Midnight Sun Film Festival

Click on Thumbnail for Large Image

Sodankyla, Finland June 2011, TBA
Call for Entry Deadline: April 2011, TBA
Films are invited - but film introductions are accepted.
Festival Data:
- Established: 1986
- Genre: General
- Competitive
Festival Website:
http:/ / www.msfilmfestival.fi
Festival Description:

The Midnight Sun Film Festival was founded in 1986 by Finnish filmmakers, the Kaurismäki brothers, and the Municipality of Sodankylä. The village of Sodankylä is located in the heart of Finnish Lapland, some 120 kilometers above the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn´t set at all in the summertime. The Lappish nature and the nightless night provide the Midnight Sun Film Festival a remarkable setting and the Festival has hosted some of the world's most famous film directors. The Midnight Sun Film Festival is meant for people who truly love the art of cinema, there are no formalities or fancy cocktail parties, one doesn't have to be afraid of getting lost in the jungle of bureaucracy. Films are screened in three venues for 24 hours a day, and the actual time is easily forgotten: the sun shines as brightly at 4 a.m. as at 4 p.m.

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is a non-competitive festival. It concentrates on fictional 35mm feature films; the best short and documentary films of the year may also be selected. The festival can loosely be divided into three sections: films by the most famous film directors of all times, pearls of the newcinema and silent movies with live music. Very popular are also the morning discussions with the main guests, lead by festival director Peter von Bagh. Festival guests throughout the years have included:

1986: Samuel Fuller, Jonathan Demme, Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Pierre Gorin

1987: Michael Powell, Jacques Demy, Jim Jarmusch, D. A. Pennebaker, Juliet Berto, Thelma Schoonmaker

1988: Monte Hellman, Paul Schrader, Dušan Makavejev, Aleksei German, Krzysztof Zanussi, Ali Özgentürk, Helle Ryslinge

1989: Paul Morrissey, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Otar Ioseliani, John Berry, Vadim Abrašitov, Idrissa Ouedraogo

1990: Richard Fleischer, Manoel de Oliveira, Ettore Scola, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Octavio Bezerra

1991: Andre De Toth, Laslo Benedek, Alberto Lattuada, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Enzo Serafini, Etienne Chatiliez

1992: Roger Corman, Claude Chabrol, Jan Troell

1993: Joseph H. Lewis, Dino Risi, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Julio Medem

1994: Robert Wise, Mario Monicelli, Luis García Berlanga, Stanley Donen, John Sayles

1995: Robert Parrish, Agnieszka Holland, Maud Linder, Richard Price, Fridrik Thór Fridriksson, Victor Erice

1996: Jean Dreville, Claude Sautet, Daniele Dubroux, Robert Boyle, Doris Dörrie

1997: Gianni Amelio, Vincent Sherman, Jerzy Skolimowski, István Szabó, Costas Ferris

1998: Youssef Chahine, Terry Gilliam, Robby Müller, Stefan Jarl, Wim Wenders, Leonard Kastle

1999: Edgardo Cozarinsky, Costa-Gavras, Francesco Rosi, Angela Winkler, Murali Nair

2000: Bob Rafelson, Paolo Taviani, Ivan Passer, Shinji Aoyama

2001: Freddie Francis, Sergio Sollima, Jerry Schatzberg, Agnès Jaoui, Nana Djordjadze, Filippos Tsitos

2002: Francis Ford Coppola, Miklós Jancsó, Fernando E. Solanas, Denys Arcand, Luce Vigo

2003: Irvin Kershner, Emir Kusturica, Jean Rouch, Pascal Thomas

2004: Val Guest, Nanni Moretti, Marlen Hutsijev, Wolfgang Becker, Jörn Donner

2005: Roy Ward Baker, Jean-pierre & Luc Dardenne, Ye?im Ustao?lu, Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stolla

2006: Gian Vittorio Baldi, Caroll Ballard, Andrei Smirnov, Jafar Panahi, Isabelle Stever, Mercedes Álvarez, Jasmine Trinca

2007: Abbas Kiarostami, Claude Goretta, Vittorio De Seta, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Amos Gitai, Elia Suleiman, Pascale Ferran, Detlev Buck

2008: Milos Forman, Andrei Konchalovsky, Seymour Cassel, Lasse Pöysti
Email: office(at)msfilmfestival.fi

Phone: (358) 16 614 525

Fax: (358) 16 618 646

Mailing Address: Lapintie 16 as 2,
Sodankyla 99600
Finland

Email:	office(at)msfilmfestival.fi
Phone:	(358) 16 614 525
Fax:	(358) 16 618 646
Mailing Address:	Lapintie 16 as 2, Sodankyla 99600 Finland

JUN 25, 2008 03:38PM FFW Festival Editor writes:

The 2008 Midnight Film Festival Wraps!

This year Midnight Sun Film Festival was attended by a distinguished slate of guests and masters of cinema; including Czech-born, double Oscar winning director MILOS FORMAN, celebrated Russian director ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY, American cult actor SEYMOUR CASSEL, who belonged to director John Cassavetes’ centre actors and actor LASSE PÖYSTI, one of the brightest stars of Finnish cinema.

The guests of the younger generation were the Estonian director VEIKO ÕUNPUU and actor RAIN TOLK, also from Estonia, French director SERGE BOZON, who conquered the audience with the unique war film La France and Norwegian director NILS GAUP, who’s latest film Kautokeino Rebellion told the story of one of the most dramatic episodes of Sami history.

Accomploished Finnish filmmakers and actors were also in attendance, such as Directors JOUKO AALTONEN, ARTO HALONEN, DOME KARUKOSKI, MARI RANTASILA and MIIKA SOINI and actors ANNI-KRISTIINA JUUSO, RIA KATAJA and KARI VÄÄNÄNEN presented their films to full auditoriums. The selection of past year’s Finnish films reach its climax in the premiere of Miika Soini’s touching debut film Thomas, starring Lasse Pöysti.

As in years past, the master class screenings continued to be a success amongst the festival audience. In the presentations following the master class screening the French professors JEAN-LOUIS LEUTRAT and SUZANNE LIANDRAT-GUIGUES, famous for their essays of cinema aesthetics, gave an unforgettable insight to the film classics such Howard Hawks’ western Rio Bravo, Alan Resnais’ poetic comedy Private Fears in Public Places and to the work of director Jean-Luc Godard.

Attendees enthusiastically greeted festival director Peter von Bagh at the Morning discussions. With the inspiring introduction from Peter von Bagh this year’s guests Lasse Pöysti, Seymour Cassel, Milos Forman and Andrei Konchalovsky shared their thoughts on life and films offering a unique chance to get inside the minds of these four masters.

During its 23-year-old history Midnight Sun Film Festival has produced nearly sixty silent film screenings accompanied with live music. This being unarguable notable cultural contribution also in the international scale. This year Midnight Sun Film Festival had two silent film screenings, which received standing applause from the festival audience. With the intriguing sound world Finnish group Cleaning Women accompanied the Russian cult classic Aelita directed by Yakov Prozanov. Otto Donner and his orchestra combined jazz and urban sounds in a masterly manner in the interpretation of King Vidor’s classic The Crowd, which moved the audience to tears.

Since the year 1986 Midnight Sun Film Festival has given a special acknowledgement to individuals, who have made an important contribution to Finnish film culture. This year the 21st Sodankylä-award was given to Raimo Silius, a central figure in the field of Finnish festival scene.
report