The Finnish Film Affair celebrates and awards bold, emerging filmmaking from the Nordics and beyond

The 13th edition of the Finnish Film Affair (FFA) unspooled from 25-27 September, in parallel with the Helsinki International Film Festival.

This year, FFA’s Main Showcase featured seven works in development, five works in progress, six documentary projects, five series projects, and three works from the Nordic Selection category. Moreover, the event hosted the first Finnish Weird pitching session, during which 20 new projects defying conventions took centre stage.

On this occasion, the award for Best Fiction Project (worth €3,000 and handed out by the Finnish Film Foundation) went to Paula Korva’s debut feature Sudden Outbursts of Emotion, now in post and produced by Marko Talli for Finland’s Yellow Film & TV. The creators began working on the project in order to explore “new types of relationship and, more broadly, what it’s like being in a relationship in today’s world”. “The romantic, sex positive comedy revolves around Jane, who works at a travel agency selling adventures to other people, while in her own life she’s stuck with her routine, and even spontaneous sex is marked in her calendar. Her spouse, long-time boyfriend Mikki, is an actor still waiting for his big break. Things change when they decide to open up their relationship,” Korva and Talli related. The project is seeking festivals and distributors. LevelK swooped international rights one day after the pitching session took place, Variety reported (CLICK HERE).

The prize for Best Nordic Project (worth €3,000 and sponsored by Konstsamfundet) went to Sunniva Eir Tangvik Kveum’s thriller drama Nipster, which wrapped filming only one month ago and was previously presented at Haugesund and Göteborg. The helmer pitched her project on stage with producer Adam Lunenborg, of Sweden’s Carbs Films.

“The story is about the 15 year old girl Chris, who feels like a nobody – although she’ll never admit it – and desperately alone. Her friend Maja convinces her to join a summer camp of young people fighting climate change. Through her new-found community, Chris becomes part of something bigger than herself,” the director explained on stage. “The summer camp is actually a recruitment camp managed by an eco-fascist organisation,” Lunnerborg revealed.

According to the team, which is seeking festivals and sales agents, the film has the potential “to increase our understanding of why and how someone loses touch with right and wrong”.

Meanwhile, the prize for Best Documentary Project (also worth €3,000, backed by AVEK) was bestowed upon Jussi Sandhu’s But I'm No Influencer. Pitched less than two weeks earlier at Malmö’s Nordisk Panorama, the feature zooms in on Mark, a businessman from the Philippines, who travels to Finland and begins studying at the Influencer’s Academy, the world’s first-ever higher education programme for social media. Through Mark’s story, the pic explores the questions of education export and social media – a powerful force that reshapes not only personal lives, but also global dynamics. Budgeted at €300,000, it is being staged by Pasi Hakkio for Tampere-based Wacky Tie Films.

The new Finnish Weird section saw the triumph of Vivian Säde’s Estonian-Lithuanian “magical realist, deeply personal” short Mari, Sweetie (Mari, kallis). The project received €2,000 from the Riimu Talent Agency, gear rental was sponsored by Angel Films, and editing facilities courtesy of Post Control Helsinki.

On 26 September, the Main Showcase session kicked off with the pitches of the five series included in the Focus on Finland strand.

The first project was Fanni Mikkonen’s 10x12 animated series Cupid (Kupido), a Finnish-French co-production led by Finland’s Just Republic, and penned by Samuel Kirkhope and the helmer herself. The show, developed with YLE, aims to explore “the unrealistic expectations about love and relationships”, as well as “the reality of modern love and dating”. The plot centres on 17 year old Onni, “a boy who lives in a small snowy town in eastern Finland and falls in love easily, messing it up in every possible way”. He finds an AI tool online and feeds to it all the romantic films, songs and books he can think of. The result is the titular app, providing questionable love advice and being supposed to help everyone find a perfect match. The project seeks sales, distributors, co-producers and financiers.

Coming up next was Finnish-Icelandic 6x45 crime series Hildur, penned by Matti Laine and Margrét Örnólfsdóttir and sold internationally by Beta Film. A Finnish-Icelandic co-pro led by Take Two Studios and Saga Film, it is based on Satu Rämö’s eponymous novel, which sold over 700,000 copies in 17 countries and has already been adapted as a theatre play set to premiere later this autumn. The plot sees the titular detective racing against time across Iceland’s fjords to catch a serial killer, while unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of her long-lost sister. Producers Sara Norberg and Eero Hietala presented a mood reel on stage, defining the project as “a Nordic noir turning blue” as “it combines the qualities of a well-built crime thriller with a human relationship-focused drama”. The team seeks financiers, distributors and pre-sales.

Next, writer Antti Pesonen and ReelMedia producer Markku Flink pitched their intriguing 6x50 thriller Nonday. To introduce it, they asked the audience: “When your enemy is your mind, who can you trust?” In detail, the story follows British spy Stephen “Chance” Chancellor, combining “high stakes, contemporary espionage with the protagonist’s personal struggle against cognitive decline”. “Chance is an unreliable narrator, and a man slowly losing his grip on reality,” Pesonen and Flink noted, “and the project is a twist on the spy genre.” To further explain the show’s concept, they billed it as “The Old Man meets Last Year in Marienbad”. The team is on the lookout for distributors and financiers.

Later, 4x50 Operation Fake (Operaatio Fake) was presented on stage by director Kimmo Leed and creative director/executive producer Miira Karhula, of Warner Bros Intl. Television Production Finland. The show is an art doc series with a true crime twist, following one of Europe’s most extensive art crime investigations, and a character study of lead investigator Kimmo Nokkonen. During the clips showed at the FFA, the audience in attendance could catch glimpses of Nokkonen’s charismatic, witty personality.

The Focus on Finland was rounded off by the pitch of Joonas Utti’s 52x11 animated comedy series Tadpoles, a co-production between Finland, Spain and Belgium, led by Gigglebug Entertainment and Umedia. The show seeks financiers, and follows the underwater odyssey of Ted and Paula, two tadpoles who brave the dangers of the creek as they quest to reach the top.

The buzziest Fiction in Progress project is perhaps Klaus Härö’s WW2-set drama Never Alone (Ei koskaan yksin). The acclaimed The Fencer (Miekkailija) helmer presented the feature on stage with producer Ilkka Matila, of Finland’s MRP Matila Röhr Productions. Budgeted at €4.85 million and co-produced with Samsara Film (Austria), Taska Film (Estonia), Penned Pictures (Germany) and Hobab (Sweden), the tale follows the turbulent vicissitudes of Abraham Stiller, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Helsinki who commits to protecting the Jewish asylum seekers. At FFA, the team showed a few stunning clips boasting Ville Virtanen’s intense portrayal of the philanthropist, and labelled the film as “a story of resilience, defiance, and an unyielding privilege to safeguard one’s kin in the face of unimaginable adversity”. The project, now in post and repped by The Playmaker Munich worldwide, is seeking festivals and distributors.

Erol Mintaş pitched his sophomore feature, a drama titled Earth Song and produced by Sons of Lumière (Finland), Elemag Pictures (Germany) and Jamedia Productions (Finland). The Song of My Mother (Annemin Sarkisi) filmmaker tells the story of Rojin, a Kurdish-Finnish woman who lives in Helsinki with her husband Ferhat and their 12-year-old daughter Azad, whom they adopted together. One day, Rojin’s father makes a surprise visit from Sweden and reveals a secret set to turn everyone’s life upside down. Budgeted at €1.28 million, the pic is looking for sales, distributors, festivals and financiers.

The story of Eirik Svensson’s Safe House (Den Fremmede) unfolds amidst the civil war raging in the Central African Republic. The thriller drama is based on a true story, and follows Linn, who leads a team of aid workers working tirelessly outside the massive refugee camp and will be forced to confront the local mob and the Christian militia. Sold by TrustNordisk, it’s a co-pro between Finland, Norway, Sweden and South Africa, spearheaded by Fantefilm.

Producer Marja Pihlaja, of Finland’s Tekele Productions, and writer-director Ulla Heikkilä pitched together the drama Summer is Crazy (Elämä on juhla). Set during a midsummer week, the ensemble film follows the dreams and disappointments of one family and their friends and lovers.

Zinnini Elkington’s debut Second Victims (Det andet offer), developed with the Danish Film Institute and now in the latest stages of post-production, is set against the backdrop of an understaffed stroke unit. It follows skilled neurologist Alexandra, whose unwavering confidence is put to the ultimate test when a routine case spirals into tragedy. Blame and guilt ripple through the hospital, pushing Alexandra to confront her own fallibility and the profound repercussions of medical errors. The pic is toplined by award-winning actress Trine Dyrholm. Seeking festivals and distributors, its world rights are being handled by REInvent Studios.

Among the seven works in development Selma Vilhunen’s latest effort stood out from the crowd. Vilhunen, known for Stupid Young Heart (Hölmö nuori sydän) and Four Little Adults (Neljä pientä aikuista), is developing a war drama based on true events and titled She Did Not Show Remorse (Ei kertonut katuvansa), a co-production between Finland, Denmark and Norway, led by Venia Hellstedt. Budgeted at €2.85 million, it follows five Finnish women escaping imprisonment after having worked for the Nazi army in Norway during the last months of WW2. Among them is Irene, who is pressured to fabricate a story which would justify her months of absence to her husband. The pic is billed as “a road movie about impossible wartime choices, female anger and the female experience in WW2”.

The other projects presented on stage were Viivi Huuska’s horror-thriller-drama Blood – The Devil in Helsinki (produced by Finland’s 61North), Haohao Qiaoshi Liu’s coming-of-age drama In Bloom (Muistoni mun, staged by Finland’s Kaide Tuotannot), Heikki Kujanpää’s family flick Little Mr. Sandman (Nukkumatti, a co-production between Finland’s Inland Film Company, Estonia’s Munchhausen Film and Sweden’s Iris Film), Carol Brandt’s horror drama Lying to Mother (a Finnish-Swedish co-pro led by ACM Entertainment), Pete Riski’s 1980s-set teen drama Monster Boy (Hirviöpoika, produced by Finland’s Whatevergroup), and acclaimed filmmaker Martti Helde’s new endeavour, an ambitious period drama spanning three millennia of Finno-Ugric history titled Silverwhite (Höbevalge, staged by Estonia’s Three Brothers).

Finally, the six docs pitched on stage were Vesa Kuosmanen’s “drag memoir*” Fruitcakes – The Dawn of Drag* (Lumppukuningattaret (työnimi), produced by Sandra Enkvist, of Finland’s Polygraf), Guro Sanjola Bjerk’s city symphony and “meditation on home and belonging” In Cod We Trust (produced by Norway’s f(x) produksjoner and Finland’s Wacky Tie Films), Nina Forsman and Sakari Suuronen’s doc on the emotional impact of tuberculosis outbreaks Riding with Death (Lentävä kuolema, produced by Markku Tuurna for Finland’s Filmimaa), Jukka Kärkkäinen’s “portrait of a relationship between three generations” The Beauty of Errors (Kappale kauneinta Suomea, produced by Finland’s Mouka Filmi), the aforementioned But I’m No Influencer, and Pauliina Punkki’s Women Named Pauliina, which promises to be a “profound exploration of identity and resilience” through the lives of the filmmaker herself and that of bodybuilder Pauliina Talus (a co-production by Finnish firms Aallotar Productions and Ida Productions with Czech outfit Pandistan).

All the FFA project presentations were held at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi from 25 to 26 September. The industry event headed by Alisha Hasan offered a jam-packed programme of pitches, talks, networking events, one-on-one meetings and case studies, spanning film, crossmedia, transmedia and AI.