Wild Card – the new stars of Swedish film

Happy winners - Olga Krüssenberg and Balder Ljunggren. Photo: Swedish Film Institute

Olga Krüssenberg and Balder Ljunggren have been selected for the Swedish Film Institute's Wild Card. They share SEK 800,000 to develop their feature film projects. The two stories deal with sadness in Svalbard and a missing daughter.

Wild Card is the Film Institute's way of reaching out to the new generation, where newly graduated directors receive development funding to quickly get started with their feature film debut. The directors have applied with their graduation film as well as three minutes of moving material in which they presented their feature film idea.

The winners were presented at a ceremony in Filmhuset this evening, during the Stockholm International Film Festival's Industry Days. The filmmakers were awarded SEK 400,000 each to make a sketch film for a feature film, and to development their idea, project and script.

The jury groups consist of film commissioners and controllers at the Film Institute's production support unit.

Olga Krüssenberg for her film Late Blue Winter

Motivation of the jury
With the documentary film's ear for reality and a disarming cinematic playfulness, this versatile director returns to a Svalbard in dramatic transformation. The new project follows a young Russian man in exile, driven out of his orbit around a Europe that doesn't want him. Svalbard becomes his refuge, which with the director's sure hand is chiseled out according to the protagonist's perspective as a kind of Wild West. The jury looks forward to following the development of a visually stunning, charming and wistful story about one man's struggle to find belonging in a place where the future has never been more uncertain.

– I am so extremely grateful for this support which comes at a crucial time after school, which enables me to continue developing as a filmmaker. Now I can confidently throw myself into the feature film format knowing that I have the chance to test myself and experiment! says Olga Krüssenberg.

Synopsis
Against his will, Mikhail has had to settle in Svalbard after being denied a visa in Europe. Now his personal dreams and fears collide with a nature that itself stands on the edge.

Biography
Olga Krüssenberg (b. 1995) grew up in Eslöv and is a director and artist. She is educated at the Royal Institute of Arts and Biskops Arnö. Her previous short documentaries Slowly I Move in Your Direction (Långsamt rör jag mig i din riktning) and Isblink have been shown at national and international film festivals and at art exhibitions around the Nordics.

Balder Ljunggren for his film Worldbuilding

Motivation of the jury
Already with his graduation film, this filmmaker gives great hope for the future. With precise poetry and choreography, he portrays man in the present, a present that is both anchored in reality here and now and eternally unfathomable. In the new project, where a divorced father desperately tries to hang on to the past, he invites us into a world as mysterious as life itself. It is brave. It is beautiful. It is striking. The jury is very much looking forward to following this unique artistry, as well as the strong and exciting team created around the film and the process going forward.

– It's super fun and nice that Worldbuilding has been chosen as one of this year's Wild Card projects, and that the Film Institute continues to believe in and support young debuting directors. It is a luxurious and important responsibility I am given, and I take it seriously! says Balder Ljunggren.

Synopsis
John, a 45-year-old construction worker, has an eight-year-old daughter he sees every two weeks and an ex-wife he still loves. On the bus home from work, he sees a strange figure peeking out of a street well on the other side of the street. The figure stares at him, but no one on the bus or on the street notices. After that, it's as if the world is slowly coming together. Unexplained things and patterns disturb John's life, and he feels something approaching. His daughter disappears, and to find her he decides to climb down the same well. Down into the darkness and into another world.

Biography
Balder Ljunggren works as a director and screenwriter and graduated from the bachelor's program in film at HDK-Valand, this spring. He has previously written and directed the short films That's Amore and Rift (Vrå), the latter of which competed in this year's edition of Startsladden at the Gothenburg Film Festival. He also runs the newly started production company Bank AB together with five other directors.

Previous year's Wild Card winners
2023 Lisa Forslund, André Vaara, Angelica Ruffier
2022 Tess Quatri, Vangelis Kollias, Simone Norberg
2021 Angelika Abramovitch, Lina Vain Illalla and Loran Batti
2020 Sebastian Johansson Micci and Elsa Rosengren
2019 Amanda Björk, Jonathan Nikolaj Heinius and Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
2018 Fanny Ovesen, Ernst De Geer and Jerry Carlsson

For questions, contact
Hanna Sohlberg, film commissioner for Moving Sweden at the Swedish Film Institute
hanna.sohlberg@filminstitutet.se 
08-665 12 75

Lina Norberg Johansson, talent controller at the Swedish Film Institute
lina.norberg@filminstitutet.se  
08-665 12 27