Jonas Holmberg is succeeding Marit Kapla as the new artistic director at the Göteborg International Film Festival. Holmberg has been the festival’s international program director and the deputy artistic director since 2012. He is taking over as director while Kapla assumes responsibility for the festival’s new digital film channel.
“The festival means a lot to very many people, so I’m taking on this assignment with great humility. Under Marit Kapla’s guidance, the festival has found a record-breaking audience and also established itself as an internationally important festival. I would like to continue strengthening the festival’s position as the most important film festival in the Nordic countries,” Holmberg says.
Holmberg studied film and is a film critic. He is one of the founders of the quarterly film magazine FLM, where he was the head editor from 2007 to 2012. He is also a regular contributor to culture section of the daily newspaper Expressen.
“Jonas Holmberg has exactly what it takes to carry the program work into a new era and to consolidate the festival’s task of showing important films to a broader audience. At the same time we’re happy to keep Marit Kapla’s experience and expertise in our expanded operations,” says Sven-Olof Bodenfors, chairman of the Göteborg International Film Festival.
Kapla has worked as the festival’s artistic director since 2007 and now she’ll begin working on the festival’s digital film channel, which was first launched as recently last fall. The channel will provide Sweden with year-round access to the festival’s global film selection, along with a range of editorial material. The development of a digital film channel is a development in line with the film festival’s task: to create the opportunity for valuable film from across the globe to reach its audience.
“After seven years as the artistic director it felt like the perfect time to take this step. Jonas Holmberg is an exceptionally knowledgeable, creative and enthusiastic person with a lot of integrity. He has the qualities and the resources that the film festival needs,” Kapla says.