Oscars:  Sweden Submits Hit Doc ‘The Last Journey’ For Best International Feature Film

Sweden has selected The Last Journey as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.  

The documentary by popular Swedish TV hosts and journalists Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson, known at home as Filip och Fredrik, sees the duo take Hammar’s father Lars on a road trip to France.

Lars has recently retired after 40 years as a French teacher but instead of a “third age” of travel, wine and experiences with his wife, he becomes passive and tired. By making the same road trip that the family used to make when Filip was a child, and staging some of life’s most beautiful moments, they hope to rekindle Lars’ spark.

The doc is produced by Nexiko in co-production with Nordisk Film Distribution, RMV Film and collaboration with SVT.

The work has proven a hit at the Swedish box office this year, drawing more than 400,000 spectators for Nordisk Film since its release in Sweden on March 1, to make it the highest grossing documentary in the country ever.

The Swedish Film Institute announced the decision at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday in the presence of Wikingsson and the producers Lars Beckung and Petra Måhl at Nexiko.

“We are floored, overjoyed and grateful to first and foremost Filip’s parents Lars and Tiina, everyone who worked on the film, and of course everyone who saw the film, At the same time, we are phenomenally aware of what an extremely narrow needle’s eye we must now try to fight our way through,” said Wikingsson.

Beyond this country submission, Sweden has two other directors in the Best International Feature Film category: Tia Kouvo directs Finland’s submission, Family Time, and Magnus von Horn directs Denmark’s submission, The Girl with the Needle. Both films are produced with funding from the Swedish Film Institute.

Sweden has won the Best International Feature Film Oscar four times with The Virgin Spring (1960),Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Fanny and Alexander (1983) Pelle the Conqueror (1988), and been nominated 13 times in the category, last time for Ruben Östlund’s The Square in 2017. Ostlund’s last film Triangle of Sadness was nominated outside of the category in 2023 for best director and screenplay.

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