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.

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.

Operation Racing Stripes and Other Mysteries, Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ just published latest title in the Detective Agency No. 2 series, debuts at No. 4 on the official Norwegian betseller list for children’s books.

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 6^th.

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.

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.