Finnish Film Affair Makes Pitch for Helsinki as ‘Capital of Weird’

They came with their visions for the offbeat and the absurd, with the genre-bending and narrative-defying, some bearing props as they pitched their projects under trippy psychedelic lighting in Helsinki’s historic Bio Rex theater. If you wanted to gauge the mood at the first edition of the Finnish Film Affair’s Finnish Weird pitching session, it was summed up by the creator who greeted the audience at the start of his two-minute pitch with a rousing, “Hello to all the weirdos in the room!”

A new addition to the annual industry event, which runs parallel to the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival, Finnish Weird — or F-Weird, as it’s already affectionately known — was unveiled this year to showcase unusual, daring and unexplored ideas across a range of formats while defying traditional standards and embracing uniqueness.

According to Finnish Film Affair head Alisha Hasan, the event was launched in an effort to shake up and expand upon the traditional pitching sessions in Helsinki.

“Finnish Weird came about from us looking 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 told Variety. “At the same time, we knew that there aren’t that many avenues for up-and-coming filmmakers. So then it was clear that we need a new project call that needs to include up-and-coming filmmakers.

“Also, talking to people in the industry, I know that everyone in our industry, no matter what job they’re doing, they all have projects in their desk drawer — some creative project that might be their secret dream, the dream that they don’t even dare show anyone,” she continued. “It might be so weird that the budget is just unheard of in their country, or there might be some other obstacle. We wanted to be very inclusive. We wanted to just say welcome to the people who are maybe on the sidelines of the industry, some people who don’t just make Nordic thrillers, who don’t write crime series, just because they know channels will buy them.”

When the call for submissions went out, the floodgates opened, with many filmmakers taking swings with their most outlandish ideas — the “niche ugly babies,” as Hasan put it, that are hard to categorize and often impossible to pitch in more traditional settings.

After initially conceiving F-Weird as a platform for the host nation, organizers decided to launch their open call across the globe. “We’re all international people in this team,” said Hasan. “We live 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, unique ideas that you just cannot find anywhere else? This is what we want to be.”

For its pilot edition, which was hosted by filmmaker Mariangela Pluchino, participants were required to make their pitch in a brisk two-minute clip — time enough to unveil a teaser or moodboard, recite an eerie monologue, work in a prop, or simply test the limits of the English language while trying to describe projects that were often hard to pin down.

There was director-producer Miro Seppänen’s feature film “All Rise for the Dead,” billed as a “unique blend of zombie horror and courtroom drama,” and Jon Soldehed’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 surreal concept of a reality show in which four non-birthing parents are able to experience the pangs of labor and the postpartum period through the use of a special “birthing machine.”

Director Henri Oskár, meanwhile, set up his animated mockumentary “Humane Farming” by describing it as “‘BoJack Horseman,’ but in the style of ‘The Office,’” while Laura Hyppönen introduced “Raven,” a “coming-of-age horror comedy” created with Malin Nyqvist, by warning the audience: “This is where the weird shit begins.”

Eighteen projects were presented on Wednesday to an industry audience and a jury that included Elina Ahlbäck, founder and CEO of Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency; Tribeca Film Festival programming manager Jason Gutierrez; Finland-based cinematographer, screenwriter and director Samuel Boateng; and Finnish TV producer, director and host Jarno Laasala.

While organizers expect F-Weird to be a core component in future editions of the Finnish Film Affair, Hasan said the feedback for the inaugural event has already been overwhelming.

“We’ve had so many thank you letters from filmmakers saying that they don’t feel alone anymore with these big-budget, weird, genre, Dali-esque visions that they have. That they’re so happy that someone has acknowledged them,” she said.

“Because of everything that’s happening in the industry and all kinds of massive challenges that we have, we shouldn’t forget the creativity and also the fun that is there and should be more present in in our work,” she continued. “Why did we go to film school? We took this road to have fun and be creative. So let’s have more of that.”

Finnish Film Affair runs Sept. 25 – 27 in Helsinki.