Göteborg Film Festival Turns Truth Into Currency

As truth becomes increasingly negotiable in public discourse, Göteborg Film Festival has tested what honesty is actually worth. With the live experiment ‘Truth Tickets’, visitors can earn festival tickets by passing a real lie detector test.

Inside a purpose-built interrogation room, members of the public undergo a polygraph examination conducted by a specialist. Those who tell the truth under pressure are rewarded with a ‘Truth Ticket’ – paid for not with money, but with honesty.

“Truth has become strangely negotiable in our time. By turning truth into a currency, we assign it a tangible value that is rarely emphasised. We want to create an experiment where lying has consequences,” said Pia Lundberg, artistic director of Göteborg Film Festival.

To introduce the festival and its 2026 theme Focus: Truth, Göteborg Film Festival has produced a promotional film starring Alexander Karim and David Dencik, two of Scandinavia’s most internationally renowned actors, directed by Mats Udd. The film explores the value of truth itself, establishing a conceptual framework that will be tested in the live experiment ‘Truth Tickets’.

“This year’s theme immediately stood out as something that could be explored beyond the screen. It raises fundamental questions about the value of truth, which led us to ask whether honesty could be treated as something concrete – even priced. ‘Truth Tickets’ turns that question into a real-world experiment,” said Mikael Andersson, copywriter at BBDO Nordics.

‘Truth Tickets’ was developed in collaboration with creative agency BBDO Nordics. Göteborg Film Festival has a long-standing practice of using bold, live experiences as part of its artistic communication. Previous initiatives include Isolated Cinema, where participants watched films alone on a remote lighthouse island. With ‘Truth Tickets’, this approach is applied to examine the value of truth through a tangible public experience.