As the major film festival in Scandinavia, the 29th Göteborg Film Festival will screen more than 400 high quality Nordic and international films during the ten-day period of the festival.

The next edition of the festival will take place from January 27 until February 6, 2006. This year’s director in focus is the British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto, who has devoted her work to portraying the situation of women all over the world. Kim Longinotto has lived and worked in Japan, Iran and Africa and her latest film Sisters in Law, is a fascinating examination of the condition of justice in a village in Cameroun, depicted through two powerful female layers and one chief of police. The film gives insights that terrify, awakes compassion and make the audience laugh. Sisters in Law will have its Swedish première at the Göteborg Film Festival. Six of Kim Longinotto’s films will also be screened in a retrospective and a book on her work by Sara Hultman will be released at the festival.

Ten new Swedish feature films will have their world première at the festival, half of them are directed by debutants. Among others Amir Chamdin’s Om Gud vill. Amir Chamdin has played in the band Infinite Mass and directed music videos. In Om Gud vill he plays one of the main characters together with Nina Persson from The Cardigans. Amir Chamdin will also be taking part in the fetival’s music video section with a personal program.

In order to make it easier for the audience to find their way through our extensive program, we have created a number of new headlines that hopefully will give a better overview and make the access to a personal choice easier. Some of these new sections are; Competition, for the Nordic competition, Gala, for the big films with the big names, It’s all true, for documentaries, First cut, for debutants, Worldwide, for a selection of the best films in the world and Visions presenting films pioneering in their form. In addition to these categories we also present a number of themes dealing with working life, shifting gender identities and music. We will also celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Glasnost by screening a retrospective of a total of ten films.

This year’s closing film will be Mel Brook’s The Producers, the film that became a much acclaimed Broadway musical and that is now making a come-back as film-musical.

In addition to the film programme the Göteborg Film Festival offers a broad range of open, film related seminars under the headline Cinemix. (See separate information.)

In six years the Nordic Event at the Göteborg Film Festival has managed to establish itself as a full working marketplace selling upcoming Nordic films to the inner circle of the international film industry. Nordic Event gathers attendants from all over the world and in 2006 the event will be carried out in co-operation with the five Nordic film institutes and the Nordic Film and TV Fund.

Seminars
This year our programme of high-profiled seminars, called Cinemix, takes a closer look at themes such as the suburb on fire, witchcraft in Africa and twenty years of Glasnost. In the Swedish part of the programme we focus on short film, new technical equipment and new ways of financing feature films. In addition Swedish Equal Opportunities Ombudsman, Claes Borgström, will lead a hearing on how the equality paragraph in the New Swedish film agreement might be realized.

The Cinemix seminars welcome African filmmaker Pierre Yaméogo (Burkina Faso), who will be discussing the role of witchcraft in West Africa, the theme of his latest film Get up and Walk (Delwerde), Swedish film critic Emma Gray Munthe, who will give the audience a sneak preview of her new book containing interviews with directors such as Lars von Trier, Kim ki-Duk and Gus Van Sant speaking on the subject of sex and violence. Documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto will give a master class. Swedish director Mikael Håfström tells us about his Hollywood experience, working on his first American feature film Derailed and London based Script Factory will once more, in cooperation with the Göteborg Film Festival, be presenting two master classes hosted by international film personalities.

Glasnost
In 2006 twenty years have passed since Michail Gorbatjov introduced the concept of Glasnost. The Göteborg Film Festival celebrates the anniversary by screening a retrospective of ten Glasnost films and giving a Cinemix seminar on the subject.

Suburb and Gender
Suburban life is central in several of the films screened at the festival in 2006, as are shifting gender identities and the situation of transsexuals and homosexuals in different parts of the world. With her feature debut Keiller’s Park, based on a hate murder that took place in Göteborg eight years ago, Swedish director Susanna Edwards raises the question of the situation of homosexuals in Göteborg.

Short film
The Swedish short film continues to gain praise abroad for its narrative techniques and experimental disposition. We devote half a day to the different genres of the short film. Among others feature film debutant, singer and short film creator Amir Chamdin, will discuss the music video as an art form and as a film form.

New ways of finding financing and new technical equipment
Is it possible to finance a film in Sweden without the support of the Swedish Film Institute? The production company Isis Cataegis gathered the money for their latest feature film Exit through the help of risk capitalists, sponsors and support from companies involved in the technical production. Isis Cataegis representatives will take part in a discussion on new ways of finding financing and Nordisk Film Post Production reveals how the new technique Digital Intermediate will be revolutionary for the film industry.

Göteborg Film Festival