Sweden’s three Oscar contribution finalists – Blog
by Nathaniel R
As something of a surprise, Sweden’s shortlist for its Oscar entries does not include the teen heartbreak drama Comedy Queen or the serial killer movie in Tehran holy spider, which won prizes at the Berlinale and Cannes respectively. Instead, they will choose between the following three films…
Boy from heaven by Tarik Saleh
Tarik Saleh, best known for The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), drawing on his Egyptian heritage again. His fifth film is a drama about the struggle for power at a school in Cairo after the Grand Imam dies in front of the students. It premiered in Cannes (where our own Elisa Giudici reviewed it) and will open in Sweden in November.
I am Zlatan by Jens Sjögren
A biography of a first-generation Swede, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was born to immigrant parents from the Balkans and became a legendary soccer star. It opened in Sweden last spring.
Nelly & Nadine by Magnus Gertten
A documentary about two women who fell in love in a concentration camp in 1944 and kept their relationship secret for many years afterwards. Gertten has been a prolific documentarian since 1998. After Nelly & Nadine‘s Berlinale bow where it received the jury prize at the Teddy Awards (for LGBTQ cinema) it opened in Sweden in the spring. It will be distributed in the US through Wolfe Releasing.
None of these three directors has been submitted by Sweden before. Sweden has not been nominated since then The square (2017) despite two very impressive contributions since then (Limit, And then we danced) but they are always worth keeping an eye on. They’ve been a big Oscar player in general since the category’s inception with 16 nominations, 3 wins and 3 additional finalists to date.
Updated Oscar lists
Page 1 – Albania to Greece – 3 entries / 4 finalists
Page 2 – Haiti through Norway – 3 entries / 2 finalist lists
Page 3 – Palestine through Vietnam – 6 entries / 5 finalist lists
Current predictions