Hard to Break and Once Upon a Time in a Forest to IDFA
One Finnish project is pitching in IDFA Forum. The Dutch festival takes place November 14–24, 2024.
Image: Hard to Break / Polygraf
Hard to Break, directed by Anna-Maija Heinonen and Krista Moisio, has been selected to the Competition for Youth Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The feature documentary film follows two teens in Helsinki who find themselves entangled in a world of addiction and violence.
Hard to Break has been one of the success stories this year: it premiered at CPH:DOX in March, and it was selected to compete in Nordisk Panorama as well. The film won the main prize in the national competition at Tampere Film Festival.
Once Upon a Time in a Forest / Imagwe: Teemu Liakka, Euphoria Film
Another festival hit this year has been Once Upon a Time in a Forest, by Virpi Suutari. The film was selected to IDFA’s Signed section which “showcases the latest cinematic adventures of some of the most original filmmakers of our time.” Other directors in the section this year include big names of world cinema, such as Nicolas Philibert, Mati Diop, Raoul Peck, Sergei Loznitsa, Radu Jude, and Mark Cousins.
Once Upon a Time in a Forest also premiered in CPH:DOX, and it has since been seen at Visions du Réel and Toronto’s Hot Docs, among other festivals. Currently, it is in competition at the Chicago International Film Festival.
IDFA Forum
The IDFA Forum for co-productions has invited 55 projects this year. The Beauty of Errors, by Jukka Kärkkäinen, is a portrait of a relationship between three generations where their small homes are the epicenter of everything. The film has received production support from the Finnish Film Foundation, and it is produced by Juha Löppönen and Sami Jahnukainen for Mouka Filmi.
Audiovisual Producers Finland – APFI, Finnish Film Foundation, Yle and AVEK host a producer delegation under the Focus on Finland banner in IDFA. The producers in the delegation are Danai Anagnostou (Kenno Filmi), Marianne Mäkelä (napafilms), Oona Saari (Illume), Markku Tuurna (Filmimaa), Pasi Hakkio (Wacky Tie Films) and Juha Löppönen (Mouka Filmi).
Finnish Film Foundation joins IDFA also as part of the The Five Nordics, an umbrella organization of the national film institutes of the Nordic countries. The Five Nordics co-operates annually at Clermont-Ferrand, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, and IDFA.