Genre pics dominated the pitches while the industry tried to make sense of the shifting market with Hollywood eyes to help Genre thrills and chills dominated the 15th Finnish Film Affair that closed last night, and splattered across various sections of Helsinki’s Love & Anarchy Film Festival and panel sessions. The tone was set with the opening film “Nightborn” by local genre wiz Hanna Bergholm, the inaugural Nordic Genre Lab, and yesterday’s panels about Nordic genre’s market value and positioning, followed by XYZ Films’ masterclass about the morphing of Tommy Wirkola’s “The Trip” into Hollywood’s “Over Your Dead Body.” “Genre films and series are definitely on the rise, including in Finland where we do have a history of dark, quirky noirs,” said FFA honcho Lydia Taylerson. But Nordic fare across all genres – from body horror to kids comedy, dramas and documentaries, showcased at Thursday’s pitch day, played out strongly in Helsinki, based on the positive feedback from industry players such as Mike Runagall, managing director of London-based Altitude Film Sales, who said: “I came eight years ago for a panel.
But I now feel that someone from my company should come every year. It’s a real creative hub here,” said the senior sales executive, who plans to track a handful of genre projects. Searchlight’s Sydney Brumfield, who was in Helsinki for her Nordic Genre Lab juror duty, concurred.
At last night’s FFA closing speech, Pauliina Ståhlberg, head of the festival thanked all participants, mentors of the training programs Nordic Flair and Nordic Genre Lab, and experts who sat on the 12 panels. I’ve learned about what an ‘above-the-line liaison’ does, and why producers should hold on to IP and remake rights. We’ve seen so many different genres.
We all need different content at different times of our lives. So let’s help each other tell different stories, about different cultures. At Love and Anarchy, we do believe that with film and TV, with love and anarchy we can make the world a better place,” she said.
Here is how FFA unrolled in nine takeaways. A record 630 attendees signed up for FFA, and 220 meetings between 45 different people were facilitated. At the festival, 121 shorts and 136 films from 80 countries played across the festival’s 20 plus sections.
Attendance reached 50,000. On Wednesday Stuba Nikula, the new CEO of the Finnish Film Foundation took the stage and kickstarted the panel sessions. He also sat with Variety and shared good news.
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