AMC Networks Picks Up Swedish Crime Series ‘Backstrom’ (EXCLUSIVE)

First Aid Kit appeared as musical guests on a Swedish game show this week, covering Bette Midler track ‘The Rose’ – watch the performance below.Klara and Johanna Söderberg have been appearing on På Spåret recently as the house band, and their appearance this week saw them taking on the 1979 track that appeared on the soundtrack for Midler’s film of the same name.Watch the performance below.A post shared by First Aid Kit (@firstaidkitband)The Bette Midler cover is the latest in a number of

EXCLUSIVE: The Ink Factory, the company behind AMC/BBC co-pros The Night Manager and The Little Drummer Girl and feature film Fighting with My Family, is growing its U.S. team.

A24 has acquired the U.S.

Jamie Lang Things got meta at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival as Swedish emergency nurse Lisa Enroth, famously isolated for a week on an inhospitable island with no phone, no family and limited outside contact including little more than one outgoing daily video diaries, screened Alistair Morrison’s COVID-19 lockdown isolation documentary “Time to Pause,” with a special message of encouragement from the filmmaker and several of its subjects.“It must be pretty rough on that island there,”

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFrance’s APC (About Premium Content) has acquired international sales rights to “Blackport,” an Icelandic political thriller set in a small fishing village and inspired by true events.“Blackport” won the Series Mania Award at the Berlinale Co-Pro Series pitching event in 2018 and was teased at this year’s virtual TV Drama Vision, part of Sweden’s Goteborg Film Festival, the biggest film-TV event in Scandinavia, where the producers showcased footage

Alissa Simon Film CriticSwedish helmer-writer Ronnie Sandahl’s “Tigers” – a rare glimpse inside the world of professional soccer following a protagonist who struggles with the pressures of success – came away the biggest winner at Sweden’s 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the best Nordic film kudo, this year worth approximately $48,000.The film’s lead actor, Erik Enge, also nabbed the fest’s award for best actor for his subtle, nuanced performance as a 17-year-old professional player hired

straight to your inbox every day for freeWhile government officials may be expected to have pictures of political leaders or inspirational artwork in their place of work, Ardalan Shekarabi’s office in Stockholm is a little different. On the wall above the Sweden’s Minister for Social Security’s desk hangs a Manchester United shirt.

Annika Pham NENT Group’s Swedish label Brain Academy is plotting two major films from A-list writing-directing teams. The first, “The World Council of Magic,” is helmed by “The Most Beautiful Boy in the World”’s Kristian Petri, based on a screenplay by genre-bending author John Ajvide Lindqvist(”Border,” “Let the Right One In”).”The World Council of Magic” is my first script not based on one of my stories,” said Lindqvist, often dubbed the Stephen King of Sweden.

Alissa Simon Film CriticAfter a world premiere in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, Swedish director Frida Kempff will present her suspenseful feature debut “Knocking” to domestic audiences as the closing night of the virtual Göteborg Festival. Variety caught up with her in the run-up to her Göteborg bow:How was the virtual presentation of the film at Sundance?It’s weird not to be able to be present with the audience but I’m surprised how wonderfully it worked out.

Sweden’s royals are getting a show just like Netflix’s “The Crown”. 

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSwedish broadcaster TV4 and its pan-Nordic streaming service C More are joining forces with Åsa Lantz, the author of “Selma,” to develop an untitled “Crown”-style drama series about the Swedish royal family and current monarch King Carl XVI Gustaf.The series is being developed by Banijay-owned production banner Filmlance, producer of the original Nordic Noir milestone “Bron”/”Broen” (“The Bridge”), along with TV4 and C More.

AMC Networks, the owner of AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and BBC America, is making a strategic investment in Canadian indie producer Shaftesbury, maker of the long-running family drama Murdoch Mysteries. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Shaftesbury CEO and chairman Christina Jennings, who will continue in the top post, told THR that AMC Networks was making a "significant and strategic" investment in her company, which would remain Canadian owned and controlled.

Netflix has picked up the global SVOD rights to the Sundance documentary “Misha and the Wolves,” it was announced on Monday.In addition, Netflix will debut the film exclusively in North America and other markets.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla In celebration of Black History Month, AMC Networks has launched its 8th annual Black History Month PSA campaign, once again partnering with the NAACP and members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Variety has learned exclusively.The 2021 PSA series features four thematic spots that feature AMC Networks talent Colman Domingo (“Fear the Walking Dead”) and Vanessa Simmons (“Growing Up Hip Hop”); as well as CBC members and U.S. Representatives Alma Adams, G.

‘The Drifters’ Lands DistributionEXCLUSIVE: Starcross Entertainment’s latest feature The Drifters has been boarded for international sales by Media Luna and UK distribution by Central City Media. The film will have a virtual cinema release on April 3 and will be on demand from April 5.

Carole Horst After a prize-winning short of the same name, Swedish director-writer Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” a drama unfolding within the shadowy world of the adult film industry, premieres in Sundance and moves on to Goteborg and the Dragon competition for best Nordic film.What inspired the storyline of “Pleasure?”I’ve been working on the topic for a very long time.

Guy Lodge Film CriticThe word “gaslighting” is so broadly used these days — its definition, in some quarters, having evolved into a synonym for “lying” — it’s almost reassuring to see a psychological thriller that cleaves to its original sense.

GOTEBORG, Sweden -- Cinema in lockdown: Scandinavia’s largest film festival is exploring the social isolation resulting from COVID-19 by setting up a temporary cinema-for-one on a desolated island in the North Sea with the only companionship the events’ entire movie selection and enough food to last the week.Lisa Enroth was selected among 12,000 volunteers to spend a week on the island of Hamneskar at Pater Noster, a former lighthouse turned boutique hotel.

Emiliano Granada Lead writer Cilla Jackert’s “Thin Blue Line,” a fresh take on a police procedural, is Sweden’s contender for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize at 2021’s Göteborg Film Festival. Produced during a tumultuous time for police all around the world, the show quickly establishes itself as an intimate portrayal of the lives – both personal and professional – of its central characters who happen to be part of Malmö’s police.