award in the Nordic Competition, together with Denmark’s As in Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tea Lindeburg
film profile] by Tea Lindeburg, Finland’s Heartbeast [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Aino Suni, Sweden’s Maya Nilo (Laura) by Lovisa Sirén and Sweden’s Excess Will Save Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Morgane Dziurla-Petit
film profile] by Morgane Dziurla-Petit, all debut fiction features. Added competition comes from three Cannes favourites: Finland’s Compartment No. 6 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juho Kuosmanen
film profile] by Juho Kuosmanen, Iceland’s Lamb [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valdimar Jóhannsson
film profile] by Valdimar Jóhannsson and Norway’s The Innocents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eskil Vogt
film profile] by Eskil Vogt.

The other major competitions, the Nordic Documentary Competition and the Ingmar Bergman Competition, “for debut features of a dynamic or experimental nature”, will sport eight entries each, with the International Competition consisting of ten contenders. Career awards will be received by Italian director Luca Guadagnino (Honorary Dragon Award) and Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson (Nordic Honorary Dragon Award), and physical attendees include Bille August, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Valdimar Jóhannsson, Juho Kuosmanen, Eskil Vogt and, it is expected, Sweden’s newly appointed Minister of Culture, Jeanette Gustafsdotter.

In the grand (sometimes guignol) tradition of some of the most innovative cinema gimmicks since the days of William Castle – one vividly remembers the gynaecological cinema chair, the sarcophagus and the lighthouse-for-one screenings of recent editions – the festival will this year bring in a hypnotist, ready and eager to mesmerise a full audience. Three titles – Shirin Neshat’s Land of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Tafdrup
film profile] – have been handpicked for the performance of this feat, an integral part of the special theme for 2022, “Focus: Disorder”. As the song continues: a splendid time is guaranteed for all.

The full programme can be found here.