Tony Forsberg

Tony Forsberg, born Tonny Olof Forsberg in Stockholm on 13 August 1933, was a Swedish cinematographer whose camera work spanned almost five decades of Nordic film and television. He is best remembered for photographing Sunday's Children (Söndagsbarn, 1992), the Daniel Bergman film written by Ingmar Bergman, which won him the Guldbagge Award for Best Cinematography at the 28th Guldbagge Awards in Stockholm on 1 March 1993.

Forsberg learned his craft at Europa Film, the Stockholm area studio, where he worked as a cinematographer from 1954 to 1965. In those years he shot genre and mainstream features for the studio, including Arne Mattsson's Lovely Is the Summer Night (Ljuvlig är sommarnatten, 1961) and Mattsson's comedy Ticket to Paradise (1962). In 1963 he photographed A Sunday in September (En söndag i september), the debut feature of Finnish director Jörn Donner, starring Harriet Andersson and Thommy Berggren.

As a freelancer from the late 1960s onward, Forsberg worked across a wide range of films, from popular Danish and Swedish comedies such as Me and You (Mej och dej, 1969) to 1970s sex comedies and exploitation titles, including Dagmar's Hot Pants, Inc. (1971), Flossie (1974) and What the Swedish Butler Saw (1975). He also worked under the pseudonym Anthon Berg, a subject he discussed in a 2014 stage interview.

His later career brought him into the circle of Sweden's leading auteurs. He shot Gunnel Lindblom's Summer Paradise (Paradistorg, 1977) and Sally and Freedom (Sally och friheten, 1981). In 1977 Hasse Alfredson and Tage Danielsson chose him as director of photography for The Adventures of Picasso (Picassos äventyr, 1978), with filming starting in August 1977 in Skåne. Fellow cinematographer Roland Sterner, who worked as his B camera operator, later recalled the shoot in detail.

Forsberg also became the cameraman for Icelandic director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's Viking saga When the Raven Flies (Korpen flyger, 1984), and he worked on Gunnlaugsson's The White Viking project in the early 1990s. After Sunday's Children he photographed the Martin Beck film Murder at the Savoy (1993), and in 1997 he shared cinematography credit with Irene Wiklund on Ingmar Bergman's television film In the Presence of a Clown (Larmar och gör sig till). His final credits included Danish work such as the television series Strisser på Samsø and the film Klinkevals (1999), and Swedish and Danish filmographies list him active until about 2002.

In 2014 he appeared at an annual film convention at Rockland in Sala, where he was interviewed on stage by Ronny about his collaborations with directors including Jörn Donner, Mac Ahlberg and Torgny Wickman, his pseudonym, and his work connected with U2's New Year's Day.

Tony Forsberg died on 11 October 2026 at the age of 93. Swedish Wikipedia records his death in Älvsjö, Stockholm. His family announced his death in Dagens Nyheter, writing that their beloved Tony had left them in great sorrow and longing. The notice was signed by Anton, Markus and Sanna, together with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The cause of death has not been made public. His funeral will take place at Sandsborgs kapell in Stockholm on Friday 13 November 2026.