Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival 2024 at Palace Cinemas

Take a vacation to the Nordic region via the silver screen this winter at the 10th annual Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival. Screening nationally at Palace Cinemas, Luna Palace Cinemas and Palace Nova Cinemas from July to August, this year’s festival features cinema from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The festival kicks off with epic historical drama The Riot (2023), directed by Academy Award-nominated director Nils Gaup (The Last King). Telling the story of the Sulis mine worker uprising in 1907, The Riot brings to the big screen for the first time an essential piece of Norwegian labour-movement history.

The festival centrepiece this year hails from Finland, with Tiina Lymi’s Stormskerry Maja (2024) telling a tale of female empowerment in the 1840s, complete with stunning cinematography of the remote Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea. Also from Finland is Teemu Nikki’s black comedy Death Is a Problem for the Living (2023), and a 35th-anniversary screening of Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki’s deadpan road movie about “the worst rock-and-roll band in the world”, Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989).

In Melbourne and Sydney, the Icelandic Film Centre’s Christof Wehmeier joins opening-night proceedings for the premieres of The Riot. He’ll also be sharing an introduction to Rúnar Rúnarsson’s poignant drama When the Light Breaks (2024), fresh from its premiere at Cannes, in Melbourne only. Other highlights from Iceland include Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch (2024); Cold (2023), Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen’s adaptation of the bestselling novel by Icelandic crime author Yrsa Sigurdardottir; and Helena Stefansdottir’s dark thriller Natatorium (2024).

This year’s program also features an extensive line-up of Danish films, from Ole Christian Madsen’s box office hit Boundless (2024) and Gustav Möller’s Nordic noir Sons (2024) to feel-good films like Milad Schwartz Avaz’s Better Times (2023) and Mads Matthiesen’s coming-of-age drama Mr Freeman (2023). From Sweden, highlights include Kingmaker (2024), the highly anticipated sequel to 2004 Danish hit King’s Game, a political thriller centred on investigative journalist Ulrik Torp.

Cinephiles will enjoy this year’s Ingmar Bergman retrospective, with four films putting the spotlight on the iconic collaboration between the director and actor Liv Ullman: harrowing mother-daughter tale Autumn Sonata (1978), late 19th-century period piece Cries and Whispers (1972), psychological drama Persona (1966) and the five-hour philosophical epic Scenes From a Marriage (1974).

Browse the full program and book tickets online.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with the Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival.