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FUNDING Finland

14 projects to receive production funding from the Finnish Film Foundation

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- €1.3 million in production funding has been allocated to three feature films, seven documentary films, three TV series and one short documentary film

14 projects to receive production funding from the Finnish Film Foundation
Julia Lappalainen in Metoo (© Johanna Onnismaa)

The Finnish Film Foundation has allocated €1.3 million in production funding to three feature films, seven documentary films, three TV series and one short documentary film - including three Finnish minority co-productions.

One of the three feature films to receive funding is Metoo, produced by Elli Toivoniemi of Tuffi Films (€240,000). The latter will be a part of the One-Off Incident project, which also includes 11 short films and an impact campaign. Developed collectively (the film is directed by Elli Toivoniemi, Kirsikka Saari, Reetta Aalto, Alli Haapasalo, Anna Paavilainen, Miia Tervo and Jenni Toivoniemi), it will aim to highlight different forms of abuse experienced by women. The project has already received awards at New Nordic Films in Haugesund and the Helsinki International Film Festival’s industry sidebar, Finnish Film Affair, where it received The Work in Progress Award for “the project most likely to attract international attention” from jurors Mark Adams, from Edinburgh International Film Festival, Steven Bestwick, from The Yellow Affair and Agneta Perman from Sweden’s National Broadcasting Company SVT

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“We are very honoured to receive production support from the Finnish Film Foundation to make this extraordinary multiple-story film, based on short films directed by various highly talented and experienced female writer-directors. Metoo will show how the community protects itself when people demand their proper rights,” explained the producer Elli Toivoniemi, who will manage the project alongside the screenwriter Kirsikka Saari, nominated for an Academy Award for Selma Vilhunen’s short film Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? “After a two-year-long very inspirational development process, you could say that One-Off Incident is no longer a film,” she added. “It has become more of a movement, and one that involves a remarkable group of talented creators, directors and actors.” Both the film and campaign will be launched in the autumn of 2019. 

The other two supported feature films are Eskil Vogt’s The Innocents, co-produced by Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari of Bufo (€105,000), Magda Osińska’s Ro, co-produced by Tom Carpelan and Ira Carpelan of Filmkompaniet Alpha (€150,000). 

Among the documentaries chosen are Inka Achté’s Gold Miners (produced by Liisa Karpo of napafilms, €130,000 in funding received), Esa Illi’s Smells Like Teen Spirit (produced by Klaus Heydemann of Inland Film Company, €70,500), Anu Kuivalainen’s Still Into You [+see also:
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(produced by Marianne Mäkelä of Bonsai Films, €125,000), which depicts the love lives of the elderly, Donagh Coleman’s Tukdam (produced byKaarle Aho of Making Movies, €120,000), John Webster’s Redi (€75,000), Nina Forsman’s short film Reflecting Ice (produced by Niina Virtanen of Wacky Tie Films, €32,000), as well as the minority co-production Writing with Fire by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas (produced by John Webster of JW Documentaries, €20,000), which explores the aftermath of a violent crime, while Mari Soppela’s It's Raining Women [+see also:
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(working title: The Glass Ceiling) (Julia Ton and Mari Soppela of LPMA Productions, €80,000) investigates the struggles women often encounter in the workplace. 

The funded TV series are Eva (directed by Mikko Peltonen, produced by Elina Pohjola and Leila Lyytikäinen of Citizen Jane Productions, €50,000), Monday (directed by Samuli Valkama, produced by Melli Maikkula and John Lundsten of TACK Films, €80,000) and Zoo! Viral Geniuses (directed by Elin Grönblom, produced by Leila Lyytikäinen of Citizen Jane Productions, €55,000).

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