Vernissage has been selected to compete for the prestigious Startsladden Award, one of the world’s largest awards for short film. The eight nominated shorts will be screened at the Göteborg International Film Festival January 29, and the winner will be announced at an award gala. 

Vernissage is directed by Arvin Kananian, and written by Kananian together with Nina Mårshagen. In the lead role we see Mårshagen as Siván and Kalled Mustonen as Simon.

Simon and Siván make the picture-perfect couple. Their lives are thoroughly curated, from the way they have sex to their choice of therapist. During an art exhibition, the dynamics between them harden. While Siván carries herself through the room, flawlessly interacting with the cultural elite, Simon is left to fend for himself. He’s made aware that his presence in Siván’s life is about

the optics rather than the love he thought they shared. Simon is faced with a choice. Will he confront the facade Siván has created, or will he continue to play a role in the drama that is her life?

Disney+ has greenlit their first Nordic original series, To Cook A Bear, which is based on Mikael Niemi’s bestselling novel of the same name.

The six-part series takes place in the summer of 1852 in the village of Kengis, far north in Sweden. In the epic grandeur of the Northern polar landscape, we meet the newly appointed Pastor and his family. While the Pastor has a spiritual awakening which profoundly impacts the Sami and Tornedalians, the body of a shepherd’s girl is found inside a bog. Soon the villagers set out in search of the killer bear they fear is on the rampage.

Trygve Allister Diesen is set to direct, and Jesper Harrie is penning the adaptation, with Anagram Sweden producing.

The nominees for the prestigious Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize 2023 are revealed. Among the five nominated series is Blackwater, written by Karin Arrhenius together with Maren Louise Käehne, and directed by Mikael Marcimain. 

On a Midsummer’s night in 1973, two tourists are found murdered in a tent, far up in the mountains of Northern Sweden, near the small town of Blackwater. An incident that intersects the lives of three random people, intertwining their destinies for better and for worse. And which, after years of repression, is brought back to life, interfering with the lives they now lead. The series is based on Kerstin Ekman’s classic novel Blackwater (Händelser vid vatten).

Blackwater will premiere on SVT Play on January 13. The winner will be announced on February 1, 2023.

The nominations for the Guldbagge Awards for the film year 2022 are out, and Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven is presented with seven nominations, including ‘Best Film’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’.

The Guldbagge Awards Gala takes place at Cirkus in Stockholm on January 23, 2023.

Björn Natthiko Lindeblad’s highly inspirational life story and legacy keeps travelling the world; his awarded and No. 1 bestselling book I May Be Wrong is now sold to 30 territories!

In I May Be Wrong, the late Björn Natthiko Lindeblad, a former Buddhist forest monk, shared his hard-won insights into how one can live a more free and present life, improving one’s mental well-being in the process. Finding hope and beauty in the face of unfavorable odds, and drawing from his experiences of monastery life, where death was ever-present, he also reflected on what stood out as most important when things were coming to an end. Besides brimming with eye-opening perspectives, this life-affirming book further outlines helpful hands-on exercises we can use in our daily lives to find our inner peace.