News

Exclusive: Los Angeles-based Swedish singer songwriter Tove Lo has been cast for her acting debut in The Emigrants, the $10M Scandi epic from local major Sf Studios.

Erik Poppe (Utøya: July 22) is helming the adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novels which chronicle the one and a half million Swedes who sought a better life across the Atlantic in the mid-19th century. Production is scheduled to get underway in the Western part of Sweden in September.

One of Sweden’s biggest musical exports, Tove Lo’s hit singles include Habits (Stay High), which reached number three on the U.S. Billboard chart and has had close to 700 million streams on Spotify and Youtube, while she has also co-written songs including Lorde’s Homemade Dynamite and Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do, which was on the Fifty Shades Of Grey soundtrack and was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated.

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

Following last summer’s restoration of Swedish auteur Jan Troell’s directorial debut Here is Your Life (1966), Criterion presents the director’s most notable accomplishment from his most prolific period, the one-two punch of The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972). Though technically released as two distinct features, they are more of a conjoined saga detailing the travails of America’s Scandinavian ancestors. Richly attenuated, they’re adapted from the celebrated series of four novels by Vilhelm Moberg, Upon a Good Land, hailed as cornerstones of Swedish literature. Until now, these, along with most of Troell’s 1970s titles, (who is known best for his 2008 masterpiece, Everlasting Moments) have been largely unavailable, a pity considering the level of achievement and a handful of Academy Award nominations (including a Best Picture nod) between both features. It’s difficult to imagine a more authentic depiction of the early immigration experience, narratives which have...

Jan Troell knocks us for a loop with his masterful epic of a Swedish farming family in the 1840s, making the big move to the promised green acres in frontier Minnesota. Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann are heartbreakingly deserving and hopeful; the dreamers and the devout and the intolerant come too. The two-film, six-hour saga is a faithful to history and politically neutral. The Emigrants / The New Land Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 796 & 797 1971-1972 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 191 + 202 min. / Utvandrarna & Nybyggarna / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 9, 2016 / 49.95 Starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Sven-Olof Bern, Aina Alfredsson, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund, Pierre Lindstedt, Hans Alfredson, Ulla Smidje, Eva-Lena Zetterlund, Gustaf Faringborg. Cinematography and Editing Jan Troell Original Music Erik Nordgren /Bengt Ernryd, Georg Oddner Production design P.A. Lundgren Written by Bengt Forslund, Jan Troell from novels by Vilhelm Moberg Produced by Bengt Forslund Directed by Jan Troell...

Exclusive: Here’s a case of good timing. Paradigm today signed Swedish actress Edda Magnason, whose name recognition went up shortly after when she was awarded the Shooting Stars Award at the Berlin Film Festival, the prize that spotlight’s Europe’s best young talent. She won the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress (Sweden’s highest honor) for her portrayal of Swedish jazz singer/actress Monica Zetterlund in Monica Z, which was one of the country’s top-grossing films of last year. She’s up for the Swedish equivalent of a Grammy for the soundtrack and so far has released two albums and signed with Warner Music and Sony/Atv Music Publishing. She’s repped by Artisgruppen in Sweden. Here’s a trailer of her movie:...

Anna Odell’s drama wins best film at the Guldbagge Awards; Per Fly’sWaltz for Monica (Monica Z) wins four.

Anna Odell’s feature debut The Reunion (Återträffen) received two top prizes at the 50th Guldbagge Awards in Sweden last night. The depiction of a class reunion after 20 years won Best Film and Best Screenplay.

Odell, who wrote the screenplay, said on stage: “I usually say things how they are, but I’m really bewildered. Long live art, life and liberty! And culture and everything.”

It marks the third consecutive year that a debut female filmmaker collected the Best Film statuette after Lisa Aschan’s She Monkeys (Apflickorna) and Gabriela Pichler’s East Sleep Die (Äta sova dö).

Produced by Mathilde Dedye, for French Quarter Film, The Reunion previously picked up the Fipresci prize for Best First Feature in Venice last August and is set to screen at the Rotterdam Film Festival (Jan 22 - Feb 2).

The night’s...

Per Fly’s biopic leads Swedish film award nominations with 11 nods, followed by Shed No Tears, The Reunion and Hotell.Scroll down for full nominations

Waltz With Monica (Monica Z), from Danish director Per Fly, leads the race for the Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) – the Swedish national film awards, now in its 50th year – with 11 nominations.

The story of legendary Swedish singer-actress Monica Zetterlund stars Edda Magnason in her first film role.

The biopic has been nominated for best film, best director, best cinematography and best actress for Magnason. Its other nominations include two of the three slots in the best supporting actor category for Kjell Bergqvist and Sverrir Gudnason.

Shed No Tears (Känn ingen sorg), about a man who dreams of success in the music world, has secured nine nominations. The film is directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, back from Hollywood after directing action sequel Underworld: Awakening.

The duo have been nominated for best director...

Enjoying some time abroad, Noomi Rapace and Marion Cotillard showed up at the premiere of “Waltz With Monica” at the 13th Marrakech International Film Festival last night (December 4).

The “Dark Knight Rises” dame stunned the spectators with her orange and black striped dress as she made her way around the arrivals area.

Meanwhile, Noomi was in good spirits while mingling with Mads Mikkelsen and Nicolas Winding Refn, posing for pictures and chatting with the press.

“Waltz with Monica” is a biopic about a Swedish singer and actress named Monica Zetterlund. During her life, she began as a telephone operator and made her way to a successful jazz singing career.

Arab spring compilation wins Jihlava’s main award; Best Czech film for HBO-backed doc

Belgium-based Peter Snowdon’s The Uprising, a compilation of amateur footage from the Arab spring, was awarded the Opus Bonum - Best International Documentary Film Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic last night (Oct 28).

The winner was picked by a single juror, Us director-curator Craig Baldwin who described The Uprising as “a film which, in turn, saddened me, frightened me, outraged me, inspired me, and ultimately made me truly proud to be a part of the democratic project and the struggle for human dignity.”

The Uprising, which was produced by Brussels-based Rien à voir production with the UK’s Third Films of Duane Hopkins and Samm Haillay as co-producers, had its world premiere in Jihlava.

In the Czech Joy sidebar competition, the Best Czech Documentary Film Award went to Petr Hátle’s The Great Night which was co-produced...

Göteborg, Sweden – One of the year’s most anticipated films, Monica Z (also known as Waltz for Monica), made its Nordic premiere at Way Out West, a month before the theatrical release in cinemas across Sweden. From her simple life as a telephone operator in a small Swedish town, to becoming a national celebrity performing in jazz clubs in Stockholm and New York, the film chronicles the life of legendary Swedish jazz singer and actor, Monica Zetterlund. Monica played a major role in popularizing jazz in Scandinavia and beyond from the late 1950s. She was awarded a medal by the Swedish government for her contributions to the cultural life of Sweden.

Per Fly directs this fine biopic with the original script by Peter Birro. Fly’s film does a good job reproducing the style of each era portrayed in Monica Z. Centering on Monica’s dramatic and often turbulent journey...

Cannes winner Blue is the Warmest Colour also picked up a prize at the 41st Norwegian International Film Festival (Niff) awards.

Danish director Per Fly picked up the Nordic Film Prize at the Niff awards last night [Aug 20] for his biopic Monica Z (Waltz for Monica).

The story of legendary Swedish singer-actress Monica Zetterlund stars Edda Magnason in her first film role. Monica Z will be released in Norway on Sept 13.

Fly will next direct Backstabbing for Beginners, based on the true story of Un whistleblower Michael Soussan who called for an investigation of the Un’s dealings with Saddam Hussein. Fly is working on the screenplay with Us writer Daniel Pyne (The Sum of All Fears) and it marks the first project developed for the international market by Creative Alliance - a new company created earlier this year by six Nordic directors and Us outfit Parts & Labor.

Other winners included Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Colour, which...

The Norwegian International Film Festival (Niff) is to showcase the “diversity” of the region’s current output, according to programme director Håkon Skogrand.

The 41st Niff will run from Aug 15-22 in Haugesund, opening with the world premiere of Erik Skjoldbjærg’s oil rush thriller, Pionér (Pioneer) starring Aksel Henie.

The festival will close with Gunhild Westhagen Magnor’s Optimistene (The Optimists), a documentary about a volleyball club of ladies aged 66-98.

“There is currently an impressive diversity in Norwegian cinema,” declared programme director Håkon Skogrand

However, there has been an increasing emphasis on films from Norway and the Nordic countries in recent years and festival director Gunnar Johan Løvvik has decided to give each section equal status to address this.

The sections include the main selection, Cinemagi (for children), French Touch, New British Films, Nordic Focus and New Nordic Films.

In the international line-up Skogrand will present 23 films from 13 countries and wide-ranging environments – “from New York...

Gothenburg music and film festival Way Out West wrapped on Saturday (August 10) after holding the world premiere of Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe, the third and final instalment in the hit Swedish crime trilogy (known as Easy Money in English).

Source: Photo by Carla Orrego Veliz

The team behind Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe

Directed by Jens Jonsson, Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe was produced by Tre Vanner and is released locally by Nordisk Film on August 30.

Way Out West screened around 30 films in total including Scandinavian premieres of films such as Per Fly’s Waltz For Monica, a biopic of legendary Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Stephen Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra and music documentaries such as Shane Meadows’ Made Of Stone and Reincarnated: Snoop Lion.

The festival also held Swedish premieres of Before Midnight, The East, The Broken Circle Breakdown and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

Screenings were held...

Gothenburg music and film festival Way Out West wrapped on Saturday (August 10) after holding the world premiere of Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe, the third and final instalment in the hit Swedish crime trilogy (known as Easy Money in English).

Source: Photo by Carla Orrego Veliz

The team behind Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe

Directed by Jens Jonsson, Snabba Cash: Life Deluxe was produced by Tre Vanner and is released locally by Nordisk Film on August 30.

Way Out West screened around 30 films in total including Scandinavian premieres of films such as Per Fly’s Waltz For Monica, a biopic of legendary Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Stephen Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra and music documentaries such as Shane Meadows’ Made Of Stone and Reincarnated: Snoop Lion.

The festival also held Swedish premieres of Before Midnight, The East, The Broken Circle Breakdown and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

Screenings were held...

Well, it's not Don Cheadle's Miles Davis project, or even a Miles Davis-centered film, but you should know that production is in full swing in Trollhättan, Sweden on a feature film titled Monica Z (full title Monica – A Lingonberry in a Cocktail) based on the life of the famous Swedish jazz vocalist and actress, Monica Zetterlund, whose career ran from the late 1950s until 2005, when she passed. Edda Magnason is playing the title role in a production that's being described as a powerful drama about a fascinating life story, based on an original screenplay by Peter Birro and directed by multiple award-winning director Per Fly. (yes, that's correct). ...