Overview
Calling all Scandi cinema diehards, Nordic noir buffs, fans of the region's oft-icy climes, and lovers of mythology and folklore: the 2023 Scandinavian Film Festival has something on its lineup for you. When it gets frosty in Australia each year, this big-screen showcase celebrates titles primarily hailing from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — and its latest lineup is full of must-see highlights.
Touring the nation between Thursday, July 13–Wednesday, August 9, with stops in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Byron Bay, the fest's latest program will kick off with the Australian premiere of Let the River Flow, which won the Audience Award at this year's Göteborg Film Festival. Based on a true tale, it tells of a young woman who unintentionally becomes involved in a protest against a dam, with the new structure set to possibly flood Indigenous Sámi land.
The standouts keep coming, such as Godland from Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day), which gets the festival's centrepiece slot — and Fallen Leaves, the latest from Finnish great Aki Kaurismäki's (The Other Side of Hope). Both hit the Scandi Film Festival after bowing locally at other events around the country. Also boasting a high-profile name is Burn All My Letters, which follows the consequences of a love affair, and stars Barbarian and John Wick: Chapter 4's Bill Skarsgård.
Or, there's Swedish thriller Shadow Island, Darkland sequel Darkland: The Return and psychological drama Copenhagen Does Not Exist for devotees of Nordic cinema's dark side. If that's your favourite way to get a Scandi film fix, you'll also be in your element with Scandi Screams, the fest's six-movie retrospective. That's where that focus on myths and eerie tales comes in, and of course Let the Right One In is on the lineup. So is Ari Aster's Midsommar, the Oscar-nominated Border, Mads Mikkelsen in Valhalla Rising, twisted Christmas flick Rare Exports and the fantasy-heavy Troll Hunter.
Back to the event's slate of recent releases, comedy lovers can get excited about Iceland's dinner party-set Wild Game, Denmark's Fathers & Mothers and The Land of Short Sentences, the new film in The Grump franchise, and absurdist-leaning period piece Empire.
Also on the lineup: Unruly, another 2023 Göteborg Film Festival award-winner, this time for Best Nordic Film; documentary The King, about Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf; Munch, a dramatisation of the Norwegian artist's life; coming-of-age drama Norwegian Dream; One Day All This Will Be Yours, about a Swedish cartoonist and her siblings dividing up the family farmland; and polyamory love story Four Little Adults.
One note: cinemagoers in Perth won't get to see Fallen Laves, while Adelaide movie buffs don't have Four Little Adults on their lineup.
SCANDINAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023 DATES:
Thursday, July 13–Wednesday, August 2 — Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Pentridge Cinema and The Astor Theatre, Melbourne
Tuesday, July 18–Wednesday, August 9 — Palace Norton, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney
Wednesday, July 19–Wednesday, August 9 — Palace Electric, Canberra
Wednesday, July 19–Wednesday, August 9 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Adelaide
Wednesday, July 19–Wednesday, August 9 — Palace James St, Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Thursday, July 20–Wednesday, August 9 — Luna Leederville, Luna on SX & Palace Raine Square, Perth
Thursday, July 20–Wednesday, August 9 — Palace Byron Bay
The Scandinavian Film Festival tours Australia from in July and August 2023. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the festival's website.