Bridge to the north: Finland

Bridge to the North is AGORA’s new synergy initiative between the South and the North of Europe.

Each year we will be hosting a different guest country from the Baltic or Nordic region. In this edition, we welcome Finland and invite a delegation of professionals in order to explore new opportunities in financing and artistic ideas, share experiences and focus on the prospects and benefits that can derive from potential collaborations. This year’s Bridge to the North was made possible through the collaboration with the Finnish Film Foundation, the Helsinki International Film Festival and Finnish Film Affair, and the support of the Embassy of Finland in Athens and the Finnish Institute at Athens.

• Jaana Puskala Head of International Department - Finnish Film Foundation
• Pauliina Ståhlberg CEO - Helsinki Film Festival
• Lydia Taylerson Head of Finnish Film Affair - Helsinki Film Festival
• Kaarle Aho Producer - Making Movies, Crossroads Co-production Forum project: Quiet Lake
• Aino Halonen Producer - National Filmi
• Inka Hietala Producer - Into Films
• Aleksi Hyvärinen Producer - The Alchemists
• Jenny Jokela Animation director - AGORA Short Film Lab participant
• Petri Kemppinen Producer - Good Hand Production
• Lauri-Matti Parppei Film director - A Light That Never Goes Out
• Aino Suvanto Producer - It’s Alive Films
• Marko Talli Producer - Yellow Film
• Ilona Tolmunen Producer - Made, A Light that Never Goes Out

International co-productions are eligible for production support from the Finnish Film Foundation when a Finnish co-producer is involved.

The Foundation funds around 8 to 10 minority co-productions every year with a support budget of around 1 million euros. Eligibility for co-production support is determined with the following criteria:

• Involvement of a Finnish co-producer with Finnish distribution rights
• Creative and/or technical input from Finland
• Distribution of some kind in Finland
• Relevance of the project for Finnish audiences
• Possibilities for an ongoing co-operation between the parties

The support application is made by the Finnish co-producer. The amount of production support for minority co-productions has ranged from € 15,000 to € 300,000 in recent years, depending on the Finnish creative or technical input. There are no spend requirements for the support, nor is the support recoupable.

• Business Finland offers a production incentive for feature films, television series, documentary films and animations, produced at least partly in Finland.
• The national incentive is a 25% cash rebate for costs incurred from the production of an audiovisual work, including pre- and postproduction, in Finland.
• The Finnish incentive is known for its supreme customer care.
• The call is continuous and the average pay time is ten days.
• The rebate is available for both Finnish and foreign production companies.
• No registration is required from the foreign company.
• Finnish service companies with local business ID will take care of the application process. Regional Film Commissions offer additional regional incentives up to 15%.