Goteborg Film Festival: ‘Inherent Vice,’ ‘The Theory of Everything’ Get Gala Screenings

A pack of this year’s Oscar contenders, including Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Inherent Vice, James Marsh‘s Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything and Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston, will be in the lineup at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden’s premiere cinema event.

Goteborg’s gala section this year also includes Jason Reitman  ‘s   Men Woman & Children and the acclaimed Argentine drama Wild Tales from Damian Szifron, a favorite for the best foreign language Oscar.

Closer to home, several European productions will also get red-carpet screenings, including Michael R. Roskam‘s The Drop, featuring Tom Hardy and Swedish actress Noomi Rapace; A Second Chance, from Oscar-winning director Susanne Bier (In A Better World); and Learning to Drive, the latest from Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me).

Goteborg also unveiled its nominees for this year’s Nordic prize, a $125,000 award given to the best Scandinavian feature screening at the festival. They include Danish drama Key House Mirror, from Michael Noer (R), which will open the festival on Jan. 23; coming-of-age drama My Skinny Sister from Sweden’s Sanna Lenken; and the Icelandic comedy Paris of the North, from director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurosson.

Goteborg will have a special focus on Japanese cinema this year, and Japanese director Naomi Kawase (The Mourning Forest) will be in Goteborg this year to judge the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award, given to first- or second-time directors.

This year’s nominees include Love the One You Love by Jenna Bass, Limbo by Anna Sofie Hartmann and Bridgend from Danish director Jeppe Ronde.

Liv Ullmann will be awarded the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award.

Armi Alive!, a docu-biopic of Finnish designer Armi Ranta, from helmer Jorn Donner, will close the Goteborg festival on Feb. 2.

Twitter: @ sroxborough