Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections. W
Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections.
World premiere titles include Asier Urbieta’s Spanish thriller Pheasant Island in the international competition section. The debut feature from Spanish filmmaker Urbieta sees a newborn Basque couple’s relationship put to the test when a dead body is found on the mysterious titular island.
Scroll down for the feature competition sections
It is one of 18 films in the international competition, alongside 2024 festival favourites Santosh, To A Land Unknown and All We Imagine As Light.
The nine-strong Nordic competition includes three world premieres. Maria Eriksson-Hecht’s Kevlar Soul depicts two brothers trying to survive the abuse of their alcoholic father; Fanny Ovesen’s Live A Little shows two friends whose couchsurfing trip through Europe is disrupted when one wakes up in a man’s bed with no memory of the previous night; while Eirik Svensson’s thriller Safe House was previously-announced as the festival’s opening title.
Twelve of the world premieres are in the non-competitive Nordic Light section, which the festival describes as for ‘compulsive and heartwarming feature film premieres from the Nordics.’
Alongside the Nordic and international competitions, the festival also has a Nordic documentary competition, in which world premieres include Susanna Edwards’ The Dialogue Police, documenting a specialised unit in the Gothenburg police who act as a buffer between protestors and police leadership. The Ingmar Bergman Competition, for ‘groundbreaking debuts, experimental stories, and existential talks’, rounds out the competitive strands.
The festival will present two honorary awards this year, to Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, and French filmmaker and actress Julie Delpy, with retrospectives dedicated to and masterclasses from both Vinterberg and Delpy. Further festival guests include Mohammad Rasoulof, presenting The Seed Of The Sacred Fig; Joshua Oppenheimer, presenting The End; Dea Kulumbegashvili, presenting April; and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, presenting Honour Of Persia in the Nordic Film Market.
The festival will run from January 24 to February 2, with the programmes for the TV Drama Vision and Nordic Film Market released in the coming weeks. The Nordic Film Market will take place from January 29-31.
Goteborg Film Festival 2025 feature competitions
International Competition
Pheasant Island (Sp) dir. Asier Urbieta
Measures For A Funeral (Can) dir. Sofia Bohdanowicz
Memoir Of A Snail (Australia) dir. Adam Elliot
Ma – Cry Of Silence (Mya-S Kor-Sing-Fr-Nor-Qat) dir. The Maw Naing
Inside (Australia-Swe) dir. Charles Williams
All We Imagine As Light (India-Fr-Neth-Lux) dir. Payal Kapadia
The Quiet Son (Fr) dirs. Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
To A Land Unknown (UK-Pal-Fr-Gr-Neth-Ger-Qat-S Arabia) dir. Mahdi Fleifel
Vermiglio (It-Fr-Bel) dir. Maura Delpero
Three Friends (Fr) dir. Emmanuel Mouret
Three Kilometres To The End Of The World (Rom) dir. Emanuel Parvu
Septembers Says (Ire-Ger-Gre-UK-Fr) dir. Ariane Labed
Santosh (UK-India-Fr-Ger) dir. Sandhya Suri
Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us (Chi-Arg-Sp) dirs. Sofia Paloma Gomez, Camilo Becerra
Village Next To Paradise (Austria-Fr-Ger-Som) dir. Mo Harawe
Super Happy Forever (Fr-Jap) dir. Kohei Igarashi
Beloved Tropic (Pan-Col) dir. Ana Endara
Honeymoon (Ukr) dir. Zhanna Ozirna
Nordic Competition
Safe House (Nor) dir. Eirik Svensson
When The Light Breaks (Ice-Neth-Cro-Fr) dir. Runar Runarsson
Live A Little (Swe-Nor-Den) dir. Fanny Ovesen
Kevlar Soul (Swe-Nor-Fin) dir. Maria Eriksson-Hecht
My Eternal Summer (Den) dir. Sylvia Le Fanu
Love (Nor) dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
The Girl With The Needle (Den-Pol-Swe) dir. Magnus von Horn
Sauna (Den) dir. Mathias Broe
Orenda (Fin) dir. Pirjo Honkasalo
Nordic Documentary Competition
Ultras (Swe-Den-Fin) dir. Ragnhild Ekner
Mr. Nobody Against Putin (Den-Cze) dirs. David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin
Alexandra – If Not Seen, You Don’t Exist (Swe) dir. Olivia Kastebring
The Mind (Swe) dir. Roozbeh Janghorban
Kyiv Soloists (Nor-Neth-Ukr) dir. Trond Kvig Andreassen
About A Hero (Den-Ger-US) dir. Piotr Winiewicz
The Dialogue Police (Swe) dir. Susanna Edwards
Trans Memoria (Swe-Fr) dir. Victoria Verseau
Ingmar Bergman Competition
Cactus Pears (Ind-UK-Can) dir. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
Then, the Fog (Arg) dir. Martin Sappia
The Land Of Morning Calm (S Kor) dir. Park Ri-woong
Gulizar (Tur-Kos) dir. Belkis Bayrak
On Falling (UK-Por) dir. Laura Carreira
Crocodile Tears (Indonesia-Fr-Sing-Ger) dir. Tumpal Tampubolon
The Last Romantics (Sp) dir. David Perez Sanudo
Hanami (Switz-Por-Cape Verde) dir. Denise Fernandes
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