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The Universal Theory.Familiar names come loaded with certain sets of expectations, and so it was at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where the official competition was chock-full with the latest features from known quantities. One of the great pleasures of festivalgoing lies in the thrill of discovery, of stepping into a film unburdened by one’s mileage with a director’s previous work. In the 2023 competition, there was only one title that promised a leap into the dark.Timm Kröger was at the festival back in 2014 with his graduation film, The Council of Birds, which played in the Critics’ Week sidebar. The film wasn’t picked up for distribution, even in the director’s native Germany, and remains virtually impossible to see. Given the sheer ambition of his sophomore feature, it’s tempting to imagine that the intervening nine years had been spent readying The Universal Theory for production.

Three titles received €500,000.

Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend is among 29 projects to receive a share of €8.1m in Eurimages’ latest round of co-production funding.

The new feature from Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi, who won Berlin’s Golden Bear for On Body And Soul in 2017, is a co-production between Germany, France and Hungary, and received €500,000 – the largest amount awarded in this round of funding. The film focuses on an ancient tree in the Botanical Gardens of the university town of Marburg to explore the relationship between man and nature.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Two more titles received €500,000: The Captive...

For all the major films from established, auteur directors in the 2023 Venice Film Festival’s main competition (David Fincher’s The Killer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Sofia Coppela’s Priscilla and Michael Mann’s Ferrari, to name just a few), when he made the official lineup announcement on July 31, festival director Alberto Barbera reserved his lengthiest praise for a small film from Germany.

So enthused was Barbera for Timm Kröger’s second feature The Theory of Everything — a black-and-white Hitchcockian melodrama set in a 5-star hotel in the Swiss Alps (and a “kind of” sequel to his 2014 debut The Council of Birds) — that he claimed it was one of the very first films selected to compete for this year’s Golden Lion.

“It was really wonderful what he said, and he really described the film in a lovely way,” says Kröger, speaking ahead of The Theory of Everything’s world...

European Film Promotion (Efp) has unveiled its 2023 Producers on the Move, the 20 up-and-coming film producers from 20 European countries picked to take part in the Efp’s networking event at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

The list of 2023 Producers on the Move includes Gentian Koçi (Albania), David Bohun (Austria), Julie Esparbes (Belgium), Vanya Rainova (Bulgaria), Miljenka Čogelja (Croatia), Stelana Kliris (Cyprus), Alice Tabery (Czech Republic), Emile Hertling Péronard (Denmark), Emilia Haukka (Finland), Silvana Santamaria (Germany), Vicky Miha (Greece), Júlia Berkes (Hungary), Kathryn Kennedy (Ireland), Valon Bajgora (Kosovo*), Dominiks Jarmakovičs (The Netherlands), Elisa Fernanda Pirir (Norway), Radu Stancu (Romania), Juraj Krasnohorský (Slovak Republic) and Julia Gebauer (Sweden).

The group will take part in a tailor-made program that runs May 18-22 during the festival intended to improve collaboration and foster international co-productions, between European film professionals. To help kick-start the effort, the Efp has begun a series of pre-festival events, including one-on-one speed meetings,...

After a hugely successful year for domestic films, Austria’s movie industry is looking forward to another impressive crop of titles, including many international co-productions that reflect not only cultural and historical ties with neighboring countries but also the sector’s strong cross-border partnerships.

Highly anticipated films this year include Hans Steinbichler’s “A Whole Life,” the story of a humble man’s existence in an Alpine valley that spans more than eight decades; Dieter Berner’s “Alma and Oskar,” which explores the passionate and tumultuous affair between Viennese composer and socialite Alma Mahler and artist Oskar Kokoschka in the early 1900s; and Timm Kröger’s “The Theory of Everything,” a black-and-white, 1960s-set mystery-thriller that takes place in a scientific conference in the Alps.

Forthcoming releases include works from established directors and young filmmakers, says Anne Laurent-Delage, executive director of promotional organization Austrian Films. This year’s strong showing follows...

Berlin-based sales agent Rise and Shine has acquired worldwide rights (except Austria) for Austrian director Bernhard Braunstein’s feature documentary “Stams.” The film will have its world premiere as part of Berlinale’s Panorama strand in February. The deal was negotiated between Panama Film producers Lixi Frank and David Bohun, Rise and Shine world sales CEO Stefan Kloos and Peter Jaeger as sales/distribution consultant from Jaeger Creative.

In the film, Braunstein takes a look behind the scenes of Stams, one of the most successful – and elite – ski boarding schools in the world, located in the Alps. The students go there to follow their dreams, but are all too aware that only 2 of them will make it to the top.

Braunstein meticulously shows the timed daily routine of extreme physical training, not-so-ordinary school classes, sparse free time, and everyday boarding-school life. How do these young people deal with the constant pressure to perform,...

All of the projects will compete for the €6,000 ArteKino International Award.

New films from Oleg Sentsov, County Lines director Henry Blake and Austria’s Sandra Wollner are among the projects selected for the 14th edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village.

All of the projects will compete for the €6,000 ArteKino International Award.

Ukraine’s Sentsov participates with new project Kai. The filmmaker was in Venice in 2021 with Rhino, before fighting on the front line following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Blake is attending with The Golden Radiance Of A Beetle, a 1919-set romance co-written by Xiao Tang...

France’s Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the 18 European feature film projects due to be presented in the 14th edition of its Les Arcs Coproduction Village, running December 10 to 13 against the backdrop of the French Alps.

The meeting, aimed at connecting projects with co-producers, financiers, sales agents and distributors, received 311 submissions this year, 40 more than in 2021.

Hailing from 13 territories, seven of the projects are helmed by female filmmakers, and 11 by men, a proportion equal to the applications received for the Coproduction Village.

Nine of them are first features, six are second features and three are by more established filmmakers.

They include U.K. director Henry Blake’s The Golden Radiance Of A Beetle, his second feature after buzzy debut County Lines. The 1919-set drama follows an English woman who falls in love with a Chinese docker and then morphs into a beetle due to societal hatred.

Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov will attend with Kai,...

Sandra Wollner's The Trouble with Being Born is exclusively showing on Mubi in most countries starting November 24, 2021 in the series The New Auteurs.The initial idea of this setting, of a man living with a childlike android, came from my co-author Roderick Warich, and I immediately jumped onto that because I had been looking to tell a story from a non-human perspective for some time. The story I was writing back then was about a girl that did not want to grow up, nor did it even want to be human.“As she was playing, as she was running with the other kids, she suddenly felt it and stopped. All at once it was as if an incredible emptiness spread within her and around her, as if she could suddenly see the impenetrable black that had always been behind that blue sky, which she had just not noticed until now.

Following the announcement of their new curated theatrical venture Mubi Go, next month’s U.S. streaming lineup at Mubi has now been unveiled. Highlights include Terrence Malick’s heartbreakingly raw romantic drama To the Wonder and its Javier Bardem-focused counterpart, Eugene Richards’ Thy Kingdom Come.

Also in the lineup is Julian Faraut’s terrifically entertaining documentary Witches of the Orient, the Werner Herzog double bill of Grizzly Man and Lo and Behold, John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Blue, Sandra Wollner’s controversial feature The Trouble With Being Born, Alexandre Rockwell’s latest film Sweet Thing, and much more.

See the full lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.

November 1 | The First Lap New | Kim Dae-hwan | South Korean Cinema

November 2 | L’innocente | Luchino Visconti

November 3 | 80,000 Years Old | Christelle Lheureux

November 4 | Liebelei | Max Ophüls

November 5 | Maelström | Denis Villeneuve | A Cosmic Trajectory: Early Films by...

When Jane Fonda opened that envelope and called Bong Joon-ho and his team to the stage, we really should have known. The Oscars were not supposed to get it right, it was too perfect. From a moment like that there was nowhere to go but down, way down.

The rest of 2020 turned out to be quite a historic dumpster fire. As much as you think you’ve gotten used to it by now, the bleak news updates, the sight of cities on lockdown or trainfuls of masked passengers still strike me as dizzyingly surreal sometimes. Like waking up inside an elaborate Terry Gilliam production.

As with most other cultural sites, cinemas were first in line to be shuttered for being non-essential. From an epidemiological perspective it’s hard to argue against this. In every other regard, however, film proved even more essential in a pandemic. How else do you see the world beyond the confinement,...

The 10th edition of U.S. In Progress Wroclaw, the industry wing of the American Film Festival in Poland which was held online this year, wrapped over the weekend and presented a variety of awards to the participating American film projects.

The awards range from post-production services to travel bursaries and cash. A $10,000 cash prize to be put towards post-production in Poland was awarded to the film To The Moon from director Scott Friend and producers Cate Smierciak, Everett Hendler, Stephanie Randall, and Gabe Wilson. The full list of awards is below.

In addition to the U.S. projects, a group of U.S. experts including Sony Pictures Classics’ Dylan Leiner and CAA execs Maren Olson and Kat Moncrief took part in pitching and one-on-one sessions with Polish projects seeking U.S. partners. The non-competitive event is designed to foster potential co-productions and was hosted by Deadline.

In the wider festival,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, the Zurich festival opens with “My Wonderful Wanda,” Philip Garrel, Tsai Ming-liang and Hong Sang-soo are contenders at San Sebastian, a new talent agency launches with “The Crown” actor Emma Corrin, WaZabi picks up Toronto title “Beans,” and the U.K. celebrates returning to cinemas.

Bettina Oberli’s “My Wonderful Wanda” will open the 16th Zurich film festival on Sept. 24, the first time the event is opening with a film by a female director.

The film was supposed to bow at Tribeca, until the coronavirus pandemic forced its postponement to 2021. Consequently, it will have its world premiere at Zurich.

“My Wonderful Wanda” tells the story of Polish-born Wanda who looks after patriarch and post-stroke patient Josef at his lakeside family villa. The work is poorly paid, but Wanda needs the money to support her own family back in Poland. As a live-in caregiver, she gains...

Hong Sang-soo’s ‘The Woman Who Ran’ previously won a Berlinale Silver Bear.

Source: G. Ferrandis 2019/Rectangle Productions Close Up Films - Arte France Cinéma Rts Radio Télévision Sui

New features by Philippe Garrel and Hong Sang-soo are among those set to compete for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award – a strand at the San Sebastian Film Festival free of style or length constraints.

The section will comprise 10 features and nine shorts, which include a six-minute film by UK filmmaker Peter Strickland titled Cold Meridian.

Several selected features were previously seen at the Berlinale in February, including The Woman Who Ran from South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo,...

Pressing on with plans to hold its physical edition September 18-26, Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section, the competitive strand that does not mandate any style or length standards.

There are 10 features and nine shorts present this year. The feature length projects include South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s The Woman Who Ran, which arrives having premiered at Berlinale earlier this year where it picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director.

Also arriving from the 2020 Berlinale selection are Philippe Garrel’s The Salt Of Tears, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Rizi I Days, Catarina Vasconcelos’s The Metamorphosis Of Birds, Sandra Wollner’s The Trouble With Being Born, Song Fang’s The Calming and Camilo Restrepo’s Los Conductos.

Arriving from elsewhere are Nicolás Pereda’s Fauna, which will have its international premiere in San Seb after debuting in Toronto, and Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s Yellow Cat,...

Sandra Wollner’s film has won the Grand Diagonale Prize for Best Feature Film, while Sabine Derflinger’s movie received the equivalent for best documentary. The awards of the 2020 edition of the Diagonale, which could not take place as scheduled in March because of restrictions imposed by the Austrian authorities owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, were announced on Tuesday 30 June. The festival, which had been scheduled to unspool between 24 and 29 March in the Austrian city of Graz, reported the cancellation of this year's edition on 11 March, explaining why postponing the event was not possible. However, the Diagonale has since successfully managed to make part of its 2020 selection available via various VoD platforms, Austrian TV stations and other local media. Despite the difficult circumstances, the awards of the 2020 edition were still handed out, with the winners being announced on Tuesday evening by means of live tickers...

The festival will run from September 17-27.

Finland’s Helsinki International Film Festival (Hiff) has confirmed September 17-27 as dates for its 2020 edition, which it confirmed will take place as a physical event for both the festival and industry section.

The event is sticking with its original dates, with cinemas in Finland having been able to reopen since June 1. New safety guidelines will be introduced in the 11 cinemas used by the festival, which has a full title of Hiff – Love & Anarchy.Finnish Film Affair (Ffa), the industry strand, will run from September 23-25, with all of its content also available...

Awards: Golden Bear for Mohammad Rasoulof's There Is No EvilTOP Picksdaniel KASMAN1. The Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel)2. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)3. Corporate Accountability (Jonathan Perel)4. Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)5. Undine (Christian Petzold)6. Generations (Lynne Siefert)7. Blue Eyes and Colorful My Dress (Polina Gumiela)8. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)9. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)10. Chronicle of Space (Akshay Indikar)Ela BITTENCOURT1. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)2. Letter to a Friend (Emily Jacir)3. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)4. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)5. Dau6. The Trouble with Being Born (Sandra Wollner)7. Kill It and Leave This Town (Mateusz Wilczyński)8. Orphea9. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)10. Tango of the Widower and Its Distorning MirrorCoveragedaniel KASMANFirst Encounters of the 70th YearPhilippe Garrel's Portrait of the Cad as a Young ManChristian Petzold's Fairy Tale BerlinHong Sang-soo's Options for WomanhoodPolitical LandscapesChild's PlayELA BITTENCOURTHighlights from Forum and Forum ExpandedDreaming the Impossible CinemaDau and the...

Never Rarely Sometimes AlwaysCOMPETITIONGolden BearThere is No Evil (Mohammad Rasoulof)Silver Bear — Grand Jury PrizeNever Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) (Read our review.)Silver Bear — 70th BerlinaleDelete History (Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern) Silver Bear for Best DirectorHong Sang-soo (The Woman Who Ran) (Read our review.)Silver Bear for Best ActorElio Germano (Hidden Away)Silver Bear for Best ActressPaula Beer (Undine) (Read our review.)Silver Bear for Best ScreenplayFabio and Damiano D'Innocenzo (Bad Tales)Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ContributionJürgen Jürges (Dau. Natasha)ENCOUNTERSAward for Best FilmThe Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (C.W. Winter, Anders Edström)Special Jury AwardThe Trouble With Being Born (Sandra Wollner)Award for Best DirectorCristi Puiu (Malmkrog) (Read our review.)Special MentionIsabella (Matias Piñeiro)...

It’s a strange feeling to be among the earliest audiences — and who can tell just how many more such a disturbing, hard-sell film will reach — for a project destined for notoriety. But then Sandra Wollner’s “The Trouble With Being Born” inspires nothing but strange feelings, from unnerving horror to shocked admiration to visceral disgust to that specific type of disorienting nausea that comes from the fractional delay between your eye processing a well-composed image, and your brain comprehending the implications of the actions so coolly depicted.

That gap is just one of the many conceptual fissures into which Wollner’s desperately creepy, queasy, thought-provoking film gnaws: image vs. implication; human vs. non-human; real vs. unreal. If “The Trouble With Being Born” lives anywhere, it is in a house in a forest on the deepest, most sunless lower slopes of the uncanny valley.

Indecipherable, abstract, staticky images flicker and jiggle,...

Update, writethru: The 70th Berlin Film Festival, and the first under new leadership team Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, drew to a close this evening with the Golden Bear awarded to Mohammad Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil. Rasoulof is currently banned from leaving Iran for participation in social and political activity. This is the second time in five years that Berlin’s top prize has gone to an Iranian filmmaker unable to travel outside their home country — the last time was in 2015 when Jafar Panahi scooped the honor for Taxi.

Along with Panahi and Asghar Farhadi, Rasoulof, whose credits also include Manuscripts Don’t Burn, is among the best-known Iranian filmmakers on the international stage. His last picture, A Man Of Integrity, won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize in 2017, but his passport was confiscated that same year. Yesterday, the director issued a statement of regret over his inability to...

Eliza Hittman’s ’Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ wins Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.

Mohammad Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil has become the latest film from Iran to win the Berlinale’s top honour, the Golden Bear, following Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2012 and Jafar Panahi’s Taxi Tehran in 2015.

Rasoulof was not able to attend this year’s festival because he is banned from leaving Iran following his arrest last year. The film’s producers Farzad Pak and Kaveh Farnam, and the director’s daughter Baran Rasoulof (an actress who lives in Hamburg) collected the award on his...

The 2020 Berlin Film Festival, which kicked off on February 20, handed out its top prizes today as the fest comes to a close in Germany. The night’s top winner, Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof for “There Is No Evil,” could not attend the ceremony due to an Iran-sanctioned travel ban and possible prison sentence for his politically charged film (read IndieWire’s review here). See all this year’s winners below.

As is befitting for a festival season marked by tension, activists were gathered outside the festivities in front of the Berlinale Palast, where the honors took place, demonstrating for climate change. The 70th edition of the Berlinale weathered its share of controversies this year, too, from jury president Jeremy Irons digging up past controversial remarks to the revelation that late festival chief Alfred Bauer had ties to the Nazi party. The first edition assembled by artistic director Carlo Chatrian and...

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “There Is No Evil,” a drama about the impact of capital punishment on society and the human condition, won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.

The seven-person festival jury, headed by Jeremy Irons, spread the prizes far and wide, with no single filmmaker dominating the awards.

American writer-director Eliza Hittman won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” a drama about teen pregnancy, while the Silver Bear for best director went to South Korea’s Hong Sang Soo for his Seoul-set drama “The Woman Who Ran.”

Rasoulof, who is unable to leave Iran due to a travel ban, faces a one-year prison sentence for “spreading propaganda.” The filmmaker released a statement on Friday expressing his sorrow at missing the premiere of “There Is No Evil”: “I am sorry that I will not be able...

Landing under the auspices of the Berlinale's newly introduced Encounters strand aimed at fostering "aesthetically and structurally daring works," The Trouble With Being Born, having its world premiere Thursday, could well end up being the most daring — not to mention divisive — film in a festival not known for holding back on provocation.

The second feature from Austrian director Sandra Wollner, the drama — which was already named one of the Berlinale 2020's weirdest films based on the synopsis alone — begins gently enough, with a young girl lazing by a pool under the summer sun,...

Landing under the auspices of the Berlinale's newly introduced Encounters strand aimed at fostering "aesthetically and structurally daring works," The Trouble With Being Born, having its world premiere Thursday, could well end up being the most daring — not to mention divisive — film in a festival not known for holding back on provocation.

The second feature from Austrian director Sandra Wollner, the drama — which was already named one of the Berlinale 2020's weirdest films based on the synopsis alone — begins gently enough, with a young girl lazing by a pool under the summer sun,...

L.A. and Berlin-based producer Gabriela Bacher, CEO of media company Film House Germany, is attached to executive produce Witcraft Filmproduktion’s mystery drama project “Snow,” selected for this year’s Co-Pro Series at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Bacher, a former Fox International Productions executive and principal of Studio Babelsberg, joined the company in 2011 as both CEO of Film House Germany and managing director at Fhg’s subsid Summerstorm Ent..

Set-up at Witcraft, a company co-founded by Ursula Wolschlager, “Snow” is a mystery drama created by Michaela Taschek, and co-directed by distinguished Austrian cineaste Barbara Albert (“Mademoiselle Paradis”) and Sandra Wollner (“The Impossible Picture.”)

Aimed to start principal photography in fall 2021 in Italy’s South Tyrol, the German language project is currently in treatments for all six episodes of Season One.

With Elisabeth Moss-starrer TV series “Top of the Lake” as a reference, “Snow” is set in the mountain village of Rotten,...

The Berlin International Film Festival is around the corner, kicking off next week, and it’s shaping up to be one of their finest line-ups. Now headed up by Carlo Chatrian, coming from Locarno Film Festival, the lineup features some of our most-anticipated films of the year. For those not headed to Germany, we’ve rounded up the most notable trailers thus far for films set to debut there–as well as a few recent festival favorites playing in competition.

Featuring Christian Petzold’s Undine, Hong Sang-soo’s The Woman Who Ran, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Rizi, Matías Piñero’s Isabella, Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan, and more, one can check back soon for our reviews as well as more trailers as they become available. The 70th edition of the festival takes place February 20 through March 1.

Bad Tales (Damiano D’Innocenzo & Fabio D’Innocenzo)

Berlin Alexanderplatz (Burhan Qurbani)

Charlatan (Agnieszka Holland)

First Cow (Kelly Reichardt...

Austrian director Sandra Wollner is world-premiering her second feature in the Encounters competition of the 70th Berlinale. Elli is an android and lives with a man she calls her father. Together they drift through the summer. During the day they swim in the pool and at night he takes her to bed. She shares his memories and anything else he programs her to recall. Memories that mean everything to him but nothing to her. Yet, one night she sets off into the woods following a fading echo… The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us. This is the plot of Sandra Wollner’s second feature, The Trouble with Being Born, which is set to world-premiere at the 70th Berlinale (20 February-1 March), in the Encounters competition. The Trouble with Being Born was produced by David Bohun and Lixi Frank for Austria’s Panama Film, in co-production with.

The 70th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 20 – March 1) unveiled its Encounters program today, featuring the premieres of new works by Tim Sutton and Romanian director Cristi Puiu.

Also screening is Josephine Decker’s Shirley with Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg, marking the film’s international premiere after its upcoming Sundance bow, and Gunda by Victor Kossakovsky, whose last pic was the 2018 Venice doc Aquarela.

Encounters is a newly-created competitive section at the Berlin festival that looks to highlight “new voices in cinema and to give more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms.” A three-member jury will choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award.

“As a result of passionate research, the 15 titles chosen for Encounters present the vitality of cinema in all of its forms. Each film presents a different way of interpreting the cinematic story: autobiographical, intimate, political,...

‘Shirley’, starring Elisabeth Moss, among films in the new competitive strand.

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 20-Mar 1) has unveiled the 15 features that will comprise its first ever Encounters competitive strand.

The new section has been introduced to support new voices in cinema, running alongside the long-established competition and Berlinale Shorts, which award the Golden and Silver Bears.

A three-member jury, which has yet to be announced, will choose the winners of best film, best director and a special jury award.

The section will open with Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog, a 200-minute drama in which an elite group of individuals...

Exclusive: 12 Polish premieres include Menashe and Makala.

This year’s New Horizons International Film Festival (August 3 – 13) competition in Wroclaw, Poland, will see 12 Polish premieres vying for the Grand Prix award.

The premieres include three Polish films: A Heart of Love, by director Łukasz Ronduda, a biopic about Polish art scene couple Wojtek Bąkowski and Zuza Bartoszek who are played by Jacek Poniedziałek and Justyna Wasilewska; Norman Leto’s Photon; and Karlovy Vary winner The Birds Are Singing in Kigali by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze.

From Mexico will be director Michel Lipkes dark story Strange But True and Natalia Almada’s Everything Else, which stars Babel and Amores Perros actor Adrian Barraza in the lead role.

Mexican director Sergio Flores Thorija, a former student of Bela Tarr, will bring his Bosnia-set movie 3 Women about three women living in Sarajevo who wish to change their lives.

Menashe by Joshua Z. Weinstein is the first film since the second...

Other Winners include The War Show, Tom of Finland, Heartstone.

Swedish director Amanda Kernell’s Sami Blood won the Dragon award for best nordic feature in Goteborg, worth $114,000 (1m Sek), making it one of the most lucrative prizes at any international film festival.

Kernell’s debut feature is a drama about a teenage Sami girl who resolves to leave behind her identity in racist 1930s society and start a new life in Uppsala. Kernell, who has Sami heritage, was inspired by her grandmother’s own story. At the Goteborg awards gala, Kernell (pictured) thanked “the elders who shared their stories with me”.

The film also won the Sven Nykvist cinematography award for DoP Sophia Olsson.

Sami Blood premiered in Venice Days and then played at festivals including Toronto, Tokyo and Dubai. LevelK handles sales.

Other winners in Goteborg were: best Nordic documentary to Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard’s Syria story The War Show, which the jury...

World premieres include Fanny Ardant’s Stalin’s Couch [pictured], Elisabeth E. Schuch’s The Book Of Birdie, Erlingur Ottar Thoroddsen’s Rift, and Manuel Concha’s Blind Alley.

Goteborg Film Festival has announced its programme of nearly 450 films from 84 countries to screen during the festival’s 40th anniversary edition (Jan 27-Feb 6).

As reported earlier, the festival will kick off with Dome Karukoski’s Tom Of Finland.

The eight films (all world premieres) competing for the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film – with a prize of $110,500 (Sek 1m) — are as follows:

Tom Of Finland by Dome Karukoski (Finland/Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Us)Beyond Dreams by Rojda Sekersöz (Sweden)The Ex-wife by Katja Wik (Sweden)Heartstone by Gudmundur A. Gudmundsson (Iceland/Denmark)Sámi Blood by Amanda Kernell (Sweden/Denmark/Norway)Little Wing bySelma Vilhunen (Finland)The Man by Charlotte Sieling (Denmark)Handle With Care by Arild Andresen (Norway)

The Nordic documentary competition includes:

Citizen Schein by Maud Nycander, [link...