A traditional movie theater experience is hard to come by these days, but in Sweden, you can still have a safe (and pretty epic) time at the movies. The Göteborg Film Festival, the largest film festival in Scandinavia, is inviting one cinema enthusiast to spend a week watching movies alone on an isolated lighthouse island in the middle of the North Sea.
Photo: Göteborg Film Festival
Attend This Film Festival on Your Own in a Lighthouse in the Middle of the Ocean
The festival itself is going digital due to the pandemic, but the organizers wanted to give one fan the special lighthouse experience by setting up a contest. If chosen, the winner will be transported by boat to the island of Pater Noster, get set up in the former lighthouse keeper’s house, and spend the week from January 30 to February 6 watching film festival movies.
Jonas Holmberg, the artistic director, told CNN Travel, “We are interested in how the audience’s relationship to films changes under those circumstances, and wanted to explore this relationship by taking it to the extreme — isolating one person on a small rock in the sea for one week with films as the only company.”
The lighthouse has been on the island since 1868, and a lighthouse keeper lived on the island until the 1960s when the beacon became automated.
According to Holberg, “The stay at the island will be perfectly safe. The person will have a soft bed and nice food. This is not about surviving.”
To apply, just send an email to paternoster@goteborgfilmfestival.se by January 17 explaining who you are and why you deserve to spend the week on an island watching movies. They’re looking for a true cinema buff who’s up for watching the complete lineup of 60 festival movies. A small group of finalists will be interviewed before a selection is ultimately made. The chosen person would be asked to record daily video diaries about their experience.
More application information can be found online. 