After three of the main venues for the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy closed down, the 29th edition of the event had to spread around the capital, stretching from the Arabia, over Töölö, to the Espoo suburbs. “It was a difficult and very challenging situation,” said artistic director Pekka Lanerva. 

So after last night’s closing ceremony at the Savoy, with French director Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Mia Hansen-Løve
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interview : Juan Antonio Bayona
fiche film], Lanerva thanked the local audiences for adjusting and filling up the new theatres: this year, the festival recorded more than 60,000 admissions, for 500 screenings of 180 features and 180 shorts from all over the world.

Festival crowd-pleasers included Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s Elle [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Cristian Mungiu
interview : Cristian Mungiu
fiche film], the American adventure-drama-comedy Swiss Army Man, starring British actor Daniel Radcliffe, and US director Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! Also, British director John Michael McDonagh’s War on Everyone [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] was a sell-out, and British director Terence Davies proved popular: he was in Helsinki with two films (2015’s Sunset Song [+lire aussi :
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interview : Terence Davies
fiche film] and 2016’s A Quiet Passion [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) as well as to conduct a master class. The festival’s Audience Award went to French director Thomas Bidegain’s Cannes entry, Cowboys [+lire aussi :
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fiche film].

This year’s Finnish Film Affair – the festival’s industry sidebar for international buyers (20-23 September) – presented 24 new Finnish works in progress and 21 projects in development; more than 200 local and foreign participants attended the introductions and discussions at the Kinopalatsi Cinema and the meetings at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.

“I am particularly excited about the line-ups of new and upcoming films, which have been praised by the foreign buyers. Also, local filmmakers have reported strong international interest in their productions,” said festival and market executive director Sara Norberg. “And I am happy that in spite of the growing number of visitors, we managed to retain the intimate, laid-back atmosphere.” 

Next year’s showcase has been scheduled to unspool from 14–24 September.