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MOVIE

Movies Swedish film buffs want you to watch right now

The 2016 Stockholm Film Festival concluded over the weekend. The Local brings you trailers for the three films that won the big prizes at this year's shindig.

Movies Swedish film buffs want you to watch right now
Ralitza Petrova, winner in the Best Film category. Photo: Björn Dalin/Stockholm Film Festival

READ ALSO: 30 Swedish movies you must see before you die

Best film: Godless by Ralitza Petrova

Ralitza Petrova trained at the National Film and Television School in the UK and this Bulgarian-Danish-French co-production is her debut feature film. Godless (original title: Bezbog) is a gritty, downbeat portrait of post-Communist Bulgaria about a nurse who steals from her patients to fund her morphine addiction, until a surprise meeting forces her to reconsider her moral choices.

“This is filmmaking of the highest order and marks the arrival of a new great within cinema. A film that will forever live in the hearts and minds of viewers. It is a true work of art and, simply put, is one of the finest films ever made.” – Stockholm Film Festival

Best first film: Sand Storm by Elite Zexer

Elite Zexer spent more than ten years with Bedouin communities before she shot this film in the Israeli desert. Sand Storm (original title: Sufat Chol) is also Israel's official submission for this year's Oscars and examines social and cultural faultlines between genders and generations.

“An important film told with great authenticity and compassion, cinema and the world at large has a new and exciting voice with this film maker.” – Stockholm Film Festival

Best director: Old Stone by Johnny Ma

This mix of a social-realist noir drama and a thriller follows a taxi driver in a busy Chinese city, who is plunged into a Kafka-esque nightmare after helping an injured motorcyclist get to hospital. Ma's Old Stone (original title: Lao Shi) also won the Stockholm Film Festival's award for Best Script.

“In the wildly engaging and painfully relevant film, talent of the highest order is shown in full display.” – Stockholm Film Festival

Other winners at the 2016 Stockholm Film Festival

Best cinematography: Andrei Butica for Dogs

Best actress: Irena Ivanova, Godless

Best actor: Kévin Azaïs, A Taste of Ink

Best documentary: Hooligan Sparrow by Nanfu Wang

Stockholm Impact Award: Wayne Roberts for Katie Says Goodbye

Best short film: Imago by Raymund Ribay Gutierrez

Stockholm Rising Star: Filip Berg

FIPRESCI best film: American Honey by Andrea Arnold

Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award: Francis Ford Coppola

Stockholm Visionary Award: Francois Ozon

1 km film-scholarship: Frida Kempff, Dear Kid

iFestival Award: Trial and Error by Antje Heyn

FILM

French film club for English speakers returns to cinemas

Lost in Frenchlation, a film club that screens French films with English subtitles in Paris, is returning to cinemas this weekend after holding virtual screenings during lockdown.

French film club for English speakers returns to cinemas
Photo: LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Wednesday saw the reopening of cafés, restaurants, museums, theatres and cinemas in France since October.

This means that Lost in Frenchlation can return to cinemas, and film buffs who struggle to watch French movies without English subtitles can meet up again this weekend at the Luminor Hotel de Ville where the first screening is taking place this Sunday.

READ ALSO: French cinemas face 400-film backlog as they prepare to reopen

What’s on the programme?

The first event taking place on Sunday, May 23rd is a screening of Albert Dupontel’se César awarded film “Adieu les cons” (Bye bye Morons), a comedy drama about a woman who tries to find her long-lost child with a help of a man in the middle of a burnout and a blind archivist.

On Sunday, May 30th there will be a Mother’s Day special screening of “Énorme”, comedy, starring Marina Foïs and Jonathan Cohen, at Club de l’Étoile in the 17th arrondissement in Paris. 

On Saturday, May 22nd, there will be a virtual screening of “Joli Mai” by Chris Marker (1963) which inspired the documentary film Le Joli Mai 2020. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Chris Marker specialist & journalist Jean-Michel Frodon.

Lost in Frenchlation is a company that sets up screenings of recent French film releases with English subtitles to give Paris’s large international community access to French culture and meet others in the same situation.

For more information, check out their website or sign up to their newsletter (link here).

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