We are delighted to showcase Finland as a vital, rich, and creative filmmaking center with global appeal. Featured as part of the Festival lineup is Juho Kuosmanen’s triptych of short films, Silent Trilogy, which harkens back to the early cinema era with a recreation of sorts of the first Finnish film ever made. The Festival will also present Mika Kaurismäki’s Long Good Thursday, a gentle comedy about aging and the never-ending possibility of finding joy, and Virpi Suutari’s Once Upon a Time in a Forest, which follows climate activists fighting to save the Finnish wilderness. Miia Tervo’s The Missile is a genre-defying look at a woman drawn into an investigation after a Soviet missile crash
near her Lapland town.

Additionally, a retrospective screening of the restored comedic gem The Man Without a Past pays tribute to Aki Kaurismäki, a perennial favorite, who won the Festival’s Gold Hugo for Best Film with Le Havre in 2011 as well as the Silver Hugo for Best Director for Fallen Leaves in 2023.

Juho Kuosmanen will serve on the International Competition jury, while Finnish actress Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) will share her insights as part of the New Directors jury.