There’s something I’m curious about, a process. So you’re Sweden’s entry into the Academy Awards this year…
Mm-hmm.
Do you have to lobby for that?
No, there’s a jury in Sweden that are picking in the films that have been released from one year or something. No, I don’t think that you actually… I’ve never heard of anyone lobbying for that.
So they just called you and said, “Good news?”
Yeah, exactly.
What’s that like?
Well, it was fantastic. I had a film, my second feature Involuntary was also the Swedish Oscars entry. Involuntary is a quite challenging film so I was pretty sure it wouldn’t make it to nomination, but this time… I mean the reactions that were in Cannes and the reactions that have been from American media… Magnolia bought the film. I was really hoping for it to happen. So I was very happy of course.
I was at TIFF, and I missed it, but it was all anyone could talk about. It’s hard to get that much support for a foreign film, which is absurd if you think about it. Do American films get marginalized in Sweden at all?
No, they are very dominating at the cinemas.
“You only meet the top examples of the film scene from Sweden…”
And yet you’re making such wonderful films there. Are you in an art house or do you get the same kind of release a major Hollywood movie gets?
In one way, it’s always like that. You only meet the top examples of the film scene from Sweden, of course, and there’s a lot of them that aren’t very good. But I would also like to say that I think there’s something happening in Sweden, when it comes to the films. There’s an attitude that I actually don’t see in many other places of the world, that people are interested in exploring things in a new way.
Like thematically, emotionally, that sort of thing?
Yeah, artistically and thematically, I would say.
And the mainstream audience in Sweden is embracing…?
Not in the mainstream. Roy Andersson is one of my favorite directors, I don’t know if you know about him.
Not offhand.
He won the Golden Lion this year in Venice, for A Pigeon Sat on a Branch [Reflecting on Existence]. But also there’s something very important, and it comes to the government and funding system that is in Sweden. We can [apply] for money from a government body called Swedish Film Institute, and almost finance the film completely out of those funding systems. So we don’t need private money.
How do you prove yourself to them? Do you just have to show your earlier work?
It’s almost like the same kind of process here. You meet people that have control over the movie and then you have to convince them I’m going to make a really good movie.
Is there a lot schmoozing involved? A lot of drinks and parties?
No, actually not. I think it’s… Well, in a way. Of course there’s a social network that is very, very important but I guess that no, it’s not. Since it’s governmental money they have eyes on them so they can’t let anyone… You can’t be bribed, would you say it like that?
Yeah, you need to keep it pure.
