Margarethe von Trotta

With films such as The German Sisters, Rosa Luxemburg and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Margarethe von Trotta is one of Germany’s most important directors over time. Along with Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, she was one of the leading filmmakers behind New German Cinema in the 1970s. von Trotta’s films are renowned for their accurate portrayals of relationships and their fighting feminist spirit. This makes her the perfect recipient of the year’s Honorary Dragon Award! von Trotta’s current film is about Hannah Arendt, one of the 20th century’s foremost philosophers and political theorists. Objectively and elegantly, Margarethe von Trotta describes the labor behind Arendt’s most well-known work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which she wrote after attending the trial against Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. On January 28, Margarethe von Trotta will talk about her work at a unique Master Class.
Margarethe von Trotta will be visiting the festival 26-28/1.

Haifaa Al Mansour

Haifaa al-Mansour is Saudi Arabia’s first female director and is regarded as one of the preeminent people in the country’s film industry. She has studied in Cairo and Sydney. Her previous short films have influenced a new wave of Saudi Arabian film. al-Mansour’s work often brings up questions about traditions, taboos and the need of a critical view of her home country's restrictive culture. She provides a voice and a platform for the otherwise disregarded women of Saudi Arabia. al-Mansour will be visiting the festival with the film The Green Bicycle—Wadjda which is about a ten-year-old girl, Wadjda, who wants nothing more than to simply be ten years old. But in Saudi Arabia, where she lives in a suburb to Riyadh, this is asking too much—if you happen to be a girl.
Haifaa al-Mansour will be visiting the festival 28-31/1.

Volker Schlöndorff

The German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff was one of the prominent members of New German Cinema at the end of the 60s, along with Fassbinder and others. Schlöndorff won both an Oscar and a Golden Palm at the film festival in Cannes in 1979 for The Tin Drum, which was based on the prized novel by Günter Grass. Volker Schlöndorff will be visiting this year’s festival as a jury chairman for The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award. Accompanying him is his latest film, Calm at Sea (La Mer à L’aube), a well-played and dignified war-film in which the greatest drama unfolds in the consciences of the French officials tasked with cooperating with the Germans.
Volker Schlöndorff is visiting the festival 28-31/1.

Dominga Sotomayor

Dominga Sotomayor was born in 1985 in Santiago, Chile. After completing her studies of film, in 2007 she started the production company Cinestacion. Sotomayor’s prized film debut, Thursday Till Sunday, demonstrates exceptional skill at invoking the means of expression available to film. Together with the cinematographer Barbara Alvarez, she creates an unforgettable depiction of childhood dependence on the actions of adults.
Dominga Sotomayor will be visiting the festival 31/1-3/2.

Oliver Assayas

The French director Olivier Assayas most recently visited the festival in 2011 with Carlos. This time he’ll present us with his take on the social unrest in Europe in the late 60s with his current film Something in the Air. It’s the beginning of the 70s in Paris, a few years after May ‘68. With full potency and curiosity, Gilles and his friends plunge into political action while grappling artistic, personal and amorous prospects.
Olivier Assayas will be visiting the festival 27-29/1.

Ulrich Seidl

The Austrian director, scriptwriter and producer Ulrich Seidl’s current film is Paradise: Love, which was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is the first in a trilogy about the concepts of faith, hope and love. Spotlighted is the middle-aged Teresa who leaves her boring, everyday life in Austria and travels to a vacation paradise in Kenya where she finally can feel desired and live out sexual urges without being criticized. But her joy is quickly stained when the local beaus begin demanding compensation.
Ulrich Seidl will be visiting the festival 29-31/1.

Esteban Larraín

The director Esteban Larraín is part of the new Chilean film-wave and is one of the interesting names in this year’ main theme ‘Focus: Chile’. He produces films with his own company, among them the documentary Patio 29, about a large find of dead people who disappeared during the Pinochet era. Limelighted at GIFF 2013 is Larraín’s film Passion of Michelangelo, a drama based on a true story of a mystical boy who falls into the pit of a gargantuan confrontation between the Church and State, right in the worst period of Pinochet’s rule.
Esteban Larraín will be visiting the festival 28/1-2/2.


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The guest list is updated regularly. Latest update: 16/1.

Dragon Award Best Nordic Film

Karin Arrhenius Screenwriter Faro. Visit the festival 26-28/1 (Sweden).
David Dencik Actor in Sara Johnsens All That Matters is Past (Norway).
Fredrik Edfeldt Director Sanctuary (Faro) (Sweden).
Born in 1973 in Vallentuna, Sweden. Studied film theory and mass communication at Stockholm University and attended Stockholm Film School. Has worked with theatre and directed short films and commercials both in Sweden and abroad. Has also directed for SVT. Just as in Edfeldt’s and scriptwriter Karin Arrhenius’s latest collaboration, The Girl (GIFF 2010), the story of Sanctuary revolves around a girl in a temporary no man’s land.
Visits the festival 26-28/1.
Anna Croneman Producer Sanctuary.
Finn Gjerdrum Director Before Snowfall. Visit the festival 31/1-1/2 (Norway).
Dag Johan Haugerud Screenwriter and director I Belong. Visit the festival 28/1-30/1 (Norway).
Sara Johnsen Director All That Matters is Past (Norway).
Born in 1970 in Oslo, Norway. Studied Literary Criticism and holds a Master in Media and Communication. In 1997 she was one of the first students at the Norwegian Film School. She has directed several shorts and has written two novels. Visit the festival 28/1-30/1
Tero Kaukomaa Producer 8-Ball. Visit the festival 30/1-31/1 (Finland).
Tobias Lindholm Director A Hijacking (Denmark).
Born 1977 in Denmark. Graduated in screenwriting from the National Film School of Denmark. He has written several episodes for tv series The Summers and Borgen. Co-writer, together with director Thomas Vinterberg, on Vinterberg’s Submarino in 2010. In 2009 he made his feature debut together with Michael Noer with R, which won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at GIFF 2010. Visit the festival 1/2-3/2
Aku Louhimies Director 8-Ball. Visit the festival 30/1-1/2 (Finland).
Søren Malling Actor, A Haijacking. Visit the festival 1/2-2/2 (Denmark).
Yngve Sæther Producer I Belong. Visit the festival 28/1-30/1 (Norway).
Fatima Varhos Producer Faro. Visit the festival 26/1-27/1 (Sweden).
Turid Øversveen Producer All that Matters is Past. Visit the festival 28/1-29/1 (Norway).
Samira Makhmalbaf Head of the jury of Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
Samira Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of film director and writer Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Samira Makhmalbaf is considered to be one of the most influential directors as part of the Iranian New Wave. Visits 28/1-1/2.

Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary

Mia Engberg Director Belleville Baby 28/1 - 1/2 (Sweden)
Margreth Olin Director Nowhere home 29/1 -31/1(Norway)
Mika Ronkainen Director Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart (Finland)
Nima Sarvestani Director No Burqas Behind Bars (Sweden/Denmark)
Born 1958 in Iran. He started his career as a journalist in Iran and has been concentrating on documentary filmmaking since moving to Sweden in 1984. Focusing on social and political issues, he is inspired by those who fight passionately for their cause. Visits 28/1-30/1
Stefan Jarl Director Decency (Godheten) (Sweden)
Born in 1941 in Skara, Sweden. He has a thorough experience in the field of documentary film-making and personal portraits. His work includes the Mods-trilogy, Liv till varje pris (1998) about director Bo Widerberg and Terrorists: The Kids They Sentenced (2003), a collaboration with Lukas Moodysson. Visits the festival 26/1-29/1.
Thommy Berggren Actor in Decency (Godheten). Visits 26-29/1.
Linda Västrik Director Forest of the dancing spirits (De dansande andarnas skog) (Sweden)
Since her debut Dad and Me, (GIFF 2000), Linda Västrik has been living on and off with the pygmy tribes in the tropical rainforest at the basin of the Congo river. They are hunter-gatherers whose religion is considered one of the oldest in the world. This film is a unique record of a village and its people and how they deal with issues such as childlessness and the deforestation caused by international companies that is threatening their very future.
Studied at ICP in New York, Art Institute in Chicago, School of Photography in Göteborg and at Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts.

The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award

Haifaa Al Mansour Director Wadjda (Den Gröna Cykeln) (Saudi Arabia).
Haifaa Al Mansour is Saudi Arabia’s first female director and is regarded as one of the preeminent people in the country’s film industry. Al Mansour’s work often brings up questions about traditions, taboos and the need of a critical view of her home country's restrictive culture. Visit the festival 28-30/1.
Hervé Lasgouttes Director Crawl. Visits the festival 1/2-3/2 (France).
Georg Maas Director Two lives. Visits the festival 29/1-3/2 (Germany).
Maxine Williamson Jury TIBIDA (from Asia Pacific Screen Awards).

Startsladden

Ulrika Bergqvist Producer Gabriel och Lasermannen.
Stefan Constantinescu Director 6 stora fiskar.
Anders Jedenfors Director Så här är det nu.
Marie Kjellson Producer Offerrollsretorik.
Sanna Lenken Director Äta lunch.
Helene Lindholm Producer 6 stora fiskar.
Jenifer Malmqvist Director On Suffocation.
Peter Modestij Director Det knullande paret.
Annika Rogell Producer Äta lunch.
Ola Simonsson Director I princip bris.
Johannes Stjärne Nilsson Director I princip bris.
Kalle Wettre Producer Så här är det nu.
Katja Wik Director Offerrollsretorik.
China Åhlander Producer On Suffocation.

Swedish premièrs

Stig Björkman Director Fanny, Alexander & Jag.
Daniel Möllberg Producer Crestfallen (Den som söker) Visits 2-3/2.
Johan Lundh Director Crestfallen (Den som söker) Visits 2-3/2.

Svenska bilder

Matti Bye Musican, accompany the screening of Gränsfolken.

Honorary Dragon Dragon Award

Margarethe von Trotta (Germany)
Director of Hannah Arendt and receiver of Honorary Dragon Award 2013. One of Germanys most prominent directors and an important figure in the ”New German Cinema” during the 1970s. von Trotta will attend a Master Class 28/1 and her film The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) is also screened at the festival. Visits the festival 26-28/1.

Focus: Chile

Esteban Larraín Director Passion of Michelangelo.
The director Esteban Larraín is part of the new Chilean film wave and is one of the interesting names in this year’s main theme Focus: Chile. He produces films with his own company, among them the documentary Patio 29, about a large finding of dead people who disappeared during the Pinochet era. Visits the festival 28/1-2/2.
François Margolin Producer Night Across the Street by director Raúl Ruiz. Visits the festival 28/1-2/2.
Dominga Sotomayor Director Thursday Till Sunday.
Dominga Sotomayor was born in 1985 in Santiago, Chile. After completing her studies of film. She started the production company Cinestacion in 2007. Sotomayor’s prized film debut, Thursday Till Sunday, demonstrates exceptional skill at invoking the means of expression available to film.
Visits the festival 31/1-3/2

Inside Iran

Abolfazl Jalili Director Little Stop. Visits 31/1-3/2.
Bani Khoshnoudi Director Ziba. Visits 31/1-3/2.
Nahid Persson Director My stolen revolution (Sweden/Norway/UK/USA).
Born in 1960 in Shiraz, Iran. A renowned Swedish-Iranian documentary filmmaker. Nahid Persson has directed several successful documentaries about the conditions faced by women in Iran (including Prostitution: Behind the Veil, (GIFF 2005) and her encounter with the Shah’s widow Farah Diba in The Queen and I, (GIFF 2009). Visits 1/2-3/2

Gala

Aage Aaberge Producer Kon-Tiki. Visits the festival 25-26/1.
Lone Korslund Jensen Producer Kon-Tiki. Visits the festival 25-27/1.
Joachim Rønning Director of the opening film Kon-Tiki, which is nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film. The film is also the largest production ever in Norwegian cinema. Visits the festival 25-27/1.
Espen Sandberg Director of the opening film Kon-Tiki, which is nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film. The film is also the largest production ever in Norwegian cinema.Visits the festival 25-27/1.
Gustaf Skarsgård Actor Kon-Tiki. Visits the festival 25-26/1.
Alicia Vikander Actor in Anna Karenina. Visits the festival 1/2-3/2.

Masters

Olivier Assayas Director Something in the air (Efter Revolutionen) (France)
The French director Olivier Assayas most recently visited the festival in 2011 with Carlos. This time he will present us with his take on the social unrest in Europe in the late 60s with his current film Something in the Air.
Visits the festival 27-29/1.
Volker Schlöndorff Director of Calm at Sea (Germany).
Was a member of ”The New German Cinema” and directed the film version of The Tin Drum, for which he received an Oscar as well as a Golden Palm at Cannes 1979.
Visits the festival 28/1-31/1
Ulrich Seidl Director Paradise: Love. The Austrian director, scriptwriter and producer Ulrich Seidl’s current film is Paradise: Love, which was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is the first in a trilogy about the concepts of faith, hope and love
Seidl also has an Master Class. Visits the festival 29/1-31/1.

Animani

Thorbjørn Christoffersen Director Ronald the Barbarian Visits 28-29/1 (Denmark).
Philip Einstein Lipski Director Ronald the Barbarian Visits 28-29/1(Denmark).
Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen Director Ronald the Barbarian Visits 28-29/1 (Denmark).
Peter Lord Producer Wallace and Gromit Visits 28/1-1/2 (UK).

Visionaries

Manny Kirchheimer Director Art is the Permanent Revolution.Visits 25-28/1(USA)
Mattias Ripa Producer Gang of the Jotas Visits 29-31/1 (France).

Vägvisare

Daniel Dencik Director Expedition to the End of the World. (Denmark)

Austria

Barbara Albert Director Dead and the living. Visits the festival 31/1-3/2

Music Nonstop

Orri Jónsson Director Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir. Visits 30/1-1/2 (Iceland)
Petter Ringbom Director Russian Winter Visits 27-29/1 (USA/Russia).

Festival favourites

Scott Graham Director Shell Visits 25-27/1 (Great Britain).

Critics’ week

Katja Cicigoj Film critic from Ekran, Slovenien. Jury FIPRESCI. Presents the film A night too young 28/1.
Alison Frank Film Critic from Afterimage, Great Britain and jury FIPRESCI. Presents the film Tall as the Baobab Tree 29/1.
Olmo Omerzu Director A night too young.
Emma Gray Munthe Film critic from Sweden. Presents the film Welcome to Pine Hill.
Oscar Peyrou Film critic and jury FIPRESCI - The International Federation of Film Critics. Presents the film The Wild Ones 30/1.
Eva af Geijerstam Film critic from Sweden. Presents the film The Repentant.
Jacob Lundström Film critic from Sweden. Presents the film In House.
Helena Lindblad Film critic from Sweden. Presents the film Queen of Montreuil.

Documentary

Hala Alabdalla Yakoub, Director As If We Were Catching A Cobra. (Syria).
Born in Syria in 1956, she is a respected figure in documentary filmmaking in the Arab world. She works as a producer, unit production manager, consultant for festivals and lecturer. She has directed several documentaries. Visits the festival 30/1-2/1.
Nina Davenport Director First Comes Love Visits 31/1-2/2 (USA)
Jerry Rothwell Director Town of Runners. Visits the festival 31/1-3/2.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur Director Celluloid man Visits 25-28/1 (India).
Heinz Dill Produc Winter Nomads

Debuts

Hanna Doose Director Dust on our hearts Visits 31/1-3/2 (Germany)
Maria Sadowska Director Women’s day Visits 28-31/1 (Poland)

Five Continents

Nicholas Bonner Director Comrade Kim Goes Flying (Belgium/North Korea/ USA). Visits the festival 31/1-3/2.
Anja Daelemans Director Comrade Kim Goes Flying (Belgium/North Korea/USA). Visits the festival 31/1-3/2.
Andrzej Jakimowski Director Imagine (Poland).
Friederike Jehn Director Summer Outside (Germany).
Anna Novion Director Rendez-vous in Kiruna (France).
Enrique Rivero Director Mai Morire (Spain).
Maria Saakyan Director I’m Going To Change My Name (Armenia).
Ndèye Souna Dièye Director The taste of salt (Senegal).
Sabiha Sumar Director Good morning Karachi (Pakistan).
Constantina Voulgaris Director A.C.A.B All Cats Are Brilliant (Greece).

Exhibitions

Halfdan Tangen jr, press- och marknadschef, Kon-Tiki Museet
Jenle Hallund, regissör av filmen Gesamt. Disaster 501: What Happened to man?

Seminars and other

Kjell-Åke Andersson Director Mig äger ingen. Participating in the Work in progress-seminar at Pustervik 2/2. Visits the festival 1-2/2.
Wanda Bendjelloul Bloger Feministisk filmfasta.
Johan Cullberg Psychologist who participating in the seminar Ett samtal om ondska.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman Writer and journalist. Participating in the seminar Greece: coping with crisis 29/1.
Ann Heberlein Writer, participating in the seminar Ett samtal om ondska.
Kathleen McInnis from Palm Spring Short Film festival participating in the seminar Focus short films – the international circuit.
Jonas Mosskin Psychologist, participating in the seminar Ett samtal om vilja och mod and Psykologer tittar på film.
Johanna Palmström Editor in chief of the magazine Bang.
Alexandra Pascalidou Journalist, participating in the seminar Greece: coping with crisis 29/1.
Henrik Pettersson Writer, participating in the seminar Ett samtal om vilja och mod.
Anna Serner CEO of Swedish Film Institute.
Pelle Snickars participating in the seminar Hembygd – någonstans i Sverige.
Yrsa Stenius journalist who participating in the seminar Ett samtal om ondska.
Francy Suntinger Producer Mig äger ingen. Participating in the Work in progress-seminar at Pustervik 2/2.
Matias Varela Actor Snabba Cash 3. Participating in the Work-in-progress Snabba Cash 3.
Martin Wallström Actor Snabba Cash 3. Participating in the Work-in-progress Snabba Cash 3.
Anna Vorne from BRIS, participating in a seminar.
Charlotte Wells Jurymember from Swedish church.
Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson lecturer in Ethics, participating in a seminar.
Fredrik Wikström Producer Snabba Cash 3.
Jannike Åhlund Jury TIBIDA and with a Master Class Margarethe von Trotta. 
Roy Andersson Director and honorary president of Göteborg International Film Festival. Visits 25-27/1.
Lisa Langseth Director, participating in the Work-in-progress about her new film Hotell.
Madeleine Martin Actor Snabba Cash 3
Malin Buska Actor Snabba Cash 3.
Suzanne Glansborg Film commissioner Swedish Film Institute.
Magdalena Jangard New Film commissioner Swedish Film Institute.
Johan Jonason Director and winner of Startsladden 2012. Play a song during this years Startsladden-gala.
Jens Jonsson Director Snabba Cash 3. Participating in the Work-in-progress about Snabba Cash 3 31/1
Cecilia Lidin from Swedish Film Institute.
Louise Højgaard Johansen Festival Programmer, CPH PIX.