Helsinki is currently pulsing with the dark, electrifying heartbeat of some of the most daring genre talent in the world. As the international film community watches, the Finnish capital plays host to the inaugural Nordic Genre Lab—a high-stakes, highly targeted creative initiative running concurrently with the prestigious Helsinki International Film Festival’s industry confab, the Finnish Film Affair (September 23–25).
This new incubator arrives at a pivotal moment. The Nordic region has long been synonymous with icy, prestige-driven arthouse cinema and moody, slow-burn Nordic Noir television. However, a seismic shift is underway. Propelled by breakout successes like Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching and Ilja Rautsi’s Red Snow—both of which secured coveted distribution deals with AMC’s horror powerhouse Shudder—a new vanguard of filmmakers is proving that Scandinavian cinema can marry high-art aesthetic sensibilities with the visceral, white-knuckle thrills of commercial genre filmmaking.
The Nordic Genre Lab has hand-picked eight of the most ambitious genre projects currently in development across the region. From a telekinetic World War II historical thriller spanning three generations of women in Lapland to the very first horror feature to ever emerge from the Faroe Islands, these projects represent a diverse, provocative, and uncompromising cross-section of modern horror, dark comedy, and dystopian survival.
Over the course of the three-day industry event, the creative teams behind these eight titles will pitch their visions live to an international delegation of over 500 industry heavyweights, participate in intensive masterclasses, and receive direct, one-on-one mentorship from two of the most respected power players in the global genre landscape: former Netflix commissioner Claire Willats and former XYZ Films head of acquisitions Todd Brown.
DETAILED CHRONOLOGY: INSIDE THE NORDIC GENRE LAB’S FORMATIVE DAYS
The genesis of the Nordic Genre Lab is rooted in a recognized deficiency within the European funding and mentorship ecosystem. While traditional European arthouse cinema enjoys deep institutional knowledge, robust public subsidization structures, and extensive co-production networks, genre filmmaking has historically been treated as the stepchild of the Nordic cultural funding apparatus.
Recognizing this gap, Laura Laaksonen, head of program for the Finnish Film Affair, joined forces with Claire Willats (co-founder of London-based Two Magpies Entertainment) and Todd Brown (Toronto-based genre expert and acquisitions titan), alongside Norwegian producer Einar Loftesnes (The Tunnel, Kraken). Together, this leadership team sifted through 29 intensely competitive submissions from across the region, winnowing the field down to eight definitive projects based on sheer originality, creative team pedigree, writing strength, and development stage.
The Pitching and Mentorship Gauntlet
Between Thursday and Friday of the Helsinki confab, the selected filmmakers undergo a rigorous training regime. The Lab’s curriculum is specifically engineered to bridge the gap between creative execution and global market viability.
Mentors Willats and Brown bring an unparalleled track record to the table. During their respective tenures at Netflix and XYZ Films, the duo collaborated on high-profile international crossover hits, including the original Norwegian action-comedy The Trip starring Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie, and orchestrated the acquisition of the global phenomenon The Platform. Willats is currently attached as a producer to Amara, an upcoming supernatural horror helmed by Norwegian Troll director Roar Uthaug, while Brown is steering Johnnie To’s ambitious upcoming historical epic Two Gun Cohen.
Under their guidance, the eight teams are learning how to package, position, and pitch their projects to global streamers, independent financiers, and international sales agents. The lab culminates in a live, high-pressure pitch session before a room packed with more than 500 international buyers, producers, and festival programmers.
SUPPORTING CONTEXT & METRICS: WHY THE GLOBAL MARKET CRAVES NORDIC HORROR
The commercial argument for investing in Nordic genre cinema has never been stronger. For years, international gatekeepers stereotyped Scandinavian cinema as hyper-intellectual, depressing, or overly reliant on police procedurals. Today, those outdated perceptions have been thoroughly obliterated by audience metrics and platform data.
Speaking to Variety, Todd Brown emphasized the unique positioning of Nordic storytellers:
"The base of talent is deep, and the Nordics in general do a remarkable job of balancing class and critical quality with audience accessibility. You continue to not only see a high volume of projects at global festivals but also see those perform commercially."
However, Brown was quick to point out the structural hurdles that still plague the region’s genre creators:
"There still isn’t much in the way of institutional knowledge of genre within funding bodies or a way for these creators to really connect, support and learn from one another in the way they can within the arthouse world. That is why we are hoping to help fill that gap."
Claire Willats underscored the massive economic upside and global appetite for these stories, pointing directly to platform milestones:
"If you look at streamers like Netflix, ‘Troll’ is still the number one film not in the English language. We are hoping the lab can help draw more focus on the wealth of talent in the Nordics."
Crucially, the creators behind the Nordic Genre Lab are already looking toward future expansion. Willats confirmed plans to scale the initiative for subsequent iterations:
"We hope to repeat this next year and include Sámi, Icelandic and Greenlandic projects, which are unfortunately not represented this year."
OFFICIAL STATEMENTS: THE EIGHT CHOSEN PROJECTS
The eight selected projects represent an astonishing breadth of tone, visual style, and thematic exploration. Below is the comprehensive breakdown of the slate being championed at the inaugural Nordic Genre Lab:
1. Alma (Finland)
- Director: Pete Riski
- Writer: Ilja Rautsi
- Producer: Pauliina Piipponen, Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho (Making Movies)
- Budget: €4 million ($4.5 million)
- Logline: Set across a dual timeline starting in World War II Finland, 16-year-old Alma gains telekinetic powers to save her father from the retreating Nazi army in Lapland. In the present day, a 96-year-old Alma meets her granddaughter for the first time, forcing them both to outrun the bloody sins of her past.
- Producer’s Perspective: "‘Alma’ deals with war and its consequences through three generations of women, combining a historical setting with themes of trauma, power and responsibility that feel particularly relevant today," says Pauliina Piipponen.
2. Echo Chamber (Finland)
- Director/Producer: Juha Fiilin (Fiilin Good Films, co-produced with Debbie Stepgens)
- Writer: Adam Cullen
- Logline: An anime psychological horror that combines the prestige artistic sensibilities of dark drama with hand-drawn, visceral body horror. A supernatural curse forces two grief-stricken, estranged sisters together, compelling them to discover the bittersweet, healing nature of shared mourning.
- Director’s Perspective: "Horror is a perennially attractive genre, but the recent successes prove a maturing of the audience. People are ready for high-quality character work in genre films," notes Fiilin.
3. Linden Lane 6 (Finland)
- Director: Josefina Rautiainen
- Producer: Anita Hyppönen (It’s Alive Films)
- Logline: A provocative, timely genre film that completely inverts traditional gender dynamics to examine the mechanics of sexual harassment, psychological manipulation, and abuse from the opposite perspective.
- Producer’s Perspective: "By changing these familiar dynamics, the film shows that abuse is often less about desire and more about power and control," states Anita Hyppönen.
4. Long Way Home (Norway)
- Director: Kjersti Helen Rasmussen
- Producer: Njål Lambrechts (Truewest)
- Logline: A character-driven dystopian road movie. Following a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse that completely wipes out electricity across Western Norway, 22-year-old Tea and her neighbor Herman navigate a frozen, lawless wasteland to reach her childhood home.
- Director’s Perspective: "At its core, it’s a coming-of-age story… The future I portray is both dark and hopeful. Systems will fail and people will fall, but it is in the darkness that we discover the light," explains Rasmussen.
5. Sauna Diplomacy (Finland)
- Director: Teemu Niukkanen
- Producer: John Lundsten (Tack Films)
- Logline: A biting dark comedy set in 1970 at the height of Finlandization. A Finnish diplomat is ordered to entertain a high-ranking Soviet official for the weekend at a secluded summer cottage, where a diplomatic retreat quickly spirals into psychological humiliation and brutal power games.
6. The Evil Eye (Denmark)
- Director: Kristian Lidegaard
- Writers: Kristian Lidegaard, Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen
- Producer: Maria Møller Kjeldgaard (Manna Film)
- Logline: An innovative online found-footage horror film told entirely through iPhones, POV glasses, surveillance cameras, and a private dark web forum. The story follows Oliver—both the film’s creator and its villain—who becomes obsessed with a childhood bully, infiltrating his life and broadcasting his descent.
- Producer’s Perspective: "As stories of online abuse and violent digital communities surface worldwide, the film’s horror feels contemporary, borderless and disturbingly real," says Møller Kjeldgaard.
7. Trespassers (Sweden)
- Director: Johannes Persson
- Writers: Melina Maraki
- Producer: Patrik Andersson, Jakob Abrahamsson (Mylla Films)
- Logline: A brutal backwoods horror-thriller. Four young members of a failed anti-establishment movement head into the deep wilderness of Northern Sweden to disconnect. Stranded after a rafting accident, they realize they have trespassed onto land controlled by an isolated, centuries-old community practicing deeply terrifying beliefs.
8. Whistler (Faroe Islands)
- Director: Gudmund Helmsdal
- Producer: Jón Hammer (Outlier Projects)
- Logline: The first-ever horror feature from the Faroe Islands. Set against the dramatic bird cliffs and isolated grazing lands, four marine biologists are left stranded after their guide dies in a climbing accident. They find themselves hunted across forbidden terrain by a reclusive farmer who uses a mysterious bone whistle to control a pack of grotesque, half-human creatures.
- Producer’s Perspective: "We set out to make the first Faroese horror feature, and the first in what we hope will become a series of Faroese genre films," remarks Jón Hammer. "The opportunity to develop ‘Whistler’ further with the guidance and expertise of such strong mentors is incredibly exciting."
FUTURE OUTLOOK: THE HORIZON FOR NORDIC GENRE CINEMA
Backed by heavy-hitting cultural institutions including the Nordisk Kulturfond, the Finnish Film Foundation, and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the Nordic Genre Lab has successfully established a crucial cornerstone for the future of northern European cinema.
By dismantling the artificial boundaries that have historically separated high-end drama from commercial genre filmmaking, this initiative is ensuring that the next generation of Scandinavian storytellers will not have to look abroad to find financing, mentorship, or institutional respect.
As these eight projects transition from the hallowed workshop rooms of Helsinki into active international financing and production, the global cinematic landscape should prepare itself for an invasion. The Nordics are no longer just coming—they have arrived, and their stories are darker, sharper, and more commercially vital than ever before.
