Eight films from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are nominated for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary at the 47th Gothenburg Film Festival. The winner receives services from the post production company Edisen to the value of SEK 250,000 (approx. €23,000). Göteborg Film Festival runs from January 26 to February 4.
The nominated documentaries are:
- Ibelin, directed by Benjamin Ree (Norway). Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, until they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.
- Shards, directed by Sara Broos (Sweden). Personal stories are woven together with myths and historical events in an associative flow between parallel realities, nightmare and idyll. A reminder of the beauty and cruelty of life, the passage of time and the unique story of each individual.
- As the Tide Comes In, directed by Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen (Denmark) The 27 residents on the tiny Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø are used to severe weather and flooding. But climate change and increasingly extreme weather now pose a serious threat to the eight-square-kilometer island. Its last farmer, Gregers, bravely faces the inevitable catastrophe. He refuses to build a life elsewhere and instead hopes to find a wife to manage the farm with him.
- Life is Beautiful, directed by Mohamed Jabaly (Norway/Palestine/Qatar). The young Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly is visiting a film festival in Tromsø in 2014, when the borders to Gaza close. He finds himself stuck in the arctic winter. Little does he know that it will be seven years before he can see his family again.
- The Andersson Brothers, directed by Johanna Bernhardson (Sweden/Finland). A film about Roy Andersson and his three brothers, depicted intimately and humorously by Roy’s niece and former co-worker, documentary filmmaker Johanna Bernhardson.
- Fifteen Zero Three Nineteenth of January Two Thousand Sixteen, directed by Petra Bauer and Marius Dybwad Brandrud (Sweden). On January 19th 2016, Carolina is on the other side of the world when she receives a phone call from home where she is informed that both of her sons have been shot, the killings witnessed by her 13-year-old daughter…
- Leaving Jesus, directed by Ellen Fiske (Sweden/Denmark/Norway). A group of Christian ex-fundamentalists gather at Journey Free retreat in San Fransisco. Lost and with traumatic experiences they attempt to free themselves from their fundamental communities that they were born into….
- Homecoming, directed by Suvi West and Anssi Kömi (Finland/Norway). A documentary that follows West as she attempts to return various Sámi artefacts, which have been stored in various museums, to their rightful owners.
Other highlights of the festival include an on-stage conversation between Thierry Frémaux, the General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes and General Director of Institut Lumière, to Göteborg director Ruben Östlund, Göteborg Film Festival’s Honorary President and two-time Palme d’Or recipient. Together they will discuss the current cinematic landscape and film festivals, exploring their past, present, and future. The conversation will be moderated by Göteborg Film Festival’s Artistic Director, Jonas Holmberg, and is scheduled for Nordic Film Market on Wednesday, January 31 at Hotel Draken.
Specials guests of the fest in 2024 include acclaimed Brit actors Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) and Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), and Danish Sidse Babett Knudsen will receive the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award in conjunction with the screening of Club Zero on January 30.
