Aki Olavi Kaurismäki is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He has been described as Finland's best-known film director.
Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri was a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004.
Ilkka Aulis Hanski was a Finnish ecologist at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Metapopulation Research Center led by Hanski, until his death, has been nominated as a Center of Excellence by the Academy of Finland. The group studies species living in fragmented landscapes and attempts to advance metapopulation ecology research. Hanski proposed the core-satellite hypothesis of species distributions. Metapopulation ecology itself studies populations of plants and animals which are separated in space by occupying patches.
Kjell Westö is a Finnish author and journalist. Westö writes in Swedish. Best known for his epic novels set in Helsinki, he has also written short stories, poetry, essays and newspaper columns.
Pirjo Irene Honkasalo is a Finnish film director who has also worked as a cinematographer, film editor, producer, screenwriter and actress. In 1980 she co-directed Flame Top with Pekka Lehto, with whom she worked earlier and later as well. The film was chosen for the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. In the 1990s she focused on feature documentaries such as "The Trilogy of the Sacred and the Satanic". Honkasalo returned to fiction with Fire-Eater (1998) and Concrete Night (2013), both of which were written by Pirkko Saisio. Concrete Night won six Jussi Awards in 2014, among them the Jussi for the Best Direction and the Jussi for the Best Film. Its world premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival in Masters series.
A Summer by the River is a 1998 Finnish film written and directed by Markku Pölönen. The film is set in the 1950s Eastern Finland and tells the story of father Tenho and son Topi after Tenho's wife — Topi's mother — dies and leaves the two men unable to pay rent. The two men move out of the family home and spend the summer working as lumberjacks in log driving, sleeping on the riverbank and growing closer together through the experience.
Le Havre is a 2011 comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. The film was produced by Kaurismäki's Finnish company Sputnik with international co-producers in France and Germany. It is Kaurismäki's second French-language film, after La Vie de Bohème from 1992.
The Hunt is a 2012 Danish psychological drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Mads Mikkelsen. Set in a small Danish village around Christmas, the film follows a man named Lucas, a divorced kindergarten teacher who becomes the target of mass hysteria after being wrongly accused of sexually abusing a child in his class.
Cristo Rey is a 2013 Dominican Republic drama film written and directed by Leticia Tonos. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Dominican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
Sign of the Beast is a 1981 Finnish drama film co-written and directed by Jaakko Pakkasvirta. It is based on the 1946 book A Gloomy Soliloquy by Olavi Paavolainen, based on his war diaries written during the Winter War and the Continuation War. The film was selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 54th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Sorrow and Joy is a 2013 Danish drama film directed by Nils Malmros. The autobiographical film recounts the tragic event in which Malmros' wife, suffering from bipolar disorder, killed their infant daughter with a knife. It was selected as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
Tangerines is a 2013 Estonian-Georgian film written, produced, and directed by Zaza Urushadze. Set during the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia, the film's themes span conflict and war, reconciliation, and pacifism. It was filmed in Guria, Georgia.
Factory Girl is an Egyptian romantic drama film directed by Mohamed Khan. The film premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2013. It was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is a 2014 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz. It was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Today is a 2014 Iranian drama film directed by Reza Mirkarimi. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
Cowboys is a 2013 Croatian comedy film directed by Tomislav Mršić and based upon Sasa Anočić's play, Kauboji. It was selected as the Croatian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
The Guide is a 2014 Ukrainian drama film directed by Oles Sanin. The film stars Stanislav Boklan, Anton Greene, Jeff Burrell, Iryna Sanina and Jamala. It focuses around a young Peter Shamrock who serves as the guide of a blind bard in Soviet Ukraine. There is a special audiodescripted version for blind people.
Tom of Finland is a 2017 biographical drama film directed by Dome Karukoski and written by Aleksi Bardy. It stars Pekka Strang as Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, a Finnish homoerotic artist.
Annika Idström was a Finnish author, dramaturg, and translator.
