The full programme for the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy is out now! The programme presents around 130 feature-length films and over 100 short films from all over the world. French master Jacques Audiard’s Cannes award-winning Emilia Pérez is the Groundbreaker Gala selection.
The selection includes essential festival winners and audience favourites as well as rarities from near and far. The incredible gala screenings present an array of celebrated Cannes-favourites, complete with the last-minute lineup addition, drug cartel musical Emilia Pérez. The leading trio of the film – Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascón – received the ensemble-prize at the Cannes Film Festival, with Gascón becoming the first transgender actress to accept an acting award at the festival. In this astonishingly energetic ride, a lawyer helps a seasoned drug kingpin leave the bloodshed behind, embrace an honest life and become the woman she has always dreamt of being. Emilia Pérez will screen in the Groundbreaker Gala on Sept 29, and will eventually be seen in Finnish cinemas.
This year’s other hot tickets include international festival-favourites such as Berlinale’s Golden Bear winner Dahomey, an exploration of the legacy of colonialism, and Locarno-winner Toxic, a story of teenage girls struggling in a modeling academy. The lauded latest works from talents such as Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Radu Jude, Hong San-soo, Chris “Tiger King” Smith, Levan Akin and Rodrigo Moreno are also included in the lineup. Audiences will encounter familiar faces in Karin Aïnouz’s stylised period-piece Firebrand, starring Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander alongside Jude Law. Tilda Swinton delights in SNL-writer Julio Torres’ feature debut and absurdist comedy Problemista. Two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett can be seen as the head nun of a convent in The New Boy, a drama that delves into the complexities of Australian history. Viggo Mortensen’s passion project The Dead Don’t Hurt is a wistful revenge Western that gallops its way into the turbulent history of the American Civil War.
The animation sensation Flow (made with Finnish talent on board!) also arrives with immense expectations, as do the visually stunning study on trans identity I Saw the TV Glow and the sensitive gems My Favourite Cake and When the Light Breaks. The buzzy British drama The Outrun sees Saoirse Ronan leave her drug-fueled London life behind and look for a new beginning in the tranquility of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Kneecap is a docudrama about the anarchist Belfast rap trio of the same name.
Top Nordic filmmakers and industry guests
Icelandic filmmakers Baltasar Kormákur and Helena Stefánsdóttir bring their new films to the festival: Kormákur will present Touch, an emotional drama nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize, while Stefánsdóttir will bring her partly Finnish-produced mystery Natatorium, which she will be presenting to the audience with producer Arnar Steinn Friðbjarnarson. Among the nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize, Danish-Iranian director Roja Pakari, who directed Denmark’s nominee The Son and the Moon, will also attend the festival. In this documentary, Pakari explores her life as a mother of a young boy while living with a serious and incurable illness, reflecting on the significance of culture, family, and identity.
Estonian R&A favourite Miguel Llansó is returning to the festival with his punk-utopia Infinite Summer. Director Søren Green and actor Noa Risbro Hjerrild visit Helsinki with the tragedy-tinged coming-of-age story B.O.Y. (Bruises of Yesterday). Mikko Mäkelä’s film Sebastian, which had its world premiere at Sundance, explores the double life of a young writer in London. Mäkelä will talk about his film together with producer James Watson. Director Kasper Rune Larsen and actor Jacob Skyggebjerg will present their film The Idiot, and arriving to Helsinki from Japan is director Kōki Mitani with the suspenseful comedy All About Suomi, featuring a mysterious woman called Suomi. Read more about the visiting international filmmakers on the festival’s website.
As usual, R&A will present a selection of new Finnish films, introduced by the filmmakers. 8 Views of Lake Biwa, an Estonian-Finnish co-production starring Tommi Korpela, is a poetic piece with an experimental twist directed by Marko Raat, who will be visiting the festival. Miki Liukkonen – mitä et minusta vielä tiennyt, directed by Minna von Reiche, sheds light on the life of writer Miki Liukkonen, who passed away at a young age. Parvet is a collective anthology film directed by Hannaleena Hauru and Katja Gauriloff, while Failed Emptiness is a masterful experimental novelty by Mika Taanila. The programme also includes Iiris Härmä’s new documentary Mother of Snow Cranes and Rax Rinnekangas’ genre-defying The Last Wish.
Short and sweet, unruly and anarchistic
The R&A Shorts programme of short films will be presented in themed series alongside feature films. The Nordic Peaks series takes viewers on a journey across the Nordic countries, as does Moving North – Dance Films from the North. The Tere Eesti! series showcases brand new film highlights from Estonia, and African Express – A Short Stop presents stories from filmmakers with African backgrounds. This short film adventure also takes us to the Uncanny Valley, where anything can happen.
The Rewriting History series takes a curious look at the past. In Utopia/Dystopia, alternative realities and futures are explored in order to reflect on the uncertainties of the present. The Portraits of a Young Woman series examines the beauty and horror of youth.
The collaborative screenings bring cinematic greetings from festival colleagues to the R&A screens. Turku Animated Film Festival presents a selection of award-winning animation hits from recent years, Night Visions presents the best short films of the genre and Skábmagovat showcases a selection of new short films from Sápmi. A screening produced in collaboration with AV-arkki presents artist Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen’s cinematic work on disability policy.
Competing for the acclaim of a prestigious jury and the public, the films in the National Competition are once again top class. This year’s jury includes actress Saara Kotkaniemi, last year’s public vote winner Fabian Munsterhjelm, and filmmaker Ima Iduozee. Filmmaker Erol Mintas will act as advisor for the jury for the Moving People and Images prize, given to a filmmaker who highlights diversity and inclusivity in their work, and the public will also be able to vote for their favourite.
Conversations and coffee with filmmakers
In addition to film screenings, the festival will feature discussions on emotional wellbeing and cinema, live music at the newly opened Kino Konepaja and an opening night party at Korjaamo with the theme Pine & Glitter. Both festival Saturdays will also include morning coffee with filmmakers. The coffee with filmmakers at Juova Hanahuone will be hosted by journalist Kalle Kinnunen.
Finnish Film Affair shines a spotlight on cutting-edge trends like transmedia and AI
The 13th edition of Finnish Film Affair (FFA), the industry event of HIFF, is expanding its program this year, with a notable increase in attendees expected.
Alongside its Main Showcase, which spotlights Nordic films and TV shows in production or in development, Finnish Film Affair is launching a new pitching session, Finnish Weird, welcoming emerging talent from all over the world in a wide variety of genres and formats.
The three-day event welcomes national and international key players from the film industry, this year also expanding its target audience to crew members and professionals from the gaming industry. With its new accreditations, Crew Pass and Gaming Pass, FFA aims at opening up new avenues of cross-industry collaborations, and new networking possibilities amongst professionals.
Further information: https://hiff.fi/ffa/info/
Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy in Helsinki from September 19. to 29. The whole programme is now released. Serial cards are on sale, individual screening tickets go on sale on Monday September 9 at 12 noon.