In an official statement, the 31 Finnish producers on strike (including Aki Kaurismäki, Tero Kaukomaa, Markus Selin, Matila Röhr) said that the discussions that followed their protest movement have been constructive and that "public support for film production will probably increase in 2008.
"Even though no final promises have been made, the producers trust the Parliament to make the right decisions. They base their trust on the fact that both the Education and Culture Committee and the Audit Committee of the Parliament have expressed their opinion that the Lottery funds (partly used to finance film production) should be used exclusively to support the actual cultural and sport activities of the beneficiaries, instead of partly covering for e.g. rental costs of cultural bodies, like the government had suggested."
The Finnish producers also said in their statement: "The Finnish Film Foundation (FFF) has a clear vision about the increase of film support. It has handed out a paper to the Finance Committee's Sub-committee for Education and Science, stating that film production and distribution should get an increase of 4,149,000 euros in 2008, and that the government should commit itself to a plan to increase the overall film support to 27 Million euros by 2011, as stated in the government programme."
The Finnish film producers decided to go on strike early September when the government didn't keep its promise to raise the film budget for 2008 by 8%, from the current €13.5m to €14.7m in 2008. But their united front - the first ever in the history of Finnish film - and the lobbying from former politician Irina Krohn, head of the Finnish Film Foundation, have led to this positive outcome.
"We ended the strike because it served its purpose very well", said Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures), recently named Film Producer of the Year with Petri Jokiranta. "The whole issue with the lottery funds has been widely discussed in the Parliament and now it's time to give peace to decision makers, let them do the right thing, and for the industry to concentrate on its own business."
Rampe Toivonen from Solar Films also said: "The producers wanted to end the strike now rather than after two more months. They are quite sure that the Parliament will make the Government increase the finance for domestic films. Several producers did not have time and money to wait for the final result (scheduled for end of December) because of many movie productions. It is obvious that the producers will get more than they originally demanded. On top of everything else, the FFF has promised to raise the maximum finance per film to €840,000, which is €140,000 more than before."
"We will get more money and most of all, there will be a long-term plan to improve the state of Finnish film financing," added producer Kai Nordberg (Making Movies). "There is a momentum for Finnish films now. We can start something new which could turn out to become a significant era in the Finnish film industry."
The end of the strike has also been welcomed by the Finnish Chamber of Films (Filmikamari) representing all important Finnish distributors and exhibitors, which had given its support to the local producers protest movement. Tero Koistinen, executive director of the Finnish Cinema Exhibitors Association told Nordisk Film & TV Fond: "We are very happy that the strike has ended because Finnish films are very popular with local audiences, and represent around 50% of admissions in smaller rural cinemas. We hope that the government will keep in mind those smaller cinemas whose survival largely depends on Finnish films."