The Schoolmaster Games had its world premiere at the Gothenburg Film Festival earlier this year, where it was described as “stylistically perfect”. The erotic queer melodrama will now premiere in Swedish cinemas April 22.

Ylva Forner’s debut feature is an adaptation of the novel with the same name by Kristofer Folkhammar, about a schoolmaster who plays secret erotic games with a student.

Tarik Saleh’s new film, the psychological thriller Boy From Heaven, has been selected to the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by Saleh, the film was shot in Cairo and is set in the University of Al-Azhar where young Adam finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy and power struggle. The film stars Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares and Sherwan Haji.

The 75th Cannes Film Festival takes place May 17–28, 2022.

Borgen – Power & Glory, a fresh continuation of hit Danish political drama Borgen, has been set for release on Netflix April 14 in the Nordic markets and June 2 in the rest of the world.

Borgen – Power & Glory again follows Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), her staff and the media tasked with covering her, this time in her role as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The series tackles major political issues including the relevance of the Danish Realm in the modern world, the superpowers’ battle for control of the Arctic — and not least, the climate crisis.

The series is created by Adam Price, with Per Fly directing and Maja Jul Larsen serving as episode writer. Borgen – Power & Glory is produced by SAM Productions for Denmark’s DR in cooperation with Netflix.

The praised video game It Takes Two received two prestigious awards at the 2022 British Academy Games Awards: ‘Best Multiplayer’ and ‘Original Property.’ It Takes Two, written by Soni Jorgensen together with game director Josef Fares, was nominated in a striking total of nine categories including ‘Best Narrative.’

Finnish-Swedish literary writer Monika Fagerholm receives the prestigious Övralid Prize. The prize was instituted by the Swedish national poet Verner von Heidenstam and is given to authors, essayists or researchers within the humanities. Past recipients include Agneta Pleijel, Tomas Tranströmer, Bruno K. Öijer and Kerstin Ekman.

– It was completely unexpected. I’m glad that the jury highlights the humor in my novels, because even though they are about heavy and serious things, they also have humor. In the dark there is only darkness, but a little light can give the feeling of life, Monika says in an interview with the newspaper Corren, as a comment to the award.

Based on Nielsen BookScan’s data, UK trade magazine The Bookseller has announced the top ten bestselling novels in translation over the past 12 months. The Translated Top 10 chart, which include Yuval Noah Harari, Elena Ferrante and Haruki Murakami among else, is led by Jo Nesbø and his stand-alone novel The Kingdom.

The Bookseller says “In the past year, the Harry Hole creator’s all-time TCM total moved to just a smidge under £25m, to edge past Paulo Coelho as the second-bestselling author in translation since BookScan records began.”

The third season of the successful crime drama Wisting will premiere on Viaplay on Sunday April 10. The four episodes are based on the novel The Night Man by acclaimed author Jørn Lier Horst.

Carrie-Anne Moss, who starred in season one as FBI Special Agent Maggie Griffin, will come back for this season.

Trygve Allister Diesen, who created Wisting together with Kathrine Valen Zeiner, is director as well as head writer.

Heine Bakkeid is the winner of the 2021 Riverton Prize for his novel St. Avenger, the fourth installment in the Thorkild Aske series. The very prestigious crime writing award is annually given to the best Norwegian crime novel.

The jury presented the following motivation:

“Both when it comes to narration, plot development and character portrayals, the winner novel is a prime example of Norwegian crime writing at its very best. Same goes for the portrayal of the protagonist’s struggles with his great mental health obstacles – being a damaged, vulnerable, and depressed policeman who is dismissed and robbed of all honor and needs to fight to keep going in life.

Very rarely a crime author comes along that with his or her very first book enters the top echelon of Norwegian crime writing. (…) The books about Thorkild Aske have captivated readers and impressed crime connoisseurs from his debut up until the book that now receives the 2021 award – Heine Bakkeid’s St. Avenger. /…/

With access to much of what happened five years back, we as readers know more than Aske, without that ever taking away from the excitement, but we are equally fooled by the red herrings as he is before everything falls into place. The composition itself contributes a lot to the unique strength of this novel. Not simply due to the two timelines with different types of narration, but also because there are mysterious text messages, diary pages, cursive parts with dreams and fantasies – all coming together in a narrative with a breathtaking drive taking us through dark deeds, broken dreams, and tragic lives. /…/

[St. Avenger] ought to be read, slowly; not the least that goes for the chapters about the events of the past that are crucial for everything unfolding in the present time. Everything matters, everything is connected. And everything is well-composed and well-written. Thus, it’s with great pleasure we announce that the 2021 Riverton Award goes to Heine Bakkeid for his novel St. Avenger.