Television’s Presence in the Careers of Guldbagge-Awarded Film Directors

 

Anders Marklund

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In this paper I aim to outline Swedish film directors’ work within television from the 1950s until today. This will range from Ingmar Bergman’s television play Mr. Sleeman Is Coming (Herr Sleeman kommer), made for Sveriges Radio in 1957, to Lukas Moodysson’s mini-series Gösta, made for HBO Nordic in 2019, thus ranging from the era of public service monopoly to today’s media landscape with a number of competing commercial channels where international streaming services play an increasingly important role.

 

The paper will focus on a select number of, more or less, prestigious film directors, namely those that have been awarded with the Swedish Film Institute’s Guldbagge Award in the category of best director (since 1963, the first year of the award). This selection is partial, but will still include some 50 directors and their work within television, sufficient to offer a first survey of the interactions between film and television on the level of film directors as they move back and forth (or not) between film and television.

 

The study will account for broad trends in the directors’ careers and television work, against a general outline of the film and television industries’ developments – initially along parallel or even competing paths, later in closer, often symbiotic, relationships.

 

Anders Marklund is a senior lecturer in film studies at Lund University, Sweden. His research includes work on contemporary popular European cinema as well as aspects of Nordic film history.