All-Star Cast Announced for Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Upcoming Animated Short Film

“Working with such a remarkable group of actors — each contributing their own tone and humanity — has made The Rose a truly special project,” says director Niki Lindroth von Bahr.

The Rose is a story about death, set in the sprawling world of a major airport.
A plane has lost contact with the control tower, where the staff are too absorbed in a reality show to notice. A barista at an expensive smoothie bar loses their mind, while a mysterious figure moves quietly in the periphery — soon ready to collect us all.

Visually striking and darkly humorous, the film reflects on modern life’s distractions and existential fragility, told in Lindroth von Bahr’s signature handcrafted stop-motion style.

Niki Lindroth von Bahr is an artist and filmmaker specializing in stop-motion animation.
Her award-winning films The Burden (2017), Bath House (2014), Tord and Tord (2010) and Something to Remember (2019) have been screened and celebrated at major film festivals including Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, and Sundance. The Burden received over 80 international awards, including Le Cristal for Best Short Film at Annecy, Best International Short at Toronto, and the Swedish Guldbagge Award for Best Short Film in 2018. In 2023, Lindroth von Bahr directed an episode of the Netflix anthology The House, nominated for a BAFTA for Best Single Drama. 

Malade AB is founded in 2009 by Kalle Wettre and Anders Jedenfors, and joined by Niki Lindroth von Bahr in 2014, and is a Stockholm-based collective production company dedicated to artistic collaboration and boundary-crossing storytelling. Working across documentary, stop motion, and live action, Malade’s philosophy centers on passion, integrity, and collective creativity — “nothing is impossible as long as collaboration is alive.” Previous works include Tord and Tord, Bath House, The Burden, Something to Remember, and The Musical Spider.

New Europe Film Sales handles international sales, as with Nikki's previous short films – Tord and Tord, Bath House, The Burden, Something to Remember.

The Rose will premiere in 2026.