Naima Mohamud’s “Halima,” about a 10-year-old Somali girl in Finland in 1998, won the Finnish Film Affair’s Best Fiction prize. Mohamud’s debut is the first Finnish feature directed by a Black woman and is in post-production, with delivery set for fall 2027.
Teenu Niukkanen’s “Sauna Diplomacy” won the €2,500 Best Genre Project award. Set in 1970, the comedy follows civil servant Heikki, who hosts a high-ranking Soviet diplomat at his family’s lakeside cottage; the seemingly harmless weekend becomes a contest of manipulation and power. Nordisk Film has pre-bought the project for the Nordic market, with production set to begin in 2028.
The Norwegian suspense project “11 Hours,” inspired by true events about an armed man taking a daycare director, employees and 11 children hostage, received the €3,000 Best Nordic Film Award. Anna Antsalo’s “Darkness Counts” won the €3,000 AVEK Best Documentary Award.
