Nominations for the Nordic Series Screenplay Award have been announced in Göteborg trendy blogger

Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours,” “Black Crab”‘s “Pressure Point” and Eric Popp’s “Quisling” are among the nominations for the prestigious Göteborg Nordic Series Screenplay Award, the highest acclaim for television screenwriting in Scandinavia.

The Screenplay Award nominations replace the Gothenburg Film Festival’s Nordisk Film & Television Award, and also include the feminist porn comedy “Money Shot,” winner of the Canneseries Award, and “The School of Housewives,” co-written and directed by Icelander Arnur Palme Arnarsson, who He co-wrote and directed it. He directed the film “The Minister” starring Olafur Darri Ólafsson.

In terms of artistic ambition, ranging in style from the near-future survival drama “Families” to the tense, compelling true-event series “Pressure Point” and the gritty historical drama of “Quisling,” these three series explore modernity – horror times .

“Families” charts the apocalypse that tears Denmark’s upper middle class across Europe and plunges them into an unforgiving and sometimes violent new world; “Pressure Point” touches on neo-Nazism, while “Quechling” proves the mentality of a delusional autocrat.

Even rosier, “Money Shot” and “School” also tap into the modern zeitgeist, showing women taking greater control of their lives, thanks in part to female solidarity.

In terms of industry, the five series represent recent shows from many of Europe’s major producers, broadcasters and distributors, led by Vinterberg’s ‘Families Like Ours’, produced by heavyweights Zentropa Enterprises, Studiocanal, Canal+ and TV 2 Danmark.

The Nordic Series Script Award nominees are still in the running for a major cash prize of €17,000 (US$17,700), funded by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, which awards prizes to the lead writer(s) of a Nordic drama series.

In one change, nominees must have premiered their series in the previous year: the previous award also served to anticipate some successful works coming from Scandinavia.

In another new development, the Nordic Series Awards will include an honorable mention, the Creative Courage Award, which celebrates the producer and commissioner of a series that pushes creative boundaries and boldly embraces innovation. Candidates are presented by broadcasters and broadcasters.

The winners of the Nordic Series Awards will be announced at a ceremony on the evening of January 28 at TV Drama Vision in Göteborg.

“The new name of the Writer’s Prize carries more weight on the international CV, because it clearly specifies that the award goes to the best screenplay for a Nordic series. Another welcome reform is that all series that premiered in 2024 are eligible.”

In these economically challenging times, operating risks are safe. With the Creative Courage Award, we want to highlight the collaboration between commissioner and producer that has resulted in an exceptionally brave and innovative series. “I am now pleased to see that we have great nominees across many genres in both categories,” said Liselotte Forsmann, CEO of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

“The selection showcases the diversity of stories emerging from the region and signals the strength of the present and promising future of drama series in the Nordic countries,” added Sia Edström, Head of TV Drama Vision at Gothenburg.

The Nordic Series Screenplay Prize jury includes Norwegian actress and screenwriter Henriette Stenstrup.; Joanna Szymanska, Producer and CEO of ShipsBoy, Poland, and Linus Fremin, TV Critic and Creative Director at Make Your Mark, Sweden.

TV Drama Vision runs from January 28 to 29, and the 48th Gothenburg Film Festival runs from January 24 to February 2. Nordic Series Screenplay Award nominations in more detail:

“Families like ours” (“Families like ours”)

Nominated writers: Thomas Vinterberg, Mr. Hansen

Denmark, 7×50′

Broadcaster: TV2 Denmark

Produced by: Zentropa Entertainments

Producers: Ces Graeme Jørgensen and Casper Deising

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg

Sales: World: Studiocanal, excluding Benelux, which is managed by TrustNordisk

Premiere: October 20, 2024

The first series from Vinterberg, the 2021 Oscar winner (“Another Round”) and co-creator of 1998’s Dogma 95 (“The Celebration”), the uplifting seven-part series “Families” weighs a plausible impossibility: as Denmark begins to sink beneath sea ​​level, and its government orders its complete evacuation. As it expands its compass to France, Romania, Poland, the United Kingdom and finally Finland, it focuses on Vinterberg’s realities – family and love – but also emerges as an upper-middle-class horror story in which professional excellence means nothing and complete recovery. The extended family is essentially falling foul of previously unbearable possibilities: human trafficking, brutal vigilante gangs, even murder.

“Money shot” (“Second Coming”)

Finland, 8×25′

Nominated writer: Jimena Gukesalo

Broadcaster: Elissa Fahidi

Produced by: Just Republic

Producers: Gemina Jokisalo, Samuli Nurhumaa and Johanna Tarvinen

Directed by: Timo Niukkanen

Sales: Union Studios and Nordisk Film

Premiere: May 2, 2024

Easily the most underrated of the five entries and a short series of 2024 Canneseries Student Prize winners: Sari, a porn star from the top of the hill, or so she’s told, is desperate to find work, and her film school teams refuse to make erotic films. Films with and for the female gaze. “It’s something very bold and different, especially for a Finnish show, and I’m very happy that (presenter) Elisa Vidhi had the courage to commission it. I always follow stories that I absolutely love, with characters that we feel for,” said Jukisalo (of Savela and Makkari). . diverse. “It’s very colorful. It’s definitely not another Nordic Noir!”

“pressure point” (“Smärtpunkten” Sweden, 3 x 60′

Nominated writer: Billy Radstrom

Film Story: Wilhelm Bermann and Niklas Rockström

Broadcaster: SVT

Produced by: Kärnfilm and Art & Bob

Producer: Martina Store

Directed by: Sana Linkin

Sales: Reinventing International Sales

Premiere: April 19, 2024

An intense, tense, real-life recreation of the rehearsals of the play “7:3” created by acclaimed playwright Lars Noren and producer Isa Steinberg, in which two neo-Nazi prisoners on stage explain their real-life neo-Nazi convictions and suggest what leads to them: alienation, and childhood abuse. For Noreen, this was an opportunity for a “unique story,” for Stenberg and some prison authorities an opportunity for rehabilitation, and for one of the prisoners, an opportunity to plan a bank robbery, which shook Swedish society to the core. It was written by Radström (“The Black Crab”) from an outline by Berhman (“Succession”, “Before We Die”) and Rockström (“Succession”, “Valander”).

Kfishling

Norway, 5×45-50′

Nominated writers: Anna Bach-Weig and Saif Rajendram Eliasen

Broadcaster: TV2 Norway

Produced by: Paradox Right AS

Producers: Finn Gerdrum and Stein B. Kvai

Directed by: Eric Pope

Sales: Reinvented

Viewed in Haugesund and Toronto as a 147-minute film, “Quisling: The Final Days” is now competing for the Nordic Series Script Award as a weighty, five-episode series version that, according to director Poppe, tells “a completely different story.” With more about Maria Quisling and wife of Pastor Peder Olsen. However, the core of the series seems to be the same feature: “an insightful psychological study of the delusional authoritarian,” he says. diverse QTo help review it, here is Vidkund Quisling, Hitler’s puppet Norwegian president. Some of that has to come from the show’s screenwriters, Anna Bach Wiig and Saif Rajendram Eliasen, who worked with Pope on “Utøya, Jul. 22” and “The Emigrants.”

“Housewives’ School” (woof)

Iceland, 6×30′

Nominated writers: Arnør Palme Arnarsson, Johanna Frederika Sømundsdóttir

Announcer: RÚV

Production: Glassriver

Producer: Arnbjörg Hafliðadóttir

Directed by: Arnur Palme Arnarsson

Premiere: January 1, 2024

Helka, a regular rehabilitator since her teens, was sent to housewives’ school as her last chance for the court to give her custody of her infant daughter, and she is now in foster care. Her heart is in the right place, which wins her unexpected allies. But it’s one thing to learn to weave, crochet or cook pineapple haddock, and another for Hilka to confront her addictions and inner demons. A feel-good — and finally tear-jerking — drama harnessing the talents of writers Arnør Palme Arnarsson, also the director of “The Minister,” starring Olafur Darri Ólafsson and award-winning actress and writer Johanna Fredrika Sømundsdóttir (“Sisterhood,” “Agnes”) Joy” and Icelandic production company Glassriver (“Black Sands,” “As Long As We Live”).