‘Headhunters’, ‘The Dark Heart’ and ‘The Man Who Died’ nominated at GIFF

The Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) has unveiled the nominations for its 28th edition. Competing in the International Series section is the acclaimed thriller Headhunters, the lauded psychological drama thriller The Dark Heart and the crime comedy The Man Who Died.

Headhunters, inspired by Jo Nesbø’s eponymous best-selling novel, is written by Rolf-Magne Golten Andersen and Geir Henning Hopeland, who is also the series’ director. The Dark Heart is created by screenwriter Oskar Söderlund and director Gustav Möller. The Man Who Died is based on Antti Tuomainen’s bestselling novel of the same name.

The 2022 GIFF is running from November 4-13.

‘The Electric State’ now filming

The Russo brothers’ adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s acclaimed The Electric State has begun filming in Atlanta, Georgia. The film, which will star Millie Bobbie Brown and Chris Pratt, focuses on an orphaned teenager who attempts to search for her brother as she travels across the American West with a mysterious robot and an eccentric drifter. While no premiere date has been set yet, Netflix acquired the rights to the film earlier this year.

Katrine Engberg No. 1 in Denmark

Katrine Engberg’s novel The Writing on the Wall comes in at No. 1 this week on the official Danish bestseller list for fiction.

‘The Beaver Theory’ published in Finland

The going gets tough and the tough get tougher in the comical, touching conclusion of The Rabbit Factor Trilogy.

How best to reconcile the ongoing skulduggery of the adventure-park business with the unpredictable realities of life in a blended family? The two appear to have only one common denominator: neither is well equipped to cope with a rising body count. In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri Koskinen has to step far beyond the order and precision of his mathematically-defined comfort zone.

In The Beaver Theory, Henri Koskinen, the actuary and adventure-park entrepreneur who has won the hearts of readers around the world, encounters the biggest challenge of his career. The first part of the trilogy is currently being adapted for the silver screen in Hollywood.

‘The Hills’ shortlisted for The Library Literature Prize

Matias Faldbakken’s highly praised novel The Hills is shortlisted for The Library Literature Prize in Norway. Behind the recently instituted award stand 200 public libraries in Norway, aiming to promote the best literature written or translated into Norwegian.

The winner is to be announced November 30th.

Photo: Thron Ullberg

Måns Mosessson awarded Suicide Zero’s Dare to Share Award

Måns Mosesson has been awarded Dare to Share’s honorary award 2022 by the non-profit organization Suicide Zero for his book Tim – The Official Biography of Avicii. The award has since 2015 been handed out by Suicide Zero to journalists, editors, presenters, and writers who have produced outstanding work on the theme suicide. The motivation reads as follows:

“Author and journalist Måns Mosesson depicts in Tim – The Official Biography of Avicii, a young man’s quest to make his way in a music world that knows no restraints. Through interviews, text messages, email conversations and careful research, Måns Mosesson paints a story about the joy of creating and a young man’s strong drive and longing for recognition and success. Simultaneously, it’s a story of anxiety and anguish reflected through the dark underbelly of the performance society, the music industry and success. As a reader, you want to stop the course of events in its tracks and support the parent’s fight to have Tim get off what is a speeding train. Mosesson’s portrait is like a punch to the gut and a call to action to have all of us take mental health issues seriously as well as help each other safeguard the space needed for recovery, and to be true to ourselves.”

Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann/ Netflix Photo: Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann/ Netflix

‘A Nearly Normal Family’ to premiere on Netflix 2023

Mattias Edvardsson’s novel A Nearly Normal Family is being adapted into a miniseries for Netflix. Anna Platt and Hans Jörnlind are the series’ writers, with Per Hanefjord directing.

From the outside, the Sandells are the perfect family, but that facade crumbles when the nineteen year-old daughter stands accused of the brutal murder of a much older man. The family is desperate to help Stella at all costs, but the question is whether they really know their daughter. Or each other.

Alexandra Karlsson Tyrefors will star as Stella Sandell, Lo Kauppi and Björn Bengtsson will portray Stella’s parents Ulrika and Adam Sandell.

A Nearly Normal Family is being filmed in Lund, and is set to premiere on Netflix in 2023.

‘The Traitor’ No. 1 in Norway

Jørn Lier Horst’s The Traitor, the sixteenth novel about detective William Wisting, stays put at No. 1 also this week on the official Norwegian bestseller lists for fiction and e-books.

‘The Writing on the Wall’ published in Denmark

Investigator Liv Jensen is in a frenzy. Unpleasant circumstances force her to quit her job at the Aalborg police and return to her childhood home. Fortunately, she quickly finds a lease in the basement of a house in Vesterbro with the retired frame maker, Jan Leon, and his grown-up daughter Hannah. Two people who share a great sadness.

Liv dreams of a position at the homicide department in the capital, but has to settle with working as a private detective with the case she gets from her friend and mentor, Petter Bohm from the Copenhagen Police. The case is about a cultural journalist who was strangled three years ago, the perpetrator was never caught. Maybe Liv can solve that case, erase the memories from Aalborg and return to the police again?

The case forces Liv to revisit the past, travel to the west coast of Jutland and into one of the darkest chapters in Danish history. It all ties together. Everyone is running from something, and no one can feel safe.

The Writing on the Wall is the first installment in a new crime series starring investigator and private detective Liv Jensen, car mechanic Nima Azour and psychiatrist Hannah Leon.

‘Tinker, Tailor, Cat, Spy’ published in Sweden

It’s autumn and the animals at Rosengård are preparing a fun Halloween party. But what’s happened to Atlas the dog? Samira Karlsson has not seen her friend for several days and is worried. At the dog park, she learns that Atlas has been injured, but strange rumors are buzzing about what really happened to him, and why.

The cat spies have to face the facts: one of their sub-agents has been seriously injured. But is it a threat against the dogs, or the cat spies themselves? The mystery thickens when more dogs get hurt at dog parks around town.

In Tinker, Tailor, Cat, Spy, we once again get to meet all the wonderful characters from Rosengård, such as Elsa of Purrendelle, Kitty, Leroux and Salome, who is now a new (and nervous) double agent, and the rat Shu, who realizes that she must once more help the cats solve their mystery. At the center is, of course, Samira Karlsson, cat spy extraordinaire in a world hidden from the humans.

The children’s book series The Cat Spies of Rosengard is one of Sweden’s best selling series.