Hurtigruten Nordic Film Festival 2026 at Palace Cinemas

Winter and Nordic cinema are a match made in heaven. The 2026 Hurtigruten Nordic Festival is once again bringing the region’s most acclaimed new films, plus a handful of classics, to Australian screens throughout July and August. The program spans Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, balancing major award-winners and emerging voices alongside restored classics that continue to shape world cinema.

Opening this year’s festival is Árru, the debut from Sámi director Elle Sofe Sara, following a Sámi (an Indigenous nomadic people from Scandinavia) family whose traditional reindeer-herding life is threatened by a proposed mining development, set against the breathtaking landscapes of Sápmi in Northern Scandinavia. Festival centrepiece Fjord arrives fresh from taking out the Palme d’Or at Cannes, with Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan starring as a Romanian Norwegian couple whose move to a remote village draws the scrutiny of their new community.

Elsewhere, catch Hlynur Pálmason’s bittersweet family portrait The Love That Remains and Reinsve’s second festival appearance in Butterfly, which continues the actor’s remarkable run of emotionally layered performances. Danish stars Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas reunite in crime comedy The Last Viking, while Finland contributes everything from coming-of-age stories to absurd political satire in The Kidnapping of a President.

Cinephiles will enjoy a 60th anniversary screening of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona alongside a retrospective celebrating Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg. The festival revisits Widerberg’s work through a new documentary, Being Bo Widerberg, and screenings of several defining features including Ådalen 31, Raven’s End and his 1967 masterpiece Elvira Madigan.

Running nationally at Palace, Palace Nova and Luna Palace cinemas, the festival is your only chance to catch many of these films on the big screen before they disappear from Australian cinemas altogether. Dates vary by city.

Browse the full program and book tickets online.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Palace Cinemas.