The world looks very different right now. So too does this year’s Göteborg Film Festival. Cinemas have been forced to close down. People have been forced to isolate. The 2021 Göteborg Film Festival will be digital, with its audience having access to all the films, premieres and talks via a digital platform. Some participants will also get a real-life experience with the opportunity to watch the films in total seclusion.

The biggest film festival in Scandinavia is creating The Isolated Cinema on the lighthouse island of Pater Noster. Pater Noster is a lonely lighthouse in the North Sea perched at the very edge of the archipelago in one of Sweden’s most barren, windswept locations.  One film enthusiast will be able to enjoy the festival in total isolation on a rock far out at sea – for a week – with film as his or her only companion. There will also be exclusive one-person film screenings at two venues in Göteborg.

The idea, a way to promote the festival in an aptly Covid-compliant way, comes from agency, Stendahls. The campaign also underlines the festival’s 2021 theme, Social Distances, which examines the world that has emerged in the wake of the pandemic, and the role of film in it. The isolated film experiences for single-person audiences at famous sites ensures entirely safe festival screenings and is also an attempt to process how the pandemic has changed people’s relationships with film. On Pater Noster it’s all about the total isolation experienced by so many people the world over this past year and the sensation of being utterly alone in the Scandinavium arena or Draken cinema ties in with the altered relationship people now have to all those places that normally buzz with activity but are now deserted, according to Jonas Holmberg, artistic director at Göteborg Film Festival. The Pater Noster viewer will provide a report about the films and the experience of being alone on an isolated rock in a vast sea each day.

Scandinavium is one of Sweden’s most well-attended arenas, home to the World Ice Hockey Championships and live concerts with artists such as the Rolling Stones and Whitney Houston. During the festival the isolated visitor will sit completely alone in a cinema seat at the centre of the rink while the massive stands gape empty.

The Draken Cinema is the very heart of Göteborg Film Festival and its chosen premiere venue. Every year enthusiastic audiences gather there to enjoy the latest films. This year, each of the gala premieres will be attended by just one viewer. Sitting alone in the theatre, the visitor will get a personal introduction from the filmmakers before the curtains rise and the film begins.

Göteborg Film Festival is looking for someone keen to take on the challenge of spending one week in social isolation on the remote lighthouse island of Pater Noster, a secluded spot out at sea, far away from family, friends and mobile phone. The only company will be the noise of the sea – and the festival films. Everyone is welcome to apply for the spot on Pater Noster via the festival website.

Tickets for the festival’s isolated film screenings at Scandinavium and Draken will be raffled among visitors who register via the festival website. Registration begins on January 4 at https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/en/the-isolated-cinema/. For the single spot on Pater Noster, interviews with selected applicants will take place on an ongoing basis. The chosen one will be announced on January 19 and will be isolated for one week from January 30.

Credits:

Agency: Stendahls
Chief Creative Officer: Martin Cedergren
Art Director: Alexander Skoglund
Copywriter: Eva Råberg
Intern Copywriter: Ruben Widin Dahlström 
Intern Art Director: Daniel Fasth
Account Director: Peter Ohlsson

Production Company: Is This It & Tussilago
Directors: John Boisen & Björn Fävremark
Producers: Robert Danielsson & Theo Gabay
DOP: Fredrik Sellergren
Focus Puller: Hannes Johansson
Drone Operator: Adam Hinsch
VFX Supervisor: Jonas Gramming
VFX Artist: Marcus Holst & Eric Ljunglöf
Storyboard: Jakob Sundström
Soundtrack: BF/C
Sound Design: Andreas Mellkvist

Actress: Julia Forssell
Photographer: Henrik Trygg
Retouching: Studio Mint 

PR: Manifest PR
PR Strategists: Annika Svahn & Johanna Svantesson

Client: Göteborg Film Festival
Head of Marketing: Karl Svedung 
Head of Communications: Andreas Degerhammar
Press Coordinator: Nanna Jamshidi
Project Manager: Anton Romanus
Web Editor: Linda Gester
Production Manager: Erik Toresson Hellqvist
Copywriter: Johanna Wingstrand
Art Director: Jussi Öhrvall