Norsk filminstitutt

The Golden Age of Norwegian TV drama

With two top prizes, Norway’s State of Happiness became the most winning contender at the first Canneseries TV drama festival

Lykkeland Cannes crew.jpg
Lykkeland producer Synnøve Hørsdal and writer Mette M. Bølstad holding the Canneseries prizes, surrounded by actors from the series. 

Norwegian pubcaster NRK’s State of Happiness (Lykkeland) received two out of five top prizes at the first Canneseries TV drama festival between 4-11 April to become the most winning among the 10 international high-end contenders: the 8x45min series about the Norwegian oil adventure garnered Norwegian writer Mette M Bølstad the award for Best Original Script, while Norwegian composer Ginge Anvik was honoured for Best Musical Score. 


Golden Age

 “This is the Golden Age for Norwegian TV drama, which wins prizes and captures audiences all over the world. The producers deliver high quality and a vast array of stories and voices, and this is noticed. Norwegian drama series are simply in the top of the world right now,” said said Stine Helgeland, head of Communication, Insight and International Relations at the Norwegian Film Institute.

 

Starring Malene Wadel (19), all from Stavanger, and UK actor Bart Edwards, State of Happiness was written by Bølstad from a concept by Siv Rajendram Eliassen (Acquitted), and directed by Petter Næss and Pål Jackman. With a cast including Anna Hellevik, Pia Tjelta, Toril Torstensen, Christian Nymann, Per Kjerstad and US actor Jonathan Kay, it is set in the small Norwegian coastal town of Stavanger, where international oil companies have been test drilling for years, but nothing has been found, and they are in the process of leaving.

Lives off fish, finds oil 

Stavanger lives off fish, and the North Sea is emptying out – the town is in crisis, as described in the Maipo Film production by Synnøve Hørsdal and Ales Ree. Then, on the night before Christmas, Phillips Petroleum finds the largest sub sea oil basin in history, and everything is about to change during the next three years. Supported by the Norwegian Film Institute,  Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Norway’s Zefyr Media Fund, the series is internationally distributed by Denmark’s DR Sales, which has already contracted, ao,  Danish pubcaster DR and Finnish pubcaster YLE.