34th Göteborg International Film Festival has now started. At the inauguration ceremony the American director and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman received the festival's new Honorary Dragon Award.

We have ten days ahead of us with no fewer than 443 films from 76 countries, 750 screenings at 18 salons.
 
Apart from the honorary award two other prizes were handed out at the inauguration ceremony at the Draken cinema. This year the Göteborg Film Award (50 000 SEK) went to Andreas Öhman's movie Simple Simon. The Mai Zetterling scholarship (200 000 SEK) was awarded to David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn, directors of the film Slavar.

This year's opening film was the short film Las Palmas by Johannes Nyholm and the Norwegian blockbuster King of Devil's Island, directed by Marius Holst and Stellan Skarsgård in one of the roles. Both were present at the ceremony. King of Devil's Island is one of the nominated films for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film, which from this year is worth one million SEK.
 
The other nominees for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film:
 
Truth About Men
Director: Nicholas Arcelor (Denmark)
 
Brim
Directed by Árni Ólafur Asgeirsson (Iceland)
 
Apflickorna
Director: Lisa Aschan (Sweden)
 
Princess
Director: Arto Halonen (Finland)
 
Happy Happy
Director: Anne Sewitsky (Norway)
 
Savage
Directed by: Martin Jern, Emil Larsson (Sweden)
 
I Miss You
Director: Anders Grönros (Sweden/Finland)