by Nathaniel R
BOY FROM HEAVEN
In something of a surprise Sweden's shortlist for their Oscar submissions does not include the adolescent grief drama Comedy Queen or the Tehran-set serial killer film Holy Spider, which won awards at Berlinale and Cannes, respectively. Instead they'll be choosing between the following three movies...
Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh
Tarik Saleh, best known for The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), is tapping into his Egyptian heritage again. His fifth film is a drama about the battle for power at a Cairo school after the Grand Imam dies in front of the students. It premiered at Cannes (where our own Elisa Giudici reviewed it) and is due to open in Sweden in November.
I Am Zlatan by Jens Sjögren
A biopic about the first generation Swede, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was born to Balkan immigrant parents and became a legenday football star. It opened in Sweden in the 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 the these three directors have been submitted by Sweden before. Sweden hasn't been nominated since The Square (2017) despite two very impressive entries since then (Border, And Then We Danced) but they're always worth keeping an eye on. They've been a major Oscar player in general since the early days of the category with 16 nominations, 3 wins, and 3 additional finalists to date.
Updated Oscar Charts
Pg 1 - Albania through Greece - 3 submissions / 4 finalists lists
Pg 2 - Haiti through Norway - 3 submissions / 2 finalist lists
Pg 3 - Palestine through Vietnam - 6 submissions / 5 finalist lists
Current Predictions