Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival launches its 48th edition this Friday, and for the first time in a decade, it will do so with a new Artistic Director.
Pia Lundberg, formerly Counsellor for Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in London, replaced Jonas Holmberg as Artistic Director last March. Holmberg stepped down for a job at the Kalmar Art Museum in eastern Sweden. Before her stint in London, Lundberg was Head of International at the Swedish Film Institute from 2007 to 2018. Originally a journalist, she began her career as a writer and editor for various Swedish and international media outlets focusing on film and culture. She served as the editor-in-chief of the Swedish film magazine Cinema for four years.
Lundberg’s first edition opens with the debut screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket). Other highlights include visits from Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival will also hold a rare retrospective of works by Swedish filmmaker Mai Zetterling. The festival will screen her films Loving Couples (1964), Night Games (1966), and The Girls (1968).
Below, Lundberg digs into programming her first edition as Göteborg head, competition with Sundance and Rotterdam, and what she described as the “financial crisis” that is forcing “ambitious” Swedish filmmakers to make their work elsewhere.
Göteborg runs from January 24 to Feburary 2.
DEADLINE: Pia, how did your appointment come about?
PIA LUNDBERG: I heard Jonas was getting ready to leave the festival. At the time, I was living in London. I returned to Sweden and was encouraged to apply for the position. So I did. I went through the recruitment process and it was rigorous.
DEADLINE: What’s your film background? You’re probably best known internationally for leading cultural efforts at the Swedish embassy in London.
LUNDBERG: I started as a journalist. One of the best jobs I ever had was editor-in-chief of a film magazine published by the Stockholm International Film Festival, a competitor of Goteborg.
DEADLINE: I’ve heard a lot about that Stockholm Film Festival magazine. A few producers, including Jakob Abrahamsson and Patrik Andersson at Mylla Films, told me they started their careers there.
LUNDBERG: Yes, I employed them. I was their editor. They were some of my best writers. The festival director at Stockholm at the time would always comment on how I found great film professionals like Jakob and Patrick. And soon enough, she stole them for her programming department. That happened a few times. I was then the Swedish correspondent for Screen International and the Nordic correspondent for Variety. I was then recruited to serve as head of international at the Swedish Film Institute. I did that for 10 years before moving to London.
DEADLINE: How have you found your first year as Artistic Director?
LUNDBERG: It’s been a pleasure and a lot of fun. But everything is new. I’ve felt so much like an early beginner with everything. There’s a wonderful team working here and one of the greatest things about this festival is that people keep coming back and they stay for a long time, which is a good sign for a festival.
DEADLINE: And programming-wise. How was that experience? How many films did you see?
LUNDBERG: The team saw approximately 3000 films, which we whittled down to 270 films. It’s a big programme, but you just fall for some films and always try to get the best ones. It’s always a competition, of course, with other festivals. One problem we had this year, which I was quite concerned about, was Sundance. We’ve traditionally taken place the week after Sundance and parallel to Rotterdam. This year Sundance decided to push their festival a week ahead. So we’re now parallel to Sundance and Rotterdam will be after us, which created even more competition. But we’ve been working closely with Sundance. Nordic filmmakers usually go from Sundance to Gothenburg. Doing that in the same week this year has for obvious reasons proved impossible for some. But we’ve managed with a couple of films.
DEADLINE: Are there any titles you’re still burning about because you couldn’t lock them?
LUNDBERG: There’s always competition. Some films you don’t get because they get a great slot in Berlin. But for Swedish and Nordic films, Göteborg is also known to be a good launch platform, which is great for us. I was sad about Alicia Vikander’s The Assessment. We work closely with her on a film lab she launched with the festival. I saw The Assessment in Toronto and was very much hoping to get it since Alicia is from Gothenburg. It would have been a good film to screen here. But that had its premiere at the Stockholm Film Festival.
DEADLINE: I did this same pre-festival interview with Jonas over the last few years. He often said his job as Artistic Director was to grow the festival. What do you want to do with your tenure?
LUNDBERG: Jonas did an amazing job in his 10 years at the festival. I’ve tried not to change the things that have been working. I think it’s important that the festival clings to its Nordic focus because that’s what brings in the international crowd. Also, we have a very vibrant and strong industry section, which attracts a lot of international professionals. I think festivals are important events in today’s society. It’s about more than just reaching out to audiences. Films and festivals can help people to think differently and be more open to new perspectives. We live in very worrying times. That’s partly why we chose ‘Disobedience’ as our focus for this year’s festival.
DEADLINE: Göteborg has become famous for its festival ‘stunts’. Will those stunts continue under your tenure? None have been announced so far.
LUNDBERG: I love those stunts. We have been working on stunts and some things will be happening during the festival.
DEADLINE: Can you tell us anything more? Perhaps where we should be paying attention.
LUNDBERG: You should pay attention to our opening ceremony and what might be said or launched there.
DEADLINE: After some years away, what is your assessment of the current industry? Globally and locally. What are the trends in Sweden?
LUNDBERG: The trend in Sweden has been less and less money for filmmaking for a few years. It’s become a real problem. Sweden previously had a strong film policy, but it’s deteriorated in the past decade. The Swedish Film Institute has far too little money to hand out to filmmakers. Inflation and the recession have also exacerbated things. There is a real financial crisis in the Swedish film industry. The Swedish government has appointed a specialist ground to look into this. I’m actually involved. I was appointed before I joined the festival, so I’ve been working a lot on ideas for a new Swedish film policy with hopefully some more money.
Over the last 6 months, I’ve been very impressed with the Danish and Norwegian projects. Production in those countries is blooming right now. Sweden is not in a very healthy position, which is sad. We have so many extremely talented filmmakers and we risk losing them — for instance, Magnus von Horn, the filmmaker who made The Girl with the Needle. Magnus is actually from Gothenberg. He was educated at the national film school in Poland. So he has one leg in Poland and another in Sweden. His second film was a Polish-Swedish co-production. However, The Girl with the Needle, was a majority Danish production, with Sweden as a co-producer. I would love to see filmmakers like Magnus being well-financed in Sweden and making their films here. But we are currently in a situation where it’s too hard for ambitious Swedish filmmakers to keep making films here. Ali Abbasi is another one. It’s a real struggle.
