The Nordisk Film & TV Fond has announced a record seven nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize. Finland’s candidate is the fresh and topical documentary The Helsinki Effect.
The Nordic Council Film Prize is awarded to a feature-length film of high artistic quality, produced as a Nordic co-production. All seven nominated films will be screened at the Love & Anarchy Film Festival in Helsinki from 18 to 28 September.
The members of Finland’s award jury in 2025 are Marjo Pipinen (chair), Tytti Rantanen and Kalle Kinnunen. Competing for the prize money (300,000 Danish krones, about €41,000) are four fiction films and three documentaries.
One of the three nominated documentaries is Finland’s surprising and timely entry, The Helsinki Effect, directed by Arthur Franck. An all-archival essay documentary explores the power narratives and myths of the Cold War era. The film breathes life into history with insightful connections, fresh and illuminating interpretations, and touches of humour. Archive footage also features in Sweden’s nominee, Göran Hugo Olsson’s multifaceted documentary Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958–1989. The third nominated documentary is Greenland’s candidate Walls – Akinni Inuk, directed by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg and Sofie Rørdam. It tells the story of a friendship between a prisoner and a film director in a Greenlandic women’s prison.
For the first time, the Faroe Islands are submitting their own entry: The Last Paradise on Earth, a Danish-Faroese co-production directed by Sakaris Stórá. It is a portrayal of personal loss, spiritual paralysis, and ecological crisis, enriched by stunning cinematography and captivating music. Last year’s award-winning director, Dag Johan Haugerud, is nominated with Dreams (Sex Love), a sensual and thought-provoking drama about a high school girl who falls for her teacher.
Iceland’s and Denmark’s nominated films also delighted audiences at last year’s Love & Anarchy Festival. Iceland’s entry, When the Light Breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson, is a poetically realistic depiction of grief and life’s unpredictability, subtly blending tragedy and humour. Denmark’s nominee, Sylvia Le Fanu’s debut feature My Eternal Summer, follows a family enjoying a blissfully unhurried summer overshadowed by the mother’s terminal illness.
The Helsinki Effect had its world premiere in March in the main competition at the CPH:DOX Festival and opened in Finnish cinemas in April. The award nomination is shared by the film’s director-writer-producer Arthur Franck and producers Sandra Enkvist and Oskar Forstén.
The Nordic Council Film Prize was first awarded in 2002 and has been a permanent part of the Nordic Council’s cultural prizes since 2005. It is given to a feature-length fiction film or documentary produced in the Nordic countries with a national theatrical release. The winning film will be announced on 21 October, 2025.
Film presentations, images, trailers, and further information: https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com