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What Do We Know About the upcoming second season of the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor? More than you may think. The acclaimed prequel to Rogue One, Andor’s first season, became one of Lucasfilm’s most critically acclaimed projects since Disney acquired them. With production wrapped on the second and final season, let’s dive in and take a look at what is coming up next in Andor.

Season two follows the four years before Rogue One.

The first season of Andor followed a single year in the life of Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, reprising his role from the prequel feature film. Since we know the first season of Andor is set five years before Rogue One, four years of plot need to be compressed into the twelve episodes comprising season two. The final three episodes of Andor’s second season will cover the three days before the start of Rogue One.

Exclusive: Swedish director Amir Chamdin, whose drama Partisan won Best Series at the 2020 Canneseries market, has signed on to direct Corleone, an action-thriller set in the United States and Sicily.

Written by Sandro Lorino, Rich Ronat and Nate Adams, the film is based on a story by Sandro Lorino and and Antonio Lorino, and tells the story of a family man with a mysterious past, whose peaceful life is upended when he becomes entangled in a deathly cat-and-mouse game with the first female boss of the Cosa Nostra.

Production is being lined up for March, with casting currently underway. The film is being produced by Richard Salvatore (Stolen Girl), Nate Adams (Vanquish), and Sandro Lorino and Norbert Krott for Lorino Pictures. Executive producers include Fabio Costabile (Skincare) and Dirk Schweitzer (Operation Napoleon).

Chamdin most recently directed ballet Gustavia, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm this past October.

Less than two months from the end of its U.S. streaming service, Nordic entertainment hub Viaplay is back up and running as a channel on Prime Video. If you have Prime Video, you can check out Viaplay with a free 7-day trial. If you don’t have Prime Video, it’s easy to give that a try with a free 30-day trial.

7-Day Free Trial $5.99+ / month viaplay via amazon.com

Prime Video is home to dozens of great add-on channels, and nearly all of them have weeklong free trials.

Viaplay’s initial launch in the U.S. and Canada helped push the streamer’s international subscriber total to 7.64 million, but the honeymoon was short-lived. In June 2023, Viaplay downgraded its future financial forecasts and CEO Anders Jensen resigned; Jorgen Madsen Lindemann, who was the former CEO of Viaplay’s previous parent company, took over the chief executive role.

Despite the C-suite drama,...

The city of Split has long been a tourist magnet, famous for the churches and flagstones of its picturesque Old Town, and for the beauty of the rocky, sparkling Croatian coastline. But not all visitors come for the culture. Some seek the trashier pleasures of rowdy bars and cheap drinks, and all they know of the area’s history is that the spectacular medieval fortress clinging to a nearby cliffside was a “Game of Thrones” location.

Split is also where US filmmaker Travis Wilkerson (“Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?”) recently lived for a stretch, having resolved — and then failing — to make a movie about the dissolution of Yugoslavia. This he tells us on camera, at the beginning of “Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing,” the film he made instead of that one, and it’s an admission of compromise that somehow never compromises the integrity of what follows: a witty,...

Fans of Viaplay’s titles will be able to continue watching via a handful of American partners.

Six months after being initially announced, fans of Nordic Noir living in the United States will have to find a new streaming source for their favorite Swedish police series as Viaplay confirmed on Thursday that it would officially be shutting down its streaming service in the U.S. on Thursday, Feb. 29. The move to shutter its service in the U.S. and the United Kingdom was initially announced in July 2023 as the company lost one million customers worldwide leading to a number of leadership changes at the company. Despite the closing of Viaplay’s standalone streamer, viewers will still be able to watch the brand’s titles via domestic partners.

The Sweden-based company will shut down its streaming service in the United States next month. Despite the streaming closure, domestic viewers will still...

Comicbook writer Garth Ennis, best known for series such as “Preacher” and “The Boys,” and his nine-year stint at Marvel, is a guest of this week’s Lucca Comics & Games. Ennis, whose current work includes comedy Barbarian strip “Babs,” and the latest instalments of the “Battle Action” and “Punisher” series, spoke about his new book “Partisan,” as well as diverse topics including religion and war.

“[In ‘Partisan’], Steve [Epting] and I explored a similar territory to that of ‘Sara.’ It’s about a woman who finds herself caught in the fighting between Russian partisans and the German invaders in Ukraine from 1942 onwards,” Ennis said.

“Our heroine, with her husband having been called up by the army, finds herself raising two kids alone. Caught in this conflict, she joins the partisans for no other reason than keeping her kids alive. She finds herself doing the most extreme things, purely in the interest of her family.

American customers will have to say goodbye to Viaplay. The Nordic streaming service reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday morning and revealed that it had shrunk to 6.6 million subscribers. That’s a decrease of around 1 million over the 7.64 million global customers the service claimed at the end of Q1 in April.

7-Day Free Trial $5.99 / month viaplay.com

The real story to come from Viaplay’s earnings report was the announcement that it was pulling its streaming platform out of the United States and United Kingdom. Henceforward, Viaplay will focus on the Nordic and Dutch markets, while offering certain content internationally through third parties with Viaplay Select. The company will also lay off around 25% of its employee base in an attempt to get on the right financial footing.

“We are today announcing a new strategy and plan, which includes, but is not limited to, focusing on our core Nordic, Netherlands and Viaplay Select operations,...

Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s main competition section is about to witness a miracle thanks to Tinatin Kajrishvili’s third feature “Citizen Saint,” about small-town miners suddenly discovering that their protector has literally come down from the cross and into their lives.

Kajrishvili, already known to festival audiences thanks to Berlinale titles “Brides” and “Horizon,” wasn’t trying to make a religious film, she states. She was more interested in the power of hope and the lengths most people will go in order to preserve it.

“Georgians are very religious and one day, a guy appeared in my neighborhood, calling himself ‘Saint Nicolas.’ His followers found him an apartment, and they would just stand in front of his house, praying. Whenever he would open a window, or throw a tomato at them, they would just pick it up and consider it as a blessing,” recounts the director, who co-wrote the script with Basa Janikashvili.

At 83, Swedish sailor Sven Yrvind has become known for his solo voyages across the oceans, from Ireland to New Zealand. Some think he’s crazy. But in “Philosopher of the Sea,” streaming on Viaplay beginning on July 11, the story behind the story is an exploration into human singularity and endurance. And Yrvind built the boat himself!

Watch the “Philosopher of the Sea” trailer

In “Black Sand” a police officer on her first case discovers a crime around in desolate Iceland. But what first appears as an accident, leads her to suspect a serial killer. The four-episode series makes its U.S. debut on July 20.

“Thunder in My Heart” returns to Viaplay next month. The comedy focuses on 22-year-old Sigrid - nicknamed Sigge - and her group of friends. The group is confronted with the unexpected demands of adulthood as they attempt to come to terms with their own identities, passions,...

This summer, Nordic streamer Viaplay is offering both dark thrillers and documentaries. In the satirical Scandinavian horror “No Angel” streaming July 6, a popular 17-year-old girl does the usual round of parties and boys — with a twist. She’s also a serial killer.

Watch the trailer for ‘No Angel’:

In “A Road Less Traveled” acclaimed actress-director Liv Ullmann looks back on decades of a successful career. In the documentary — streaming on June 22 — Ullman recounts the struggles she endured to gain respect in the entertainment industry. Some of her famous collaborators are also interviewed, including Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, and Jeremy Irons.

Coming to Viaplay this Summer: June 1 The Architect June 8 One of the Boys June 22 A Road Less Travelled July 6 No Angel July 20 Black Sands Aug. 17 Fenris Aug. 31 Face to Face, Season 3 7-Day Trial viaplay.com Viaplay

Viaplay is a video on demand service focused on Nordic storytelling...

Following a premiere at Sundance 2023, where Netflix picked up the psychological horror film for an undisclosed sum, the streaming service has set a June 28 release date and unveiled the first trailer for "Run Rabbit Run." With Sarah Snook ("Succession") in the lead, Australian director Daina Reid's second feature film is about a single mother and fertility doctor named Sarah (Snook) who is shaken by her 7-year-old daughter Mia's (Lily Latorre) strange behavior and "inexplicable memories of a past identity."

The connection, as the "Run Rabbit Run" trailer reveals, is Sarah's late sister Alice who had an interest in wild rabbits and went missing when she was just seven years old. Mia turns out to have both things in common with Alice when she takes a liking to a rabbit that appears on their doorstep. You know where this is going, right? Mia believes she's Alice and seemingly begins turning on her mother,...

The Nordic streaming service Viaplay is bringing a slew of new titles to its platform in May. On May 4, the second season of the young adult drama “Delete Me” will premiere. After suffering humiliation from a lover, a woman (played Sofia Tjelta Sydness) eager for fame sells intimate photos of herself online.

Watch the trailer for “Delete Me”:

Coming on May 11 will be the North American premiere of “The Congregation,” based on the true story of the Knutby Christian cult in the early 2000s in a small Swedish town. What at first appeared idyllic, is soon revealed as abuse and murder.

Another North American premiere will come to Viaplay on May 25. “Riding in Darkness” is a survival thriller set in the world of elite equestrian competition. Based on true events, three women with different connections to one man need to find a way to get out of the monster’s grip.

The Nordic streaming service Viaplay is carving out a niche for itself. Viaplay released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2023 on Tuesday, and it shows that the streamer’s international expansion has been a successful strategy so far.

Viaplay now has 7.64 million global users, a figure that’s up 60% year-over-year from 2021’s 4.78M. Viaplay saw an increase of 325,000 subscribers over the previous quarter, an increase that was no doubt aided by the addition of several markets to its distribution network.

7-Day Free Trial $5.99 / month viaplay.com

The biggest market that saw a Viaplay rollout recently was the United States. Viaplay launched in the U.S. on Feb. 22, and it’s reasonable to assume that much of the service’s subscriber gains over the last quarter are due to its domestic launch. Overall, Viaplay is now available in 33 markets across the globe.

More than half of Viaplay’s customers are still Nordic subscribers,...

If you’re a user of a Roku streaming device, or if you’ve perhaps bought one of the company’s new in-house manufactured TV sets, you now have a new entertainment option at your fingertips as long as you live in the United States, United Kingdom or Canada.

Thanks to a multiyear agreement between the two sides, the Nordic streaming service Viaplay is now available for users on all Roku devices. Viaplay offers U.S. and Canadian users over 1,500 hours of acclaimed series and films, alongside curated third-party content. A subscription runs $5.99 per month and is completely ad-free.

7-Day Free Trial $5.99 / month viaplay.com

Viaplay is the world’s leading producer of Nordic Noir - premium drama from the Nordic region - and its offering spans top-class crime thrillers, young adult shows, historical dramas, documentaries, and much more. The Viaplay content now accessible to Roku users in North America...

How far would you travel across the face of the Earth to find yourself? That’s the question Karen Blixen must answer in “The Dreamer- Becoming Karen Blixen,” the new series coming to Viaplay on Thursday, March 30. The story follows Blixen as she travels thousands of miles, only to find that the real journey lies deep within herself. You can watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Viaplay.

How to Watch 'The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen' Premiere When: Thursday, March 30, 2023 Where: Viaplay Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Viaplay. 7-Day Free Trial$5.99 / month viaplay.com About 'The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen' Premiere

“The Dreamer- Becoming Karen Blixen” tells the story of one woman’s struggle to find her place in life while freeing herself from the expectations of family and society. The series takes place in the 1930s and follows Karen Blixen...

Nordic streaming service Viaplay has launched in the United States with content known as Nordic Noir, including both crime thrillers and dark comedies. This month, the streamer is offering “Cell 8,” a complicated six-episode thriller about a man, presumed dead, who is later arrested on a ferry in Finland. The story, coming April 13, zigzags between Scandinavia and the U.S. as dangerous events unfold.

Check out the “Cell 8” trailer:

Also coming to Viaplay in April will be the rom-com “R.S.V.P.” The ensemble film features close 30something friends looking for happiness and love — which always seems to elude them. The movie will be available to stream beginning on April 25.

Watch the trailer for “R.S.V.P.”: 7-Day Free Trial $5.99 / month viaplay.com Coming in April: April 3 Detective Maria Kallio (Maria Kallio) - Season 1 April 10 Natascha Kampusch - A Lifetime in Prison – Documenary, Season 1 April 12 As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen) April...

Following closely behind, Bad Sisters, The Crown, The English and Slow Horses also received five nominations apiece.

BBC dramas This is Going To Hurt and The Responder lead the nominations for this year’s Bafta Television and Bafta Craft awards with six nominations each.

Both dramas have received nods in the leading actor category for Ben Wishaw and Martin Freeman’s performances.

Sister’s This is Going To Hurt is up for best drama mini series, while Dancing Ledge’s The Responder, which has been recomissioned for a second series, makes the list for best drama series.

The two dramas...

The Nordic region’s largest streamer, Viaplay, has debuted in Canada, continuing its expansion into North America after landing in the U.S. on Feb. 22.

The direct-to-consumer platform touts itself as the premiere platform for Nordic Noir, the term used to describe the growing subgenre of Scandinavian crime dramas, thrillers, dark comedies and YA offerings.

Available in every Nordic and Baltic country, Viaplay has been gaining ground over the past several months, expanding across Europe, U.K. and Australia. In February, it reported an 83% rise year-over-year in streaming subscribers, a number that is expected to swell with the North American launches.

At launch, Viaplay is available at a rate of Cad$6.99 ($5.13) monthly after a free seven-day trial. A subscription includes the exclusive Canadian premieres of more than 50 premium series and films throughout 2023. Titles include biopic series “The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen,” starring Connie Nielsen; Berlinale selection “The Architect”; and...

Nordic programmer Viaplay has launched a streaming service in the U.S., delivering subscribers thousands of hours of programming for $5.99 a month.

So-called “Nordic noir” series like Trom, Furia, Threesome and Exit are among the marquee originals available on the platform. Trom is a crime drama starring Ulrich Thomsen, Furia is a Norwegian thriller and Threesome is a Swedish drama co-starring Lucien Laviscount, who is best known for Emily in Paris.

Upcoming originals ticketed for Viaplay include biopic The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen starring Connie Nielsen; Hilma, directed by Academy Award nominee Lasse Hallström; and English-Swedish drama series Cell 8.

Viaplay had previously had a U.S. presence via Comcast’s Xfinity broadband and TV outlets, but the new service is its first direct-to-consumer offering here. Subtitles will be provided for the series, films and documentaries on the platform, and new subscribers will be eligible for a 7-day free trial.

Viaplay, the Nordic streamer that is a big producer of original programming, has launched its service in the U.S., promising consumers Nordic Noir hit content and “premium Scandinavian storytelling” for $5.99 per month.

U.S. customers can sign up with a seven-day free trial, the company said on Wednesday, Feb. 22. Series available exclusively on Viaplay include Danish crime drama Trom, starring Ulrich Thomsen, Norway’s Furia, which explores the world of right-wing extremism, London-set Swedish relationship drama Threesome with Lucien Laviscount and financial drama Exit, one of Norway’s most streamed series. (The streamer’s film and TV content is all available subtitled in English.)

Film titles include A Man Called Ove, which was recently remade as A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks, Academy Award-winning dark comedy Another Round starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale), as well as all three original films from the Millennium/The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.

Exclusive: Some were expecting Netflix to curb their acquisitions here in Park City, but, as we told you earlier this morning, never count them out of the Sundance marketplace. Before its premiere in the midnight section tonight, the Reed Hastings-Ted Sarandos-run streamer has scooped up a majority of global rights on the Australian horror movie, Run Rabbit Run, starring 2x Emmy nominated Succession actress Sarah Snook. XYZ Films, which co-funded the film, brokered the deal with Netflix on behalf of the filmmakers.

A release for the Carver Films production is planned for this year.

Directed by Daina Reid off a script by Hannah Kent, Run Rabbit Run follows fertility doctor Sarah (Snook). She firmly believes in life and death. However, after noticing the strange behavior of her young daughter, she must challenge her own values and confront a ghost from her past.

Run...

‘Remarkable Places To Eat’ Moves From BBC To Channel 4

Fred Sirieix-hosted Remarkable Places to Eat has moved from the BBC to Channel 4. In a move that has become more commonplace in recent years, Channel 4 has commissioned the third season of Outline Productions’ format, which has been partly funded by Italian beer brand Birrificio Angelo Poretti. In Remarkable Places to Eat, British chefs and restaurateurs take First Dates host Sirieix to a city in the UK or abroad that is home to three of the restaurants where they most love to eat. The likes of Michel Roux Jr, Nisha Katona, Rachel Khoo, Angela Hartnett and Nadiya Hussein have all featured in the past, for the show that has been running on BBC Two and iPlayer since 2019. Past series have now been removed from BBC iPlayer and All3Media International is distributor. “I am delighted that this brilliant show will find...

This article has spoilers for Vikings: Valhalla season 1

Netflix’s Vikings spinoff Vikings: Valhalla is returning for a second season, continuing the story of Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, and their allies and enemies across the North. Netflix’s synopsis for season 2 states that this season “finds our heroes shortly after the tragic fall of Kattegat; an event that has shattered their dreams and altered their destinies. Finding themselves suddenly fugitives in Scandinavia they are forced to test their ambitions and courage in worlds beyond the fjords of Kattegat.”

This viking epic will see the return of several characters from the first season, as well as a few newcomers. Here are the new and returning actors for Vikings: Valhalla season 2.

Sam Corlett as Leif Eriksson

Based on the historical figure of the same name, Leif Eriksson is a Viking warrior, fearless sailor, and loyal to his family. After losing his love,...

Cannes – REinvent International Sales has sold the refugee drama ‘Lost’ to AMC Networks for Spain and Portugal.

The Scandi production-distribtion shingle is presenting the title to buyers at this week’s Mipcom TV market in Cannes.

Created by Ulf Ryberg, the drama thriller tells the story of a truck driver smuggling a group of Syrian refugees into Sweden in his truck. An upsetting phone call from his soon to be ex-wife, leaves the refugees struggling for air, when his mind wanders off them.

The series is directed by Tova Magnusson (“The Most Prohibited”) and produced by Patrick Ryborn (“Backstabbing for Beginners”).

This Swedish-language film is produced by Unlimited Stories where Ryborn is a co-founder and producer. Peter Viitanen, Ville Virtanen, Sandra Stojiljkovic, Vilhelm Blomgren, Shaniaz Hama Ali star.

The six one-hour series will be released on Nov. 7. on the Swedish pubcaster Svt.

Helene Aurø, REinvent’s sales and marketing director,...

This story is presented by Netflix.

If you were looking for someone who relishes the notion of kicking ass, it’s hard to imagine anyone more willing to do so than Swedish model turned actress Frida Gustavsson, who plays Freydis Eriksdotter on Vikings: Valhalla. Freydis is a character from The Vínland Sagas, which were probably based on oral histories of earlier historical events. According to these poems, she and her brother Leif left Iceland for Greenland, and then sailed further west to “Vínland,” which we now know as North America. In The Saga of the Greenlanders, Freydís is something of a violent troublemaker, but in The Saga of Erik the Red, she is a badass defender of her colony who can fight off invaders while eight months pregnant.

As for Frida, she enjoyed an extensive career as a model for fashion magazines and brands and is generally credited as the...

Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser will release a new EP on Record Store Day, her first new music in 13 years. Fraser is releasing the five-song EP under the moniker Sun’s Signature, her duo project with partner Damon Reece (who has drummed for Massive Attack and Spiritualized, among others).

The self-titled EP will be out via Partisan, with only 8000 copies being pressed worldwide and 3700 of those are going to North America for Record Store Day on April 23. A few of the tracks, including “Underwater,” have been floating around for several years.

Exclusive: Nent streamer Viaplay is seeking to partner with more major U.S. distribution platforms as it beds in “for the long term,” according to EVP and Chief Content Officer Filippa Wallestam.

The Scandi SVoD, which launched in the U.S. last month on Comcast Xfinity at $4.99 per month, is speaking to other partners and hopes to unveil more tie-ups later this year, with plans to go D2C further down the line.

“The U.S. is the biggest streaming market in the world and we are in it for the long term,” said Wallestam, who was speaking exclusively to Deadline before an appearance at the Television Critics Association (TCA) tour.

“We don’t have U.S. subscriber targets but would like to add more distribution partners and strengthen our offering.”

The move to the U.S. represented the next stage in Viaplay’s expansion and further launches in The Netherlands...

Top Australian actor Damon Herriman and U.K.-Italian star Greta Scacchi join “Succession” star Sarah Snook in horror-thriller “Run Rabbit Run” from “The Handmaid’s Tale” director Daina Reid. The film starts production in Victoria and South Australia this week.

Snook replaced Elizabeth Moss who was previously attached, but who dropped out late last year due to scheduling clashes. Snook plays a fertility doctor whose firm grasp on the cycle of life is put to the test as her young daughter begins to exhibit increasingly strange behavior.

The script was written by acclaimed South Australian novelist Hannah Kent (“Devotion,” “Burial Rites”) from an original idea developed with Carver Films. Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Carver Films are producing.

Los Angeles-based XYZ Films is executive producing, financing and handling world sales, having taken over sales duties from STX International which previously touted the project at 2020’s virtual Cannes Market. Storyd...

Canneseries, the Cannes international series festival, will return to its spring dates in 2022 to run alongside MipTV. The 5th edition will take place April 1-6.

The pandemic caused the editions for 2020 and 2021 to be pushed to the fall. The fourth edition will run Oct. 8-13, alongside Mipcom.

“After two special seasons linked to sanitary conditions, [Canneseries] will find again its natural rhythm, with the opportunity to be held alongside MipTV one of the largest television markets in the world,” said the organizers.

“We are delighted to rediscover the effervescence and dynamism of the city of Cannes, which offers a wonderful setting for the series and the talents selected at the festival,” said Benoît Louvet, Canneseries’ managing director.

Canneseries also hosts an industry sidebar which is focused on series development and is complementary to MipTV’s focus on acquisitions and sales of programs.

Organizers didn’t clarify whether Canneseries will have a...

The Nordic giant's latest original will star Valter Skarsgård in the lead role. Nent Group is ready to launch a new original production, a biopic series about Sweden's greatest-ever ice hockey player, Börje Salming. The English-language show, created and directed by Amir Chamdin (the series Partisan), will star Valter Skarsgård in the leading role. The series, penned by Martin Bengtsson, will follow Salming's trailblazing journey from his humble roots north of the Arctic Circle to become an NHL legend. The first Swedish player inducted into the prestigious Hockey Hall of Fame, Börje Salming broke numerous records, captured the hearts of millions of fans and paved the way for countless Europeans to forge careers in the NHL, the world's best ice hockey league. In detail, Salming played over 1,100 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs across 16 seasons (1973-1989), notching 148 goals and 620 assists, and in 2017...

Netflix has set the cast for Vikings: Valhalla, a sequel to History’s hit series, from Vikings creator Michael Hirst and studio MGM Television. Sam Corlett (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Frida Gustavsson (Swoon), Leo Suter (The Liberator), Bradley Freegard (Keeping Faith), Jóhannes Jóhannesson (Cursed), Laura Berlin (Immenhof – The Adventure of a Summer), David Oakes (The Pillars of the Earth) and Caroline Henderson (Tuya Siempre) are set as series regulars and Pollyanna McIntosh and Asbjørn Krogh Nissen will recur. A premiere date has not yet been set but it’s expected to debut in late 2021 or 2022.

Vikings: Valhalla begins in the early 11th century and chronicles the legendary adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada and the Norman King William the Conqueror. These men and women will blaze a path as they fight for survival in the ever changing and evolving world.

Femi Kuti rails against oppression and corruption on his new single “As We Struggle Everyday,” a track from his upcoming album Stop the Hate, one of two releases the Nigerian musician will drop on February 5th.

“‘As We Struggle Everyday’ is about how hard people work every day to make ends meet and still go to vote corrupt politicians into power who are meant to be in jail,” said Kuti, the oldest son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.

The track is the latest offering from Stop the Hate, which is...

Swedish series was among 10 series competing in the third edition of the festival.

Swedish drama Partisan has clinched the top best series prize at the third edition of TV festival Canneseries, which ran Oct 9 to 14 as a hybrid event online and physically in its host city of Cannes.

Produced by Warner Brothers for Nordic Entertainment Group’s streaming service Viaplay, the show unfolds against the backdrop of an idyllic gated community in Sweden. Outwardly, it seems to live off its successful organic farming operation but a newcomer to the community discovers all is not as it seems.

In a rare...

A popular Swedish musician-turned-filmmaker, Amir Chamdin struck a chord with his slow-burning crime thriller series “Partisan” headlined by Fares Fares (“Chernobyl”). Before playing in competition at Canneseries, “Partisan” pulled the highest ratings for an original on Viaplay, the Nordics’ leading streaming service. “Partisan” follows Johnny (Fares Fares), a mysterious man who enters Jordnära, a seemingly idyllic gated community running a thriving organic farm, to work as a truck driver and soon suspects trafficking. The five-part series was produced by Warner Sweden and is being represented in international markets (outside of Scandinavia) by Federation Entertainment. Chamdin, who traveled to Canneseries in the South of France for the premiere of “Partisan,” spoke to Variety about the making of the series.

What’s the genesis of “Partisan”? How did you come up with this story?

I’m fond of many movies from the 1960’s and 1970’s and that inspired the look of it.

Dominated by the charisma of Swedish-Lebanese lead Fares Fares, a “Westworld” co-star, “Partisan,” a Warner Bros.- production for Scandinavia’s Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent) walked off Wednesday evening with best series at the 3rd Canneseries TV festival.

Due to play on Nent’s SVOD service Viaplay, the slow burning and unsettling Nordic Noir sees Fares Fares’ character, Johnny, accept a job at an closed gate organic food farm which is some kind of front for far more sinister activities.

Co-created by Amir Chandin and Fares and sold by Federation Entertainment, “Partisan” was part of a 10-title Canneseries competition which painted this year a fairly disturbing portrait of contemporary world.

“Although all the shows at Canneseries were made before Covid-19, they are still often very dark and often treat weighty social issues,” Albin Levi, Canneseries artistic director, told Variety.

Cannes’ special interpretation prize and student award went to the ensemble cast of “Red Light,...

Warner Bros’ Swedish drama Partisan has been named best series at the 2020 Canneseries, the screenings festival that has run alongside the virtual Mipcom.

Featuring Chernobyl and Westworld star Fares Fares, Partisan was made for Nordic Entertainment Group’s streaming service Viaplay.

Fares features as Johnny, a man who finds himself in Jordnära, a secluded Swedish village that is home to an idyllic community — at least on the surface.

The five-part series is directed by Amir Chandin (Hassel) and produced by Johanna Wennerberg for Warner Bros International Television Production Sverige with Fares as creative producer.

Other winners included Russian actress Polina Maksimova for her performance in cancer patient comedy-drama 257 Reasons to Live. The full winners are below.

Best series

Partisan

Best short form series

Broder

Best performance

Polina Maksimova for 257 Reasons to Live

Special Interpretation Prize

The cast of Red Light

Best Screenplay

Arnaud Malherbe and Marion Festraëts for Moloch

Best...

With cameras rolling again and commissioners hungry for fresh content, some of France’s biggest TV companies such as Newen, Mediawan and Federation Entertainment have so far been spared from major setbacks caused by the pandemic. Down the line, however, French players headed to Mipcom might have to rely more on streamers and international sources of financing as French broadcasters, which play a major role in funding content, could reduce their investment in 2021 as they cope with the continued drop in advertising revenues during the health crisis.

For now, at least, the massive restart of TV production in France has given industry executives some confidence in their business prospects.

When the lockdown ended in May, the French government set up a temporary indemnity fund of €50 million ($58 million) for canceled or postponed TV and film shoots during the pandemic; the fund was then doubled to €100 million ($117 million) by a pool of...

As cinemas begin to reopen again in many territories, Screen is tracking which films are released across the globe each week.

As cinemas begin to reopen again in many territories, Screen is tracking which films are being released in key territories each week.

France, opening Wednesday July 8

The French box office, which runs Wednesday to Wednesday, entered its third full week of activity on July 8, following the reopening of cinemas on June 22 after their 14-week Covid-19 hiatus. Programming for the first 10 days of reopening consisted mainly of re-released films, the theatrical careers of which were put on hold mid-March due to the lockdown,...