Finnish Film Affair: Survival, Horror, Dystopian Pics Unpacked by Nordic Genre Lab Participants: ‘The Base of Nordic Talent Is Deep’ — SkimNews
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- Nordic Genre Lab debuts at the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival's Finnish Film Affair (Sept 23-25) with eight genre films in development pitched live to 500+ delegates, mentored by former Netflix commissioner Claire Willats (Two Magpies Entertainment) and ex-XYZ Films head of acquisitions Todd Brown
- Willats and Brown previously collaborated on the original Norwegian version of "The Trip," starring Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie, and the acquisition of Netflix hit "The Platform"; Brown is currently developing Johnnie To's "Two Gun Cohen" while Willats is attached to "Troll" helmer Roar Uthaug's supernatural horror "Amara"
- The eight projects were selected from 29 submissions and span a €4M Finnish WWII telekinesis thriller "Alma" (written by "Red Snow" scribe Ilja Rautsi), the first-ever Faroese horror pic "Whistler," Swedish backwoods thriller "Trespassers" from "Midsommar" producer Patrik Andersson, Finnish anime horror "Echo Chamber," Norwegian post-EMP dystopian road movie "Long Way Home," gender-reversed Finnish abuse satire "Linden Lane 6," 1970-set Finnish-Soviet dark comedy "Sauna Diplomacy," and Danish found-footage horror "The Evil Eye"
- Willats cited that "Troll" remains Netflix's #1 non-English-language film as evidence of "a huge appetite for Nordic genre in the global market," adding that the lab hopes to include Sámi, Icelandic and Greenlandic projects next year—none of which are represented in the inaugural edition
- The program is backed by Nordisk Kulturfond, the Finnish Film Foundation and Nordisk Film & TV Fond, with Todd Brown arguing it fills a gap because "there still isn't much in the way of institutional knowledge of genre within funding bodies"
Why it matters: Nordic genre films like "Troll" and "The Platform" have repeatedly broken through globally, yet Brown identifies a structural gap: no dedicated institutional knowledge or peer network for genre creators within Nordic funding bodies. The Nordic Genre Lab directly addresses that by pairing 8 handpicked projects (selected from 29 submissions) with executives who have a track record of packaging Nordic genre for worldwide platforms—and it costs public funders money to do it.
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