The Stockholm International Film Festival () is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November, and focuses on emerging and early career filmmakers. The winning film in the international competition section is awarded the Bronze Horse (Bronshästen), and it awards a number of other prizes.
History The Stockholm Film Festival was founded in 1990 by the three film enthusiasts Git Scheynius, Kim Klein, and Ignas Shceynius. The first festival took place over four days, with its opening film being "Wild at Heart" by David Lynch. In 1994, the Stockholm Film Festival took a step into the digital age as the first film festival in the world with its own website.
David Lynch visited the festival for the first time in 2003 to receive the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award, 13 years after Wild at Heart inaugurated the very first edition of the Stockholm Film Festival.
The Stockholm Film Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009 by screening films on a specially made ice screen in Kungsträdgården. Susan Sarandon, who attended the festival to receive the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award, helped to unveil the canvas before the screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". At the festival's 30th anniversary celebration in 2019, several tons of ice were yet again transported from Torneälven, 1227 km to the capital to recreate the ice canvas in Kungsträdgården.
In 2011 the Stockholm Film Festival Feature Film Award was inaugurated, which funds a feature film for an unestablished female director.
When director and actor Peter Fonda arrived at the festival as chairman of the jury in 2012, he made his entrance in style, escorted to the Skandia cinema by an entire motorcycle gang.
The Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was part of the festival jury in 2013, but could not be present as he was under house arrest in his home country. He created the work of art "The Chair of Nonattendance" which was sent to Stockholm; an empty chair that is impossible to sit in. The collaboration inspired the establishment of the Stockholm Impact Award; one of the world's largest film prizes, which was awarded for the first time in 2015 in collaboration with the City of Stockholm. The prize is awarded to filmmakers who raise important societal issues.
In 2021, due to the COVID pandemic, the Stockholm Film Festival pivoted to a hybrid model using a video-on-demand platform provided by Shift72. This initiative included a unique partnership with Polestar to show films on their Android Automotive system, creating the world’s first in-car film festival.
When the Stockholm International Film Festival celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2024, a special initiative was launched to bring the festival to audiences across Sweden. Six film enthusiasts—from Arvidsjaur in the north to Växjö in the south—opened their homemade cinemas to screen three selected films: Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point, The Executioner, and Gloria! Miraklet i Venedig. The campaign, created in collaboration with Rocket—Science and Geelmuyden Kiese Sweden, was awarded a Silver Pencil in the Branded Entertainment category at the internationally renowned competition The One Show.
On 8 August 2024, film enthusiasts were invited to a unique summer evening at the intersection of cinema, city, and archipelago, marking the start of that year’s edition of Sommarbio in Rålambshovsparken — a special occasion celebrating the event’s 35th anniversary. The tragicomic maritime adventure The Life Aquatic (2004), a cult classic by Wes Anderson, was screened on a double-sided floating screen positioned in the water outside Stockholm City Hall. At the time, Anderson was also making headlines in Cannes with a new film. Audiences could enjoy the screening either from Stadshusparken or from their own boats.
The festival has been visited by hundreds of filmmakers and since its inception, including Sean Baker, Dennis Hopper, Lauren Bacall, Gena Rowlands, Charlotte Rampling, Susan Sarandon, Ang Lee, Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Roman Polanski, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Claire Denis, Elia Kazan, Céline Sciamma, Francis Ford Coppola, Wong Kar-Wai, Steve McQueen and Uma Thurman.
Description
Since its start the Stockholm International Film Festival has focused on supporting new talents through competitions and scholarships. As many as a third of the films selected for the competition are made by a debuting director and by directors who have made fewer than three films.
The festival hosts seminars, gala screenings, and opportunities to meet actors and filmmakers. It also organises mobile film workshops for children and teenagers, screenings for festival members throughout the year as well as the Stockholm Film Festival Junior, an annual film festival for children and youth during the spring. The main goal of the Stockholm Film Festival Junior is to provide access to quality films from every corner of the world for young audiences – films that otherwise would not reach the mainstream film repertoire. All screenings are free of charge for everyone between 6 and 19 years old.
Since 1990, the Stockholm International Film Festival has also been the host of Summer Cinema, an outdoor cinema open to the public during August in Stockholm. Summer Cinema has taken place in different venues in the Swedish capital, for example, Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Berzelii Park, and Rålambshovsparken.
Stockholm Industry, during each film festival, organizes several full days of workshops, discussions, seminars and events tailored to filmmakers and film professionals. Stockholm Industry shapes a platform of filmmaking — designed to strengthen international cinema for the long term. Stockholm Industry represents 1 KM FILM, being Sweden’s leading short film pitch, alongside competitions like Nordic Wave — spotlighting Nordic quality cinema. Alongside the competitions exists works in progress, opening the door to the wider international industry.
The Stockholm Industry Days of the festival were held at Filmhuset, home of the Swedish Film Institute. Here, works-in-progress were presented, and master classes and seminars were held.
Awards
Bronze Horse Best Film
The winning film in the international competition section is awarded the Bronze Horse (Bronshästen). At 7.3kg (16 lb) the Bronze Horse is the heaviest film award in the world. It is also a paraphrase of a national design icon, the Swedish Dala horse, and was created by artist Fredrik Swärd.
The following films have received the top honour at the festival, the 7.3 kg Bronze Horse statute for the best film.
Year Film Director 1990 The Natural History of Parking Lots Everett Lewis 1991 Europa Lars von Trier 1992 Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino 1993 1, 2, 3, Sun Bertrand Blier 1994 Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino 1995 Institute Benjamenta Brothers Quay 1996 Pretty Village, Pretty Flame Srđan Dragojević 1997 Unmade Beds Nicholas Barker 1998 The Wounds Srđan Dragojević 1999 Les Convoyeurs Attendent Benoît Mariage 2000 Ali Zaoua Nabil Ayouch 2001 Bully Larry Clark 2002 Irréversible Gaspar Noé 2003 Schultze Gets the Blues 2004 Innocence Lucile Hadžihalilović 2005 Northeast Juan Diego Solanas 2006 Sherrybaby Laurie Collyer 2007 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Cristian Mungiu 2008 Frozen River Courtney Hunt 2009 Dogtooth Yorgos Lanthimos 2010 Winter's Bone Debra Granik 2011 Oslo, August 31st Joachim Trier 2012 Lore Cate Shortland 2013 The Selfish Giant Clio Barnard 2014 Girlhood Céline Sciamma 2015 Louder Than Bombs Joachim Trier 2016 Godless Ralitza Petrova 2017 Jeune Femme Léonor Serraille 2018 Firecrackers Jasmin Mozaffari 2019 Song Without a Name Melina León 2020 Berlin Alexanderplatz Burhan Qurbani 2021 Rhino Oleg Sentsov 2022 Holy Spider Ali Abbasi 2023 The Settlers Felipe Gálvez Haberle 2024 Nickel Boys RaMell Ross 2025 Father Tereza Nvotová
Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award is given as an honour for a lifework within cinema.
1990 – Roger Corman 1991 – Dennis Hopper 1992 – Viveca Lindfors 1994 – Quentin Tarantino 1995 – Jean Paul Gaultier 1996 – Rod Steiger 1997 – Elia Kazan 1998 – Gena Rowlands 1999 – Roman Polanski 2000 – Lauren Bacall 2001 – Jean-Luc Godard 2002 – Erland Josephson 2003 – David Lynch 2004 – Oliver Stone 2005 – David Cronenberg 2006 – Lasse Hallström 2007 – Paul Schrader 2008 – Charlotte Rampling 2009 – Susan Sarandon 2010 – Harriet Andersson 2011 – Isabelle Huppert 2012 – Jan Troell 2013 – Claire Denis 2014 – Mike Leigh 2015 – Stephen Frears 2016 – Francis Ford Coppola 2018 – Mary Harron 2019 – Max von Sydow 2020 – Martin Scorsese and Isabella Rossellini 2021 – Jane Campion 2022 – Anthony Hopkins 2023 – Ken Loach 2024 – Costa-Gavras
Stockholm Visionary Award Stockholm Visionary Award was instituted 2004 to note visionaries within modern film.
2004 – Todd Solondz 2005 – Terry Gilliam 2006 – Darren Aronofsky 2007 – Wes Anderson 2008 – Wong Kar-wai 2009 – Luc Besson 2010 – Gus Van Sant 2011 – Alejandro González Iñárritu 2012 – Jacques Audiard 2013 – Peter Greenaway 2014 – Roy Andersson 2015 – Yorgos Lanthimos 2016 – François Ozon 2018 – Asghar Farhadi 2019 – Céline Sciamma 2020 – Matteo Garrone 2021 – Joachim Trier 2022 – Sam Mendes 2023 – Catherine Breillat 2024 – Sean Baker and Steve McQueen 2025 – Benny Safdie
Stockholm Achievement Award 2012 – Willem Dafoe 2014 – Uma Thurman 2015 – Ellen Burstyn 2018 – Gunnel Lindblom 2019 – Payman Maadi 2020 – Viggo Mortensen 2021 – Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright 2022 – Fares Fares 2023 – Ethan Hawke 2024 – Jesse Eisenberg 2025 – Alexander Skarsgård
Audience Award The peoples choice. Year Film Director 2000 Boys Don't Cry Kimberly Peirce 2001 Lost and Delirious Léa Pool 2002 Japón Carlos Reygadas 2003 The Station Agent Tom McCarthy 2004 Oldboy Park Chan-wook 2005 Storm Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein 2006 Little Miss Sunshine Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 2007 Juno Jason Reitman 2008 Involuntary Ruben Östlund 2009 The Cove Louie Psihoyos 2010 Waste Land and This Is England '86 Lucy Walker/Shane Meadows 2011 50/50 Jonathan Levine 2012 Call Girl Mikael Marcimain 2013 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen 2014 Mommy Xavier Dolan 2015 Mustang Deniz Gamze Ergüven 2016 I, Daniel Blake Ken Loach 2017 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh 2018 Capernaum Nadine Labaki 2019 Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititi 2020 Dinner in America Adam Rehmeier 2021 Belfast Kenneth Branagh 2022 The Banshees of Inisherin Martin McDonagh2023Poor ThingsYorgos Lanthimos2024Emilia PérezJacques Audiard 2025 Egghead Republic Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja
Rising Star Award The Rising Star Award is awarded to an actor who has made distinctive achievements in film and has the ability to become tomorrow's star. The purpose of the award is to highlight an actor early in their career. 2008 – Malin Crépin 2009 – Anastasios Soulis 2010 – Alicia Vikander 2011 – Malin Buska 2012 – Nermina Lukac 2013 – Adam Lundgren 2014 – Julia Ragnarsson 2015 – Aliette Opheim 2016 – Filip Berg 2017 – Gustav Lindh 2021 – Edvin Ryding 2022 – Sara Shirpey 2023 – Hanna Ardéhn 2024 – Erik Svedberg-Zelman 2025 – Nils Wetterholm
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