At the 47th Göteborg Film Festival, during the inaugural day of its TV Drama Vision industry strand on 30 January, the Norwegian TV series Power Play [+leggi anche:
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scheda series] clinched victory as the recipient of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. The award, presented by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond for the eighth consecutive year, carried a substantial value of NOK 200,000 (€20,000). The accolade was conferred upon the series’ writers, Johan Fasting, Silje Storstein and Kristin Grue.

The jury consisted of Danish editor, producer and screenwriter Vinca Wiedemann; Swedish actor Joel Spira; Ukrainian producer Kateryna Vyshnevska; and Finnish journalist and critic Charlotte Winberg. In their official statement, the jury remarked, “Choosing a winner from a diverse array of such high-quality drama has been both a privilege and a pleasure for us. The nominees have been diverse: [they cover topics] from politics to human despair, from love for a mother to a tragic disaster at sea, from families and co-workers to friends and enemies. But the series that captured us the most was the one that managed to embrace seemingly dull historical facts with humour and playfulness, and which depicted an epoch of political history with all the nuances of human idealism and flaws. Power Play stayed loyal to its essence of truth, lies and poor memory.”

The other nominees for the award also included Kim Fupz Aakeson for Prisoner [+leggi anche:
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scheda series] (Denmark), Miikko Oikkonen for Estonia (Finland), Tinna Hrafnsdóttir for Descendants (Iceland – see the news), and Johan Lundborg and Gabriela Pichler for Painkiller (Sweden – see the news).

Power Play, which unfolds in the year 1974 but has been transported to a 2023 setting, is an unprecedented drama delving into a pivotal moment in political history, navigating the realms of truth, deceit and faulty recollection. Against the backdrop of a devastating feud between the chairman and the prime minister within the Labour Party, young idealist Gro Harlem Brundtland finds herself reluctantly entangled in the strategies and machinations of contemporary politics. As the government collapses around her, Gro adapts to the intricate game of power, ascending through the ranks until she stands as the sole woman amidst the remnants of Labour's once-celebrated social democracy.

Directed by Yngvild Sve Flikke, and co-written by Johan Fasting, Silje Storstein and Kristin Grue, the series was produced by Camilla Brusdal and Vilje Kathrine Hagen for Motlys and Novemberfilm. The show premiered last October on Norwegian pubcaster NRK, and REinvent is handling it internationally.