Neuigkeiten

The Vikings are coming back. In a huge development since its announcement, Prime Video's upcoming epic series Bloodaxe has announced that six cast members have joined the main cast as series regulars. The historical drama will chronicle the life and achievements of one of history’s most famous Norse raiders, Erik Bloodaxe. The series will begin filming in Ireland and Iceland later this summer, and the title character will be played by Xavier Molyneux (Take My Hand). Molyneux will be joined by Karlis Arnolds Avots, Rod Hallett, Alina Tomnikov, Sisse Marie, and Rune Temte.

Avots will play Egil, one of Erik's enemies who wants revenge after Bloodaxe's father exiled his family to Iceland. The adversary is described by Prime Video as "a poet, farmer, murderer, sorcerer, ladies’ man, and a bit of a psychopath." Avots previously starred in January, Soviet Jeans, and The Good Neighbor. The King of Wessex...

The Gentlemen star Daniel Ings has joined Catherine Zeta-Jones in Prime Video, Fremantle and Steel Springs Pictures’ Kill Jackie, which has rounded out cast.

Ings will play buttoned-up lawyer Sam in the thriller series, which is an adaptation of Aidan Truhen‘s “gonzo thriller” The Price You Pay.

Ings is joined by Sidse Babett Knudsen (Prime Target, Borgen), Óscar Jaenada (Rambo V, Cantinflas), Hattie Hook (Of An Age, Ten Pound Poms), Darci Shaw (A Thousand Blows, This City is Ours), Raff Law (Masters of The Air, Triton), Enzo Cilenti (Black Mirror, The Crown), Christine Adams (Hijack, Malice), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Britannia, Napoleon), Karlis Arnolds Avots (Soviet Jeans, Lovable), Set Sjöstrand (The Wheel of Time, Valhalla), Tadashi Ito (Society of the Snow, The Platform 2),Sebastian Armesto (Gangs of London, A Small Light), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh, The Great), Gavin Spokes (House of The Dragon, Slow Horses), Jonathan Cake (And Just Like That,...

The Baltic States — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania — are ready for a boom in local TV productions, and international partners are invited.

“It’s an intriguing environment — contemporary and innovative, but we carry tons of Soviet heritage,” says Toomas Ili, head of content at Elisa Estonia. “Our scenery and architecture has yet to be seen by the world, so Hollywood productions are looking into the Baltics. Then there’s our ability to do more with less.” His latest show, the Ukrainian-Estonian drama “My Dear Mother,” about a woman forced to deal with her mother’s tragic death, will premiere at Berlinale Series Market Selects.

“I was asked which series it resembles. The answer is none,” he says.

“Writer Raoul Suvi has delicately stitched together all the elements as the story unravels, keeping the viewer — and the characters — in the dark until the end.” When Elisa Estonia started producing dramas six years ago,...

With Baltic shows growing bigger and bolder and producers looking for more international collaborators, local creators reach for original stories and established IPs, delivering period dramas and timely satires. However, crime shows, whether contemporary – like this year’s Berlinale Series Market Selects “My Dear Mother” – or set in the 19th century, still take the crown. Or at least the top hat.

“Melchior the Apothecary”

Creators: Indrek Hargla, Elmo Nüganen, Olle Mirme

Director: Elmo Nüganen

Based on popular crime series books by Indrek Hargla – about an apothecary who heals the sick and solves mysteries – the show is set in medieval Tallinn. Shot as a trilogy, which was a box-office success in Estonia, it’s sold by Global Screen as a miniseries. It features Märten Metsaviir and Maarja Johanna Mägi, who was chosen as one of Berlinale’s Shooting Stars and will be next seen in the Finnish remake of “Cold Feet.

Now in its 28th edition, the European Shooting Stars platform run by European Film Promotion brings another 10 promising European acting talents to the Berlin Film Festival, with the goal to help them build their careers internationally. From Feb. 14-17, the selected performers will participate in workshops and panels, as well as meetings with international journalists, producers and casting directors. The program culminates in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast where they will each receive the European Shooting Stars Award.

This year’s Shooting Stars were selected by a jury comprised of Romanian director and screenwriter Radu Muntean, Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson, Swiss producer Amel Soudani, French actress and former Shooting Star Ludivine Sagnier and Montenegrin journalist and curator Vuk Perović. They were selected from candidates nominated by their national film promotion institutes and film centers.

What this year’s group of Shooting Stars has in common besides the potential...

The jury for European Shooting Stars, the program that promotes rising actors from Europe, has revealed its 2025 lineup. Shooting Stars from previous editions have included Riz Ahmed, Leonie Benesch, George MacKay, Carey Mulligan, Alba Rohrwacher, Bill Skarsgård, Alicia Vikander and Maisie Williams.

The actors will be presented to the international press, film industry and public during the 75th Berlinale, which runs Feb. 13 – 23. They will take part in a tailor-made, four-day program that will culminate with an awards ceremony on Feb. 17 at the Berlinale Palast. The program is organized by European Film Promotion and is supported by Creative Europe’s Media Programme of the European Union.

The 10 actors selected for its 28th edition are Marina Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden).

The Shooting Stars were...

The Girl With The Needle star Besir Zeciri and Devrim Lingnau, lead in Netflix series The Empress are among the 10 actors selected for the 2025 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars.

The 10 Stars will participate in a four-day programme at next year’s Berlinale, culminating with the European Shooting Stars awards ceremony on February 17 at the Berlinale Palast.

Scroll down for the full list

Each Shooting Stars submission must highlight one performance from the actor’s career, which may be from an as-yet-unreleased work.

Danish entry Zeciri hails from Copenhagen, and played a leading role in Magnus von Horn...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Following last edition’s trip to the Czech Republic, we are staying in Europe this time round with Soviet Jeans, the buzziest show to come out of Latvia this decade. The series — part-love story, part absurdist comedy — follows a young rock fan who begins illegally producing American-style jeans after being sent to a mental asylum for political reasons. Though budgets in Latvia are minuscule compared with those in many other territories, its producers found a way to create an award-winning series...

Exclusive: The makers of Latvian breakout drama Soviet Jeans are ironing out the creases on a second season.

We understand that producer Tasse Film is moving ahead on a new season of the Series Mania favorite that will move the action on nearly a decade from the original 1979 setting, which was 12 years before Latvia was freed from communist rule.

Plot details are scarce, but we hear two episodes will unfold in Germany on either side of the Berlin Wall right before its collapse in 1989. The love story between lead character Renars (Karlis Arnolds Avots) and Tina (Aamu Milonoff) will once again trigger the plot and form its backbone.

Stanislavs Tokalovs and Teodora Markova are returning as writers and showrunners, and development is well underway. Baltic streamer Go3 is once again on board and funding from international partners is being sought, with the creative team looking to supersize Season 2 as an international co-production.

Covered with laurels for his recent series “Soviet Jeans” (audience award at Series Mania 2024) and for his features “Modris” (Latvia’s Oscar submission 2014) and “Oleg” (Cannes Director’s Fortnight entry 2019), Latvian writer/director Juris Kursietis is competing at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival’s Official Selection with “The Exalted,” due to world premiere Nov. 14.

The satire about cultural clashes between Eastern and Western Europe, seen through the prism of an upper-class couple, has just been acquired by newly launched French sales outfit B-Rated International, outside the co-producing countries Estonia, Latvia, and Greece.

“The Exalted” offers a harsh and cynical portrayal of the upper class,” said Arnaud Chevallier, formerly at Mediawan International Sales and founder of the Paris-based outfit. “We admire the pic’s brilliant and subtle directing and are convinced that it will resonate with foreign audiences due to its globally relevant themes and multiple languages spoken throughout the film.

Tiina Lokk, the founder and managing director of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF), one of the largest festivals in Northern Europe, has put together with her team of 15 programmers, another strong and varied harvest for the fest’s 28th edition unspooling Nov. 8-23 in the Estonian capital.

Split into six main competition strands and another 37 sections, this year’s lineup frames a wealth of world film gems for all tastes, with an emphasis on the best from the Baltic and Nordic regions, Central and Eastern Europe.

A total of 250 features and 323 short films from 82 countries will be showcased across PÖFF’S main program and the sub-festival Just Film for kids and youth, including 57 world premieres and 27 international premieres.

Next to the German feel-good comedy “Long Story Short” set to kick start the event on Nov. 8, hotly anticipated world premieres include Klaus Härö’s “Never Alone” (acquired...

Ahead of Cannes Mipcom confab, Beta Film has closed a string of major deals on six premium series from Central Eastern Europe, a proof of the region’s fast transformation into a prime destination for multi-territory players such as HBO, Canal+ and Walter Presents, hungry for culturally-specific stories with global potential. Five of the shows come with a raft of prestigious accolades.

Case in point is the Serbian “Operation Sabre,“ winner of a Special Interpretation Award at Canneseries and Best Cee Drama at the recent Czech Serial Killer Festival, snapped up by HBO for the Cee region and Filmin for Spain and Portugal.

“We are extremely happy and grateful to have Beta Film on board as they are doing an amazing work with sales,“ said producer Snežana van Houwelingen of This and That Productions who also looks forward to the Serbian premiere on the local pubcaster Rts on Nov. 2. “The...

Estonia’s Jevgeni Supin from Zolba Productions, credited for the first Estonian Viaplay original “Who Shot Otto Mueller,” has unveiled his slate of five high-end dramas, including “My Dear Mother” repped by Film.UA Group and “Von Fock,” due to world premiere at Tallinn TV Beats’ first Screening Day on Nov. 20.

Supin’s extensive slate and the caliber of his TV projects, all framed as international co-productions, reflect both his ambition to set Estonian -and Baltic- drama on the global map and his pioneering breakthroughs in co-production.

The four-part period crime “Von Fock”, for instance, was the first Estonian series ever to receive support from both Creative Europe’s Media Program and Eurimages’ pilot program for series co-productions in June. “This [EU public money] meant the world to me,” said Supin, who recently stepped down as head of TV Beats Forum to fully focus on producing. “It shows that we indie producers from the...

Seriesmakers, twinning Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV fest, and European film-tv powerhouse Beta Group, is opening up its selection criteria to embrace directors of box office smashes or hits at festivals beyond “A” list events.

Launching 2022 as a project-based mentorship program for film directors aiming to become TV series creators, Seriesmakers has fast consolidated as one of Europe’s top-notch training facilities.

“Game of Thrones” producer-director Frank Doelger, “Babylon Berlin” producer Stefan Arndt, Ron Leshem and “Narcos” creator Chris Brancato featured as speakers at its 2023-24 edition.

Led by Cannes Grand Prix winner Juho Kuosmanen (“Compartment No. 6”), seven of the 10 TV projects showcased at its first 2022-23 edition were from directors who had been selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Now, as it prepares its third edition whose call for applications closes June 20, Seriesmakers is aiming for a larger inclusivity.

For its first and second editions, being chosen in...

Man vs. machine chess thriller Rematch was awarded the International Competition grand prize at the 2024 Series Mania festival on Friday night (March 22) in Lille, France.

Inspired by the true story of the historic confrontation between chess master Garry Kasparov and Ibm’s supercomputer Deep Blue, the AI-themed story created by Yan England, André Gulluni and Bruno Nahon is produced by Unité, Arte France, Federation Studios and Proton and stars Christian Cooke. Federation Studios handles international sales.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The international competition jury, presided by The Oa creator Zal Batmanglij, also gave awards to the stars...

The Series Mania Festival’s top prize for best series went to Rematch, a French-Hungarian drama about the historic match between chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and Ibm’s Deep Blue computer.

The best actress prize went to Annette Bening for her role in Apples Never Fall, the first major TV role up from the five-time Oscar nominee. Kamel El Basha won best actor for the Australian drama House of Gods, in which he played the charismatic head cleric of a big city mosque.

In the Apples Never Fall adaptation, based on the novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, Bening plays Joy Delaney, family matriarch and patient wife to the irascible former tennis pro, Stan (Sam Neill). When Joy disappears, the four adult Delaney children are forced to reassess everything they thought they knew about their parents and their family history. Bening was also a best actress Oscar contender...

It has been a while since “The Queen’s Gambit,” but as proven by “Rematch,” viewers’ love for chess is certainly not diminishing.

The show, dedicated to confrontation between famous chess player Garry Kasparov and Ibm’s supercomputer Deep Blue, was named the winner at Series Mania.

A somewhat lukewarm reception of “Apples Never Fall” didn’t stop Annette Bening from being crowned as best actress. The Peacock offering, also featuring Sam Neill and Alison Brie, is the latest adaptation of “Big Little Lies” and “Nine Perfect Strangers” scribe Liane Moriarty. Now showing a perfect family who, following its matriarch’s disappearance, needs to face some uncomfortable questions. Including this one: Did their beloved father have something to do with it?

Jury member Berenice Bejo read out a brief message of thanks from Bening who described the series as a “labor of love.”

Kamel El Basha, who plays the more progressive...

Annette Bening’s first major TV series role has won the five-time Oscar nominee the Best Actress prize at this year’s Series Mania.

Bening was awarded in the past few minutes at the prestigious Lille event for her leading role in Peacock series Apples Never Fall, an adaptation of a novel by Big Little Lies scribe Liane Moriarty.

The coveted grand prize was given to French-Hungarian chess drama Rematch about the historic 1997 chess battle between Garry Kasparov and an Ibm computer. It beat off competition from the likes of Apples Never Fall, MGM+’s Hotel Cocaine and Leonard Cohen show So Long, Marianne.

Apples Never Fall stars Bening as Joy Delaney, a matriarch former tennis coach married to the irritable Stan (Neill), who suddenly goes missing, leaving her four children to piece together everything they thought they knew about their parents.

Speaking to Deadline prior to Series Mania, showrunner...

Exclusive: Bridgerton star Shelley Conn has boarded Beta Film thriller series Wisting’s third season.

Conn will take on the unknown role in the second half of the season and Beta has struck a slew of territory deals for the 26-parter, which airs on Germany’s Ard. The German major has sold Wisting to Sbs Australia, Warner Bros. Discovery for Max in Latin America, AMC Spain and Portugal, and Antenna Greece.

Four episodes will premiere on Viaplay later this month and the second half of the season starring Conn will premiere in Scandinavia later this year.

In the new season of Wisting, a young boy disappears from his family’s hotel and an employee with close ties to the family is found murdered. William Wisting and his colleagues are under immense pressure to solve the murder and find the boy before it’s too late, but...

As the Berlinale Series Market celebrates its 10th anniversary, series continue to stand “side by side” with films at the German fest, observes EFM director Dennis Ruh.

“Bsm continues to be a beacon for all aspects of serialized content, even in years where space feels tighter with less films and series, giving selected titles more exposure,” he says, mentioning a “vibrant influx” of international professionals eager to showcase their shows.

Although the sidebar for series has been discontinued, they are present in Berlinale Special and Panorama sections. Apart from Netflix’s “Supersex” and “Dostoevskij” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, Berlinale Series Market Selects will spotlight 15 new shows.

“We prioritize narratives that captivate with their originality, championing diversity in representation, genre and geography. The goal is to amplify these stories, ensuring they receive the global attention they deserve,” explains Ruh, pointing out another important trend: comedy. “This might be a reaction...

Martin Scorsese is going down as one of the most consistent directors ever, for no matter how you receive a movie of his, he still maintains his vision and his passion for the craft. The director has cemented himself in film culture with movies like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, etc. At 81 years old, Scorsese is still garnering acclaim and accolades for his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is also featuring a breakout performance by Golden Globe-winner Lily Gladstone. Scorsese would recently receive a special Best Director Award from the National Board of Review, which would bring his former Gangs of New York star, Daniel Day-Lewis, into the public spotlight.

Variety is reporting that Scorsese is set to be honored at the Berlin Film Festival next month with a Golden Bear Award. His ceremony will also be screening his film The Departed. Interestingly, The Departed is also...

When Martin Scorsese is lauded with Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear next month, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by a screening of his 2006 film “The Departed.”

The crime thriller, which won four Oscars including best picture and director, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. The film tells the story of an Irish mob boss who plants a spy within the Massachusetts State Police just as the police assign an undercover cop to infiltrate the gang. What follows is a race to expose the other’s identity first.

The Berlinale on Wednesday also announced that Levan Akin’s “Crossing” will open this year’s Panorama section, which will focus on “bridges between lived experiences and cinematic possibilities.” “Crossing” follows an unlikely duo who travel “from Batumi, Georgia to the urban, labyrinthine Istanbul in search of a young trans woman named Tekla,” according to the fest’s description.