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With every fest edition there has been a rich component dedicated to music – celluloid go hand and hand with musical notes hence the music biopic are often welcomed. Most are known entities but if Anna Paavilainen‘s sophomore feature is included here, or Rotterdam or the Berlinale there’ll need to be some context needed to fully get into Kikka!. Starring Sara Melleri in a decade-spanning, head strong personality portrait, the Finnish pop singer was compared to Samantha Fox. Produced by Daniel Kuitunen (who brought a pair of Finn-tastic side-splitting shorts to the fest in Fucking Bunnies and Are You Hungry?…...

Pop singer Kikka, a.k.a. Kirsi Hannele Viilonen, who passed away in 2005 at just 41 years old, will finally get her due in the upcoming biopic being produced by Helsinki’s Komeetta. Founded by producers Daniel Kuitunen and Kaisla Viitala, the production company’s slate already includes Zaida Bergroth’s “Maria’s Paradise,” shown in Toronto in 2019, and J-p Valkeapää’s comedy “Hit Big,” currently in development.

The Finnish answer to the likes of Samantha Fox or Sabrina, as she was often referred to during the first years of her tumultuous career, quickly grabbed the public’s attention with her playful songs and a highly sexualized image. Although still best known in her native country, there are universal themes to her story, Viitala tells Variety.

“‘Kikka!’ is more than a biopic – it’s a story about an aging sex symbol, about friendship and loneliness. I think these are all universal topics,...

The funding body has decided to support 13 new projects, including Iiris Härmä’s documentary Guardians of Creation and Anna Paavilainen's feature debut, Kikka!. The board of the Finnish Film Foundation granted production support to 13 new productions in October, with the total sum amounting to €2,457,000. Two of the projects are feature films, five are documentaries (including one minority co-production), three short films and three series.The two feature films are debut features for their directors. The children’s flick The Hullabaloos!, developed at the Cinekid Script Lab, will be directed by Reetta Huhtanen, who recently scooped a Jussi Award for her documentary Gods of Molenbeek (see the news). Produced by Tack Films, it received €700,000. Another Jussi winner, Anna Paavilainen, whose Two Bodies on a Beach was named Best Short, will be working on Kikka! – the biopic of a local 1990s pop star, produced by Komeetta and now granted €800,000....

Ten films have been chosen, produced by 14 different European nations.

Neasa Hardiman’s sci-fi thriller Sea Fever is one of the 10 female-directed features chosen for Sydney Film Festival (Sff) and European Film Promotion (Efp)’s Europe! Voices of Women in Film initiative, which will run online from June 10-21.

Chosen by Sff director Nashen Moodley, the 10 films are produced by 14 European countries.

Hardiman’s film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival last September, and is an Ireland-Sweden-Belgium-uk co-production. It stars Connie Nielsen, Hermione Corfield and Dougray Scott in the story of a West of Ireland trawler crew who struggle for...

Goteborg Film Festival, the biggest showcase of local and international movies in the Nordics, will kick off its 43rd edition with Maria Bäck’s “”Psychosis,” and will close with actor-turned-director Mårten Klingberg’s “My Father Mary Anne.”

Both timely Swedish dramas dealing with trauma post-sexual abuse, and the experience of a transgender priest, respectively, “Psychosis” and “My Father Mary Anne” will have their world premiere at Goteborg.

Stellan Skarsgård, who just won a Golden Globe for his performance in the hit HBO series “Tchernobyl,” will receive the prestigious Nordic Honorary Dragon Award and will be honored with a retrospective of some of the greatest films of his career. As part of the tribute, the estival will also host the Nordic premiere of “The Painted Bird” which was recently shortlisted for the international feature film category at the Oscars. During the festival, Skarsgård will also having a masterclass.

In addition to opening the festival,...

The project is directed by 15 female writers and directors.

Tuffi Films short film anthology One-Off Incident won the Finnish Film Affair’s work in progress award, which goes to the project presented that is most likely to attract international attention.

One-Off Incident is an anthology of short films about how power is used against women in their private lives as well as in society. The project will also include an awareness campaign.

The project is directed by 15 female writers and directors and curated by Tuffi Films’ group of female producers; it was pitched by director Alli Haapasalo and Tuffi producer Elli Toivoniemi.