Alicia Vikander Film Lab Launched

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Mon, 12/06/2021 - 11:42 -- Nick Dager

To inspire youths into a future in the film industry, Alicia Vikander and the Göteborg Film Festival are launching the Alicia Vikander Film Lab – an educational film program that seeks to give young people the tools to express themselves through filmmaking, awaken cinematic dreams and increase diversity in the film industry. Photo by Peter Claesson.To inspire youths into a future in the film industry, Alicia Vikander and the Göteborg Film Festival are launching the Alicia Vikander Film Lab – an educational film program that seeks to give young people the tools to express themselves through filmmaking, awaken cinematic dreams and increase diversity in the film industry.

Last week, Vikander was appointed an honorary fellow by the Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture. During the award ceremony at Gothenburg Concert Hall she announced that the prize money will be donated to the Alicia Vikander Film Lab, and that she will also add a private donation to the project.

"I am so honored to receive the Stena Foundation fellowship. Having the chance to collaborate with Göteborg Film Festival on the Film Lab, to inspire young people and create opportunity for them to explore the world of film is something I am hugely excited about," Vikander said.

Vikander has been a part of designing the project and each year she will join selected workshops with the students. The purpose of the project is to get young people to open their eyes to the world of filmmaking and to discover that they can tell stories and make a change through this artform. Alicia Vikander Film Lab also seeks to awaken the students’ dreams, regardless of who they are or where they come from.

"The passion Alicia Vikander shows for young people's opportunity to access the cinematic expression is extremely inspiring,” said Mirja Wester, CEO of Göteborg Film Festival. It will be fantastic to develop the film festival's film educational work in collaboration with her and the Stena Foundation. And who better to inspire young students that there is no limit to how far you can go than Alicia."

"We are very happy about Alicia Vikander´s initiative and Göteborg Film Festival´s dedication to the project,” said Madeleine Olsson Eriksson, chairman of the Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture. “We want to give children and young people access to the film as a medium and a way of expressing themself. At the same time, we want to promote the growth and development of young people and we believe that the project can contribute to that.”

Alicia Vikander Film Lab will take place in different high schools around Gothenburg and film workshops will be led by Göteborg Film Festival’s film teachers. Each year, three to four new schools from different areas in the city will join the project. The participating schools in 2022 are Kannebäcksskolan, Nordhemsskolan and Skälltorpsskolan, the latter one being the school that Alicia Vikander herself went to during her school years. During the workshops the students will make their own movies, which will premiere at a gala during Göteborg Film Festival. The project will also educate teachers to use the camera as a tool in their pedagogy.

The project will initially run over the span of three years, starting in January 2022, and is a collaboration between Alicia Vikander, Göteborg Film Festival and the Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.