The festival’s first programming news for next year’s edition comes as Göteborg has also announced that Josef Kullengård will step down from his role as Head of industry after this year’s edition Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Revolution Against Death,” Maria Martínez Bayona’s “The End of It” and William Greaves and David Greaves “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” will screen at a Gôteborg Film Festival 2027 Focus on the fascination of youth and the dream of immortality. News of the Focus comes as Sweden’s Göteborg Festival, the biggest film-TV event in the Nordic countries, is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary at its 2027 edition, which runs Jan. 20-Feb. 6. From double Oscar-nominee Oppenheimer (“The Look of Silence,” “The Art of Killing”) and acquired by The New York Times’ Op-Docs platform, “The Revolution Against Death,” a 23-minute short, is set at an annual longevity conference, the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival, observing its eccentric efforts to achieve immortality.
Mubi will release alongside Op-Docs in December. Starring Rebecca Hall, Gael García Bernal and Beanie Feldstein, sci-fi comedy-drama “The End of It” is set in a world where, at least for the rich, death is a choice. Claire, a 250-year-old artist played by Hall, seeks inspiration by choosing to die.
Catalan Maria Martinez Bayona’s debut, “The End of It” bowed at the Cannes Festival’s Premiere section. Described by Variety as “a documentary brimming with the wry and the wise, the thought-provoking and the deeply entertaining,” “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” sees legendary 1920s Harlem Renaissance figures convene at a cocktail party in Duke Ellington’s townhouse in 1970. A “cultural time-capsule doc,” it is a portrait of a once-in-a lifetime party and the excitement of an all-consuming moment which become an epoch.
Past Göteborg Focus strands have been accompanied by a memorable event such as introducing a lie detector at the 2026 Göteborg, which focused on current concepts of truth. Through film screenings and discussions, Focus: Forever Young will offer new perspectives on youth, aging, and society’s quest for immortality, the Göteborg Film Festival promised Thursday in a press release. But what happens when we’re never really allowed to grow old?
With Focus: Forever Young we want to explore this era’s fixation with youth and ask questions about identity, life choices and what it means to become older,” said Göteborg Artistic Director Pia Lundberg, She added: “As Göteborg Film Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, Forever Young feels like a particularly suitable theme. We have grown older as a festival, but our curiosity about cinema and the world around us is as strong as it’s ever been. There’s something beautiful about that paradox: turning 50 by examining what it really means to be young,” Josef Kullengård Steps Down From Göteborg to Join CPH:DOX Göteborg’s first programming unveil for its 2027 edition came just two days after news that Josef Kullengård, Göteborg’s highly successful Head of Industry from 2022, will be joining Copenhagen’s CPH: Dox, one of Europe’s preeminent documentary festivals, as its new head of Industry & Training.
Professionally, I also feel ready for a new and exciting challenge,” Kullengård told Variety. Kullengård previously served over 2017-21 as Göteborg’s Industry Producer of the Nordic Film Market. He leaves Göteborg on a high-note.
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