Anna-Lena Ahlström

New author: Moa Herngren

Moa Herngren (b.1969) is the Swedish author of the gripping and highly acclaimed relationship dramas The Mother-in-Law and The Divorce. These page-turners have ignited heated debates in book clubs and living rooms across the country on which of their protagonists are most deserving of the reader’s sympathies. Herngren is also a journalist, former editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine and a highly sought-after manuscript writer. She is notably the co-creator and writer of Netflix hit-show Bonus Family. With her special affinity for the intricacies of complicated family dynamics and a high relatability factor permeating her work, she is undoubtedly the one to watch in her genre.

‘Paper Souls’ No. 8 in Germany

Erik Axl Sund’s Paper Souls climbs to No. 8 on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list for paperback this week, making it the title’s fourth consecutive week on the list.

Sebastian Micci Photo: Sebastian Micci

Angelika Abramovitch joins Salomonsson Agency

Angelika Abramovitch began her film career in London in 2012 with her award-winning short film The Horse. She then started to experiment with short films, music videos and art projects which brought a certain finesse and strength to her visual style as a director.

Abramovitch’s time at the media company VICE & i-D briefly got her into documentary filmmaking. Her documentary short PAPPA was shortlisted for the Swedish Academy Awards in 2019.

Abramovitch graduated from Stockholm University of the Arts in 2021 and she is soon to finish her studies at Alma Löv Script Academy. She is the recipient of the 2021 Nordic Talent Special Mention Award and a Wild Card development fund for her upcoming feature film, A Soviet Love Story. Abramovitch’s graduation film Tjejtoan 4-ever/Catcave Hysteria premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Swedish Academy Awards. In 2022 she was also selected for Future Frames at KVIFF and was a part of Les Arcs Talent Village.

Currently, Abramovitch is working on a film exhibition for The Nordic Museum which will be exhibited in 2023, and her debut feature film The Braid with the production company Cinenic Film. This year she will also start developing the TV series The Snake Pit together with Hannah Arnesen and the production company Most Alice.

With a sense of rhythm and a strong visual style, Abramovitch’s films explore the boundaries between the ugly and the beautiful, pleasure and pain. With a craving for blood, and always a unique style.

Toni Härkönen Photo: Toni Härkönen

Sofi Oksanen awarded the Usedom Literature Prize 2023

Sofi Oksanen has been awarded the Usedom Literary Prize 2023. The Usedom Literature Prize is awarded annually since 2011, to literary figures who appear strongly committed to the European dialogue, both past and present. The award is intended to promote the continued exchange of ideas and to further the literary tradition on the Baltic Island of Usedom.

The jury’s motivation is as follows:

“In her oeuvre, Sofi Oksanen links Finland and Estonia, two European countries, two historical spaces with a socio-cultural present. She makes them experienceable in a transnational and profoundly European context. In a masterful and moving way, Sofi Oksanen portrays unimaginably painful and complex human biographies, marked by the totalitarian experiences of the 20th century. These cast long shadows on this part of our continent to this day. For what was experienced then continues to have an effect today with the survival strategies that were developed. Sofi Oksanen thus also poses questions to all of us. With a view to memory, she challenges us to seriously reflect on our attitudes and values.”

The award ceremony will take place May 6th.

‘Boy from Heaven’ wins Best Original Screenplay at PFCA

Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven won ‘Best Original Screenplay’ at Paris Film Critics Awards yesterday.

“The love our film receives is something we never dared to dream of. I feel incredibly humbled to win in this company of master filmmakers,” commented Saleh about the award, which was presented at the Cinema Le Silencio des Prés in Paris last night.

Under the title La Conspiracy du Caire, Saleh’s drama thriller has already been seen by more than half a million French cinemagoers.

Zazie Beetz & Tom Hardy to star in Apple drama series ‘Lazarus’ based on Lars Kepler’s novels, with Øystein Karlsen to write and direct

Oscar nominee Tom Hardy (The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road) and Emmy nominee Zazie Beetz (Joker, Atlanta) are set to star in early-in-the-works Apple TV+ drama series Lazarus, based on Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna novels, with Øystein Karlsen to write, executive produce and direct the series. The project is a co-production between A+E Studios and Range Studios and being sold to Apple.

In the series, an emaciated young man is found wandering along a train track. Thirteen years earlier, he and his sister went missing, presumed victims of the notorious serial killer Jurek Walter. To find the sister, police detective Saga Bauer must go undercover in the maximum-security psychiatric hospital where Walter has been kept since his arrest years ago. Hardy will play Walter and Beetz will portray Inspector Saga Bauer.

Hardy Son & Baker, composed of Tom Hardy and longtime producing partner Dean Baker, will produce. Their production company is behind the FX series Taboo. Also EPs are Beetz, David Rysdahl, Kepler (Alexandra Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril), Niclas Salomonsson, A+E Studios (Barry Jossen, Tana Jamieson) and Range Studios (Heather Kadin, Peter Micelli and Jack Whigham).

Read the full article in Deadline Hollywood by clicking ‘Read More’ below.

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‘One Day All This Will Be Yours’ to premiere in Swedish theatres

Andreas Öhman’s anticipated feature film One Day All This Will Be Yours, which had its world premiere at Göteborg Film Festival, is released in theatres in Sweden today February 3.

The cartoonist Lisa and her siblings meet at the family’s farm in northern Sweden after the parents called for a meeting. They announce that only one of the children will inherit the forest, which the family has owned for generations. But are any of them willing to move home again? The visit rips open past traumas in Lisa, who is wildly confused and going through something of a crisis, and who manages to both mess things up with her father’s closest friend and agitate the whole community during her mother’s birthday party.

One Day All This Will Be Yours stars Karin Franz Körlof, Peter Haber, Suzanne Reuter, Liv Mjönes and Arvin Kananian.

‘Anxious People’ nominated for a Polish Book of the Year award

Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People is nominated for a Book of the Year award organized by one of the largest literature sites in Poland, Lubimy Czytać.

There are 13 categories and awards in total, and Anxious People competes in the Fiction category. The nominated titles have been selected by the staff at Lubimy Czytać and are based first and foremost upon ratings, reviews and other user activity.

The voting will end February 28th.

Click “Read more” below to access the voting page.

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Matias Faldbakken’s ‘Poor Thing’ – Shortlisted for the Norwegian Critics’ Prize 2023

Matias Faldbakken has been shortlisted for the 2023 Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, with his most recent novel Poor Thing. This prestigious literature prize has been awarded to a Norwegian author annually since 1950. The four nominees of each year are selected by the Norwegian Critics’ Association.

The jury’s motivation is as follows: ‘In Poor Thing, the language has a substance rarely observed elsewhere; it is sculpted with great inventiveness and curiosity. A tell-tale sign of good craftsmanship is that form and content work together, just like it does here, because this novel thematizes formation and learning to perfection. It illustrates how categories of loneliness and togetherness, culture and nature, break down in processes where we both reject and embrace different sides of ourselves and others. Both brutality and mercy are unpredictable forces in Poor Thing. Faldbakken explores how such forces continually affect the ways in which we operate, both as simple humans and as a collective.’

The winners will be announced March 2nd.