Stellan Skarsgård

2020

Actor

Stellan Skarsgård was the 2020 recipient of the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award, which he received at the festival’s opening ceremony on 24 January. The following day, he participated in an Actors Talk at Stora Teatern, coinciding with the re-release of The Simple-Minded Murderer.

Stellan Skarsgård needs little introduction. In 2020, he won a Golden Globe for his role in the TV series Chernobyl, and for decades he has been one of the Nordic region’s most prominent actors. Few Swedish actors in history can rival Skarsgård’s international career, in which he has seamlessly blended roles in some of Hollywood’s biggest productions with collaborations with some of cinema’s greatest directors, including Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Milos Forman, and István Szabó, to name but a few.

– “With existential depth, warm humanity, and a unique attention to detail, Stellan Skarsgård has enriched the world of cinema and become a symbol of Nordic film. Over the past year, he has demonstrated his artistic range in Chernobyl and the film The Painted Bird. It feels fantastic to honour him at the festival,” said Jonas Holmberg, Artistic Director of Göteborg Film Festival.

Skarsgård appeared in Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird, which had its Nordic premiere at Göteborg Film Festival on 26 January. In addition to The Simple-Minded Murderer and The Painted Bird, the festival also screened Breaking the Waves and Zero Kelvin.

Photo: Svante Örnberg