Tampere Film Festival Concludes – Highlights Included Vastavirta, Kasitonni, and the Silent Film at Tampere Cathedral

The 56th edition of Tampere Film Festival, the largest short film festival in the Nordic countries, took place from 4–8 March. Ticket sales were once again lively, with several screenings selling out. The festival programme across venues and online attracted approximately 19,000 visitors in total. Around 16,000 people attended film screenings and various professional and public events during the week, while films available online have so far accumulated more than 3,000 views.

A strong audience turnout was already visible on the festival’s opening day, Wednesday 4 March. For example, the world premiere of the Vastavirta Documentary (Finland, 2026, dir. Joona Virtanen), screened at Arthouse Cinema Niagara, sold out. The film’s Saturday screening at Finnkino Cine Atlas was also fully booked as expected. Several other screenings also reached full capacity during the festival; audiences showed interest in archival short films from Tampere, the films of star guest Rúnar Rúnarsson, and the Southeast Asian programme. Screenings of the European award nominees, European Short Film – Prix Vimeo 2026 Nominees and European Short Film Audience Award 1 and 2, also filled theatres on Saturday.

Competition screenings were likewise popular. Sold-out shows included the screening of Anssi Kasitonnin maailma (8000: An Art Odyssey, Finland, 2025, dir. Sami Sänpäkkilä), which won the Audience Award in the National Competition, as well as the National Competition screenings 10 and 11 on Saturday and the Generation XYZ 3 programme on both Friday and Saturday. As usual, the Sunday screenings of Awarded Films attracted large audiences, and this year each programme was shown three times to ensure seat availability. The screenings of the International Competition award winners were particularly popular, and the Audience Award winner Living Despite Them (Palestine, 2024/2025) by Antonia Colodro and Alaa Hathleen received especially enthusiastic applause.

Among the free events, the traditional silent film screening at Tampere Cathedral reached a record audience of 850 viewers. This year’s programme featured the German classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Germany, 1920) accompanied live on the organ by Esa Toivola. Discussions also drew strong interest; for example, the discussion event Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices III, focusing on documentaries by filmmakers from Arctic Indigenous communities, filled the venue. The free Minikino screenings on Saturday and Sunday mornings also attracted many families with young children.

Competition Films Available Online Until Sunday 15 March

One of the festival’s highlights was the Awards held on Saturday evening at Comedy Theatre Palace, where the best films of the competition series were honoured. More than 300 people attended the event. The Grand Prix was awarded to the Georgian film Inherited Silence (Georgia, 2025) by Mariam Khatchvani.

In the National Competition for films over 30 minutes, the Main Prize went to Jukka Kärkkäinen’s documentary Kappale kauneinta Suomea – The Beauty of Errors (Finland, 2026). Kärkkäinen also received the annual Risto Jarva Prize from the Finnish Film Foundation, awarded exceptionally this year both for his feature documentary and for his film The Beauty of Automobiles (Finland, 2026), which competed in the under-30-minute category.

The Main Prize in the National Competition for films under 30 minutes was awarded to Risto-Pekka Blom’s experimental documentary Liian sininen taivas (Too Blue a Sky, Finland, 2026). In the genre-focused Generation XYZ Competition, the Best Genre Film award went to Jocelyn Charles’s animated film Dieu est timide (God Is Shy, France, 2025).

With a few exceptions, the festival’s competition films are available to watch online on the Filmchief platform until Sunday 15 March. More information about the online screenings can be found in the Online Screenings page. A selection of award-winning short films from the 2026 festival will also be screened on Saturday 14 March at the event The Best of Tampere 2026, organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

The 57th Tampere International Film Festival will take place next spring, 10–14 March 2027.