Bobbie Peers’ short film To Plant a Flag, starring Jake Johnson and Jason Schwartzman, is the winner of the Uppsala International Short Film Festival’s UR Award. The Uppsala International Short Film Festival is Sweden’s premier short film festival.

The jury motivates its choice of To Plant a Flag thusly:

“An astonishing story where aspiring plans face unforeseen real-world obstacles. With a silly sense of humor an encounter is portrayed between dissimilar worlds where cultures and expectations collide. This wonderful fusion of excellent screenwriting, skillful acting and beautiful footage will leave the viewer with a film experience beyond the usual.”

Anders de la Motte’s Dead of Winter, Stina Jackson’s The Silver Road and Anders Roslund’s Three Hours have been shortlisted for the prestigious 2018 Swedish Academy of Crime Writers’ Award for ‘Best Swedish Crime Novel’. Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth has been shortlisted in the second category, ‘Best Translated Crime Novel’.

The winning authors will be announced on November 25th.

Acclaimed Finnish filmmaker and Oscar nominee Selma Vilhunen has rapidly gained international success with her feature films, shorts and documentaries. Her fiction feature debut Little Wing (2016) played at more than 50 festivals around the world, received wonderful reviews and was, among many prizes and nominations, awarded the Nordic Council Film Prize 2017.

Vilhunen’s most recent documentary, the praised Hobbyhorse Revolution (2017), was the winner of ‘Best Documentary’ at the 2018 Jussi Awards and her latest feature, Stupid Young Heart (2018) had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was very well received.

Every night when the clock strikes twelve, the lights go on in the Old Tree. All the birds, insects and critters of the forest gather to stand in line as the Colors show up in the tree’s doorways, paint cans filled with rainbow dust at the ready. It’s time to paint all the animals and have them spread the dust far and wide so that when the sun rises again, it’ll shine down on a world blazing with color.

But something is terribly wrong in the Old Tree: The bees have started swarming, flying off to who knows where even though it’s still mid-winter. But without bees, there’ll be no honey, and without honey, there’ll be no rainbow dust – even the youngest Color knows that. Still, no one is doing anything about it! Except for one small and easily frightened Color called Hardy and his unruly little sister, Rascal. Why are the bees disappearing? And what can two small Colors do in the fight against the scary and beady-eyed Gray Rats?

The Great Honey War is the internationally bestselling Ingar Johnsrud’s debut in children’s fiction. The Great Honey War is the first book in the series called The Colors.

On a December eve in 1987, a dance hall burns to the ground and a young woman is killed in the fire. Thirty years later, Laura Aulin returns to the small community, her safe haven until the night of the fire. But Laura’s presence stirs up repressed emotions and suddenly new fires are being set all over town, and even the people Laura thought she knew best turn out to have long-held secrets.

Dead of Winter is a spine-chilling suspense novel about unbreakable blood ties, betrayal, and scars that never fade. The novel is the third stand-alone installment in Anders de la Motte’s bestselling Skåne Quartet.

Oslo, 2018. Former queen of long-distance running Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always No. 1. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm goes to Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib number – “1” – has been pinned to the television.

Police officer Alexander Blix still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he fired his gun and killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Blix is given the job of heading the missing person investigation. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at different locations, but the timing of the clues’ appearance seems to be carefully calculated. Is it all part of a greater plan they’re not yet seeing?

Circumstances force Blix and Emma to work together. Both are determined to find and stop the merciless killer with an obvious taste for the dramatic. He’s hungry for attention. And he’s just gotten his first taste of it…

Death Deserved is the first installment in a planned series.

Jørn Lier Horst (b. 1970) and Thomas Enger (b. 1973) are the internationally bestselling Norwegian authors of the William Wisting and Henning Juul series respectively.

Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his No. 1 internationally bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense. To date, Horst has authored two crime fiction series for adults and two crime fiction series for younger readers, both of which are the most popular children’s book series in their respective age categories.

Thomas Enger is the journalist-turned-author behind the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Henning Juul series. Enger’s trademark has become a darkly gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.

Death Deserved is Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger’s first co-written novel and the first installment in a suspense series that combines the very best of both authorships.