Finland’s biggest international film and TV drama market, Finnish Film Affair, unspooling parallel to the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, has unpacked its full program, rolling out Sept. 23-25 in the Finnish capital.
In the pure Nordic tradition of mind-blowing chills and thrills, genre-bending content and documentaries are headlining the slate of 38 titles from the Nordics and beyond, to be pitched to 500-plus attendees at FFA’s centerpiece Showcase Day, Sept. 24.
Selected as FFA opener, Hanna Bergholm’s horror “Nightborn,” top winner at the Fantasia Festival and Berlinale Golden Bear contender, will set the tone for this year’s Nordic market, where eight Nordic genre pics in development will compete for best pitch, as part of a new partnership with the Nordic Genre Lab. The training and networking program is the brainchild of seasoned Finnish executive Laura Laaksonen (Purr PR), co-founder of Nordic Genre Lab with former Netflix executive Claire Willats (Two Magpie Entertainment).
Lydia Taylerson
Courtesy of Alejandro Ramirez
“We’ve partly replaced our Finnish Weird section with the Nordic Genre Lab showcase which fills the need on the market for fun, quality, genre-bending content from the Nordics,” FFA head of industry Lydia Taylerson told Variety.
Genre projects to watch include Making Movies’ “Alma” helmed by Pete Riski (“Icebreaker,” “Dark Floors”) from a script by Ilja Rautsi (“Red Snow,” “Nightborn”), the first Faroese horror feature “Whistler,” produced by Outlier Projects, “Linden Lane 6,” produced by the prolific banner It’s Alive Films (“Euthanizer,” “100 Litres of Gold”) and “Trespassers,” produced by Patrick Andersson (“Midsommar”), with Mylla Films co-founder Jakob Abrahamsson.
Headlining the six-title documentary slate selected by Tayleron, Mourad-Anis Moussa (Visions du Réel) and Erika Dilday (American Documentary Inc.) is “Lonesome Land,” by prominent filmmaker Virpi Suutari.
“Lonesome Land”
Courtesy of Euphoria Film
Besides Suutari’s latest plea to safeguard Finnish forests after her multi-awarded “Once Upon a Time in a Forest,” topics range from a tribute to working-class Italian men during WW2 in “Umarells – We Know Better,” to biopics about New York/Helsinki-based late artist Iria Leino in “Dear Iria,” and fallen-from grace Olympic medallist Mika Myllylä in “Myllylä.”
On the scripted front, the eight films in development and five works in progress selected by Taylerson, Katre Kajamäe-Gupta (Eurimages) and Natasha Degnova (LeveK) play across an equally wide range of topics and genres.
“We have familiar faces such as Aku Louhimies, Pamela Tola, the up-and-coming Laura Hyppönen, who first pitched her project “Lex Julia” at Finnish Film Affair in 2021, and true newcomers Kyran Davies and Scott Quinn with “The Lost Sons of Nada,” one of the rare Finnish-U.K. co-production projects,” noted Taylerson.
“Lex Julia” is also one of four Nordic selections, together with the Norwegian thriller “11 Hours,” the Danish psycho drama “Without You” and Icelandic coming-of-age “Just a Kid.”
As for the popular Series session curated by APFI (Audiovisual Producers Finland), this year’s slate of six TV titles range from thrillers and crime shows to teen drama and animation from hot helmers including American Film Institute graduate Jojo Erholtz (“Maria Kallio,” “Tape”) and Elin Grönblom (“Bloodsuckers”).
European Drive
“All in all, it’s been very interesting to receive a record number of submissions for the Fiction in Development (45), Fiction in Progress (11-the largest number since 2022) and Documentaries (22), which proves the attractiveness of Finland as filming and production destination,” Taylerson observed.
“Also, this year we ended up with quite a few European co-productions in the final lineup, another display of the growing trend of Europe-leaning partnerships,” she said, underscoring the endemic lack of public funding for film in Finland, forcing indie producers to look beyond national borders for coin.
“Finns have to continue widening their networking opportunities across Europe, which is why we’ve signed a new collaboration with the Marché du Film for the inaugural Producers Network Award,” she added.
To help Nordic producers and filmmakers further hone their skills, more than 20 top industry experts, such as Isabel Arrate Fernandez (IDFA), Jason Gutierrez (Tribeca), Hugo Rosak (Karlovy Vary), Jim Kolmar (SXSW), Celine Dornier (IPR.VC), James Copp (Night Train Media), Mette Damgaard-Sørensen (Danish Film Institute) and Kjetil Omberg (Norwegian Film Institute), will take center stage to discuss among other things how to better budget, finance a feature, co-produce, navigate the international festivals, distribution landscape and the next Agora EU program in Europe.
The two-day panel sessions will close Sept. 25 with the popular XYZ masterclass, sponsored by U.S. genre specialists XYZ Films, FFA and Film Tampere, which will zoom in on how the Norwegian action comedy “The Trip” morphed into the U.S. remake “Over Your Dead Body,” shot in Tampere. XYZ Films founder Aram Tertzakian, producer of the U.S. version starring Jason Segel and Samara Weaving, will moderate the talk.
Furthermore, as part of the FFA training scheme Nordic Flair, 10 Nordic producers with a first feature project, will have access to the full FFA program and micro-sessions with mentors Max Malka (Banijay Finland), Jim Kolmar (SXSW), Gary Cranner (Mantra Films Norway) and Natascha Degnova (LevelK).
“We have amazing guests, with impressive resumes. It makes sense to tap into their expertise and insight and help Nordic professionals take their first step into the industry,” added Taylerson.
“Halima”
Courtesy of Keke Leppala
Full list of FFA projects:
Fiction in Development:
“Babyface,” directed by Aleksi Delikouras, produced by Helsinkifilmi (Finland)
“Big Deal,” directed by Hedda Mjøen, produced by Kruela Film (Norway, Finland, Estonia)
“Kekri: Trick or Die,” directed by Jari Pauna, produced by Pari Pauna Pictures (Finland)
“The Big Party,” directed by Nicole Genovese, produced by Yukundun, Frakas, Good Hand (France, Belgium, Finland)
“The Bottom Line,” directed by Jon Blåhed, produced by Just Republic, Anagram Sweden (Finland, Sweden)
“The Lost Sons of Nada,” directed by Kyran Davies, Scott Quinn, produced by Poolboy, Falcon Nest Films (Finland, U.K.)
“The Weight of a Man,” directed by Jojo Erholtz, produced by Whatever Pictures (Finland)
“Tick Fever,” directed by Sebastian Granskog, produced by Characterhouse (Finland)
Fiction in Progress
“Good Times, “directed by Pamela Tola, produced by Bardy Studios, Estar (Finland, Estonia)
“Halima,” directed by Naima Mohamud, produced by It’s Alive Films, No-Office Films, Vico Films (Finland, Ireland)
“Lapland War,” directed by Aku Louhimies, produced by Backmann & Hoderoff (Finland)
“Lex Julia,” directed by Laura Hyppönen, produced by Greenlight Productions, Orka Film, Alexandra Film, Götafilm, Breidablick (Finland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden) – also part of the Nordic Selection
“The Campers,” directed by Kari Ketonen, produced by Red Carpet Film & TV (Finland)
Nordic Genre Lab
“Alma,” directed by Pete Riski, produced by Making Movies (Finland)
“Echo Chamber,” directed by Juha Fiilin, produced by Fiilin Good Films (Finland)
“Linden Lane 6,” directed by Josefina Rautiainen, produced by It’s Alive Films (Finland)
“Long Way Home,” directed by Kjersti Helen Rasmussen, produced by Truewest (Norway)
“Sauna Diplomacy,” directed by Teemu Niukkanen, produced by TACK Films (Finland)
“The Evil Eye,” directed by Kristian Lidegaard, produced by Manna Film (Denmark)
“Trespassers,” directed by Johannes Persson, produced by Mylla Films (Sweden)
“Whistler,” directed by Gudmund Helmsdal, produced by Outlier Projects (Faroe Islands)
Nordic Selection
“11 Hours,” directed by Daniel Fahre, produced by Fenomen Studios, Maha Film (Norway)
“Just a Kid,” directed by Vala Ómarsdóttir, produced by Ursus Parvus (Iceland)
“Without You,” directed by Nils Holst-Jensen, produced by Hyæne Film (Denmark)
Documentaries
“Umarell – We Know Better,” directed by Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, produced by Zone2 Pictures (Finland, Germany)
“P,” directed by Vadimir Loginov, produced by Korraks Film (Estonia)
“Lonesome Land,” directed by Virpi Suutari, produced by Euphoria Film, Tambo Film (Finland, Denmark)
“Darkness Counts,” directed by Anna Antsalo, produced by Ekokuvayhtiö Viisi (Finland)
“Unicorns Never Die,” directed by Janne Tanskanen, Olli Vuokko, produced by Kinocompany (Finland)
“Dear Iria,” directed by Janna Kyllästinen, produced by Iria the Film, BUFO (USA, Finland)
“Marianne’s Lament,” directed by Antti Haase, Pariana Reyes, produced by Making Movies (Finland, Bulgaria, Mexico, TBA)
“Myllylä,” directed by Sean Ricks, Jussi Sandhu, Ville Hakonen, produced by Wacky Tie Films, Story AB, f(x) Produksjoner (Finland, Sweden, Norway)
Series
“Checkmate,” written by Veli-Pekka Hänninen, produced by Solar Films (Finland)
“The Crimes of Others,” written by Sami Keski-Vähälä, Tara Kylmä, produced by Funfar Studios (Finland)
“Body in the Closet,” written/directed by Elin Grönblom, co-written by Josefin Sonck, produced by Warner Bros Int’l Television Production (Finland)
“Tango Metal,” directed by Jojo Erholtz, written by Mia Ylönen, Tua Harno, produced by Helsinki-filmi, Glassriver (Finland, Iceland)
“Arctic Divers,” directed/written by Laura Satimus, co-written by Petro Salminen, produced by Kopla Entertainment, Yle Asia (Finland)
“The Tradewife Theory,” written by Vilja Kesmimäki, produced by Just Republic (Finland)