Helsinki market closes with record turnout and steady funding signal
The 15th Finnish Film Affair closed in Helsinki on 25 September after a three-day run with a record 630 industry sign-ups, according to Variety. The market, held from 23 to 25 September, runs parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival, Love and Anarchy, putting Finnish producers in the same rooms as foreign buyers and festival programmers.
It opened with "Nightborn" by Hanna Bergholm. The wider festival screened 136 films and 121 shorts from 80 countries across more than 20 sections and drew 50,000 admissions, according to Variety.
The market selected 38 film and series projects from the Nordics and beyond for this year's edition, according to the Finnish Film Affair. The documentary selection included work from Anna Antsalo, Janna Kyllästinen, Virpi Suutari, Antti Haase and Mariana Reyes. That slate is the shop window. Producers present early stage work to sales agents, companies that sell distribution rights territory by territory, and to financiers looking for co-production partners.
Organisers facilitated 220 one-to-one meetings involving 45 participants, alongside 12 panels and two training programmes, Nordic Flair and the inaugural Nordic Genre Lab, according to Variety. The panel programme ran on Wednesday 23 September and Friday 25 September. Searchlight executive Sydney Brumfield joined the Genre Lab as a juror, former Netflix commissioner Claire Willats served as a mentor, and London-based Altitude Film Sales managing director Mike Runagall was among the visiting buyers.
Money was high on the agenda. Stuba Nikula, the new chief executive of the Finnish Film Foundation, said Finland's 2027 budget has gone to Parliament with foundation funding expected to hold steady at 23 million euros ($26.2 million) a year, according to Variety. He added that Finland expects to pass its version of the EU's AVMS Directive, the bloc's audiovisual rules that can require streamers to invest in local production, within a month. Payments of 3.5 million euros to 7 million euros would be collected in 2027 and passed to the industry in 2028.
The event is led by head of Finnish Film Affair Lydia Taylerson, with festival head Pauliina Stahlberg giving the closing speech.
What makes this stand out for regular cinema-goers is the plumbing. Few of the 38 projects have release dates yet. But the meetings, labs and funding signals in Helsinki help decide which Nordic stories get finished, sold abroad and booked into festivals two years from now.
