A heartfelt thank you to Michele Diomà, Editor-in-Chief of Wild Filmmakers, and his international team.
Warmest regards,
“My Plans For 2026” (EXCLUSIVE) Interview with Lena Mattsson
2025 November 11
– What are your expectations for 2026?
The year 2026 will, I hope, unfold as one of profound artistic creativity. I remain deeply grateful that several of my films—among them Not Without Gloves, The Rorschach Test, In the Eye of the Beholder with Bo Cavefors, Truth Is in the Eye of the Beholder, and The Aesthetics of Failure—have garnered international acclaim and prestigious awards in recent years. Having devoted many years to the medium of film and moving image, I continually strive to expand the boundaries of what it may encompass. As a filmmaker, my foremost mission is to open the door to the unknown—that which we may resist seeing, that which has hitherto eluded representation in moving image—while remaining steadfastly authentic and drawing narratives from the depths of my inner world. In this context, film becomes a visual embodiment, a rhythm, a poetry, intended to evoke reflection in the beholder’s eye. Is it not, ultimately, a matter of daring to see? Of questioning what we behold? Of perpetually scrutinising the world with a critical gaze? With surgical precision, I depict life’s varied scenes, painting both darkness and light from its palette. To perceive the light, one must embrace the darkness. I can assure you that, on a deeply personal level, I have gazed into the abyss in manifold ways throughout my life. As recently as this past autumn, I teetered on the brink of dissolution, nearly drifting into the misty quays wrought by severe asthma and pulmonary effusion—or, to speak plainly, the precipice of unconsciousness—which has lent me a renewed perspective on existence. I may now inscribe a new diagnosis upon my extensive medical curriculum vitae: laryngospasm. Yet, like a cat with nine lives, I was saved by the consummate expertise of the intensive care team and emergency staff at Malmö University Hospital. For this, I am profoundly thankful. The year 2026 represents an opportunity to secure the time I require for unfettered creative exploration and experimentation with sound and image, in pursuit of the optimal expression of my narratives, wherein I frequently interweave the lived and the experiential. Above all, I must endeavour to obtain the economic resources necessary to devote myself entirely to the creation of innovative films that push boundaries and, artistically, open the door to the unknown and to the magical realm we term cinema. I am presently immersed in an intensely creative phase, sketching new artistic projects. In 2026, I aspire to develop screenplays and synopses, to direct, shoot, lay sound, edit, and complete several new film concepts for presentation in cinemas, at international film festivals, in art institutions, galleries, and museums. Concurrently, I am writing scripts and sketches for large-scale works in the public realm. For me, there are no limits to how or where moving images may be exhibited; each work is equally significant and shaped in relation to its intended site or platform. This demands considerable effort from myself and my exceptional artistic collaborators. I have the privilege of working with the versatile Conny C-A Malmqvist, who, as ever, composes the evocative music for my films. Malmqvist is a composer, musician, art critic, and philosopher who has, inter alia, created scores for me, and for other filmmakers. Recently, we have won awards for the film The Rorschach Test, in which the gifted young artist Ebba Melber plays the lead role. A new, norm-critical, thought-provoking collaboration among the three of us may emerge in the near future. Keep your eyes open. I am feverishly sketching a new project with the working title In the Artist’s Eye.
– What projects are you currently working on?
In the Artist’s Eye is the title of a new film project that demands both financial resources and a visionary producer. Originally trained as a classical visual artist, I began my career as a painter; I still regard myself as a painter, albeit one who now employs moving image and projection to render reality. I work consistently from a norm-critical perspective; this foundational stance is decisive for everything I create. I also serve as a curator of contemporary art, wherein I highlight overlooked gems of artistic practice that have been effaced from art-historical memory. In In the Artist’s Eye, the viewer is invited to confront and experience that which we would prefer to avert our gaze from. We are taken on a journey that shakes and touches us to the core. My profound engagement with our shared contemporaneity and my passion for art, music, literature, and film history permeate all my works. I strive to produce pieces that penetrate beneath the surface, illuminating both the present and the past through poetic, metaphorical, and visual means. Therein, I explore and elucidate our capacity for perception, interweaving past and present. I seek to open the door to the spiritual and the inner chambers of our consciousness. This is my current focus. The journey itself constitutes both path and destination: to continually challenge myself and to discover new modes of expression. To render visible the singular narratives of diverse individuals who enrich my films is the central vocation of my life—to touch, to make visible the unseen, and to open the door to norm-critique and reflection is the essence of my artistic practice.
– What would you ask event organizers in the film industry to do in order to support the creativity of highly talented independent artists like yourself?
In a world marked by violence, polarisation, and superficiality, I urge greater openness to non-linear visual storytelling and a bolder commitment to experimental cinema. Film must be recognised as art rather than merely as entertainment. It should be self-evident to provide economic and institutional support to filmmakers who take risks, thereby enabling both younger and older artists to exercise creativity unbound by celebrity cults, red carpets, market demands, or blockbuster conventions. For a devoted passionate film lover cineaste, and filmmaker such as myself, the art of cinema possesses a singular capacity to engage both the audience and the individual on a profound plane. Few art forms can address all our senses as cinema does. Harness this unique medium, take courage, and forge new paths—what might they look like? I implore event organisers to broaden their horizons and perspectives, to dare establish contact and to open new avenues to the unknown. Only together can we transform cinema and its history. This requires innovative forces that cherish our cinematic cultural heritage while creating fresh opportunities for renewal in film and the cultural sector. In so doing, I refer not primarily to myself but to all who labour in film, art, and culture.
– What vision or desire currently guides your artistic choices?
My artistic choices are perpetually governed by the imperative to illuminate our shared human vulnerability and to honour the courage required to forge new paths when we stumble from life’s precarious metaphorical ladder. To lay bare the fissures in the fabric of reality. To discern beauty in the imperfect. This is exemplified in my most recent internationally acclaimed film, The Aesthetics of Failure—a short, experimental, and deeply poetic work in which I explore universal human reflections on failure. Rendered in black and white, the film celebrates the quiet courage inherent in embracing the beauty of the imperfect. Long live free cinema—uncensored, bridge-building, and generative of spaces for intellectual discourse.
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