Introduction
Ebba Johanna Bergman Lindkvist, also Lindqvist, (1882–1942) was a Swedish actress and film director. In 1910 she directed the short drama Värmländingarna which premièred in Sweden on 27 October 1910. As a result, she is considered to be Sweden's first female film director, creating her first film the year before Anna Hofman-Uddgren's Stockholmsfrestelser was premièred on 27 April 1911.
Biography
Born on 10 March 1882 in Stockholm, Ebba Johanna Bergman was the daughter of Gustaf Edvard Bergman and Emma Augusta Charlotta, née Brobeck. The second of four children, she studied song and drama with the opera singer Bertha Tammelin (1836–1915) and the actor Emil Hillberg (1852–1929). She went on to work as an actress in both travelling and municipal theatres. In May 1907, she married Victor Lindkvist with whom she opened a singing and drama school in Malmö in 1910.
In October 1910, Lindkvist's version of Fredrik August Dahlgren's play Värmlänningarna´was released, an earlier version by Carl Engdahl having been premièred in January the same year. She therefore preceded Anna Hofman-Uddgren as Sweden's first female director, even if her film was technically less professional than Hofman-Uddgren's. Lindkvist herself performed in the film.
Suffering from pneumonia, Ebba Lindkvist died on 5 June 1942 at a clinic in Växjö in the south of Sweden. It was not, however, until 2016 that she was recognized as Sweden's first film director. The Ebba Award, presented to a female director, photographer, screenwriter on editor from Skåne is named after her.