The Finnish film industry has flourished in the past decade, with films from diverse directors and producers gracing the lineups of prestigious festivals like Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance, and many others. Our films and filmmakers have garnered nominations for the European Film Awards, been shortlisted for Academy Awards, and recognized by the Golden Globes. Finnish talent has shone in international blockbusters, and Finns behind the camera have been awarded and celebrated globally. Most recently, Emma Thompson penned a glowing opinion piece in our leading newspaper, praising her wonderful experiences shooting in Finland. Furthermore, Finnish audiences have embraced their homegrown movies, with the percentage of Finnish films viewed in theaters ranking among the highest in Europe. That’s why the news of our government’s plans to drastically cut support from the cultural sector seems incredibly unfair.
In 2023, the Finnish Film Foundation’s funding resources –24 million euros– remained at the 2014 level. Due to inflation, this means that there are approximately 8 million euros less to be distributed in comparison to a decade ago. In other Nordic countries, the film industry receives over twice as much support through higher funding budgets. According to the Finnish Film Foundation, a 650,000 euros state grant received for a film production generates between 687,500 and 1,357,500 euros of returned income for society, depending on the reached audience size. This means that regardless of the shrinking support, the Finnish film industry has achieved remarkable success with already limited budgets and resources, requiring significant talent, skills, and resourcefulness to make ends meet. Yet now, we must do more with drastically fewer resources. Compounding this challenge are the emotional and economic struggles of navigating the pandemic, and the seismic shifts in the broader audiovisual marketplace, which pose existential threats to traditional film and TV. Not to mention the ongoing climate crises, wars, and political polarization.
One might wonder: is any light at the end of the tunnel?
A look at the current state of the music industry provides a glimpse into a potential future. Digitalization disrupted the old business model in the music industry about a decade ago, before it impacted the audiovisual industry. In these ten years, with album’s physical and digital sales coming to an end, the music industry has leaned heavily on the live sector, which is thriving. Megastars like Taylor Swift keep breaking records with her Eras tour and artists like Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen recently sold out massive concerts in Finland. Unfortunately, it looks like this new model only serves these megastars who can fill up stadiums, leaving the small and medium-sized talent almost completely unable to lean on income from touring.
According to Daniel Dylan Wray’s piece in the Guardian, musicians playing at smaller venues face pitiful fees and frequent losses. The working class can no longer afford a career as a touring musician. In the same article, Dan Potts from Red Light Management states that “People who work at labels think bands make loads of money touring, while booking agents think they make loads of money on publishing, and so on… Everyone thinks artists make money from the other side of the industry they’re not involved in”. According to Matt Belloni from The Town podcast, major record labels which are dependent on the music streaming business now face the issue of saturated markets, along with the lack of any future growth potential. Indeed, when you sell (all) the products on a fixed monthly fee, and you can’t add more subscribers, your business inevitably stagnates. This leaves record labels unmotivated to invest in new talent in hopes for future growth. In the (fixed monthly fee) streaming era, growth needs to be discovered and generated elsewhere.
Mirroring this to the audiovisual sector, signs of stagnation in streaming markets are already evident, as the aggressive competition for market shares has ended –at least for now. But where are we truly headed in the next five to ten years?
With an entertainment industry which has traditionally suffered disruptions in business and revenue models, as a consequence of big tech drive innovations, what’s happening now with generative AI space? In an interview with Puck News, NYU Business School professor and podcaster Scott Galloway offers a radically harsh view on the current state of things, suggesting that if unions (SAG-AFRTA and WGA) had any sense, they should partner together with the studios to figure out a way to sue all LLMs and AI. It remains to be seen how Hollywood will choose to embrace or navigate the coming disruption to authorship and content creation enabled by generative AI technologies.
The solutions offered to the European film Industry by the renowned Nostradamus Report from the Göteborg Film Festival hold some potential. While it highlights issues like the unsustainable volume of theatrical releases, it also offers a glimmer of hope in the form of the “engagement theatrical” concept. Moreover, the report highlights the growing excitement surrounding strong, authorial voices in cinema and promises opportunities to utilize new technologies such as Virtual Production and Generative AI to create new business models and enhance existing ones.
What filmmakers are best at, is envisioning possible futures –rumors say Steve Jobs got his visions and inspiration for some revolutionary Apple products precisely from sci-fi films and series. It is up to us, the film industry, to envision a future where European content is relevant and available for audiences –and we need to find the voices that resonate with that audience. We must embrace both collaboration and innovation. European and independent filmmakers, in comparison to global media and tech giants, possess the ability to adapt to these changing circumstances and new technologies much faster. But we have to move quickly: European filmmakers need to be the early adopters and co-creators of these new tools to survive and thrive.
According to Antti Karjalainen, founder of AI company Sema4, the AI application space for generative AI is still wide open to competition. The virtual productions are only taking their first baby steps. Why couldn’t we, the film industry, define the best applications for this new tech? Why, in such a disruptive market situation, do we give power and keys to our own destiny to others? We need to find new outside the box solutions and innovate in talent and project development, financing, production, and distribution. We need to develop socially and economically sustainable processes and business models. And we can achieve this by embracing the strong, authentic, diverse voices and increasing Pan-European collaboration on every level of the audiovisual ecosystem, including the EU, our governments, institutes, broadcasters, streamers, distributors, exhibitors, production- and other companies; and of course our talented hardworking and passionate filmmakers.
Laura Laaksonen / Riimu Talent Agency
Laura Laaksonen has over fifteen years of experience in export promotion in cultural and creative industries as an academic researcher, as a government official, as the head of one of the largest co-production markets in the Nordics (Finnish Film Affair) and as the CEO of two large international film festivals in Finland. Her newly founded Riimu Talent Agency represents screenwriters and directors in the international film and TV market.