Making Movies With Kotwica And Louhimies

Founded in 1996 by former journalist Nordberg and his partner Kaarle Aho, Making Movies has produced more than 50 documentaries, but only one feature film so far: the small budget Homesick (2005) which launched Petri Kotwica's name on the international festival circuit. The €1.8m psychological drama Black Ice co-produced with Germany's Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv, marks a step ahead for the company. But it is also the quintessential example of a Making Movies production: a well-crafted film based on a carefully developed script. "We are totally content-driven", says Nordberg who was Finland's 'Producer on the Move' 2007. We want to tell thrilling stories, no matter what the genre is. We often develop our own ideas in-house, and then bring them to a director which is what happened with Black Ice."

Thorsten Schaumann from Bavaria Film International Sales, who picked up Black Ice in Cannes last May, commented: "We heard about the project through the German production company. The film has a very interesting story of jealousy and a quality cast and crew, so we saw a real international potential in it."

The film had its Finnish premiere at the last Helsinki International Film Festival on September 26 where it got an "excellent reception" according to Nordberg, and the word of mouth is already spreading following several previews put together with the distributor Sandrew Metronome. Nordberg recently screened the film to a Berlin selection committee and is hoping it will get a slot in the February film event because "it would be natural for the film to have its international launch there."

Two other feature film projects are in development. Tigerheart to be directed by the acclaimed Aku Louhimies will be Making Movies' first children's film. It's the story of the seven year-old Amos who has to face his fear and find his inner strength. He and his friend Benjamin also travel in space with their toy space ship. The film is described as a ‘Mary Poppins meets Bollywood or Astrid Lindgren meets Star Wars', with dance and musical scenes. The script is in its final stage of writing.

Maze will be a "true arthouse film" about memory and past, studied through creativity and art. The US/Finnish documentary filmmaker Joe Davidow who has a background in modern dance submitted the script to Making Movies who is now looking for co-producers in Germany or Switzerland.

Always extremely busy with documentary filmmaking, Making Movies has recently produced Selma Vilhunen's Pony Girls, co-produced with Denmark's Tju Bang Mechanical Love, and is now working on the editing of Facing Changes about the concept of face in Chinese culture and in Chinese mindset. The documentary directed by Mika Koskinen was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

To see the trailer of Black Ice, click here and select 'videoita.