19/04/2007

“We’re still hoping that Roy Andersson’s You, the Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pernilla Sandström
interview: Roy Andersson
film profile] will get some exposure at Cannes”, said Pia Lundberg, the new head of International for the Swedish Film Institute, commenting on the absence of the Swedish director’s name in the festival’s official programme, announced today. “We’re waiting for another announcement from the Cannes Film Festival next Monday”, she added.

The director, who won the Jury Prize at Cannes 2000 for his Songs from the Second Floor, was a frontrunner for this year’s official selection with his fourth feature film, co-produced with France, Germany and Denmark and sold internationally by The Coproduction Office. No other feature film had been submitted for selection.

However, the good news is that one Swedish short film is in official competition: Looking Glass by Erik Rosenlund, who was previously on the Croisette in 2003 with his second short film Compulsion, shown in Critics Week.

“When I heard I was going to compete in Cannes for the first time, it felt really big. To be able to do it again is even greater. It is the nicest thing to be selected in official competition and something that all filmmakers dream of”, commented the 31 year-old up-and-coming filmmaker, who first studied as an illustrator before turning to animation.

Norway – which had an unusually strong presence in Cannes last year with four titles in selection, including Stefan Faldbakken’s Uro (Restless) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in Un Certain Regard – is still keeping a low profile, waiting for the official Critics Week and Directors’ Fortnight announcements. The same goes for Iceland and Denmark.

As for Finland – whose most renowned film ambassador, Aki Kaurismäki, was in official competition last year with Lights in the Dusk [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – its only Cannes presence so far is film student Marja Mikkonen, who is submitting her film school work Rondo to the Cinefondation.