Finnish Film Affair Reveals 38 Standout Projects from the Nordics and Beyond

Finnish Film Affair is returning to the stage for the 15th edition this year in the heart of Helsinki 23.-25.9.2026. At the very centre of Finnish Film Affair lies the Showcase Day, where 38 exciting projects with international potential from Finland, the Nordics, and beyond take the stage to pitch their case. On Thursday, 24.9, the showcase projects will be presented in six different categories.

The international selection committee, consisting of the Head of Industry Lydia Taylerson, alongside international experts Katre Kajamäe-Gupta, Project Manager for feature films at Eurimages, and Natascha Degnova, Acquisitions and Head of PR & Marketing at LevelK, decided on the Fiction in Development and Progress category projects. On the documentary side, joining Taylerson on the jury were Mourad-Anis Moussa, Selection Committee member and Programming Co-head at Visions du Réel, and Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary Inc. 

“It has been very interesting to notice a shift in the projects applying to FFA, for example this year we ended up with quite a few co-productions in the final line-up, which goes to show the growing international direction of the industry right now. Likewise the sheer amount of high quality Fiction in Development projects that applied to FFA is really impressive, even if it does make the work of the jury that much more difficult”, notes Taylerson

In our Fiction in Progress series, we present five Finnish projects further along in their production, from five notable filmmakers: Pamela Tola, Naima Mohamud, Aku Louhimies, Laura Hyppönen, and Kari Ketonen. Among them is one of this year’s buzziest titles: Louhimies’s wartime drama Lapland War (Lapin sota), eagerly anticipated from the director of The Unknown Soldier (2017).

Meanwhile, the Fiction in Development selection showcases eight projects in earlier development stages. This year’s line-up includes projects from Aleksi Delikouras (Babyface), Hedda Mjøen (Big Deal), Jari Pauna (Kekri: Trick or Die), Nicole Genovese (The Big Party), Jon Blåhed (The Bottom Line), Kyran Davies and Scott Quinn (The Lost Sons of Nada), Jojo Erholtz (The Weight of a Man), and Sebastian Granskog, whose Tick Fever (Puutiaiskuume) is a horror comedy with social satire sprinkled on top.

FFA is also showcasing eight new documentary projects, diving into themes ranging from a forest under threat and a lifetime of Estonian piano-making, to a six-time Olympic medalist’s fall from grace and a Paralympic champion’s road back. The filmmakers representing this year’s documentary selection are Anna Antsalo, Janna Kyllästinen, Virpi Suutari, Antti Haase and Mariana Reyes, Sean Ricks, Jussi Sandhu and Ville Hakonen, Vladimir Loginov, Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, and Janne Tanskanen and Olli Vuokko. Suutari returns to the showcase stage with Lonesome Land, following the success of her 2024 hit Once Upon a Time in a Forest.

The Nordic Selection turns the spotlight on several striking titles from across the region. From Norway, Emilie Beck presents 11 Hours (11 Timer), a hostage thriller inspired by true events. Representing Iceland, Vala Omarsdottir‘s Just a Kid (Bara barn) follows a teenager caught between her mother’s expectations and her first love. And from Denmark, Nils Holst-Jensen — director of the 2022 series Where Were You? — brings the psychological drama Without You (Uden Dig), in which a mother’s life unsettlingly rights itself after her daughter’s disappearance.

In collaboration with Audiovisual Producers Finland – APFI, The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle and Finnish Film Foundation, FFA will also showcase six Finnish TV series in development: thrillers, crime dramas, coming-of-age stories, and documentaries.

A new category this year is made in collaboration with Nordic Genre Lab, a training programme designed to accelerate the development of genre feature films, which will spotlight genre-crossing titles from across the Nordics. From Finland come Pete Riski‘s time-hopping action thriller Alma, Juha Fiilin‘s body-horror chiller Echo Chamber, Josefina Rautiainen‘s Linden Lane 6 (Lehmuskuja 6), and Teemu Niukkanen‘s Cold War-era comedy Sauna Diplomacy (Saunadiplomaatit). Norway is represented by Kjersti Helen Rasmussen‘s post-blackout survival drama Long Way Home (Lang vei hjem), Denmark by Kristian Lidegaard‘s found-footage horror The Evil Eye (Det Onde Øje), and Sweden by Johannes Persson‘s wilderness thriller Trespassers (Inkräktare). Rounding out the selection, climbing onto the stage all the way from the Faroe Islands, is Gudmund Helmsdal‘s genre horror Whistler. 

“As FFA celebrates its 15th edition, we are proud that we can offer more possibilities for filmmakers to work, train and develop their projects internationally” says HIFF CEO Pauliina Ståhlberg. 

Accreditation is still open at Accreditation – HIFF Industry until September 18. More information about this year’s projects is available at hiffindustry.fi/projects.