20/10/2011

The Stockholm International Film Festival is "the meeting place for next generation's filmmakers, and in our 22nd edition we are happy to present more woman directors than ever," said Festival Director Git Scheynius yesterday (October 19) at a press conference in Stockholm, where she announced the programme for this year's showcase which runs between November 9-20.

One of the 2012 films by a woman is already decided - the winner of the festival's project competition for second or third-time filmmakers: the film will receive €500,000 production funding, a Nordic-Baltic distribution contract with NonStop Entertainment, and a gala spot on next year's line-up, while runners-up are awarded €27,000. Thirty-two directors have submitted proposals.

"Statistics in Sweden show that after their debuts only 30% of woman directors manage to get through with their second or third feature, against 70% for men. On our three-year scheme we will at best be able to support 30 woman directors" added Scheynius. In her 2011 festival catalogue, 26% of the films have female directors, and 43% also have a female producer.

Stockholm will screen a total of 173 films from 44 countries, including 22 international contenders for the festival grand prix - the rather unhandy seven-kilo Bronze Horse - and a gala selection which Programme Manager George Ivanov described as "our most extensive ever, of local world premieres and Nordic premieres of high-profile titles".

Top red-carpet attractions comprise Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's international spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (festival opener) [pictured], UK director Andrea Arnold's new Emily Brontë interpretation, Wuthering Heights [+see also:
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interview: Andrea Arnold
film profile] (also in international competition) and Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In [+see also:
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interview: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] (which closes the event).

The bulk of Bronze Horse challengers are European, such as local directors Ruben Östlund's Play [+see also:
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interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile] and Levan Akin's Certain People, Norwegian directors Joachim Trier's Oslo, 31. August [+see also:
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interview: Joachim Trier
film profile], Jannicke Systad Jacobsen's Turn Me On, Goddammit [+see also:
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interview: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
film profile], and UK directors Steve McQueen's Shame [+see also:
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film profile], Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur [+see also:
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film profile] and Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus [+see also:
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film profile].

From Benelux, Michael R Roskam's Bullhead [+see also:
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interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] and Urzula Antoniak's Code Blue [+see also:
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film profile], and from France, Maïwenn's Polisse [+see also:
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interview: Maïwenn
film profile] and Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now [+see also:
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film profile]?, Jean-Baptiste Léonetti's Carré blanc [+see also:
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film profile], Maryam Keshavarz's Circumstance [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. US contributions: Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene, Andrew Okpeaha Maclean's On the Ice and Miranda July's The Future [+see also:
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film profile].

Dedicated to the recently departed US director Sidney Lumet, the festival has programmed ten sidebars, such as Open Zone (contemporary cinema), American Independents, Asian Images, Latin Visions, Spotlight (this year on Love Stories), Documania (documentaries, toplined by US director Martin Scorsese's George Harrison: Living in the Material World).

French actress Isabelle Huppert will be on hand to receive the Stockholm Life Achievement Bronze Horse at the screening of her new film, French director Anne Fontaine's My Worst Nightmare [+see also:
trailer
film profile], while Mexican director Alejandro Gonzäles Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Biutiful) has been chosen to collect the 2011 Visionary Award.