Aamu Film Company to Follow Cannes Grand Prix Winner ‘Compartment No. 6’ With Tia Kouvo’s ‘Family Time’

Annika Pham Paris-based APC (About Premium Content) has acquired world sales rights on the six-part Finnish thriller “A Good Family,” currently filming in Estonia before moving back to Finland.The high-end drama about love, marriage and parenthood is based on Finnish author and screenwriter Petri Karra’s 2019 novel “The Dark Light” (“Musta Valo”).

Marta Balaga Taking place at the Zurich Convention Center two days before its official theatrical release, the Swiss premiere of “No Time to Die” attracted a slew of local celebrities, Zurich Film Festival delegates and even Finnish racing driver Kimi Räikkönen, all of whom were eager to witness Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007.The event marked the film festival debut for a James Bond movie, and the gathered audience rose to the occasion with no-nonsense opinions about the 25th instalment in

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Guy Lodge Film CriticFemale directors and actors reigned supreme at tonight’s San Sebastian Film Festival awards ceremony, with the Romanian actor-turned-director Alina Grigore taking the Golden Shell for Best Film for her intimate debut feature “Blue Moon.” The film, a raw realist study of a young woman attempting to free herself from an abusive rural household, was an unexpected winner, besting a number of higher-profile auteur films in the festival’s main competition.

Will Tizard ContributorLocal characters in Finnish TV and film are increasingly diverse in ethnicity, disabilities and gender roles, according to industry insiders who took on the issue in Helsinki on Friday at the Finnish Film Affair, but there is still a long way to go.“We know this is not just a Finnish challenge – this is a global challenge,” said Keely Cat-Wells, CEO and founder of C Talent and Zetta Studios, who has also advised organizations from UCLA to Virgin Media on disability

Will Tizard ContributorFinnish film productions, which tend to be small-scale, have some of the lowest carbon footprints in Europe, panelists agreed at the Finnish Film Affair industry event on Friday.

Marta Balaga The Finnish Film Foundation, which receives its funding through the Ministry of Education and Culture from lottery and pool funds allocated for promoting film art, is facing new budget cuts. Its CEO, Lasse Saarinen, speaks to Variety about his battle to minimize the damage.The cut of 440,000 euros ($515,000) introduced this year might be followed by an additional 1.94 million euros ($2.28 million), making up approximately 8.8% of the foundation’s subsidy and operating budget.

Will Tizard ContributorThe Finnish Film Affair industry event awarded the upcoming feature “Bubble” with top honors for its fiction in progress pitch on Thursday, capping a competition in which six projects presented a wide range of stories, settings and styles.Mainly Finnish productions pitched their films, some seeking international partners, with most hoping for sales, festival and distribution deals.“Bubble,” the story of a teenage girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother

WarnerMedia’s New Singapore Base

Will Tizard ContributorFinnish producers are hailing a new partnership aimed at combatting climate change on projects shooting in the country, says Anni Wessman, head of APFI, the film and TV producers’ association in Finland.The initiative, done in concert with the Albert international environmental nonprofit focused on the film and TV sector, will give producers a set of tools and metrics already embraced by 20 countries for measuring everything that factors into a production’s carbon

Marta Balaga Fresh off another win at Finland’s Jussi Awards, this time for his short film “The Bouncer,” Aleksi Salmenperä is already in post-production with his upcoming feature “Bubble,” about to be presented at Helsinki International Film Festival’s industry event Finnish Film Affair in its Fiction in Progress section. “I was sort of embarrassed by this win,” he jokes.

Ann-Marie Corvin Variety has been granted exclusive access to a trailer of Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s second feature, “El Gran Movimiento,” which is premiering at the Zabatelgi Tabakalera section at San Sebastián, after winning the Venice Horizons Special Jury Prize earlier this month.Sold by Brussels-based Best Friend Forever, it has been acquired for the U.K. and Ireland by Sovereign Film Distribution.

Will Tizard ContributorAs the end of the first decade of the Finnish Film Affair nears, the industry event’s director, Maria Pirkkalainen, who also heads Nordic Flair, notes its phenomenal growth, with more than 200 Finnish film projects showcased, more than 500 international guests brought to Helsinki, and the establishment of a major platform and networking forum for locals.And things keep evolving, she says: “We are thrilled to now branch out to offer this to filmmakers from our neighboring

Will Tizard ContributorHelsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy’s return to live, in-person screenings is an occasion for national celebration, says Anna Möttölä, the executive director of the event, now marking its 34th edition.While cinemas in Helsinki must still be limited to 50% capacity for pandemic precaution reasons, screenings of hot new titles such as opening gala film Leos Carax’s tragicomic musical “Annette” and closer Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island” have already sold out, Möttölä

The Season 11 finale of Fox franchise MasterChef was on the menu tonight, as hosts and judges Gordon Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez, and Joe Bastianich tasted, toasted, and taunted their way through the show talent’s best dishes.