Hot Nordic Shows and Sustainability to be Flagged at Göteborg TV Confab

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFor such a small and lightly populated region, the Nordics have been delivering an impressive number of critical darlings from a wide range of filmmakers. Nordic features hit a milestone this year, with three Cannes prize-winning films, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s “Lamb,” Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No.

Paparazzi have caught Simon Konecki, 47, for the first time since he and Adele, 33, finalized their divorce nearly 1 year ago. The charity entrepreneur, as seen in photos HERE, was spotted in Beverly Hills, California on Wednesday (Feb. 9). Simon looked much slimmer than he did during his marriage to the “Hello” singer, who also dropped weight after they split. He was dressed super casually in a blue “Waves Not Graves” T-shirt and gray sweatpants, and he also sported a hat and protective blue face mask.

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Camp (The Queen’s Gambit, The Night Of) is the latest addition to the cast of Amazon Studios’ film The Burial, based on the New Yorker article by Jonathan Harr.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentOne of Scandinavia’s leading film distributors, Scanbox Entertainment is changing ownership with a new board including CEO Thor Sigurjonsson. The company was bought back from Scanbox Chairman Joni Sighvatsson. New owners include COO Kim William Beich, commercial director Torben Thorup Jorgensen, and producer Chris Briggs.

Grammys were being pushed back from January until April was met by a deafening chorus of indifference. Last year, the Grammy’s TV audience more than halved, dropping from 18. 7 million in 2020 to just 8.

Annika Pham 2021 was another annus horribilis for cinemagoing in the Nordics, due to on-going and strict Covid restrictions that halved admissions compared to pre-pandemic levels.Released late September/early October when cinemas for once ran at full capacity, “No Time to Die” literally saved the film year, and even ranked No.  1 among all James Bond movies ever released in Denmark. Aside from Sweden, strong homegrown offers such as “Checkered Ninja 2” in Denmark, “Class Reunion 3” in Finland, “Cop Secret” in Iceland, “Three Wishes for Cinderella” in Norway enabled the Nordic nations to secure bullish market shares.In 2021, “No Time to Die” smashed all B.O.

Alissa Simon Film CriticDanish debut feature helmer-writer Tea Lindeburg’s period drama “As In Heaven,” that portrays a fateful summer day and night in 19th century farming society, came away the biggest winner at the 44th Göteborg Film Festival, scoring on Saturday the best Nordic film kudo, this year worth approx. $44,000.Meanwhile, Seidi Haarla of Finland’s Oscar-shortlisted drama, “Compartment No.

Older and wiser! Meghan King revealed that she now sees red flags in her marriage to Jim Edmonds after watching her Real Housewives of Orange County episodes back.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAnders Klarlund’s Nordic noir feature “The Last Client” with “Borgen” star Signe Egholm Olsen has been acquired by international sales and aggregation outfit LevelK. The thriller, produced by Morten Rasmussen (“Held for Ransom,” “White Sands”) at well-established Danish banner Deluca Film AS, revolves around the intense relationship between a psychotherapist and her dangerous new client. The strong cast is headlined by Egholm Olsen and Anton Hjejle (“Liberty”).“The Last Client” was written by Anders Klarlund and Jacob Weinreich, the creative duo known as A.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIcelandic smash hit drama series “Blackport” won on Wednesday the 2022 Nordisk Film & TV Prize, Scandinavia’s top plaudit for drama series writing.The award was announced on site at the end of an intense first day of conference panels at the Göteborg Festival’s TV Drama Vision, with two of the series’ three writers, Gísli Örn Garðarsson and Mikael Torfason on stage to collect the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award, carrying a €20,000 ($22,600) cash prize. They were accompanied by producer Nina Dögg Filippusdóttir.

Super Bowl LVI ad takes the reins on all of our emotions.Titled “A Clydesdale’s Journey,” it’s the minute-long story of a wounded horse who finds the will to run in a tale more hard-hitting than a 12-pack of the brand’s lagers.Directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao of “Nomadland,” the horse is shown enduring a painful fall into barbed wire along with the crushing sadness the hurt equine felt while confined to its stable, unable to run.After what appeared to be a long and hard winter, the horse — with motivation from Budweiser’s iconic retriever dog — manages a heartfelt recovery to a slowed-down tune of the “Star-Spangled Banner” as its owners look on in awe as the Clydesdale takes off at full speed through their ranch.“This Super Bowl we have one message for America: In the home of the brave, down never means out,” the beer brand captioned the commercial.The inspirational tale that follows one of the brand’s beloved Clydesdales is meant to be a metaphor for what the nation has been enduring, said Daniel Blake, Budweiser’s vice president of marketing.“The Clydesdales are, for many people, a symbol of America, a symbol of hope, of strength, of resilience,” Blake told USA TODAY Sports of the “comeback story.”The move to pull on the nation’s heartstrings comes after Budweiser opted to not run any ads during last year’s Super Bowl, instead putting the money toward vaccine education.“For us to come back, with a symbol of America but also a story of injury, the road to recovery and ultimately, this triumph, I think is a really important message for the country to hear right now and one that really, only Budweiser can tell in this way,” Blake added, predicting the spot will hit people “kind of deep in their core.”The moving

There’s no shortage of exciting television shows released this February, kicking things off strong with the much-anticipated miniseries “Pam & Tommy” starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. The month will see the return of Shonda Rhimes, two series finales, an off-kilter and unexpected comedy series starring Will Arnett, and science fiction miniseries, which look to be the next big shows to dominate the discourse.

The Resident might have broken a lot of hearts during tonight’s, February 1st, episode.

Paramount Plus just announced the renewals of three more of their biggest hit shows!

Endeavor Content-backed Scandinavian indie Nordic Drama Queens has hired the producer behind Netflix’s upcoming The Playlist (Spotify Untold).

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEiffel Mattsson, the producer behind Netflix’s upcoming miniseries “The Playlist” (“Spotify Untold”), has joined Nordic Drama Queens, the up-and-coming Scandinavian company backed by Endeavor Content. Nordic Drama Queens was launched in Sept.

Manori Ravindran International EditorHBO Max is continuing a steady roll-out in Europe with its second wave of countries.The WarnerMedia-owned streaming service is launching in an additional 15 nations on March 8, this time targeting Central and Eastern Europe. This covers Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.Christina Sulebakk, general manager for HBO Max EMEA, says it has been a “cautious choice” to get the markets launched in Europe, where the HBO Max roll-out began in earnest in October with launches in the Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) as well as Spain and Andorra.

NRK since 2013, will be joining Banijay Nordic’s scripted label Rubicon as its Chief Executive Officer.  Announced by Banijay Nordic on Monday, the appointment marks big news for Scandinavia’s TV sector as it prepares to gather tomorrow at Sweden’s Göteborg Festival for its annual TV Drama Vision confab.Under Kohn’s leadership, NRK emerged from the shadow of Denmarks’s DR (“The Killing,” “The Bridge,” “Borgen”) by producing a string of international hits such as, just recently, International Emmy winner “Atlantic Crossing,” Canneseries 2018 laureate “State of Happiness” and “22 July,” which won a Nordisk Film and TV Fond Prize in 2020.  Most recently for NRK, Izer Aliu’s “Countrymen,” a Rubicon production, picked up a Canneseries award last October for its ensemble cast, plus a nomination for this week’s Nordisk Film and TV Fond Prize. An institution in Norway, Køhn spent six years before joining NRK as the Norwegian Film Institute’s head of development and production.