News

Finland is ready to compete with the famed Bergman Estate on Fårö, as a new residence program for Nordic filmmakers takes shape.

Set in Söderlångvik, patron of the arts Amos Anderson’s former summer residence on Kimito Island in southwest Finland, it will target mainly actors and directors.

The initiative, a result of a collaboration between Föreningen Konstsamfundet association – founded by Anderson in 1940 – and Helsinki Int. Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, is being announced exclusively via Variety on the eve of the fest’s 36th edition.

“The comparisons to ‘Bergman Island’ make sense, because we also want to create an inspiring place that brings people together, allowing them to learn from each other and really delve into their craft,” said Love & Anarchy’s executive director Anna Möttölä.

“This place is really unique.”

Stefan Björkman, CEO of Konstsamfundet since 2018, added: “Anderson used to have a small home theater in his basement there...

Finnish director Klaus Härö makes his English-language debut with Toronto Film Festival premiere “My Sailor, My Love.” A gentle drama about a retired sea captain falling in love one last time will be spotlighted at the Helsinki-based event Finnish Film Affair next. Global Screen is handling the sales.

Härö, an experienced filmmaker behind Golden Globe-nominated “The Fencer,” didn’t feel “desperate” to make a movie in English, he says.

“I hope it doesn’t feel forced. With English, there is always this thought that maybe this way, it will reach more people. But it just felt natural to set it in Ireland.”

“I love the loneliness of this landscape, its proximity to the sea. Also, ‘The Fencer’ was shot in Estonia and my next film will be in Finnish, German, Hebrew and Yiddish.”

Produced by Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho for Making Movies, as well as David Collins for Ireland...

Jörn Donner, the prolific Finnish producer and director whose credits included Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning Fanny And Alexander, has died at the age of 86.

Reports in local news were followed today by a statement released by the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the biggest film event in the region, mourning his passing.

“A legend has left us,” said Tiina Lokk, director of Black Nights. “Donner’s work has not only influenced Nordic film but also life outside the screen – as a writer, a sharp-minded social critic, a politician and a diplomat.”

Donner passed away yesterday (January 30) after a long fight with illness, according to the festival, which presented him with a lifetime achievement award back in 2017.

As a producer, Donner made more than 60 films, including Bergman’s 1982 drama Fanny And Alexander, which won four Academy Awards including Best Foreign Language Film in 1984.

As a director, his credits included the 1963 movie A Sunday In September,...

Wendy Mitchell talks to four Finish producers headed to Edinburgh, which is hosting a territory focus on the Scandinavian territory this year.

As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.

Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.

Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution

Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...

Wendy Mitchell talks to four Finish producers headed to Edinburgh, which is hosting a territory focus on the Scandinavian territory this year.

As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.

Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.

Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution

Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...

Pirjo Honkasolo’s Concrete Night and J-p Valkeapään’s They Have Escaped were among the winners at the Finnish Film Week (Sept 18-24) in Helsinki.

Honkasolo’s drama - Finland’s Best Foreign Language Film submission at the last Oscars - won awards for art director Pentti Valkeasuo and the team of gaffer Jani Lehtinen, camera operator Nea Salmisen, key grip/second unit cameraman Arttu Peltomaan and colour editor Jussi Myllyniemen.

Helsinki-Filmi’s Aleksi Bardy was named Producer of the Year for They Have Escaped, for which J-p Valkeapään was named Director of the Year.

Bardy, Valkeapään and screenwriter Pilvi Peltola have also been nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize which will be announced during a session of the Nordic Council in Reykjavik on Oct 27.

Professional associations also recognised the achievements of screenwriter Petja Peltomaa, head of drama at Yellow Film & TV, and Iikka Vehkalahti, documentary filmmaker and Yle commissioning editor.

Actors to receive...

The film industries of Finland and Austria will be under the spotlight at the 7th Moscow Business Square (Mbs) (June 21-22).

Producers, distributors and film funders from both countries will be travelling to Moscow to meet their opposite numbers from the Russian film community.

As in previous years, the industry programme of the Moscow International Film Festival (Miff) will include public pitchings of feature film and documentary projects looking for potential co-production partners in the Co-Production Forum.

Past editions of Mbs featured such projects as Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato, Pavel Lungin’s Queen Of Spades, Maria Saakyan’s I’m Going To Change My Name and Bakur Bakuradze’sThe Hunter, Tatiana Korol’s Passing Clouds, and Marat Alykulov’s Lenin?!

In addition, the two-day event will include masterclasses and roundtables on alternative financing and distribution strategies for independent films.

Moscow’s main competition

Veteran French director Jean-Jacques Annaud will head the international jury at the...

'Fanny and Alexander' movie: Ingmar Bergman classic with Bertil Guve as Alexander Ekdahl 'Fanny and Alexander' movie review: Last Ingmar Bergman 'filmic film' Why Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander / Fanny och Alexander bears its appellation is a mystery – one of many in the director's final 'filmic film' – since the first titular character, Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) is at best a third- or fourth-level supporting character. In fact, in the three-hour theatrical version she is not even mentioned by name for nearly an hour into the film. Fanny and Alexander should have been called "Alexander and Fanny," or simply "Alexander," since it most closely follows two years – from 1907 to 1909 – in the life of young, handsome, brown-haired Alexander Ekdahl (Bertil Guve), the original "boy who sees dead people." Better yet, it should have been called "The Ekdahls," for that whole family is central to the film, especially Fanny and Alexander's beautiful blonde mother Emilie,...

Naomi Kawase, Michael R Roskam, Noomi Rapace among attendees.

Danish drama Key House Mirror, directed by Michael Noer (R), will open the 2015 edition of the Göteborg Film Festival (Jan 23 - Feb 2).

Ghita Nørby and Sven Wollter play the lead roles in the drama about an elderly woman who strikes up an unexpected relationship with a fellow care-home resident.

Jorn Donner’s docu-biopic of Finnish designer Armi Ranta, Armi Alive!, will close the festival.

Eight Nordic films will compete for the $125,000 Nordic prize with this year’s jury comprising directors Pernille Fischer Christensen, Pirjo Honkasalo, Anja Breienand Benedikt Erlingsson, as well as actress Maryam Moghaddam.

The nominees are:

Key House Mirror by Michael NoerMy Skinny Sister by Sanna LenkenIn Your Arms by Samanou Acheche SahlstrømParis of the North by Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurðssonThey Have Escaped by Jukka-Pekka ValkeapääHomesick by Anne SewitskyUnderdog by Ronnie SandahlWomen in Oversized Men’s Shirts by Yngvild Sve FlikkeDebut prize

The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award...

Third edition will include pitching of 17 projects and screening of 19 completed features.Scroll down for full lists

The Finnish Film Affair is to host its third edition during the Helsinki International Film Festival (Sept 23-25).

The showcase for new Finnish films will include 17 projects being pitched and the screening of 19 completed films. A Project Development Clinic has been added for first and second-time directors.

The 17 new projects will be pitched to 60 guests including sales agents, festival programmers, distributors and TV buyers, including Fortissimo Films, Wild Bunch, Memento Films International, Films Transit, Sundance Film Festival, Koch Media and Zdf/Arte.

The pitches include The Fencer by Klaus Härö, whose previous film Letters to Father Jacob sold worldwide; and Stupid Young Heart from Oscar-nominated Selma Vilhunen (Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything?).

Other titles include Tsamo by Markku Lehmuskallio, documentary Mother’s Wish by Joonas Berghäll (Steam Of Life), and Cross Your Heart by Petri Kotwica, whose...

Chicago – Every month, Criterion mixes in a few HD upgrades for films in their collection to sit alongside new releases for the collection. One of those titles this month is spine #139, Ingmar Bergman’s adored “Wild Strawberries” (1957). It’s not one of my favorite Bergman films as I’ve always found its structure more frustrating than enlightening but “Wild Strawberries” has loyal fans who will be satisfied by this strong HD transfer and interesting special features.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The highlights of the Criterion blu-ray release of “Wild Strawberries” are the new, restored 2K digital film transfer that perfectly captures the aesthetic of Bergman’s visually strong film without looking overly polished, and a 90-minute documentary on the legendary director called “Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work.” The stellar HD work and the doc alone make for a solid addition to the collection. As I said though, “Strawberries” is a film that...

Produced fifty-six years ago, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries remains a venerable warhorse in the hallowed halls of Arthouse. But unlike this reviewer, who shares a similar vintage, the film shows no loss of vitality or any sign of imminent creakiness. Despite its strengths, Wild Strawberries often gets a bit lost within the contrasty folds of Bergman’s legendary filmography. Sight and Sound’s vaunted list of The Greatest Films of All Time pegs Wild Strawberries at sixty-three; not exactly a diss but way far behind Persona. The film doesn’t even appear on Roger Ebert’s lengthy List of Great Movies, although the late critic partially compensated by including Bergman’s equally underrated Winter Light.

The inherent silliness of film ranking aside, Wild Strawberries is a stunning cinematic experience. Filled with mystical beauty and chewy philosophical constructs in a tidy, perfectly tailored ninety-two minute package, the film is a...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 11, 2013

Price: Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Victor Sjöström and Bibi Andersson travel across the Swedish countryside in Wild Strawberries.

In the 1957 classic film drama Wild Strawberries by the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman (Face to Face), one man embarks on a remarkable voyage of self-discovery–and then some.

Traveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg—masterfully played by veteran director Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage)—is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make peace with the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, the film dramatizes that aforementioned voyage.

A richly humane masterpiece that deserves every bit of praise that’s been heaped onto it over the past half-century, Wild Strawberries is a genuine treasure from the golden age of art-house cinema and one of the films that catapulted Bergman to international acclaim.

Here’s...

I'm a big Ingmar Bergman fan and for that reason alone I enjoyed Smiles of a Summer Night. With some directors you just feel a connection, you get their jokes, you share similar wonders and question the same things. I love his approach to religion and questions of mortality. However, this film doesn't really deal with much of that at all, which is probably the reason I merely liked it and wouldn't necessarily suggest it as a must buy. Though, for Bergman fans, it's certainly one to add to your collection.

While described as "one of cinema's great erotic comedies" by Criterion, that's a bit misleading, especially for today's audiences. Perhaps it would be more properly worded as "quietly" erotic and "subtly" funny. You won't be laughing out loud, at least not very often, and while Harriet Andersson (Through a Glass Darkly), Eva Dahlbeck and even the pregnant (but hiding...

DVD Playhouse: May 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Blow Out (Criterion) Brian De Palma’s greatest Hitchcock homage, with a dash of Antonioni thrown in for good measure. John Travolta gives one of his best turns as a sound-effects engineer who unwittingly records a political assassination, then finds himself hunted by a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow, a memorably creepy psycho) after saving the life of the kindly, albeit dim-witted call girl (Nancy Allen, excellent) who was with the deceased. Terrific blend of suspense and very black humor, perhaps De Palma’s finest hour as an auteur. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with De Palma, Allen, cameraman Garrett Brown; Photo gallery; De Palma’s 1967 feature Murder a la Mod; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 2.0 surround.

Kes (Criterion) Ken Loach’s landmark 1970 film is both a heart-rending portrait of adolescence, and a pointed socio-political commentary on life in the North of England.

Ewa Fröling in Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander Fanny And Alexander Review Pt. 2 The television version of Fanny and Alexander comes on two discs, each with two of the four episodes (although the series is in five 'Acts'), but only with English subtitles. The second of these discs also offers a good forty-minute documentary called A Bergman Tapestry, featuring interviews with Fanny and Alexander producer Jörn Donner, production manager Katinka Farago, art director Anna Asp, assistant director Peter Schildt, and actors Bertil Guve (who now looks like a balder, thinner Guy Pearce), Ewa Fröling, Pernilla August, and Erland Josephson. The final two discs have Bergman's acclaimed, but rather tedious and uninsightful The Making of Fanny and Alexander. The documentary simply follows scenes showing the filming process, with no real discussion or commentary by either Bergman or any of the participants. Especially in this DVD age, this "Making of" feels...

Cologne, Germany -- "Letters to Father Jakob," Klaus Haro's drama about a paroled convict who agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor, received nine nominations for the Jussi Awards, Finland's top film honor.

"Father Jakob," which is also Finland's candidate for the 2010 Best Foreign Language Oscar, picked up noms in all the main categories, including best film and best direction.

Other strong contenders for the "Finnish Oscar" include Jorn Donner's war drama "The Interrogation" and "The Visitor," a minimalist feature from first time director J.P. Valkaepaa, both of which received six Jussi noms.

The Jussi Award winners will be announced in Helsinki Jan. 31.

By Michael Atkinson

When we first met Aki Kaurismäki, in 1989 when "Ariel" had its run as probably the first Finnish film to play theatrically in America since Jörn Donner's "Portraits of Women" (1970), we more or less fell in love. Lost in the hollow skull of the Reagan-Bush '80s, suffering the ascension of Spielberg and Ivan Reitman and Shane Black, wondering what remote atoll international art cinema had escaped to, and more or less completely ignorant of Finnish life, we had every reason to embrace this last of the red hot deadpan existentialists, whose films somehow altered the cellular structure of working class depression and turned it into cool comedy. His distinctively bittersweet dyspepsia established Kaurismäki, in a thick run of films that included "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" (1989), "The Match Factory Girl" (1990) and "La Vie de Bohème" (1992), as a new arthouse brand name, a kind of vodka-weary Bresson-meets-Tati.

Kaurismäki...