The catalogue of Sweden 's largest film event, which was presented today by programme director Jannike Ahlund, includes about 700 screenings of films from 65 countries, adding seminars and the Nordic Film Market.
Adding to the traditional sections such as Swedish Images - the entire group of
2006 film productions from Sweden - Masters-Old and New, Critics' Week, First Cut (debuts), It's All True (documentaries), Ahlund will this year focus on projects from Vietnam and the former Yugoslavia.
Viewing Vietnam comprises seven films, such as the works of Tranh Anh Hung and the Vietnamese submission for the Oscars, Ngo Quang Hai's Pao's Story. Under Construction unspools 13 movies from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia; Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic will attend to present three of his features.
The 2006 retrospective is a list of 'greatest hits' from the past 30 years, some of them introduced by their directors: Swedish director Jan Troell, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, Georgian director Otar Iosseliani and Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Troell and Iosseliani have also new films in the programme.
Eight first films will compete for the International Ingmar Bergman Debut Award; the Iraq Short Film Festival's Nizar al Rawi and Mohamed Al Daradji will host two seminars about the current film situation; UK director Joanna Quinn will hold as master class and screen a selection of her animation work.
Finnish director Klaus Haro, whose Mother of Mine bagged several international awards, will supply the festival's opening film, The New Man, which is set in 1950s Sweden and deals with forced sterilisation.
Starring Julia Hogberg and Maria Lundquist, the Swedish-Finnish co-production also launches the competition for the Nordic Film Prize, this year with another seven entries: Danish directors Peter Schønau Fog's The Art of Crying and Ole Christian Madsen's Prague, Finnish director Juha Koiranen's Rock'n'Roll Never Dies (which is also in the Tiger competition in Rotterdam), Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason's Parents, Norwegian director Jens Lien's The Bothersome Man, Swedish directors Johan Kling's Darling and Nanna Huolman's Kid svensk.
Out of competition the festival will host several Swedish world premieres, including actress Helena Bergstrom's directorial debut, Mind the Gap, Maria Blom's Fishy, and two local productions by Danish director Hella Joof (BitterSweatHeart) and Norwegian director Petter Næss (Leap and Bounds), closing the showcase. Eight local shorts will contend for the $142,000 (Euros 109,000) Goteborg Short Film Award.
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