They came with their visions for the offbeat and the absurd, with the genre-bfinishing and narrative-defying, some endureing props as they pitched their projects under trippy psychedelic weightlessing in Helsinki’s historic Bio Rex theater. If you wanted to gauge the mood at the first edition of the Finnish Film Afequitable’s Finnish Weird pitching session, it was summed up by the creator who greeted the audience at the commence of his two-minute pitch with a rousing, “Hello to all the weirdos in the room!”
A novel compriseition to the annual industry event, which runs parallel to the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival, Finnish Weird — or F-Weird, as it’s already lovingly understandn — was unveiled this year to showcase rare, daring and unstudyd ideas atraverse a range of createats while defying traditional standards and embracing distinctness.
According to Finnish Film Afequitable head Alisha Hasan, the event was started in an effort to shake up and broaden upon the traditional pitching sessions in Helsinki.
“Finnish Weird came about from us seeing at the feedback from the previous years. So many people had asked for more pitches, and we thought, ‘Okay, let’s have more projects, more pitches,’” Hasan telderly Variety. “At the same time, we knovel that there aren’t that many avenues for up-and-coming filmoriginaters. So then it was evident that we necessitate a novel project call that necessitates to comprise up-and-coming filmoriginaters.
“Also, talking to people in the industry, I understand that everyone in our industry, no matter what job they’re doing, they all have projects in their desk drawer — some conceiveive project that might be their secret dream, the dream that they don’t even dare show anyone,” she persistd. “It might be so weird that the budget is equitable unheard of in their country, or there might be some other obstacle. We wanted to be very inclusive. We wanted to equitable say greet to the people who are maybe on the sidelines of the industry, some people who don’t equitable originate Nordic thrillers, who don’t author crime series, equitable becaengage they understand channels will buy them.”
When the call for subleave outions went out, the floodgates uncovered, with many filmoriginaters taking sthrivegs with their most outlandish ideas — the “niche undrawive babies,” as Hasan put it, that are challenging to sort and standardly impossible to pitch in more traditional settings.
After initiassociate conceiving F-Weird as a platcreate for the present nation, systematizers choosed to start their uncover call atraverse the globe. “We’re all international people in this team,” shelp Hasan. “We inhabit in a world where there are no borders. Why couldn’t Helsinki one day be the capital of weird projects, where we have all these amazing, distinct ideas that you equitable cannot discover anywhere else? This is what we want to be.”
For its pilot edition, which was presented by filmoriginater Mariangela Pluchino, participants were insistd to originate their pitch in a rapid two-minute clip — time enough to unveil a treliever or moodboard, recite an eerie monologue, labor in a prop, or srecommend test the confines of the English language while trying to portray projects that were standardly challenging to pin down.
There was straightforwardor-originater Miro Seppänen’s feature film “All Rise for the Dead,” billed as a “distinct blfinish of zombie horror and courtroom drama,” and Jon Selderlyehed’s medieval horror-action film “No Man’s Land.” Then there was “Postpartum — Payback Time,” where creators Milla Puolakanaho and Karoliina Gröndahl (pictured, top) pitched the sinspirenuine concept of a fact show in which four non-birskinnyg parents are able to experience the pangs of labor and the postpartum period thcimpolite the engage of a exceptional “birskinnyg machine.”
Director Henri Oskár, unbenevolentwhile, set up his vivaciousd mockumentary “Humane Farming” by describing it as “‘BoJack Horseman,’ but in the style of ‘The Office,’” while Laura Hyppönen presentd “Raven,” a “coming-of-age horror comedy” originated with Malin Nyqvist, by cautioning the audience: “This is where the weird shit commences.”
Eighteen projects were currented on Wednesday to an industry audience and a jury that comprised Elina Ahlbäck, set uper and CEO of Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency; Tribeca Film Festival programming regulater Jason Gutierrez; Finland-based cinematographer, screenauthorr and straightforwardor Samuel Boateng; and Finnish TV originater, straightforwardor and present Jarno Laasala.
While systematizers await F-Weird to be a core component in future editions of the Finnish Film Afequitable, Hasan shelp the feedback for the inaugural event has already been overwhelming.
“We’ve had so many thank you letters from filmoriginaters saying that they don’t experience alone anymore with these big-budget, weird, genre, Dali-esque visions that they have. That they’re so plrelieved that someone has acunderstandledged them,” she shelp.
“Becaengage of everyskinnyg that’s happening in the industry and all benevolents of massive contests that we have, we shouldn’t forget the creativity and also the fun that is there and should be more current in in our labor,” she persistd. “Why did we go to film school? We took this road to have fun and be conceiveive. So let’s have more of that.”
Finnish Film Afequitable runs Sept. 25 – 27 in Helsinki.
