Finland

Tuija Halttunen is a Finnish documentary filmmaker who has worked in the film industry for over 20 years. Her documentary Neighbours was nominated for Prix Europa in 2013 and State of Mind got a state quality award in 2007. Halttunen’s short documentary Heaven and Earth won the main prize in Tampere Film Festival in 1995. From 2010 to 2015, Halttunen worked as a regional artist in the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Maija Blåfield is a filmmaker from Helsinki, Finland. Her works lay between documentary and experimental film. She received the main prize at the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2019, and the State Prize for Media Arts in Finland in 2014. She was nominated for the Ars Fennica award in 2017.

Reetta Huhtanen is a filmmaker based in Helsinki. She studied Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, and went on to obtain an MA in documentary film directing from the ELO Film School at Aalto University, Finland, where she is currently a doctoral student.

John Webster is a writer and director born in 1967, in Helsinki, to English teachers who later moved to Finland. John graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1996 with an MA in documentary filmmaking. Since 1990 he has directed independent documentaries that have won numerous awards nationally and internationally. He has run his own production company, JW Documentaries, since 1993.

Andreas Dalsgaard has directed documentaries for over a decade. Educated in anthropology at Aarhus University and Paris VII, and film directing at The Danish National Film School, his award-winning films have been shown at more than 200 festivals worldwide. Dalgsaard is also a co-founder of the production company Elk Film, and writes and directs fiction for both film and theater.

Niina Brandt is one of the two owners of Double Back Documentaries Ltd. She has directed and produced, shot and edited short films and several made to order works for the company’s clients since its launch in 2008, including TV channels and broadcasting companies. Niina Brandt also produces photographs and films about the Finnish Lapland where the special nature of the region becomes part of the works of art. My Secret Forest is her first hour long documentary film as a director. My Secret Forest documentary film won ”Best national documentary film 2017” audience award in DocPoint Documentary Film Festival Helsinki, Finland.