This newsletter shares the good news of the Finnish films and TV series once a month. The content is intended to be an interesting news roundup both for separate newsletter subscribers and for media representatives interested in films and TV series.
June highlighted the breadth of Finnish film and TV, from new international festival selections and genre projects to major funding decisions and fresh Nordic co-productions. Finnish talent is visible across fiction, animation and documentary. For example, Helmi Donner heads to Karlovy Vary, Juho Kuosmanen moves into production with his next feature, Gigglebug experiments with mobile-friendly animation, and Finnish documentaries continue to travel through major festival contexts. At the same time, new support from the Finnish Film Foundation and Nordisk Film & TV Fond, together with IPR.VC’s work in content investment, shows how Finland is strengthening both the creative and financial foundations of screen storytelling.
1. Short news about Finnish films and TV series in June 2026
The horror drama The Lightning Rod (Matalapaine), written and directed by Helmi Donner, screened last year in the student film competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In July, the film will be part of the Karlovy Vary festival programme as the Finnish Film Foundation’s nominated candidate.
Award-winning director Juho Kuosmanen’s third feature film, En Ægte Drømmer (Haaveista totta), is moving into production. In Finland, this European co-production has been supported by the Finnish Film Foundation, Business Finland and Yle. The film is produced by Aamu Film Company, with theatrical distribution handled by B-Plan Distribution.
ALMA by Making Movies is one of eight film projects selected for the new Nordic Genre Lab development and networking program. The program is designed to mentor and support new Nordic film projects. Nordic Genre Lab will take place in September in connection with Finnish Film Affair in Helsinki.
Teuvo Puro’s classic films Curses of the Witch (Noidan kirot) and Before the Face of the Sea (Meren kasvojen edessä) received exceptional international visibility in June at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Italy. Their selection for the festival program is a significant recognition of Finnish film heritage preservation and restoration work. The work has been carried out by the Finnish Arts and Culture Agency, Kuvi.
Hanna Bergholm’s film Nightborn (Yön lapsi) will soon arrive in several European cinemas. Written by Hanna Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi, the film has received praise at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Silver Méliès Award in Brussels. It explores emotions related to parenthood and relationships in an unprecedented way.
The TV series The Woman Who Disappeared (Nainen joka katosi), written and directed by Simo Halinen, was completed already in early 2024. The suspense drama series has previously been available in countries including France, Poland and Spain. It will finally be released in Finland in August.
In Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s support decisions for the second quarter of this year, production support for Finnish films and TV series was granted to Pamela Tola’s Good Times (Hyviä vuosia), Helsinki-filmi’s crime series Dead Women Talking (Kuollut nainen puhuu), Joonas Utti’s animated series Ted & Paula’s Tadpole Journey, and the documentaries Carmen! and Second Acts (Portti).
2. Animated series Ted & Paula’s Tadpole Journey challenges streaming platforms with an unusual aspect ratio
Gigglebug Entertainment’s animated series Ted & Paula’s Tadpole Journey, currently in production, follows two tadpole siblings as they spend their days adventuring in a large and dangerous pond. What makes this children’s animated series unusual is its distinctive aspect ratio. It is designed to work on widescreen displays in both landscape and portrait formats, making it suitable for viewing on both televisions and mobile devices. The series has received production support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
3. The Finnish Film Foundation supported the industry with over €4.6 million in June
In June, the board of the Finnish Film Foundation granted €4.6 million in support to the industry. The funding was distributed as script development grants for films and series, as well as various forms of production support. The supported projects include documentaries, feature-length fiction films, drama series, short films and animated productions. Among the projects are a film from Anima Vitae based on the books of Mauri Kunnas, Johanna Vuoksenmaa’s sequel to 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage (21 tapaa pilata avioliitto), Veli Granö’s documentary about outsider artist Veijo Rönkkönen, and Lucas Sene’s documentary about his artist brother.
4. Finnish documentaries strongly represented at the Midnight Sun Film Festival
This year’s Midnight Sun Film Festival screened three new documentaries supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. These were Amongst the Birds, Beauty of Errors (Kappale kauneinta Suomea) and Sing for Me Arja (Laula minulle Arja). The latter, a documentary about Arja Saijonmaa, connected with the festival’s broader discussion on the relationship between art and social responsibility. Known for its international auteur guests, the festival showed how Finnish documentaries are becoming an increasingly strong part of wider Nordic and international conversations about culture, identity and social impact.
5. Finnish expertise helps film and TV develop as investable assets
Finnish content investment company IPR.VC is positioning film and television rights as a serious diversification opportunity for institutional investors. In its new analysis, the Helsinki- and London-based fund manager argues that the value of content brands is driven less by public market cycles and more by audience demand, rights ownership, the breadth of distribution and the ability of stories to expand across different formats. Finnish film and TV expertise therefore not only produces content but also helps reshape the ways in which global film and television projects are financed.