24/09/2013 - For the second year, the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy organises the Finnish industry showcase for sales agents, buyers, festival programmers and the press (September 24-26)

“Not so many years ago the only Finnish director people would know was Aki Kaurismäki. He, and other auteurs such as Pirjo Honkasalo and Aku Louhimies are still a strong aspect of Finnish cinema, but the reason for the current national success is that we also have directors who make best-selling films in different categories – animation (the Niko series/2008-2013), family (Rolli and the Golden Key [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), genre films (Iron Sky [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tero Kaukomaa
interview: Timo Vuorensola
interview: Timo Vuorensola
film profile]/2012, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale [+see also:
film review
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interview: Jalmari Helander
film profile]/2010), and high-quality documentaries,” said executive director Sara Norberg, of the Helsinki International Film Festival–Love & Anarchy, and the Finnish Film Affair.

Opened last week (September 19), the festival will for the second year organise the Finnish Film Affair – the annual Finnish industry showcase targeted at sales agents, buyers, festival programmers and the press - which takes place between September 24-26.

Participants will visit a country where local cinema is strongly positioned: during the first six months domestic productions accounted for 30% (or 1.2 million) of total attendance. For the first time a female director’s film - Johanna Vuoksenmaa’s divorce comedy 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo) - exceeded 400,000 admissions; only four movies have done that in the last 25 years. Ville Suhonen and Kim Saarniluoto’sTale of a Forest became the first documentary ever to exceed 80,000.

More than 250 film professionals, including 50 internationals, have registered for the programme of 30 Finnish recent and upcoming films, and the presentation of 16 works-in-progress, pitched by the filmmakers at the Finnish Film Foundation’s Kino K-13.

Among the sales companies represented are the UK’s Hanway Films; the Netherlands’ Fortissimo Films; France’s Celluloid Dreams, Wild Bunch; Germany’s Deckert Distribution; Switzerland’s First Hand Films; Denmark’s Trust Nordisk, LevelK; Sweden’s Eyewell; and Finland’s The Yellow Affair. International festivals representatives include Palm Springs, Tribeca-New York, Rotterdam, Locarno International, Business Square-Moscow, St Petersburg International Film Festival, CP Pix-Copenhagen and Black Nights-Tallinn.