Honorary Award Recipient: “I’m Probably Quite Like Bamse”
Honorary award recipient Christian Ryltenius accepted the Dragon Statuette in front of a packed auditorium at Göteborg Film Festival Prisma, during a screening of his film Bamse and the Secret of the Sea.
– It touched my heart, it really did, says a happy and moved Christian Ryltenius about receiving the honorary award.
Christian Ryltenius is one of Sweden’s leading animation directors. He works at the animation studio Slugger Film in Malmö, which has a team of up to 20 people. Ryltenius describes it as a small factory, where they work on everything from storyboards to layout and produce around one film a year.
– The wonderful thing is that we still work a lot with paper and pencil. We work in traditional 2D, he says.
These days, he enjoys the animated films of auteur Hayao Miyazaki and everything else produced by the iconic Studio Ghibli. But growing up, Ryltenius was a Disney fan. One of the first Disney films he saw at the cinema was One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he absolutely adored. He was hugely inspired to watch more animation, started drawing even more and eventually decided to make an animated film of his own.
– It turned out to be very difficult. This was long before the internet. Back then, you really had to sit in your little room and puzzle it out for yourself: how does this actually work?
Later, he came into contact with Per Åhlin, one of the pioneers of Swedish animation and the festival artist at Göteborg Film Festival in 2015, and got the opportunity to work at his studio, Pennfilm.
– Then I found myself following the path life had laid out for me, and I learned animation by working with Per and the whole team at Pennfilm.
Among other projects, Ryltenius worked on The Journey to Melonia, a two-time Guldbagge Award winner and a homage to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Today, Ryltenius works less with dusty playwrights as source material and more with beloved Swedish national treasures such as Bamse, Mamma Mu and Pelle Svanslös.
If he could choose a character from the Bamse universe that he identifies with, his choice would be none other than the world’s kindest bear.
– I’m probably quite like Bamse. I hope I’m kind. I’m definitely not like Lille Skutt or Skalman.
Ryltenius believes that imagination, inventiveness and the joy of storytelling, all of which play a major role in animated films, are important for children. He hopes his films will live on and encourage children to “let their imaginations run wild and discover the joy of creating.”
– I hope they become memories that last a lifetime. That people carry these films in their hearts and that they remain part of their lives into adulthood. Who knows, perhaps they’ll introduce them to their own children or grandchildren.
The jury’s citation read:
“Through his great joy in storytelling and his rare ability to connect with young audiences, Christian Ryltenius has created films that combine humour and adventure with a warm humanistic perspective. Through his filmmaking, Ryltenius has developed and revitalised Swedish animation, introducing well-known and much-loved characters such as Bamse, Mamma Mu and Pelle Svanslös to new generations.”
Previous honorary award recipients at Göteborg Film Festival Prisma include I Just Want To Be Cool, Linda Hambäck, Eva von Bahr & Love Larson, Tina Mackic, Gunilla Bergström, Jan Lööf, Georg Riedel and Barbro Lindgren.