The French language film Le Havre by Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki is the favourite for this year's annual Finnish ?Jussi' film awards, with nine nominations including Best Film, Best Director and Best Script.
The heart-warming film about emigration, produced by Kaurismäki's Sputnik Oy, has been a major critical and audience success both domestically and internationally since its world premiere at the last Cannes Film Festival. It is representing Finland at this year's Oscars nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and was the second most successful Finnish film of 2011 in Finland.
Two Finnish films take pole position with seven nominations each: Sakari Kirjavainen's WW2 movie Silence (Cine Works), and Zaida Bergroth's The Good Son (Oy Bufo) which was Finland's selection for the 2011 Nordic Council Film Prize. The two films compete against Le Havre for Best Film and Best Script. In the Best Director category, Kaurismäki is competing against two female directors: Bergroth and Taru Mäkelä for The Storage.
Hella W, the second film by Juha Wuolijoki (Christmas Story) and Dirty Bomb, Elias Koslimies' debut feature get three nominations each. In the Documentary section are Forever Yours by Mia Halme, Selling the Silence by Markku Tuurma and The Unknown Woman by Elina Kivihalme. Nordisk Film & TV Fond has a total of 28 chances to win a Jussi during the awards ceremony on January 29, 2012.
For the full list of Jussi nominations, check: http://www.ses.fi/