Straight-From-Cannes Must-Sees, Norwegian Spy Dramas, Icelandic Black Comedies: 2025's Scandinavian Film Festival Program Is Here
'Sentimental Value', which reunites 'The Worst Person in the World' director Joachim Trier with star Renate Reinsve, is the festival's centrepiece film.
When the director and lead of one of 2021's best Norwegian films — and best movies from anywhere that year — joined forces again, of course the Scandinavian Film Festival needed to get the resulting picture on its program. Accordingly, Sentimental Value from The Worst Person in the World filmmaker Joachim Trier, once more starring Renate Reinsve (Presumed Innocent), is one of the big highlights at 2025's Australian showcase of cinema from the Nordic region. Stellan Skarsgård (Andor) and Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown) also feature, and the results won this year's Cannes Grand Prix (the award below the Palme d'Or). At the Scandinavian Film Festival, Sentimental Value is getting the centrepiece treatment.
Movies from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland are always in the drawcard at this Aussie fest — so a Norwegian spy drama to kick things off in 2025, then an Icelandic black comedy to wrap things up, are both on the itinerary. This year's national tour starts on Friday, July 11 in both Melbourne and Ballarat, with Scandinavian Film Festival's opening nights staggered as it then heads to Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, and Byron Bay and Ballina on various dates, wrapping up countrywide on Wednesday, August 13.
Launching the fest: Number 24, the latest from The Burning Sea and The Quake director John Andreas Andersen, recounting a true espionage tale from World War II. The aptly named Grand Finale comes in at the other end, spinning a Reykjavik-set story about a struggling chamber orchestra's efforts to endure. Alongside Sentimental Value, Quisling: The Final Days is another of the festival's big-name titles, this time from The King's Choice and Utoya: July 22's Erik Poppe, with the trial of its controversial namesake head of state the film's focus.
Cannes favourites, blasts from the past, laughter-inducing fare: they're all on the lineup, then. Add watching Björk's daughter in her first feature role, multiple dates with Danish actor Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with the Needle) and celebrating the 25th anniversary of a Swedish romantic-comedy to the list, too. The first comes courtesy of The Mountain, a coming-of-age and road-trip flick starring Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney. Dyrholm pops up in both the healthcare-centric Second Victims and the David Dencik (Other People's Money)-co-starring Beginnings. And Jalla! Jalla! is marking its quarter-century milestone.
Audiences keen to spend Australia's winter feasting their eyes on colder climes from the other side of the world can also look forward to the Faroe Islands-set The Last Paradise on Earth and heading into an Icelandic seafood restaurant with Odd Fish. Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Riders of Justice) leads Way Home, about a Danish father endeavouring to save his loved ones. With heist effort The Quiet Ones, Denmark's biggest-ever robbery makes its way to the screen.
Finnish relationship dramedy Sudden Bursts of Emotions, the nation's great Heikki Kinnunen playing 'The Grump' in Long Good Thursday, three siblings returning to the house they grew up in in Everything Must Go, the couch-surfing antics of Live a Little, the beer-brewing sisters of 100 Litres of Gold, My Father's Daughter's focus on a Sámi teenager: add them to your Scandinavian Film Festival list as well.
Scandinavian Film Festival 2025 Dates
Friday, July 11–Sunday, August 3 — Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Penny Lane, The Kino, Pentridge Cinema and The Astor Theatre, Melbourne
Friday, July 11–Sunday, August 3 — Palace Regent Cinema, Ballarat
Wednesday, July 16–Sunday, August 10 — Palace Electric, Canberra
Thursday, July 17–Sunday, August 10 — Palace Norton St, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney
Wednesday, July 23–Wednesday, August 13 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide
Wednesday, July 23–Thursday, August 14 — Palace James St and Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Wednesday, July 24–Wednesday, August 13 — Luna Leederville, Luna on SX and Palace Raine Square, Perth
Wednesday, July 24–Wednesday, August 13 — Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas, Byron Bay and Ballina
The Scandinavian Film Festival tours Australia in July and August 2025. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the festival's website.
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