Stockholm to present 173 films starting with Tinker Tailor

Unspooling its 22nd edition between November 9-20, the Stockholm International Film Festival will this year screen 173 films from 44 countries, launched by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s international spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in a gala selection that programme manager George Ivanov described as ”our most extensive ever, of local world premieres and Nordic premieres of high-profile titles.”

Announced earlier today at a press conference in Stockholm, the line-up for the ten festival sections also includes galas for UK director Andrea Arnold’s new Emily Brontë interpretation, Wuthering Heights, and Spanish director Pedro Almódovar’s The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito).

“Our selection is loaded with strong titles – Stockholm is indeed the meeting point for next generation’s filmmakers – and we are happy to present more woman directors than ever,” said festival director Git Scheynius. 26% of the films in the festival catalogue have female directors, 43% also a female producer.

22 international features will compete for the Stockholm grand prix – the Bronze Horse – with UK entries from, among others, Arnold, Steve McQueen (Shame), Paddy Considine (Tyrannosaur) and Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus), plus Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and Andrew Okpeaha Maclean’s On the Ice from the US.

Nordic contenders include Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31 and Sweden directors Ruben Östlund’s Play and Levan Akin’s Certain People. The Spotlight is directed at Love Stories, adding traditional sidebars Open and Twilight Zones, focuses on US indies, Asia, South America, and a Sidney Lumet series.

The Documania section is spearheaded by US director Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, operating between UK director Philip Cox’s The Bengali Detective, about an Indian private investigaro, Irish director Ian Palmer’s Knuckle, on Irish Traveller bare-knuckle fighting, Italian director Stefano Savona’s Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Politician, about the Egypt uprising.

Credited with Amores Perros, 21 Grams and – most recently – last year’s Biutiful, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzäles Iñárritu will receive the 2011 Stockholm Visionary Award. French actress Isabelle Huppert will pick up her Stockholm Life Achievement Award at the screening of her new film, French director Anne Fontaine’s My Worst Nightmare (Mon pire cauchemar).