02/02/2023 - The director and main writer of the series, Kenneth Karlstad, was present to accept the €20,000 award

Kenneth Karlstad picking up the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize (© Tatyana Mircheva)

At the 46^th Göteborg Film Festival, and on the first day of its TV Drama Vision industry strand, the Norwegian TV series Kids in Crime emerged as the winner of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, given out by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond for the seventh time in a row. The trophy, worth NOK 200,000 (€20,000), was bestowed upon the main writer and director, Kenneth Karlstad.

Karlstad is a Norwegian director and screenwriter of fiction works, music videos and commercials. His debut short film, The Hunger, earned him a Young Director Award at Cannes in 2019 and the Film Critics Award at the Norwegian Short Film Festival. He’s also won several awards for his work on music videos. Kids in Crime is his long-format debut.

The jury comprised Danish actress Amanda Collin, Croatian producer Nebojša Taraba, Swedish journalist and critic Wanda Bendjelloul, and Leif Holst Jensen, producer and dean of faculty, TV and Games, at Inland University of Applied Sciences in Norway. The jury statement reads: "We have based our evaluation on three main criteria: craft, relevance and originality. The winner has it all. It's based on a true universe from a certain time. The authenticity, honesty, brutality and friendship drive the story and engage the audience. Accuracy, details, music – it's all in the script! The writer really owns the story.” The participants in the competition also included Iceland’s As Long as We Live, Sweden’s Blackwater, Denmark’s Carmen Curlers and Finland’s The Invincibles.

Kids in Crime is an unusual coming-of-age series, set in the year 2001. The show is about three teens, Tommy, Pål and Monica, who get into trouble after incurring a large debt to the local drug lord, Freddy Hell. In the midst of this chaos, they move into a house, to party and use as many drugs as possible. But all parties must come to an end, and this particular end could be quite bloody.

Directed by Kenneth Karlstad, and co-written by Karlstad and Audun Fagervold Hansen, the series is produced by Brede Hovland, Teodor Sven Bø and Pål Kruke Kristiansen for Einar Film Drama. The show premiered last November on Norwegian pubcaster TV2 Norge, and Federation Studios is handling the series internationally.