Sweden’s Academy Award submission

... a life and death rollercoaster ride through the modern day soccer industry. 

  • Erik Enge in Tigers. Photo: Marek Wieser

  • Not our favorite for the Oscars this year but a great film: Ronnie Sandahl’s film "Tigers" was selected as Sweden’s submission for an Academy Award in the Best International Feature Film category.
    Tigers is a life and death rollercoaster ride through the modern day football industry. With a unique perspective on the world of professional sports, Sandahl tells the true story of 16-year-old football prodigy Martin Bengtsson (played by Erik Enge). A coming-of-age drama about a young man’s burning obsession in a world where everything, and everyone, has a price tag.
    Tigers was voted Best Film in the Flash Forward section at Busan International Film Festival last year. It picked up awards for Best Emerging International Actor (Erik Enge) and Best Emerging Italian Actor (Antonio Bannò) at Alice nella città, the independent and parallell section dedicated to films for children and youth, at the Rome International Film Festival. It also won the Youth Jury Award at the 2020 Nordic Film Days in Lübeck, and at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival Tigers won the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film and Enge picked up the Best Acting award.

  • 'Making films is a team sport'
    "I could not be more happy, proud or grateful. This is a great honor,” says writer-director Ronnie Sandahl. "Making films is a team sport and we are many who have shared the dream of this film, many who have worked hard. We hope the nomination itself will help the film reach even more people, both on our home turf and abroad. But as an incurably competitive person, I must admit that of course I also hope this is just the beginning. We want to win the whole goddamn thing."
    ”Many thanks to the jury. It is an honor to represent Swedish film and compete for a place among the most prominent films of 2021. Tigers is an important film that makes a difference in a world where more and more people are living with a mental illness," says the film's producer Piodor Gustafsson.
    ”In Tigers, we get to see the flip side of a much admired world. A world that oozes fame and success and carries the hopes and dreams of millions of people around the world. Ronnie Sandahl's film shows us the reality of a talented young boy who is thrown into a life of jealousy and almost inhuman demands, and it really gives you perspective,” says Petter Mattsson, head of the International Department at the Swedish Film Institute and chairman of the Swedish Oscar Committee.

  • Official teaser: Tigrar