The 2019 Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival will open around Australia with the cheeky, star-studded comedy HAPPY ENDING from actress-turned-director Hella Joof (2015 Scandi FF smash hit All Inclusive).

Top Danish actors Birthe Neumann (five Robert Awards from the Danish Film Academy, two Bodils from the Danish Film Critics) and Kurt Ravn (two Bodils) head up the cast, which also includes Mette Munk Plum (Borgen), Tammi Øst (The Killing) and Scandi FF 2017 festival guest Charlotte Sieling (The Man, Borgen, Homeland).

The programme includes a number of international festival favourites and award-winners. Here is a sneak-peak into the 2019 Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival program:

Fresh from its praised premiere in Critics’ Week at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is award-winning director Hlynur Palmason’s (Winter Brothers, Scandi FF 2018) disquieting yet spellbinding A WHITE, WHITE DAY (Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur) – a powerful exploration of a man overcome with grief who is losing control.

Based on an epic and prophetic poem by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson, directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s astounding and apocalyptic ANIARA is a starkly beautiful piece of cinema wrought with emotion. Aboard a luxury Noah’s Ark spaceship named Aniara, a colony of materialistic and consumption-obsessed humans flee the now-destroyed Earth.

From official selection at SXSW Film Festival and a nominee for Best Nordic Film at the Göteborg Film Festival comes the wicked and tender rom-com AURORA in which commitment-phobic party girl Aurora and Iranian refugee Darian agree to help each other in unconventional but vital ways.

Praised at its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival, LET ME FALL is an essential and harrowing look at addiction which has been celebrated by critics and audiences alike for the stellar performances and enthralling direction by Baldvin Z (Life in a Fishbowl, 2014).

Oscar nominee Klaus Härö’s (The Fencer, 2015) bittersweet and moving drama ONE LAST DEAL (Tuntematon mestari), follows an aging art dealer as he is presented with one final opportunity to fix his broken life and reconnect with his estranged daughter and grandson.

The full program will be announced mid June.

The festival will take place nationally from 9 July in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Byron Bay and Hobart.

Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival 2019
NSW 9 – 31 Jul Palace Verona, Palace Norton Street & Palace Central
ACT 10 – 31 Jul Palace Electric
VIC 11 – 31 Jul Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Balwyn
& Palace Westgarth
SA 16 Jul – 7 Aug Palace Nova Eastend & Palace Nova Prospect
WA 17 Jul – 7 Aug Palace Cinema Paradiso, Palace Raine Square and Luna on SX.
QLD 18 Jul – 7 Aug Palace Centro and Palace Barracks
BYRON 17 – 31 Jul. Palace Byron Bay
TAS 25 – 31 Jul State Cinema
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com

Now a much anticipated fixture on the festival calendar, the third Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival presented by Palace will see some of the most exciting and fresh movies from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland grace Palace Cinema screens around Australia from 5 July.

National Festivals Director Elysia Zeccola Hill who has been running the festivals at Palace Cinemas for the last 18 years said: “Scandinavia has produced some of the most iconic films ever made. This festival screens the hottest talent from the most current crop of films. Over the past 10 days in Cannes I have locked in the final films for this edition and they will premiere on the big screen in Australia less than two months later.”

To whet cinema goers appetite, here is a preview of the 2016 program:
Finland’s official Oscar contender, and winner of Best Film at Finland’s 2016 Jussi Awards, THE FENCER, offers a fictionalised take on a real-life fencing teacher who took a stand against Stalinist oppression in Soviet-era Estonia. Fleeing from the Russian secret police, a young Estonian fencer is forced to return to his homeland, where he becomes a physical education teacher at a local school. However, the past catches up with him as he comes face to face with a difficult choice.

Meanwhile, more in the spirit of recent Nordic fare, tense suspense thriller ABSOLUTION starring the brilliant Laura Birn (2014 Festival guest) tackles the moral questions of guilt and revenge after a hit-and-run accident spirals out of control. Mari Rantasila (2015 Festival film Armi Alive!), took the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in this film at Finland’s recent Jussi Awards

Also from Finland, OTHER GIRLS (Toiset Tytöt) is a survival story about those moments when life gives you a brutal kick, but you decide to kick back. HARD! Based on true events, it follows 18-year-old girls Jessica, Jenny, Taru and Aino who are on the verge of adulthood as they lose their innocence and, at times, their faith.

From Sweden, the documentary comedy NICE PEOPLE is a real-life “Cool Runnings” which has won over audiences’ hearts worldwide. The predominantly white community of the rural Swedish town of Borlänge are confronted by the influx of Somalis who have fled war. Integrating has proven difficult, so entrepreneur Patrik Andersson decides that all the Swedes and Somalis need is something to talk about together, and so he encourages them to learn Bandy (a cross between ice hockey and soccer). This highly entertaining and touching documentary follows the young Somalis’ long journey from their first hesitant steps on the ice to the very first goal in the history of their country, coached by legendary former bandy player Per Fosshaug and Cia Embretsen, and accompanied and commented on by the well-known Swedish duo of entertainers Fredrik Wikingsson and Filip Hammar.

Winner of the Audience Award at the Guldbagge Awards (Swedish Academy Awards) Staffan Lindberg’s LOVE IS THE DRUG is a comedy about super rich Veronica (played by international star Izabella Scorupco) and Mike, a carpenter, and all that stands between their love, including stepchildren, ex partners and new parents-in-law.

Danish Director Christina Rosendahl makes her mark with her second feature film THE IDEALIST (Idealisten) starring Peter Plaugborg, Søren Malling, Thomas Bo Larsen, Arly Jover and Jens Albinus. Based on real events of the 80s and 90s, THE IDEALIST deals with the conspiracies about Thule airbase during the cold war and a young journalist whistle-blower who tries to reveal the secrets behind a nuclear disaster.

The first feature film of Swedish-born Dane Daniel Dencik, GOLD COAST (Guldkysten) is a story of beauty and brutality, partly based on personal letters and diaries from the Danish botanist Wulff Joseph Wulff. In 1836, the young and visionary botanist (played by 2014 Berlin Film Festival Shooting Star award winner Jakob Oftebro) is sent to Africa by the King of Denmark to establish coffee plantations. What follows is an adventure into unknown territory that will change his young life forever.

Norway heralds Scandinavia’s first disaster movie THE WAVE (Bølgen). Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro and Fritjof Såheim, the action packed film is based on the real-life event of the 1934 tsunami which hit Norway’s Tafiord as two million cubic metres of rock from a landslide triggered a wave of more than 85 metres high, and left 40 people dead in communities along the shore.

Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival 2016
Sydney: Tues 5 – Wed 27 July Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona
Melbourne: Wed 6 – Wed 27 July Palace Cinema Como, Brighton Bay, Westgarth
Canberra: Tues 12 – Wed 27 July Palace Electric
Brisbane: Wed 13 – Wed 27 July Palace Centro & Barracks
Adelaide: Tues 19 – Wed 27 July Palace Nova Eastend
Hobart: Wed 20 – Wed 27 July State Cinema
Perth: Thu 21 – Wed 3 August Cinema Paradiso
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com

Competition will be drawn 12 July 2016, winners will be notified by mail.