The Square – Sweden’s 2017 Oscars Submission

’I had a terrible experience last time. Watch the YouTube clip Swedish director freaks out when he misses out on Oscar nomination and you’ll see what I mean. I really hope it’s less painful this time round,’ Ruben Östlund admits.

Earlier this year, The Square was awarded one of the film world’s most prestigious prizes – the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film now has the chance to be nominated in the category Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony, held on 4 March 2018. This coming January, the Oscars committee will announce which films have been selected to compete.

The Square has also been chosen to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in the section Special Presentations, a section dedicated to high-profile feature films. 

The Square is a poignant satirical drama reflecting our times – a film on the sense of community, moral courage and the affluent person’s need for egocentricity in an increasingly uncertain world.

Ruben Östlund wrote The Square’s script and sat in the director’s seat. The cast features Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Christopher Læssø, Marina Schiptjenko and Annica Liljeblad, with Fredrik Wenzel as the film’s cinematographer. As in Force Majeure, Josefin Åsberg was the set director on The Square, and was awarded the Vulcan Award for the Technical Artist at this year’s Cannes for her work on the film.

The Square follows Ruben Östlund’s record award-winning Force Majeure, which took home six Swedish Guldbagge Awards and won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Force Majeure was also nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language category.

The Square premieres in Swedish cinemas nationwide on 25 August, with Swedish distribution through TriArt Film. The film was produced by Erik Hemmendorff, Plattform Produktion, Philippe Bober, Coproduction Office - co-produced with Film i Väst, SVT, Imperative Entertainment, Essential Films, Parisienne de Production, Coproduction Office ApS, ZDF/Arte and Arte France Cinéma, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Eurimages, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg the Danish Film Institute and, Alamode FilmVerleih, TriArt Film, DR. The film received funding from the Swedish Film Institute’s former feature-film commissioner, Magdalena Jangard.

The international sales agent is Coproduction Office.

The Swedish distributor is Triart, releasing on August 25th
The US distributor is Magnolia Pictures, releasing on October 27th
The French distributor is Bac Films, releasing on October 18th
The German distributor is Alamode, releasing on October 19th
The UK distributor is Curzon, releasing early 2018

A selection of press quotes:

‘What a warm, smart, splendidly humane film this is.’ The Guardian

‘An original, visceral, uncomfortable and essential viewing experience.’ ScreenDaily

‘What’s perhaps most impressive about Östlund’s evolving style as a filmmaker and social commentator is his compulsion to enrich every scene he creates with a multitude of tones and nuances across the serio-comic spectrum.’ The Hollywood Reporter

Read about prior Swedish Oscars submissions here>>