The 90-year-old actor, who starred in films like "The Seventh Seal" (1957), "Hannah and her Sisters" (1985) and "Star wars: the force awakens" (2015) is awarded the Stockholm lifetime achievement award.

- He is one of the world's leading actors, with a huge presence and who can play in all genres. When we started the festival he wrote a letter asking if he could contribute in any way. It was very surprising, and fantastic.

Since then, Max von Sydow has been a member of the party's honor jury. However, he has never been physically present.

- But he has actually paid the membership fee for at least 15 years, and when we created the Bronskort he also bought it and made some extra money. Now we have to accept that he is still 90 years old and still busy. We have to celebrate him a little ourselves.

This year's focus country is France, 25 French films are in the program, including Céline Sciamma's "Portrait of a Woman on Fire", which was widely mentioned in Cannes last spring. The director visits the festival and is also awarded the Stockholm Visionary award.

Focus on France

- It feels very fun to celebrate our 30th anniversary with our most equal festival program to date and to continue to highlight talents from all over the world, says Git Scheynius.

Stockholm Achievement award goes to the Iranian actor and director Payman Maadi ("Nader and Simin - a separation"), who visits the festival with the action packed police thriller "Just 6.5". The film is also part of the Spotlight theme of Mafia: Organized Crime.

- The prime minister has said that we must force back the violence. The films we show are about the lives of criminals and how violence works, so I encourage our politicians to come and see them. Löfven and all the others are warmly welcomed, says Git Scheynius.

Opening film, as previously reported, will be Noah Baumbach's acclaimed divorce drama "A marriage story" starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in the lead roles. As a closing film, Taika Waititis's Nazi satir "Jojo Rabbit" is shown.

Stockholm Film Festival takes place November 6-17.