SEA Nordic Film Festival @ Majestic Bay Theatre

The National Nordic Museum is ready for the silver screen, thanks to the newly rebranded SEA Nordic Film Festival, running April 21st – 23rd. Highlighting contemporary Nordic cinema, the festival’s opening night film is the bone-chilling sociopolitical thriller Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s follow-up to 2018’s Oscar-nominated fairy tale Border.

And that’s just the beginning of the three-day festival’s program. “We want to bring to light important stories that are both timely and timeless,” says Leslie Anne Anderson, the museum’s Director of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programs. “For example, this year’s lineup presents films such as the documentary Nelly & Nadine, which tells the love story of two women imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp, and Prejudice & Pride: Swedish Film Queer, which traces the history of LGBTQ cinema in Sweden. We also want to ensure that there is greater representation of women filmmakers in the festival’s lineup of features, documentaries, and shorts.”

This year also comes with a new location for the festivities: the lovely and independently owned Majestic Bay Theatre just a couple blocks down Market. “We are thrilled to partner with the National Nordic Museum!” says Aaron Alhadeff, president of the Majestic Bay. “Building community was a primary area of emphasis when my family opened the Majestic Bay in 2000 …”

Other selections include BLUSH, an out-of-this-world stop-motion animated film, Finland’s activism-focused drama Power of the People, and Sweden’s sweet coming-of-age romance So Damn Easy Going.

If you can’t make it in person, films will also be offered for home viewing, but for those able to, “we are looking forward to a lively Ballard,” Anderson says, “filled with film enthusiasts and museumgoers, who come together to celebrate Nordic film.”