After a two-year break, the popular festival in the heart of Lapland will be back with prominent guests, present and past film gems and discussions from June 15-19.

The festival founded by the Kaurismäki brothers will be celebrating for the 37th time, the ‘spirit of Sodankylä’ and 24-hour love for cinema.

International guests set to attend include French actor/director Mathieu Amalric, US scriptwriter Nicholas Meyer, award-winning directors Ildikó Enyedi from Hungary, Lenny Abrahamson from Ireland and Karim Aïnouz from Brazil. Among the younger generation, Sweden’s Jonas Selberg Augustsén (The Garbage Helicopter) will be on hand to present his sophomore feature The Longest Day which will have its Finnish premiere at Sodankylä.

Finnish talents invited to discuss their works in the panel “My own stories are of interest elsewhere as well” moderated by Nordisk Film & TV Fond CEO Liselott Forsman, include directors Khadar Ayderus Ahmed(The Gravedigger’s Wife), Hanna Bergholm (Hatching), Einari Paakkanen (Karaoke Paradise) and actors Seidi Haarla (Compartment No6) and Ville Virtanen (Transport, Bordertown).

This year’s carte blanche will be given to composer Kaija Saariaho who will introduce some of her film favourites such as Ingmar Bergman’s Saraband, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette and Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach.

The festival will also present the world premiere of the restored version of Mikko Niskanen’s 1972 classic Eight Fatal Shots. The restoration of the masterpiece, wished by the festival’s former artistic director Peter von Bagh, was achieved thanks the Fiction Finland Association, support from Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, and technical support from Bologna’s film archives. Cecilia Cencierelli from Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival will be on hand to introduce the restoration project, alongside Mikko Niskanen’s son Jorma Niskanen.

Other festival highlights include an overview of recent Finnish films selected by the festival’s artistic director Timo Malmi, including Girl Picture, Fucking with Nobody, Gracious Night andThe Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic.

For the full programme, check: www.msfilmfestival.fi