The Freyas Launch in Helsinki: A New Nordic Film and TV Awards Ceremony Begins September 22
A new awards ceremony called The Freyas — the Nordic Film & TV Awards — will hold its first edition on September 22 at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, celebrating directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, screenwriters and composers from across the five Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Variety
The ceremony lands the evening before the Helsinki International Film Festival's industry event, the Finnish Film Affair, which runs September 23–25. That timing puts The Freyas in front of the producers, sales agents and festival programmers already converging on the city.
The Freyas was conceived by Kirpi Uimonen, Joonas Nurmi, Tina Jøhnk Christensen and Anke Hofmann, working alongside other film, TV and awards professionals from the Nordic region and the United States. Uimonen is one of the founders. Roosa Toivonen serves as head of industry and talent.
The plan is for The Freyas to travel. After Helsinki, the ceremony moves to Copenhagen in 2027, Stockholm in 2028, Oslo in 2029 and Reykjavik in 2030 — rotating through all five Nordic capitals on a yearly cycle.
For the inaugural event, the presenters and jury members named so far span the region's talent pool. Actors include Alexander Karim, Nanna Blondell, Ville Virtanen, Pekka Strang, Sara Soulié, Emmi Parviainen and Oona Airola. Directors on the list are Zaida Bergroth, Selma Vilhunen, Dome Karukoski, Juha Wuolijoki and AJ Annila. Producers include Madeleine Ekman, Gudny Hummelvoll, Sofie Wanting Hassing, Andri Ómarsson and Jani Pösö.
Partners for the Helsinki edition include The Icebreaking Company, Strawberry, Kämp Hotel, Finlandia Hall and the Finnish Film Affair.
Nordic drama and film have travelled further in the past decade than at any point before — through streaming pickups, international co-productions and format sales — yet the region has not had a single awards body spanning all five countries for both film and television. The Freyas is built to sit in that gap, giving Nordic talent a shared stage that moves from capital to capital each year.
For audiences who have found Nordic series and films through platforms without necessarily knowing which country made them, the ceremony offers a chance to see that work recognised at its source — by the industry that produced it, in the cities where it was made.
