The Programme for the 48th Goteborg Film Festival is Here

Jan. 07, 2025

Previously announced highlights of this year’s festival include the festival focus Focus: Disobedience, the nominated films for Göteborg Film Festival’s short film competition Startsladden, the nominees for the Ingmar Bergman Competition, the Honorary Dragon Award recipient Julie Delpy, and the attendence of Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof. Now, we are releasing the full programme.

This year’s festival program features 270 films from 83 countries. Tickets will be available starting January 9 for festival members and January 11 for everyone else. Below, we highlight some of the festival's highlights.

Nine films compete in the Nordic Competition

For the 37th year, Göteborg Film Festival will present the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film, honoring the best Nordic film. Nine films will compete for the prestigious award and a prize of 400,000 SEK. The winner will be announced during the Dragon Award Gala on February 1. The award is presented in collaboration with Region Västra Götaland and the City of Gothenburg.

This year's nominated films in the Nordic Competition are:

• Safe House, by Eirik Svensson (Norway)
• When the Light Breaks, by Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland/Netherlands/Croatia/France)
• Live a little, by Fanny Ovesen (Sweden/Norway/Denmark)
• Kevlar Soul, by Maria Eriksson-Hecht (Sweden/Norway/Finland)
• My Eternal Summer, by Sylvia Le Fanu (Denmark)
• Love, by Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
• The Girl With the Needle, by Magnus von Horn (Denmark/Poland/Sweden)
• Sauna, by Mathias Broe (Denmark)
• Orenda, by Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland)

Honorary Dragon Award: Julie Delpy

The French filmmaker and actress will visit Göteborg to receive the Honorary Dragon Award and present her new film Meet the Barbarians. The festival program also features a retrospective of some of Delpy’s most beloved films.

Julie Delpy will receive the honorary award in at the premiere of Meet the Barbarians at Cinema Draken on January 29.

Nordic Honorary Dragon Award: Thomas Vinterberg

In films such as The Celebration, The Hung, Another Round, and Dear Wendy, Thomas Vinterberg has portrayed deeply human and complex emotions. For this reason, he will be awarded the Nordic Honorary Award at the Göteborg Film Festival 2025.

The award ceremony and a Directors Talk will take place in conjunction with the screening of The Celebration at Stora Teatern on January 28 at 4:00 PM.

In films such as The Celebration, The Hung, Another Round, and Dear Wendy, Thomas Vinterberg has portrayed deeply human and complex emotions. For this reason, he will be awarded the Nordic Honorary Award at the Göteborg Film Festival 2025.

The award ceremony and a Directors Talk will take place in conjunction with the screening of The Celebration at Stora Teatern on January 28 at 4:00 PM.

International Competition

The International Competition is Göteborg Film Festival’s main competition, where the festival audience votes to pick the winner of the Dragon Award Best International Film. A total of 18 films will compete for a prize of 50,000 SEK, and the competition is presented in collaboration with Göteborgs-Posten. All films in the competition will also be available online.

The competing films are:

• Pheasant Island, by Asier Urbieta (Spain)
• Measures for a Funeral, by Sofia Bohdanowicz (Canada)
• Memoir of a Snail, by Adam Elliot (Australia)
• Ma - Cry of Silence, by The Maw Naing (Myanmar/South Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar)
• Inside, by Charles Williams (Australia/Sweden)
• All We Imagine as Light, by Payal Kapadia (India/France/Netherlands/Luxembourg)
• The Quiet Son, by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin (France)
• To a Land Unknown, by Mahdi Fleifel (United Kingdom/Palestine/France/Greece/Netherlands/Germany/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
• Vermiglio, by Maura Delpero (Italy/France/Belgium)
• Tre väninnor, by Emmanuel Mouret (France)
• Three Kilometres to the End of the World, by Emanuel Parvu (Romania)
• September Says, by Ariane Labed (Ireland/Germany/Greece/United Kingdom/France)
• Santosh, by Sandhya Suri (United Kingdom/India/France/Germany)
• Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us, by Sofía Paloma Gómez and Camilo Becerra (Chile/Argentina/Spain)
• En by vid paradisets rand, by Mo Harawe (Austria/France/Germany/Somalia)
• Super Happy Forever, by Kohei Igarashi (France/Japan)
• Beloved Tropic, by Ana Endara (Panama/Colombia)
• Honeymoon, by Zhanna Ozirna (Ukraine)

Programme highlights

• The Brutalist

Adrien Brody delivers the performance of his life as a Jewish star architect who starts over from the bottom in the United States in this powerful and wild post-war saga, full of bold leaps and style changes. The centerpiece film of the festival.

Directed by: Brady Corbet

• Stranger

An epic revenge thriller set in prehistoric Scandinavia, where survival, alienation, and a young woman’s fight for vengeance intertwine with one of civilization’s earliest major cultural clashes. The festival's closing film.

Directed by: Mads Hedegaard

• Ultras

From the powerful choir singing and synchronized tifos in the stands to the tireless passion in clubhouses, collective camaraderie takes center stage in this multifaceted portrayal of global supporter culture.

Directed by: Ragnhild Ekner

• The End

Twice Oscar-nominated Joshua Oppenheimer makes his fiction film debut with an apocalyptic musical and an aesthetic masterpiece featuring a star-studded cast.

Directed by: Joshua Oppenheimer

• Live a Little

The darkness is balanced with hope as Europe unfolds in a powerful story about daring to understand and own one’s experiences.

Directed by: Fanny Ovesen

• Kevlarsjäl

"Tunna bla linjen" director Maria Eriksson-Hecht’s feature debut is a gripping and emotionally charged portrayal of two brothers in an adult world that fails them.

Directed by: Maria Eriksson-Hecht

Select guests at Goteborg Film Festival 2025

• Thomas Vinterberg – director, recipient of the Nordic Honorary Award
• Julie Delpy – director and actor, recipient of the Honorary Dragon Award
• Mohammad Rasoulof – director, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, screenwriter of Seven Days
• Joshua Oppenheimer – director, The End
• Trine Dyrholm – actor, The Girl With the Needle
• Dag Johan Haugerud – director, Love
• Dea Kulumbegashvili – director, April
• Emmanuel Courcol – director, The Marching Band
• Tuva Novotny – actor, At Arm’s Length
• Anna Odell – cast member, At Arm’s Length
• Charlotta Björck – cast member, Mama Goals
• Runar Runarsson – director, When the Light Breaks
• Thomas Alfredson – director, Faithless
• Frida Gustavsson – actor, Faithless
• Jonas Lundqvist – cast member, By My Dad
• Pirjo Honkasalo – director, Orenda
• Lukas Moodysson – director, Vi går inte här ifrån
• Alexandra Charles – cast member, Alexandra - If Not Seen, You Don't Exist
• Charlotte Sieling – director, Way Home
• Baker Karim – director, The Dog
• Roozbeh Janghorban – director, The Mind
• Fanny Herrero – screenwriter, showrunner, honorary guest at TV Drama Vision
• Martín Sappia – director, Then, the Fog
• Sofia Paloma Gómez – director, Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us
• Camilo Becerra – director, Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us
• Mahdi Fleifel – director, To a Land Unknown
• Emanuel Parvu – director, Three Kilometres to the End of the World
• Sofia Bohdanowicz – director, Measures for a Funeral
• Asier Urbieta – director, Pheasant Island
• Jone Laspiur – actor, Pheasant Island
• Charles Williams – director, Inside
• Yashaddai Owens – director, Jimmy
• Yasemin Samdereli – director, Samia
• Elzat Eskendir – director, Abel
• Philippe Lesage – director, Who by Fire
• César Díaz – director, Mexico 86
• Svitlana Lishchynska – director, A Bit of a Stranger
• Bogdan Muresanu – director, The New Year that Never Came
• Giovanni Tortorici – director, Diciannove
• Paola Randi – director, The Story of Frank and Nina
• Milad Tangshir – director, Anywhere Anytime
• Olivier Sarbil – director, Viktor
• Maciej J. Drygas – director, Trains
• Olivier Meys – director, Jahia’s Summer
• Andrea Segre – director, The Great Ambition
• Havana Marking – director, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right
• Patrik Hermansson – cast member, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right
• Jan Troell – director, Once Upon a Time There Was a Now
• Zar Amir Ebrahimi – director and actor, Honour of Persia (Nordic Film Market)
• Jens Lapidus – writer, creator of Paradis City (TV Drama Vision)
• Henriette Steenstrup – actor, jury chair for the Nordic Series Awards
• Fredrik Wikingsson – director, The Last Journey
• Asta Kamma August – actor, participant in Filmforum Sverige, Studio Draken