Gothenburg Nordic Series Script Award Includes ‘Secrets We Keep’

Netflix barnstormer “Secrets We Keep,” Canneserie top winner “A Better Man” and “Vignis,” directed by “The Witcher” star Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, will compete for the 2026 Nordic Series Script Award, the Gothenburg Film Festival’s toughest industry accolade.

Also on the shortlist, announced on Thursday, is ‘My Brother’, the second Nordic Script Award nomination in three years for Denmark’s Karin Arrhenius, and Finland’s ‘Queen of Fucking Everything’, from former actor Tiina Lymi who elevated her reputation as a writer and director with the Gothenburg-selected feature film ‘Stormskerry Maja’.

The Script Award, presented by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond in collaboration with the Swedish Gothenburg Film Festival, promotes series writers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, with a cash prize of NOK 200,000 ($19,800).

In the past, the five-title shortlist has often included a mix of established and emerging creators, such as the 2025 winner, emerging writer Pelle Rådström behind the sensational ‘Pressure Point’.

For 2026, however, the Award simply highlights the key writing talent behind five of the biggest Scandinavian drama series hits that premiered in 2025. That’s saying something, given the ability of Scandinavian series to captivate audiences at home and abroad.

The portrait thriller of a wealthy woman about to reconsider her woolly liberal platitudes, Denmark’s ‘Secrets We Keep’, written by Ingeborg Topsøe, turned out to be one of Netflix’s three biggest non-English series between January and September 2025, with a score of 35 million views, surpassed only by season 3 of ‘The Squid Game’ (122 million views) and the German ‘Cassandra’ (36 million).

Norway’s ‘A Better Man’, made by Thomas Seeberg Torjussen (‘Zombielars’), sold by Beta Film, won the awards for best series and performances (Anders Baasmo, ‘Kon-Tiki’) at Cannes in April and then scored the prizes for best international series and the audience award at the Serielizados in Barcelona in November.

Written by Ágústa M Ólafsdóttir and Björg Magnúsdóttir (‘The Minister’), directed by Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, King Eisin in ‘The Witcher’, and produced by Vesturport, behind Series Mania top prize winner ‘Blackport’, ‘Vigdis’ scored a 60% market share for the Icelandic public broadcaster as of January 1, 2025 RUV.

“Queen of Fucking Everything,” an original series from Finnish public broadcaster YLE, is often billed as Finland’s “Breaking Bad.” Produced and sold by Rabbit Films, behind Disney+’s ‘Mobile 101’, and sold well to New8 European broadcast partners ZDF (Germany), NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway) and RUV (Iceland). It also delivered Yle’s biggest first-week domestic series in several years.

From “The Bridge” and “Caliphate” producer Filmlance International, part of Banijay Entertainment, and sold by TrustNordisk “My Brother” is a big swing from Swedish pubcaster SVT, which bowed on Swedish state television SVT on December 26 to 1.5 million views, more than a tenth of the Swedish population.

Directed by Sanna Lenken (“Thin Blue Line,” “Pressure Point”), it is written by Arrhenius, increasingly known after “Rebecca Martinsson” (2017-20) and “Blackwater,” nominated for the Nordic Series Script Award in 2023 and also winner of the Series Mania International Panorama best series.

“Nordisk Film & TV Fond celebrates the excellence of Scandinavian drama every day through our top funding schemes. Because no productions happen without the visions and skills of Scandinavian creators and writers, we want to annually shine an extra spotlight on the talents behind excellent drama series, one from each Nordic country,” said Liselott Forsman, CEO of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

“We are proud to once again highlight some of the most talented screenwriters from the Nordic countries,” said Cia Edström, head of Gothenburg TV Drama Vision, the TV forum and market. “The 2026 nominated series vary in tone and style, but they share a common strength: bold, compelling stories that offer hope for the future of drama in the Nordic countries.”

The jury for the Nordic Series Script Award consists of Norwegian actor Agnes Kittelsen; Nanna Frank Rasmussen, a journalist, from Denmark and Henning Kamm, executive producer and director at Real Film Berlin.

The winners of the Nordic Series Awards will be announced at a ceremony on January 27. A second award, the Creative Courage Award, honoring the producer and commissioner of a series that boldly pushes creative boundaries and embraces innovation, will also be announced during the ceremony.

A closer look at the series:

‘A better person’,

Norway, 4 x 50 min
Nominated writer: Thomas Seeberg Torjussen
Broadcaster: NRK
Produced by: Maipo Film; produced by Christian Fredrik Martin, Synnøve Hørsdal; director: Seeberg Torjussen; co-director: Gjyljeta Berisha; sales: Betafilm

A misogynistic internet troll, Tom, who has been exposed. Disguised as a woman to avoid further persecution, he becomes a better man and finds a sense of self-respect as he navigates a rocky road to redemption. By tackling three burning issues of the modern age – internet trolls, cancel culture and masculinity – ‘A Better Man’ manages to explain trolls and suggest how to stop them and is a compelling, moving story. That’s a major achievement that requires a nuanced performance from protagonist Anders Baasmo, involving two physical transformations and a hard-won spiritual makeover.

“My brother,” (“Jag for ner tot bror”)

Sweden, 4 x 45 min

Nominated writer: Karin Arrhenius
Broadcaster: SVT
Produced by: Filmlance International; producer: Anna Wallmark; director: Sanna Lenken; sales: Nordisk Film Danmark, TrustNordisk

Arrhenius adapts the first novel by Karin Smirnoff, who became famous when she was invited to write a new book in Stieg Larssen’s ‘Millennium’ novel series. If Lisbeth Salander is dark, Jana Kippo’s story in “My Brother” is even darker, teased as she returns to remote Smalånger to save her twin brother as he drinks himself to death after heartbreak. Gradually, however, she is confronted with her own raw story of horrific abuse. Intense, often brutal, featuring three leads led by Amanda Jansson as Jana, who just can’t take it as the series delivers a scathing suppression of rumors and heartlessness from the small town community.

“Queen of F*cking Everything,”

Finland, 6 x 50 min

Nominated writer: Tiina Lymi

Broadcaster: Yle

Produced by: Rabbit Films, producer: Minna Haapkylä; director: Tiina Lymi; sale: Rabbit films

Linda, a real estate saleswoman who lives in luxury, wakes up one day to find her husband missing and $3 million in debt. She resorts to everything – dealing cocaine to the Costa del Sol mafia, becoming a Shakespearean sonnet quoting the drug lord’s lover, and even murder – to maintain her lifestyle. Written and directed by Lymi (“Stormskerry Maja”), a drama-comedy that develops a distinctly dark thriller edge from episode 3, driving a parable of a woman taking revenge on a world she is convinced never loved her until she reaches the work’s title status; and social status be damned.

‘Secrets we keep’

Denmark, 6 x 30-40 min

Nominated writer: Ingeborg Topsøe

Co-writers: Ina Bruhn, Mads Tafdrup

Broadcaster: Netflix

Produced by: Uma Film; producer: Claudia Saginario: director: Per Fly; sales: Netflix

In North Zealand, a Riviera of white stone mansions in Copenhagen, au pair Ruby disappears after begging neighbor Cecilie for help. The main suspects are Rasmus, a smart big shot, or his son, 15, who drone-cam Cecilie while she has sex. A mystery thriller packed with social observation – about noblesse-oblige privilege and its economics, as well as parenting, racism and gender violence – ‘Secrets We Keep’ is lavishly shot by Per Fly (‘Follow the Money’), adding even more social sarcasm to a taut, tense social issue mystery thriller written by Topsøe, who impressed with Milad Alami’s ‘The Charmer’, building on Fly’s majestic final shot, loaded with the new-found awareness of her own social horror.

“Vigdis”, (Vigdis)

Iceland, 4 x 60 min

Nominated writers: Ágústa M. Ólafsdóttir and Björg Magnúsdóttir

Broadcaster: RÚV

Produced by: Vesturport, Vigdís Production; producer: Rakel Garðarsdóttir; directors: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Tinna Hrafnsdóttir; sales: Reinvent Yellow International Sales

A four-part biography of Vigdis Finnbogadóttir, who in 1980 became the first woman in the world to be democratically elected president of their country and the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. The series begins with the 1980 televised presidential debate and traces its origins from a high school student in World War II Iceland, angered by the manosphere of the time by life’s vicissitudes: a miscarriage, divorce, a years-long struggle to adopt. What’s so impressive, though, is how “Vigdis” pinpoints her driving passions — her determination, for example, to make her parents proud of her after an early family tragedy — leading to a big emotional payoff in a moving finale.