Biography
Born in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, Roy Andersson studied at the Swedish Film Institute, graduating in 1969. One short year later, Andresson finished his first feature film, A Swedish Love Story. The film was a roaring success, receiving four awards at the Berlin International Film Festival as well as winning Best Film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s main film industry award. Riding high on the success of his first film, Andersson directed the crime drama Giliap, which was released in 1975. The film was an unmitigated failure, both critically and financially, on top of which it was wildly overbudget, and suffered lengthy delays in post production. Andersson took a 25-year break from feature film direction after Giliap’s release, focussing his attentions on advertising work.
In 1981 Andersson established his independent film company, Studio 24, for which he directed a number of short films. Amongst these projects was Something has Happened (1987), a short which was made to be played in Swedish schools as a public service announcement about AIDS. However the film was deemed “too dark in its message” and production was cancelled when it was three-quarters finished. It was not officially shown until 1993. In 1991, Andersson released his next short film, World of Glory. Contrary to Andersson’s past experiences, the dark style of World of Glory did not hinder its success: the film won both the Canal Plus Award and the prestigious Press Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Songs from the Second Floor marked Andersson’s return to feature filmmaking: commencing filming in March of 1996, the film was not complete until May 2000. A feature film consisting of 46 short vignettes which explored themes of love, confusion, vulnerability and humanity, it premiered at Cannes and was an international critical success. Winning the Jury Prize at Cannes as well as five Guldbagge Awards (including Best Film and Best Direction), Songs from the Second Floor marked a return to form for Andersson.
The Swedish auteur followed up this success with the equally impressive You, the Living (2007), similar to Songs in style and form, marrying dark comedy with unforgiving deadpan in to create an amusing symphony of the grotesquerie and hopelessness of humanity. It premiered at Cannes in 2007 in the Un Certain Regard section, and has won several top prizes internationally as well as locally.
