HIGH COAST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – Auteur-driven Films in the Swedish High Coast.
Our festival came into existence with a vision - to become a focal point in Northern Sweden for promotion of the auteur-driven cinema: daring, unconventional, innovative films - as well as the meeting place of international and local filmmakers, film activists and enthusiasts in the heart of a Swedish forest landscape.
The creative emphasis of the festival lies on works that are willing to make bold and unorthodox choices, to explore atypical narrative structures, to utilize various techniques of visual storytelling, to seek out and highlight marginalized or untold stories and their protagonists, to search for new methods of communicating with the audiences, all the while retaining a distinguishable personal and uncompromising tone and approach.
There are no sections for contemporary films or attention to any specific topics or methods – film as a mean to artistically express and portray is what puts the program together. As a result we show films with all sorts of themes and methods. Strict fiction with a clear cut storyline, wild experimental film poetry, quiet anthropological documentaries. Comedies, dramas and everything there between. Some are entertaining, some are not. Some are easy to digest, some not at all.
The Festival is a two day event - Saturday and Sunday - held at Mannaminne, a village of culture and art, the unique place where different worlds meet.
At Mannaminne there are over 50 buildings inviting the visitor to an encounter with nature and culture, art and technology, with both local and global perspectives. The artist Anders Åberg (1945-2018) and Barbro Åberg's full-scale works of art spread inspiration and creativity.
We pay for accommodation for all selected film makers. This is something we do to help and support visiting the festival and part of our ambition to make it a valuable experience.
During our first four editions we are happy to have succeeded establishing the festival as a quality event for international auteur-driven films in the High Coast. Lots of press coverage by regional news paper, Swedish National TV and Swedish National wide radio have spread the word about what we do and it's had an impact. Full house screenings and attendance from both press, audience, film organizations and film makers have proved that the interest in our unconventional and daring program is high and the experience at the festival cherished.
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We spend months carefully watching and programming our festival selection. Presenting the best possible program we can is what our festival is built upon. Submitting to the festival is to pay to have the film considered and is not a guarantee to have it selected. We receive hundreds of submissions each edition and only around 5% are selected. Please make sure that you wish to submit before doing so.
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Grand Prix
Audience Award
Best Swedish Film