The Stockholm International Film Festival kickstarts its 35th edition on November 6th. The year’s most colourful film marathon is finally here and will be hosting 135 fantastic film premieres from 50 countries that continue to explore and promote the great directos of tomorrow.
With so many exciting films, embracing a variety of topics and styles, it is easy to feel a little lost when trying to maximise your festival experience and discover the festival’s most valuable pearls. And that is why we have dived into the festival’s program head first to bring you a selection of 20 films consisting of all the unmissable films at this year’s festival. Films that will get you reflecting on important topics, films that will answer some of your questions or maybe bring you to new wonderings, films that will inspire you and move you. Enjoy the festival!
Animale – by Emma Benestan, France
Bullfighting in the Camargue is not as brutal as traditional Spanish bullfighting, but it is still a distinctly macho sport with highly questionable animal treatment. Nejma is a stubborn girl fighting to win a local bullfight in this character-driven drama, which deals with horror in the form of metamorphoses and symbolic links between feminine rage and the animal. Ruben Impen‘s (»Titane«) cinematography truly captures the power, beauty and vulnerability of bulls in a feminist revenge tale with an animal touch.
Screenings: Zita 1 6/11 – Klarabiografen 10/11 – Sture 3 17/11
Anora – by Sean Baker, USA
Mikey Madison (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, “Scream”) is this year’s brightest star in the role of Anora, a stripper and escort hired by Russian oligarch son Ivan. He takes her on a crazy adventure in a world of excess. A private jet, a chauffeur, and a party every night, but soon reality knocks on the door.
“Anora” can be described as a modern reinterpretation of “Pretty Woman“. Dirty American social realism decorated with grand crackling luxury and dipped in acid screwball comedy.
Sean Baker’s films, including “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project“, which have screened at the Stockholm Film Festival, explore the lives of marginalised groups in general and sex workers in particular. With his eighth feature film, indie humanist and film artist Sean Baker proves that he is one of today’s most skilful portrayers of the modern working class in the United States.
“Anora” is a deeply moving saga of how the American dream collides with reality for immigrants – a wild odyssey between strip clubs and Vegas suites that is the movie event of the year on the big screen!
Screenings: Skandia 6/11 – Skandia 14/11 – Skandia 17/11
A Real Pain – by Jesse Eisenberg, USA
Jesse Eisenberg‘s second film as director is a comedy-drama about two misfit cousins who go on a guided tour of the Majdanek concentration camp. Eisenberg plays a bound perfectionist and, as always, does so with nuanced accuracy, but the film’s brightest star is Kieran Culkin (‘Succession’) as an irritating but lovable dynamo. A dialogue-driven film, which both actors handle masterfully, about inherited trauma, it manages to be funny despite both theme and location suggesting otherwise.
Actor and director Jesse Eisenberg is awarded this year’s Stockholm Achievement Award during the Stockholm International Film Festival, the award recognises special efforts within the film medium. In connection with the Nordic premiere of Eisenberg‘s latest film “A real pain”, an exclusive Face2Face with Jesse Eisenberg will be held at Bio Skandia, November 14th.
Screenings: Skandia 14/11 – Sture 1 15/11 – Skandia 17/11
Blitz – by Steve McQueen, USA, United Kingdom
Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”, “Hunger”, “Shame”), this year’s Stockholm Visionary Award winner, has made a deeply moving drama about the Blitz from a child’s perspective. Nine-year-old George and his mother try to find each other during the intense Nazi bombing of London. With stunningly crafted sets and well-developed characters – Saoirse Ronan (“Lady Bird”, “Little Women”), The Jam’s guitarist Paul Weller and newcomer Elliott Heffernan are all brilliant – “Blitz” is a celebration of Londoners and their resilience.
Screenings: Skandia 12/11 – Saga 1 13/11 – Saga 3 13/11
Brief History Of A Family – by Jianjie Lin, Denmark, France, China, Qatar
When Wei invites his new friend Shuo over for dinner, his parents are thrilled. The friend is everything Wei isn’t, good at school and curious about their interests. Shuo tells them about his own broken background and slowly but surely becomes an integral part of the family. But is what he says really true? Secrets lurk behind the facade in this brilliant arthouse thriller set in the aftermath of the one-child policy in China. Be prepared to be on the edge of your seat for 99 nail-biting minutes.
Screenings: Sture 2 9/11 – Sture 1 15/11 – Sture 2 16/11
DÌdi – by Sean Wang, USA
Like Eighth Grade set on a skateboard, Sean Wang‘s feature debut is a coming-of-age story about becoming a teenager in a society that is being increasingly affected by social media.
The film is loosely based on the director’s own experiences growing up with Taiwanese parents in the Bay Area, being shot partly in his old boyhood bedroom and featuring his grandmother. Wang‘s feature debut is a melancholy comedy about learning the important things in life – how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
Screenings: Sture 1 9/11 – Sture 3 14/11 – Skandia 16/11
Elskling – by Lilja Ingolfsdottir, Norway
A brilliant feature debut from Lila Ingolfsdottir, produced by Thomas Robsahm (‘The Worst Person in the World’).
Maria is a tired mother whose career has taken a back seat to her husband Sigmund. When Sigmund returns home from a work trip, the couple find themselves in an escalating conflict and what follows is a glimpse into a crumbling relationship. Helda Guren is a delight to watch as the complex Maria, in an acclaimed drama that finds its own tone in the borderland between Ingmar Bergman and Joachim Trier.
Screenings: Sture 3 8/11 – Saga 2 14/11 – Bio Rio 18/11
Emilia Pérez – by Jacques Audiard, USA, France
“Emilia Pérez” is the latest film by Jacques Audiard – winner of the Stockholm Visionary Award 2012. The French Oscar entry is a spectacular thriller with telenovela-level drama and a touch of Almodóvar. It is also, unexpectedly, an opera. Zoe Saldaña plays a lawyer who comes into contact with a cartel boss who not only wants to leave her criminal career behind, but is ready to undergo gender-affirming surgery and come out as a woman. Explosive and innovative mafia musical about trans experiences in Mexico.
Screenings: Skandia 13/11 – Sture 1 2 14/11 – Sture 1 16/11
Eternal You – by Hans Block & Moritz Rieswieck, USA, Germany
The documentary »Eternal You« is a deep dive into a burgeoning death industry that capitalizes on people’s grief. AI that enables continued life is promised by money-hungry start-ups, but the results so far are questionable. German documentary duo Moritz Riesewick and Hans Block give us a dark insight into a morally dubious niche in the tech world, where questions of ethics are dismissed with a shrug. The AI takes on a life of its own and if you’re unlucky, your dead partner tells you he’s in hell.
Screenings: Sture 2 8/11 – Sture 3 14/11
Gloria! – by Margherita Vicario, Italy, Switzerland
The women of classical music, forgotten in historiography, get their revenge in this elevated Italian-Swiss musical. The location is a convent for musically gifted women in 19th century Venice. In the center is Teresa, she is a mute and outcast servant girl with an almost magical ability to create melodies. When the Pope comes to visit, the monastery’s misogynistic leader is blind to the women’s talent. Maybe Teresa can help them make their voices heard? »Gloria!« sparkles with humor, life and – of course – vocal duels.
Screenings: Zita 1 8/11 – Skandia 9/11 – Capitol 16/11
I Saw the TV Glow – by Jane Schoenbrun, USA
After the acclaimed “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”, Jane Shoenbrun is back – now backed by A24. The aesthetics and themes of body dysmorphia and gender identity have been honed into a shared psychosis in front of TV sets.
“I Saw the TV Glow” is quiet, neon-filled coming-of-age horror and perhaps the most anticipated genre film of the year. Loneliness and alienation are dealt with in a hallucinatory, threatening suburbia – a place reminiscent of the jaded nostalgia of “It Follows” and “Donnie Darko”.
Screenings: Sture 3 7/11 – Saga 1 13/11 – Sture 3 17/11
Kill the Jockey – by Luis Ortega, USA, Argentina, Denmark, Mexico, Spain
Remo is a worn jockey with many injuries after a long career, when he is persuaded to ride one last race on a mob boss’ newly imported stallion. But the race will be a disaster.
Luis Ortega (‘El Angel’) has made a surrealist thriller-comedy with tones of magical realism. With elements of dance and, of course, galloping, he explores themes of rebirth and queer identity in a wild ride. An aesthetic delight filmed by Aki Kaurismäki‘s sidekick Timo Salminen.
Screenings: Sture 2 8/11 – Capitol 10/11 – Sture 1 15/11
La Cocina – by Alonso Ruizpalacios, USA, Mexico
Pedro works at the Manhattan restaurant The Grill with Julia (Rooney Mara), the woman he is in love with, and owner Rashid, who has promised to help him become an American citizen. But when there is no money in the cash register during lunch, Pedro is named as the prime suspect. »La Cocina« is a drama about the invisible people who cook your food while chasing a version of the American Dream – which always seems to be out of reach.
Screenings: Sture 1 8/11 – Skandia 9/11 – Sture 2 14/11
Maria – by Pablo Larraín, Chile, Italy, Germany
Pablo Larraín‘s 2017 Stockholm Visionary Award-winning trilogy of portraits of iconic women at particularly harrowing moments in their public and private lives began in 2016 with “Jackie” and was followed by the masterful “Spencer” in 2021. The series concludes neatly in the same claustrophobic vein with “Maria”, which follows Maria Callas in the last week of her life.
Angelina Jolie gives the performance of her life as an opera diva struggling with the fact that she may never be able to sing again.
Screenings: Skandia 16/11 – Capitol 17/11 – Skandia 17/11
Nickel Boys – by RaMell Ross, USA
Wrongly arrested and charged with aiding and abetting in grand theft auto, young Curtis is sent to Nickel Academy, a nightmarish institution for boys in Florida. There he meets Turner, and together they try to survive the abusive staff and come out the other side. Based on a real-life novel by Colson Whitehead, »Nickel Boys« is the story of two black American boys who are sent to the disgraced Dozier School in the 1960s.
Screenings: Skandia 10/11 – Saga 1 14/11 – Sture 2 16/11
Sugar Island – by Johanné Gómez Terrero, Dominican Republic, Spain
Teenage girl Makenya (Yelidá Díaz) has her life turned upside down when she becomes pregnant. Makenya lives with her mother and grandfather in a batey, a shanty town for sugar plantation workers, in the Dominican Republic. Mainly Haitians live here, whose families immigrated generations ago, but who are still denied citizenship. Through Makenya, director Johanné Gómez Terrero draws a strong parallel between the brutal legacy of slavery and today’s modern exploitation of the most vulnerable.
Screenings: Zita 1 9/11 – Sture 3 13/11 – Sture 2 16/11
Reinas (Queens) – by Klaudia Reynicke, Peru, Spain, Switzerland
Set against the backdrop of political chaos in 1990s Peru, we follow sisters Aurora and Lucia as they prepare to leave Lima and travel to Minnesota with their mother. Their emigration requires the signature of their father, a charismatic but unreliable man, who suddenly wants to be present in his daughters’ lives after a period of wandering absence. Klaudia Reynicke‘s coming-of-age drama is both rooted in realism and filled with the girls’ childlike wonder at life. A tender family drama drenched in pathos.
Screenings: Zita 1 6/11 – Skandia 15/11
Rumours – by Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson & Guy Maddin, USA, Canada, Germany
Guy Maddin – a delightful weirdo and Canada’s most interesting absurdist – has teamed up with Evan and Galen Johnson to make the best political satire of the year.
The leaders of some of the world’s richest democracies gather in a forest to write a statement about an ongoing global crisis. Naturally, they screw it all up.
Like “The Death of Stalin” with twisted elements in the form of, among other things, masturbating zombies and an impressive ensemble sprinkled with stars like Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance and Alicia Wikander.
Screenings: Skandia 9/11 – Sture 1 13/11 – Sture 3 16/11
Universal Language – by Matthew Rankin, Canada
Three loosely connected stories set in a wintery Winnipeg: two children find a frozen banknote in the ice, a tourist guide leads a walking tour of the city’s brutalist streets, and a sad man (played by the director himself) returns home after many years away. Everything and nothing happens in Rankin‘s subtly eccentric Oscar entry in which (almost) everyone speaks Persian. »Universal Language« is a life-affirming fable rooted in the Iranian cinematic tradition, with metafictional truths and morality tales for young and old alike.
Screenings: Filmhuset Salong Mauritz 6/11 – Saga 3 14/11 – Zita 1 16/11
Veni Vidi Vici – by Daniel Hoesl & Julia Niemann, Austria
A billionaire practices manhunting as a sport in a dark satire on morality and financial insanity. The chilly approach to human life is freshly mixed with bulging horse polo scenes in slow motion, children’s games in baroque marble halls, screening of potential surrogate mothers and swimming in the living room pool. A free fantasy about the daily lives of billionaires and the absurdity of their mere existence, chillingly told from the perspective of the teenage daughter. »Saltburn« meets »Thouroughbreds« in the Austrian Alps.
Screenings: Sture 3 9/11 – Saga 3 13/11 – Skandia 14/11
