14/01/2025 - Levan Akin has scored another Best Film win, beating out the audience favourite, Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson’s The Last Journey

The winners of the 2025 Guldbagge Awards (© Annika Berglund/Swedish Film Institute)

Crossing [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Levan Akin
film profile] is the story of a retired history teacher and a hapless teenager in a backwater Georgian town, who form an unlikely alliance and go off to Istanbul in search of a wayward (trans) niece, very probably caught in the web of prostitution. The film, written and directed by Levan Akin, already made a mark when it opened the 2024 Panorama section and went straight on to win the Teddy Award at the 74th Berlinale. It has since been sold to over 50 territories and performed handsomely on the MUBI streaming platform. On Monday night at the national Swedish film awards ceremony, it scored Best Film, Best Director and, in all, four Guldbagge (“Golden Beetle”) Awards, the same total as Akin’s previous outing five years ago, the lauded and equally well-performing And Then We Danced [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Levan Akin
interview: Levan Gelbakhiani
film profile].

Akin’s classically crafted arthouse piece thus managed to beat out what’s become the Swedish box-office wonder of 2024, The Last Journey [+see also:
film review
film profile], which at the time of writing boasted 400,000 domestic visitors in a territory still recovering from the pandemic and struggling to lure back audiences. Here, too, we find a retired teacher in the lead role, the quietly charming Lars Hammar, father of television comedian Filip Hammar, who, together with his co-directing partner Fredrik Wikingsson, decides to take Pappy for one last, great trip to his beloved France, with some equally hilarious and moving outcomes along the way. The film won the Best Documentary Award and, wholly unsurprisingly, the Audience Award.

Other favoured works included Ernst De Geer’s Göteborg- and Karlovy Vary-playing The Hypnosis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Ernst De Geer
film profile], a highly Rubenesque (as in Östlund, not the Flemish Baroque painter) exercise in awkward social studies, which picked up the Best Screenplay Award and the two male acting gongs. Frida Kempff’s Toronto-entered The Swedish Torpedo [+see also:
film review
interview: Frida Kempff
film profile], a 1930s-set biopic on long-distance swimming legend Sally Bauer, also fared well, with four solid design and technical accolades to its credit.

The 2025 Guldbagge ceremony marked the 60th anniversary of the event, highlighted by the presence of a number of previous winners, a special royal address by HRH Prince Daniel and, not least, a Lifetime Achievement Award for director Lasse Hallström, celebrating seven decades in the business and still running. Despite ignoring Ingmar Bergman’s warning about spending too much time at the Hollywood “meat factory” (where he’s had some notable success), the director of national gems like ABBA: The Movie and My Life as a Dog still retains the deep affection of the Swedish audience and industry alike.

Best Film
Crossing [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Levan Akin
film profile] – Levan Akin (Sweden/Denmark/France/Turkey/Georgia)

Best Director
Levan Akin – Crossing

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Bianca Kronlöf – Heartbeat (Sweden)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Herbert Nordrum – The Hypnosis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Ernst De Geer
film profile] (Sweden/Norway)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Eva Melander – Trouble (Sweden)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
David Fukamachi Regnfors – The Hypnosis

Best Screenplay
Ernst De Geer, Mads Stegger – The Hypnosis

Best Cinematography
Lisabi Fridell – Crossing

Best Editing
Orvar Anklew, Kalle Lindberg – Avicii – I'm Tim (Sweden/USA)

Best Costumes
Eugene Tamberg – The Swedish Torpedo [+see also:
film review
interview: Frida Kempff
film profile] (Sweden)

Best Sound/Sound Design
Anne Gry Friis Kristensen, Sigrid DPA Jensen – Crossing

Best Make-up
Kaire Hendrikson – The Swedish Torpedo

Best Original Score
Lisa Montan - JerryMaya's Detective Agency – The Lost Mascot (Sweden)

Best Set Design
Elle Furudahl – The Swedish Torpedo

Best Visual Effects
Sami Haartemo, Mikko Löppönen, Teemu Pitkänen, Ville Pätsi, Jacob Danell – The Swedish Torpedo

Best Documentary Film
The Last Journey [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Filip Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson (Sweden)

Best Short Film
The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp – Dennis Harvey (Sweden)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Lasse Hallström

The Gullspira (for achievements in children’s film)
Johanna Bergenstråhle

The Guldpiga (for emerging talents)
Loran Batti, director of G - 21 Scenes from Gottsunda (Sweden/Denmark)

The Guldbagge Audience Award
The Last Journey - Filip Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson