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Katja Gauriloff’s Je’vida is the first film to be shot in the Skolt Sami language.

Katja Gauriloff’s Je’vida, the first feature to be made in the Skolt Sami language was awarded the best fiction project award at the Finnish Film Affair (Ffa) in Helsinki this week.

The film is now in post-production and tells a very personal story of a woman forced to assimilate into a culture that is not her own and abandon her own language and culture. Gauriloff, who is of Skolt Sami heritage, said the story is based on the experiences of her mother,...

Berlin-based Picture Tree International has picked up global sales rights to two Scandinavian romantic comedies – the Finland’s “70 Is Just a Number,” about an aging female pop singer, and Sweden’s “Till Sun Rises,” about two lovers who escape their respective marriages to come together at night with the help of an ancient and magic book.

Pti will launch sales on the films at AFM, prior to their local releases via Nordisk Film: Dec. 29 and Dec. 25, respectively.

“70 Is Just a Number” is directed by Finnish comedy queen Johanna Vuoksenmaa, who directed “21 Ways to Ruin Your Marriage” – the top grossing Finnish film in 2013 with more than 400,000 admissions, still the biggest box office hit ever written, directed and produced by a woman in Finland. Produced by Nina Laurio and Riina Hyytiä with their Finnish company Dionysos Films, the film was supported by Finnish Film Foundation, and Tampere City/Film Tampere. The local broadcaster is Yleisradio.

Cannes 2020: The Marché du Film webinar, entitled “Pandemic Production: Lessons Learned in the Nordics”, saw the participation of four filmmakers from the region. During this year’s Cannes Marché du Film (22-26 June), Scandinavian Films organised five webinars on producing films in the time of the coronavirus, all moderated by Screen International journalist Wendy Mitchell. The first of the five panels, “Pandemic Production: Lessons Learned in the Nordics”, took place on 22 June and saw the participation of four Nordic filmmakers – namely, Nina Laurio (producer from Finland’s Dionysos Films), Lars Bredo Rahbek (head of production at Sf Studios’ Danish division), Sara Young (writer-director of the Swedish flick Most Unwanted) and Kristinn Thordarson (head of production at Iceland’s TrueNorth). In the midst of the pandemic, audiovisual production restarted earlier in the region than it did in the rest of the world. The participants disclosed the main obstacles created by the.