The former CEO at Nordisk Film & TV Fond Petri Kemppinen has been working in recent months as creative consultant for Helsinki-based Aurora Studios, which has rapidly evolved in just one year, from a distribution entity, to a fully integrated content-led powerhouse, active across development, financing, production and distribution of film and TV series.

Kemppinen was also directly involved in the launch last month of Aurora Studios’ private equity scheme Finnish Impact Film Fund, which boasts a €5.5 million budget, available to creators of high-end audiovisual content.

Kemppinen will be replacing Aurora Studios’ departing CEO Antti Toiviainen. He will join the company’s management team consisting of Chairman of the Board and co-founder Ari Tolppanen, Head of Creative Roosa Toivonen, CFO Joni Ihantola and newly appointed Head of Distribution Hanna Lajunen.

Lajunen is the founder and CEO of the Finnish arthouse distribution company Cinemanse, which will merge this spring with Aurora Studios, through an acquisition. Cinemanse will continue to operate under its brand as an Aurora subsidiary.

Aurora Studios’ creative team also includes producers Anniina Leppänen and Severi Koivusalo.

Commenting on Kemppinen and Lajunen’s appointments, Tolppanen said: “I am pleased to have Petri lead the operations of Aurora Studios, and Hanna to be in charge of the distribution activities. Our ambition is to become a leading player in film and TV series. We are very content-oriented, and our goal is to create high quality, versatile works that have a potential outside Finland as well,” explained Tolppanen.

Kemppinen who has a large network of connections in the Nordics through his six-year tenure as head of Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and earlier jobs at Yle and the Finnish Film Foundation, sees his new position as a dream job. “Through Aurora Studios’ unique set up, combining the drive of entrepreneurs Ari Tolppanen and Ari Lahti - co-founders together with Otava publishing group - Aurora’s creative team and 360 perspective in content creation and distribution, I feel honoured to be joining such a winning team,” he said.

“Thanks to our solid financial basis, direct access to equity funding, ambition to think out of the box and in a global perspective, we see ourselves as unrivalled partners to talents, producers and platforms in the Nordics,” added Kemppinen.

Aurora Studios Distribution’s upcoming releases of domestic films include:

• The Wait, an intimate drama directed by Aku Louhimies for Backmann & Hoderoff
• Bordertown-The Mural Murders, film spin-off of the hit crime series of the same name, directed by Juuso Syrjä for Fisher King
• Bubble, directed by Aleksi Salmenperä for Rabbit Films.

On the TV drama side, Aurora Studios served as co-producer of Rabbit Film’s high-profile TV drama Mobile 1.0, which chronicles the rise of the Nokia mobile phones. Currently shooting, the series created and directed by Maarit Lalli will launch early 2022 on C More.

According to Kemppinen, Aurora Studios is set to announce further financial investments, productions and acquisitions in the coming months.