Tens of thousands of cinema lovers gathered once again in theatres across Helsinki for the Love & Anarchy festival, which draws to a close with Sunday night’s final screenings. Over one in four screenings sold out and serial cards sold at a record pace. The festival also took a firm stance for Palestine and against short-sighted government cuts.
Over one in four of this year’s Love & Anarchy film played to sold-out theatres. A record number of serial cards were sold, and audiences were particularly drawn to the new three-ticket IHASTUS serial card. The outdoor premiere screening of the Yle-produced PMMP documentary, held on Kansalaistori Square in the beginning of September, also gathered around 1200 viewers. Overall, the festival reached an audience of almost 53 000.
In addition to the Gala screenings, the most popular films at this year’s festival were the Thai genre-rattler A Useful Ghost, Kelly Reichardt’s art heist tale The Mastermind, and the Cannes-winning phantasmagoria Resurrection. The most popular film from the Free Palestine selection, which encouraged discussion and gathered large audiences, was the cross-generational drama All That’s Left of You.
On Sunday Sept 21, the festival organised a spontaneous demonstration against the funding cuts to the film industry planned by the government. Executive Director Pauliina Ståhlberg also attended a discussion for members of the film industry that took place in the Finnish Parliament. “All of us have the responsibility and opportunity to speak up for justice and champion a multiplicity of voices. These are values that we strive to uphold in our organization, and we are happy to note that our audiences have done the same by deciding to attend our event and see the diverse films from all over the world that we selected for our programme,” Ståhlberg says.
Pekka Lanerva, who has retired from his position as Artistic Director, opened the sold-out closing gala together with Head of Programme Outi Rehn. However, Lanerva will not be stepping away from the festival’s programming work entirely, as he will continue to be involved as a programme advisor.
The industry event Finnish Film Affair brought a record number, around 550, of film industry professionals to Helsinki from all over the world. Forty-five film and television projects in development were introduced at the event. Alli Haapasalo’s feature Tell Everyone won the prize for Best Fiction Project, the award for Best Nordic Project went to Pekka Ollula’s Pigtown, and Hanna Nordenswan’s Sense and Sensibility received the Best Documentary Project award. The Finnish Weird award was given to Boobs, directed by Milla Puolakanaho and Juha Ilmari Laine.
This year’s FFA also introduced new awards: the Midpoint Institute’s consulting award went to Aino Suni and Emilia Haukka for their project Abyss (Rotko), the Connecting Cottbus-award for producers was awarded to Julia Elomäki, and Thundering Smoke, pitched at FFA by Khadar Ahmed and Minna Haapkylä, won full market badges to the Göteborg Film Festival.
This year’s Pulpettikino screenings for students drew 1500 more schoolchildren than the year before. In total, the 14 screenings aimed at children of various ages gathered around 4500 viewers. Pulpettikino screenings will continue throughout the school year.
A selection of short films from the Love & Anarchy National Competition will become available to watch on the festival website, through a platform provided by Cyon.media. The price per film is 2,99 € and the profits from sales will go to the filmmakers. The 13 films will be available from the final day of the festival, Sunday Sept 28, until Oct 19. The winners of the National Competition were announced on Thursday evening.
The cinematic bliss will not end with the final day of the festival – on Friday Oct 3, Korjaamo Kino will delight movie lovers with a screening of the trailblazing, 50-year-old The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tickets for the screening are now on sale. Love & Anarchy will return on September 17–27, 2026, and Love & Anarchy Presents screenings will keep audiences warm until the festival next year, so stay tuned!