Liv Ullmann at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck
© Vidar Nordli-Mathisen
Lübeck, October 25, 2023. Norwegian actor and director Liv Ullmann, who has been honorary president of the festival for more than 40 years, will attend next month’s 65th Nordic Film Days Lübeck.
This year’s line-up includes three films in which she was involved. The Competition section will see the European premiere of Dheeraj Akolkar’s documentary portrait “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled”. The film delves into Ullmann’s life, taking the audience to film sets in Norway and Hollywood, stages in London and on Broadway, to the Faroe Islands, the Oscars, and a film premiere with Henry Kissinger at her side. Dheeraj Akolkar draws on a wealth of archive material and interviews with prominent colleagues such as Cate Blanchett, Jeremy Irons, and John Lithgow, texts from Ullman’s books and conversations with the actor to paint a portrait of an extraordinary artist.
The Retrospective section is screening “The Wayward Girl” (Norway, 1959) directed by Edith Carlmar, featuring Ullmann in her first leading role as a 17-year-old who falls into delinquency.
And finally, the Documentary section is showing Margreth Olin’s “Songs of Earth”, executive produced by Ullmann and Wim Wenders.
While in Lübeck, Liv Ullmann will do Q&A after the screenings of “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled” on Friday and Saturday evening, and the showing of “The Wayward Girl” on Sunday morning. At the gala Prize Night, she will present the award for Best Feature Film Debut, endowed by the Friends of the Nordic Film Days Lübeck.
Liv Ullmann’s outstanding career has spanned more than 66 years to date. Under Ingmar Bergmann’s direction, she appeared in “Persona”, “Scenes from a Marriage”, and “Cries and Whispers”, but her creative achievements go far beyond that collaboration. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the Swedish epic “The Emigrants” (1971). In 1992, Ullmann made her directorial debut with “Sofie”, which garnered a host of honours. She followed that success in 1995 with “Kristin Lavransdatter” based on Sigrid Undset`s book and 1996 with “Private Confessions” from a script by Ingmar Bergman. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. “Faithless” (2000), again from a script by Ingmar Bergman, was shown in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Her 2014 Strindberg adaptation, “Miss Julie”, with Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell, saw its German debut at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck after its world premiere in Toronto, but before it went into general release in Germany in January 2015.
Even as early as 1998, the state of Schleswig-Holstein awarded Ullmann an honorary professorship “in recognition and appreciation of her outstanding service in promoting the Nordic Film Days Lübeck as a cultural bridge in the Baltic region”. She received the European Film Prize in 2004 for European Achievement in World Cinema. After two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress 1971 and 1977, Liv Ullmann received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2022.
“Liv Ullmann has been affiliated with the festival for decades. We are very pleased that she will once again be actively taking part with her latest films and an early work showing in the Retrospective”, said festival directors Susanne Kasimir and Thomas Hailer.
To commemorate her services, Liv Ullmann will be entered into Lübeck’s “Golden Book” of honoured guests.
We would like to thank our partners Finnlines, CineStar, STAWAG, the Lübeck Public Utilities authority, Teschke & Collegen, Moinsener, skanbo, Grundstücksgesellschaft TRAVE, Convotis, avt plus Mediaservice, SG Medientechnik, and the meda partners NDR and the Lübecker Nachrichten newspaper their support.
Press contact Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Dr. Kathrin Steinbrenner & Kristian Müller,
SteinbrennerMüller Kommunikation
E-mail: presse@nordische-filmtage.de
Tel: +49 (0)30 4737 2192
