The 30th edition of the Midnight Sun Film Festival (June 10-14 2015) broke several audience records of the traditional festival. According to Sunday morning\u2019s estimate, there were more than 30 000 visitors who bought tickets to festival screening, held in four venues around the clock. The visitor numbers were up approximately 15 per cent from last year.<\/p>\n
This year there were filmmakers from more than ten countries coming to show their films to the cultivated audiences beyond the Arctic Circle. Mike Leigh from the UK was this year\u2019s main guest, joined by Christian Petzold (Germany), Whit Stillman (USA), Nils Malmros (Denmark), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland), Miguel Gomes (Portugal) and Auberi Edler (France), among others.<\/p>\n
The festival was launched with a head start on Wednesday morning at Cinema Lapinsuu with a matinee dedicated to the life and deeds of Peter von Bagh. The matinee screened short films and featured expert guests from Jouko Aaltonen to Bernard Eisenschitz. The presence of the late von Bagh was vividly present at the festival, in the form of his own films as well as screenings of his personal favourites. Especially The Count, von Bagh\u2019s singular feature-length fiction film, made the audience go wild.<\/p>\n
Von Bagh\u2019s role as a moderator of the festival\u2019s morning discussions was inherited by Timo Malmi, Olaf M\u00f6ller, Liselott Forsman<\/strong>, Otto Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4, Neil McGlone and Petteri Kalliom\u00e4ki, who each got the opportunity to invite a foreign festival guest to the School stage for a chat. The YLE Teema channel transmitted the festival atmosphere to Finnish homes by live-broadcasting Mike Leigh\u2019s Saturday morning discussion and the discussion of the Finnish festival guests. The recordings are now available at the YLE Areena streaming service.<\/p>\n An extensive recap of the year\u2019s Finnish films is a traditional part of the festival selection. This year actress Minna Haapkyl\u00e4 was present to introduce the screening of J\u00f6rn Donner\u2019sArmi Alive!, while Armi Toivanen spoke with the audience in connection to Antti Heikki Pesonen\u2019s Headfirst. The Finnish director guests Petri Kotwica (Absolution) Anssi M\u00e4ntt\u00e4ri (Black Dog on My Shoulder) and Ville Suhonen (Seamstress) received a warm welcome.<\/p>\n By Sunday morning, there had been 28 sold-out screenings at the festival. Cinema Lapinsuu, the \u201cfestival palace\u201d, attracted a full house on many consecutive days, while every single screening of Malgorzata Szumowska\u2019s films was sold out. The bigger capacity of the new Big Tent was also evident at the box office.<\/p>\n