LevelK has boarded the film as sales agent.
After her acclaimed debut Eat, Sleep Die, Pichler has made a satire about film, democracy and solidarity. Amateurs is described by festival artistic director Jonas Holmberg as ‘a warm and wonderfully funny film about who gets to decide a community's outward image’, as a city council in crisis tries to attract German investors through locally-produced amateur films. 


The film produced by Anna-Maria Kantarius for Garagefilm is vying for the festival’s lucrative SEK 1 million Dragon award for Best Nordic Film, against eight films of which five are directed by women. Those are:

  • Euphoria by Lisa Langseth (Sweden/Germany), 
  • What Will People Say by Iram Haq (Norway/Germany/Sweden), 
  • Holiday by Isabella Eklöf (Denmark), 
  • And Breathe Normally by Isold Uggadóttir (Iceland/Sweden/Belgium)
  • The Return by Malene Choi (Denmark). 

Other Nordic films in the main competition comprise The Charmer by Milad Alami (Denmark/Sweden), The Violin Player by Paavo Westerberg (Finland) and Rotterdam Film Festival’s opening film Jimmie by Jesper Ganslandt (Sweden/Austria/Croatia).

Scandinavia’s largest film festival will screen a total of 399 films from 78 countries across 23 sidebars. A new section will be inaugurated this year, the International Competition, with 20 international films competing for the SEK 50,000 prize voted for by the festival’s audience.

Eight films are competing for Best Nordic Documentary: Sweden’s That Summer by Göran Hugo Olsson, selected as well for Berlin’s Panorama section, The Deminer by Hogir Hirori, and A Good Week for Democracy by Cecilia Björk, Norway’s Golden Dawn Girls by Håvard Bustnes, My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Sofia Haugan and Letters by Marte Vold and Jero Yun, Denmark’s The Distant Barking of Dogs by Simon Lereng Wilmont and Finland’s Entrepreneur by Virpi Suutari.

Holmberg said: "This year's selection shows the full width of documentary film. There are intimate relationship portrayals, poetical views and politically burning social topics. Experienced filmmakers like Göran Hugo Olsson and Virpi Suutari show their movies next to new exciting voices like Cecilia Björk and Sofia Haugan. It is obvious that the Nordic documentary film holds a high international class, and this year Norwegian films stand out as three of the eight films come from Norway.”

For the second year, the Nordic Light-TV Drama section will introduce five premium shows from the Nordic region, all competing for the SEK 200,000 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, given out to the most outstanding screenplay.

The nominated series are

  • Ride Upon the Storm (Denmark), 
  • Deadwind (Finland), 
  • Stella Blomkvist (Iceland), 
  • Borderliner (Norway), and 
  • The Lawyer (Sweden) (read the full story: CLICK HERE).

The festival’s Honorary Dragon Award will be handed out to French star Juliette Binoche, while Swedish actress/producer Alicia Vikander will receive the Nordic Dragon Honorary Award. Both will attend master-classes, together with actress Sofia Helin (jury of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize), directors Margarethe von Trotta, Laurie Anderson, and Emmy/Bafta award-winning writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, The Death of Stalin).

Other highlights include a Focus on Ingmar Bergman who was honorary president of the Göteborg Film festival until his death in 2007, and a Spotlight on Chinese cinema.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond is associated to the competing feature films Euphoria, What Will People Say, and documentaries The Distant Barking of Dogs, Golden Dawn Girls, That Summer, My Heart Belongs to Daddy and The Deminer. Göteborg’s industry events TV Drama Vision unspools January 31st- February 1st, and Nordic Film Market February 1-4.

For the full programme, check: www.goteborgfilmfestival.se