Scandinavia’s biggest film-TV event, the Göteborg Film Festival, has unveiled the complete lineup for its 48th edition, due to unspool Jan. 24-Feb. 2 in Sweden’s second largest city.
For her first gig as artistic director, Pia Lundberg and her team will be treating the festival’s usual 270,000-plus film fans in theaters and online to a rich program of 270 films from 83 countries, including 25 world premieres.
Setting the tone for this year’s overarching theme of “Disobedience” and civil resistance will be the opening film “Safe House” by Norwegian helmer Eirik Svensson starring “Sick of Myself”’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and “Gladiator 2”’s Alexander Karim. Based on the real-life story of Doctors Without Borders’ Director General in Norway Lindin Hurum, the story is set in a refugee camp during the 2013 civil war in the Central African Republic. Norwegian aid worker Linn is under severe pressure as she strives to protect a man without endangering her colleagues’ safety. ”We’re thrilled to open the festival with such a gripping and deeply moving film,” said Lundberg who feels the main protagonist’s challenge of regulations and immense courage “resonate strongly with this year’s program focus: “Disobedience.”
“Safe House” has also the honor of competing in the festival’s main Nordic competition, where nine titles will vie for one of the world’s biggest cash prizes of SEK 400,000 ($36,000).
Safe House
Credit: Graham Bartholomew Fantefilm
Other contenders include the Oscar shortlisted “The Girl with the Needle” by Magnus von Horn, 2024 Cannes Un Certain Regard opener “When the Light Breaks” by Rúnar Rúnarsson, Berlin Golden Bear entry” Love” by Dan Johan Haugerud, San Sebastian-selected “My Eternal Summer” by Sylvia Le Fanu, 2025 Sundance-selected “Sauna” by Mathias Broe, 2025 Rotterdam-selected “Orenda” by Pirjo Honkasalo, and two Swedish debuts set to world premiere.
“Live a Little” is directed by rising talent Fanny Ovesen (“She-Pack,” “All That is Left”) for which she earned the Anna Prize, awarding the project’s relevance to the UN Women’s Convention. The drama, produced by Kjellson & Wik, turns on two young girls – Laura and Alexandra – as they arrive in Warsaw, the first stop on their summer-long couch-surfing journey across Europe. However, the trip takes an unexpected turn when, after a wild night out, Laura wakes up at a stranger’s place with no memory of what happened. In the title roles are Embla Ingelman-Sundberg, Aviva Wrede and French actor Oscar Leasage (“Marie Antoinette”).
“Kevlar Soul” by Maria Eriksson-Hecht (“The Thin Blue Line”) is described as a harrowing and emotionally-charged drama in which two brothers navigate an adult world that has failed them. Lizette Jonjic of Zentropa Sweden and Ronny Fritsche of Avokado Films are producing.
Highlights in the eight-title Nordic Competition program take in “Mr Nobody Against Putin” by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, which will come straight from Sundance. The film follows Russian primary teacher Talankin, an unlikely hero, as he starts to fight Putin’s propaganda machine after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Made in Copenhagen produces, with DR Sales handling sales. Other Nordic doc entries include the IDFA-opener “About a Hero” by Piotr Winiewicz, and the world premiere of “Ultras” in which Ragnhild Ekner draws a fascinating portray of football ‘Ultras’ subculture. Story AB in Sweden produces.
Sauna
Credit: Christian Geisnaes
International Film Gems
As always filled with film gems from the rest of the world, served to the local audience as alternatives to the best of the best from the Nordics, the Ingmar Bergman Competition will present eight debut and second features ranging from the San Sebastian’s entry “On Falling” by Laura Carreira, to Denise Fernandes “Hanami”, winner of a New Directors’ Award in Chicago. Furthermore, as many as 18 titles from 18 different countries will screen in the International Competition, such as the Cannes Grand Prix winner “All We Image as Light” by Payal Kapadia, the Australian prison drama “Inside” starring Guy Pierce, making its international premiere, and the Spanish thriller “Pheasant Island”.
The debut feature by Asier Urbieta due to bow as a world premiere in Göteborg, tells of a young couple whose lives are suddenly rocked by the appearance of a corpse on the Pheasant Island in the Bidasoa river between France and Spain.
Elsewhere, the non-competitive Gala section will showcase 14 star-studded films ranging from Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End,” Brady Corbet’s triple Golden Globes winner “The Brutalist” and James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown” to Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”
As announced earlier, retrospectives will be dedicated to actor-director Julie Delpy and Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg who will receive the Dragon Honorary Award and Nordic Honorary Award respectively and deliver masterclasses, next to award-winning exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”).
Sweden’s national legend Maj Zetterling who would have turned 100 in 2025 will also be honored with a special retrospective celebrating her “disobedience,” referring to her daring depictions of sexuality and social norms notably in her directorial debut “Loving Couples” which created a sensation in Cannes 1965.
The festival will close with the world premiere of the Danish epic revenge thriller “Stranger” set in prehistoric Scandinavia. Mads Hedegaard’s debut feature starring Angela Bundalovic (“Copenhagen Cowboy”) and Danica Curcic (“The Chestnut Man”) is produced by Motor, with REinvent handling sales.
So far around 20 international talents have confirmed their attendance including actresses Trine Dyrholm, Tuva Novotny, and director Thomas Alfredson who will unveil the full season of his SVT/Arte drama series “Faithless” as a Nordic premiere.
Commenting on gender representation, Lundberg said she “is not fully satisfied” as women account for around 44% of all films in the program. “The level has been going down in recent years which is unfortunate considering our efforts and aspiration to reach gender parity. On the international side, the gap was even higher with approximately 75/25 male versus female directors among the films we saw. On the Nordic side we’re at around 47.5% for the films selected for the festival. We’re also in a situation in Sweden where fewer films are being made and public coin administered by the Swedish Film Institute has gone down. Quite a few Swedish indie films still get financed, but those are more often directed by men,” she noted.
Göteborg’s parallel industry event TV Drama Vision will run Jan. 28-29 and the Nordic Film Market Jan. 29-31.
Orenda
Courtesy of The Yellow Affair
Nordic Film Competition
“Kevlar Soul” (Maria Eriksson-Hecht, Sweden/Norway/Finland)
“Live a Little” (Fanny Ovesen, Sweden/Norway/Denmark)
“Love” (Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway)
“My Eternal Summer” (Sylvia Le Fanu, Denmark)
“Orenda” (Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland)
“Safe House” (Eirik Svensson, Norway)
“Sauna” (Mathias Broe, Denmark)
“The Girl with the Needle” (Magnus von Horn, Denmark/Poland/Sweden)
“When the Light Breaks” (Rúnar Rúnarsson, Iceland/Netherlands/Croatia/France)
Nordic Documentary Competition
“About a Hero” (Piotr Winiewicz, Denmark/Germany/USA)
“Alexandra, If Not Seen, You” (Olivia Kastebring, Sweden)
“Kyiv Soloists” (Trond Kvig Andreassen, Norway/The Netherlands/Ukraine)
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” (David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin, Denmark/Czech Republic)
“The Mind” (Roozbeh Janghorban, Sweden)
“The Dialogue Police” (Susanna Edwards, Sweden)
“Trans Memoria” (Victoria Verseau, Sweden/France)
“Ultras” (Ragnhild Ekner, Sweden/Denmark/Finland)
International Competition
“All We Imagine as Light” (Payal Kapadia, India/France/Netherlands/Luxemburg)
“Beloved Tropic” (Ana Endara, Panama/Colombia)
“Honeymoon” (Zhanna Ozirna, Ukraine)
“Inside” (Charles Williams, Australia/Sweden)
“Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us” (Sofía Paloma Gómez, Camilo Becerra,
“Measures for a Funeral” (Sofia Bohdanowicz, Canada))
“Memoir of a Snail” (Adam Elliot, Australia)
“Ma-Cry of Silence” (The Maw Naing (Myanmar/South Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar)
“Pheasant Island” (Asier Urbieta, Spain)
“Santosh” (Sandhya Suri, UK/India/France/Germany/Chile/Argentina/Spain)
“September Says” (Ariane Labed, Ireland/Germany/Greece/UK/France)
“Super Happy Forever” (Kohei Igarashi, France/Japan)
“The Quiet Son” (Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin, France)
“The Village Next to Paradise” (Mo Harawe, Austria/France/Germany/Somalia)
“Three Friends” (Emmanuel Mouret, France)
“Three Kilometres to the End of the World” (Emanuel Parvu, Romania)
“To a Land Unknown” (Mahdi Fleifel, UK/Palestine/France/Greece/Netherlands/Germany/Qatar/Saudi-Arabia)
“Vermiglio” (Maura Delpero, Italy/France/Belgium)
Ingmar Bergman Competition
“Cactus Pears” (Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, India/UK/Canada)
“Crocodile Tears” (Tumpal Tampubolon, Indonesia/France/Singapore/Germany
“Gülızar” (Belkis Bayrak, Turkey/Kosovo)
“Hanami” (Denise Fernandes (Swizerland/Portugal/Cap Verde)
“On Falling” (Laura Carreira (UK/Portugal)
“Then, the Fog” (Martín Sappia, Argentina)
“The Land of Morning Calm” (Park Ri-woong, South Korea)
“The Last Romantics” (David Pérez Sañudo, Spain)
