Editor

A total of 87 filmmakers, actors and actresses from all over the world visited the Stockholm International Film Festival between November 17-27 a new festival record!
The Stockholm XVI Competition has been unique, with filmmakers from fifteen out of eighteen competing films visiting Stockholm to attend the festival. Argentinean director Juan Solanas travelled to Stockholm to receive a Bronze Horse for best film for Nordeste. Chan-wook Park, winner of last year’s Star! Audience Award, handed over the audience award to Swedish directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, for their action-thriller Storm.

During eleven days, the festival audience has had the chance to meet filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam, Chan-wook Park, Miranda July, Rodrigo Garcia, Bai Ling, Jacques Audiard, Dominik Moll, Rosamund Pike, Paprika Steen, and many more.

Swedish filmmakers have stood their ground in the international competition most noticeable in this year’s Star! Audience Award, which was presented to directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein for Storm. Young, promising Swedish filmmakers were also rewarded; Malin Erixon was presented with two awards, for her short films The ForestŠ and 7 Illustrations Around the Name of a Tree (iFestival) and Death by Heart (Made in Stockholm). Last year’s winner of 1 km film, Daniel Wallentin, won the Jameson Short Film Awards and will tour festivals around the world with his Mebana. Next year Johan Söderberg will get the chance to enter the international film arena, through the festival scholarship 1 km film.

More filmmakers than ever before have visited the festival and met with the audience. The Face2Face-sessions, where the audience can interact with directors and actors and participate in seminars and discussions on film, have also set a new festival record. Besides meeting the filmmakers, the audience has had the chance to discuss topics like how immigrants are depicted in Nordic films, the conditions for filmmaking, and this year’s Spotlight: Female Revenge.

The Stockholm International Film Festival would like to thank everyone who has attended this year’s festival. In January the festival continues, with monthly screenings of selected films. On April 2-9 the Stockholm film festival will hold its festival Junior, where young people aged 6-16 have the opportunity to watch quality films from all over the world and participate in filmmaking workshops.