March has already got off to a good start in Finland, with 12 new titles being granted Finnish Film Foundation backing as part of the 50/50 production support scheme – aimed at productions with high audience appeal. Jussi-winning director Aleksi Salmenperä, now developing Bubble with Minna Haapkylä, of Rabbit Films, was granted €800,000, while Markku Pölönen will focus on Hamsters (MRP Matila Röhr Productions, €680,000), following the successful run of his previous historical drama, Land of Hope [+lire aussi :
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interview : Markku Pölönen
fiche film].

Popular franchises also keep going strong, with Lapland Odyssey 4 given €700,000 (to be helmed by Juha Wuolijoki this time, with Yellow Film & TV taking on production duties) and Mika Kaurismäki taking over the third part of the successful Grump series, about a cranky yet ultimately rather loveable older man. Produced by Jukka Helle, Markus Selin and Hanna Virolainen, of Solar Films, and now richer to the tune of €770,000, it should once again deliver the exact opposite of the promise teased in the first part's tagline: “He will ruin your day.”

Pamela Tola, who conquered the box office last year with Ladies of Steel [+lire aussi :
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interview : Pamela Tola
fiche film], will direct Something Blue next (Helsinki-filmi, €650,000), while The Twin by Taneli Mustonen – produced by Aleksi Hyvärinen for Don Films and already making waves internationally – received €200,000. Finally, Anna Eriksson, whose debut film, M [+lire aussi :
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interview : Anna Eriksson
fiche film], premiered at Venice, received support for her sci-fi art flick W [+lire aussi :
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interview : Anna Eriksson
fiche film]. Produced by Matti Pyykkö for Ihode Management and given €179,000, it's bound to be a whole different adventure.

“I want to explore the concepts of future, time, immortality and ritual through the means of image and sound,” Eriksson told Cineuropa. “As an auteur filmmaker, I filter these topics through my own fears, desires and subconscious. I hope all of the great artists involved in the film will do the same,” she added, pointing out that regardless of the themes she has chosen, it wasn't her intention to make a science-fiction film. “My wish is to show our minds' desert as a vast unknown, endless, and that our future unfolds on the ruins of the past, on our fragmented memory and broken mind. I am striving to make W an audiovisual poem that surprises, shakes and touches the spectator.”

Among the documentaries, Claes Andersson – When You Least Expect Happens What Happens by Pentti Kasurinen was noticed (BenCine, €20,000), as was The Night My Brother Disappeared by Anna Blom (Impressio Films, €8,000). Ville Suhonen will keep on developing Resistant, with the help of producers Satu Majava and Joonas Berghäll, of Oktober (€121,000), and two short films made it onto the list as well: Grasshopper by Jussi Eerola (Testifilmi, €20,000) and Spiral (€47,000), to be directed by Salla Sorri and Eva-Maria Koskinen under the watchful eye of Aamu Film Company.