Tampere Film Festival starts on Wednesday 6.3.

The Nordics’ biggest short film festival, Tampere Film Festival, starts on Wednesday, March 6. The festival is held until March 10 in Tampere. Festival-goers are in for five days of excellent short film screenings and full-length documentaries at Finnkino Cine Atlas and Arthouse Cinema Niagara theatres. The festival week is also full of events for film industry professionals and the general public alike.

Tampere Film Festival is in its 54th year, and this time the programme includes over 300 movies in 115 screenings. In addition to competition films, the programme includes, for example, films themed around the forest and democracy, animations, and films from the South Caucasus. True to tradition, they’re joined by gems from the archives, films made by students, as well as fresh European award nominees (EFA and ESFAA). More information on the screenings can be found in the Screenings page of our website. 

The event will reach its peak on Saturday 9.3. at the Awards Ceremony at Tuulensuu Palace, where winners of the national, international and Generation XYZ competitions will be awarded. The festival week will end with screenings of every award-winning film on Sunday.

The winners will be chosen by juries collected for the festival. This year’s juries include, among others, last year’s Grand Prix winner Paul Drey (international jury), renowned film director and writer Katja Gauriloff (national jury), as well as Kaisu Isto (Risto Jarva jury), known for her long line of work in the film industry and extensive history of jury work in several international film festivals. All competition films, awards and juries are listed in the Competitions page of our website. 

Plenty to see free of charge

The festival week also includes several free screenings and events. For example, the themed programme screenings are accompanied by panel discussions which anyone can attend: The Democracy in Danger programme includes panel discussions about citizen activism and everyday democracy, as well as a seminar titled Democracy in Danger, organised in collaboration with Tampere University’s Democracy Research Network. The Forest theme includes a panel discussion called Forest as the Object of Attention and Struggle, whose panelists include filmmakers Maija Blåfield (Scenic View, 2023) and Salla Hämäläinen (Covered by Forest, 2012).

A free screening, Tampere Film Festival & Yle Teema: Childhood in the South Seas, is organised in collaboration with the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle. There will also be a public discussion in collaboration with Yle Kulttuuricocktail titled AI and Scriptwriting, which starts with the premier of Written by Machine (Finland, 2024) directed by Ada Johnsson. 

For children, there are two Minikino screenings as well as the live-accompanied Cinema Concert for Kids, all free of charge for kids and adults alike. The screening at Tampere Cathedral, held for the fifth time, is also free to attend.

You may read more about free screenings and events on the Tickets page of our website. 

New ideas and experiences

Last year’s venues and online screenings saw a total of 30 000 visitors, and a large crowd is expected this year as well. In addition to the festival audience, over 800 guests over the world are accredited to the event.

The festival week kicks off in an anticipatory mood:

– I expect the audience to find our competition screenings, which include a lot of interesting new films from around the world, and where the audience gets to discuss the films with the ones who’ve made them. I also hope that our themed screenings, public discussions, events and surprising interactions will inspire people to have conversations and exchange ideas about their experiences. One can be satisfied if the programme offers new experiences and ideas, says Riina Mikkonen, Executive Director at Tampere Film Festival.

Tampere Film Festival 6.–10.3.2024

Get your tickets to Tampere Film Festival from lippu.fi’s web store and ticket outlets as well as Tampere Film Festival’s own ticket outlets at Finnkino Cine Atlas and Arthouse Cinema Niagara. More information on ticket prices and the opening hours of the outlets can be found on the Tickets page of our website.

Most of the films in the competition series are also available online on Festhome TV. Ticket sales to the online screenings open on Wednesday 6.3.