Finnish Film Affair 2026 Unveils 38-Title Slate, Opens With Hanna Bergholm's 'Nightborn'
Helsinki's Finnish Film Affair has unveiled its full 2026 programme: 38 titles from the Nordics and beyond, pitched to more than 500 attendees across three days this September (Variety).
The industry event runs 23–25 September 2026, parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy. Its centrepiece is Showcase Day on 24 September, when producers and sales agents pitch projects in development to financiers, distributors and festival programmers.
Opening the Affair is Nightborn, a horror film directed by Hanna Bergholm. The film was the top winner at Montreal's Fantasia Festival and a contender for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. Bergholm's previous feature, Hatching, drew international attention at Sundance in 2022, making Nightborn a high-profile curtain-raiser for a market better known for art-house drama than genre.
This year, genre filmmaking gets a bigger platform. Eight Nordic genre films in development will compete for best pitch under a new partnership with the Nordic Genre Lab, a training and networking programme co-founded by Laura Laaksonen of Purr PR and former Netflix executive Claire Willats of Two Magpie Entertainment (Variety). The Lab's inaugural session runs 24–25 September during the Affair (Nordic Genre Lab).
Finnish Film Affair head of industry Lydia Taylerson said the event partly replaced its "Finnish Weird" section with the Nordic Genre Lab showcase, broadening the scope from a national focus to the wider region.
The genre projects span several countries. Making Movies brings Alma, directed by Pete Riski from a script by Ilja Rautsi. Whistler, billed as the first Faroese horror feature, is produced by Outlier Projects. Linden Lane 6 comes from It's Alive Films, while Trespassers is produced by Patrick Andersson with Mylla Films co-founder Jakob Abrahamsson.
On the documentary side, six titles were selected by Taylerson alongside Mourad-Anis Moussa of Visions du Réel and Erika Dilday of American Documentary Inc. Virpi Suutari's Lonesome Land headlines the slate. Other topics range widely: Umarells — We Know Better pays tribute to working-class Italian men during the Second World War, Dear Iria is a biopic about the late artist Iria Leino, and Myllylä profiles Olympic medallist Mika Myllylä.
The scripted selections number eight films in development and five works in progress, chosen by Taylerson, Katre Kajamäe-Gupta of Eurimages and Natasha Degnova of LeveK. Among them, Laura Hyppönen returns to the Affair with Lex Julia, a project she first pitched there in 2021 — a five-year journey from initial pitch to current development.
Nordic selections from neighbouring territories include the Norwegian thriller 11 Hours, the Danish psycho drama Without You and the Icelandic coming-of-age film Just a Kid.
For a festival-market held in a country of 5.5 million people, the reach is striking: 38 projects, more than 500 industry attendees, and a new genre pipeline that stretches from the Faroe Islands to Finland.
