20/01/2011

Stellan Skarsgård, star of the Norwegian film King of Devil’s Island [+see also:
trailer
film profile], will open the 34th Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF) on January 28 and kick-start the festivities for the largest Scandinavian festival, which this year welcomes over 160 guests and 442 films from 76 countries.

King of Devil’s Island will vie for the festival’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film and its substantial SEK1 million (€112,000) cash prize. Also in the running are Norway’s Happy, Happy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Sweden’s She Monkeys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lisa Aschan
film profile], Savage [+see also:
trailer
film profile], I Miss You, Denmark’s Truth About Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Finland’s Princess and Iceland’s Undercurrent.

Eight first and second-time directors are competing for the Ingmar Bergman International Debut. They include Olivier Masset-Depasse (Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile], Belgium), Alix Delaporte (Angèle and Tony [+see also:
trailer
film profile], France), Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Athina Rachel Tsangari
film profile], Greece), Clio Barnard (The Arbor [+see also:
trailer
film profile], UK), Maria Sødahl (Limbo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Norway) and Federico Veiroj (A Useful Life, Uruguay/Spain).

GIFF artistic director Marit Kapla said that this year’s festival theme is Presence, and that “the film programme will reflect the concept through films about the dual presence of contemporary man in both physical and virtual reality”.

The 24 different sections include a special focus on the Romanian New Wave (with the screening of six recent films), a tribute to US filmmaker Charlie Kaufman and a retrospective of Swedish director Jan Troell’s short films. The 80-year-old director will be on hand to present the cast and crew of his upcoming film Truth and Consequence, set to start filming on February.

Around 30 new and upcoming Nordic films will screen at the parallel Nordic Film Market from February 3-6. The festival will close February 7 with the screening of the Swedish thriller Isolated, starring Peter Stormare.