News

Just a few days after market kick-off in Berlin, sales and agregator outfit LevelK has closed a raft of deals on its two female-helmed pics “Sudden Outburts of Emotions” and ”Dancing Queen In Hollywood.”

The Finnish sex-positive dramedy “Sudden Outbursts of Emotions” was sold to Cinemaran for Spain and Andorra, Estin Film for Estonia, and Film Europe S.R.O for the Czech Republic & Slovakia.

The feature debut of romcom TV specialist Paula Korva turns on a couple who experiences a mid-life crisis, and a different sexual itch. Jane, believes her relationship with Mikki is stable but is taken aback when he offers to open it up. To save their love, Jane agrees to attend a sex party on an island that sparks unexpected emotions. Toplining the cast are Iina Kuustonen, Riku Nieminen, Laura Malmivaara and Minka Kuustonen. The Yellow Film & TV production opens March 7 in Finland.

“Dancing Queen...

Iina Kuustonen in the Finnish crime TV series “Artic Circle” (Ivalo) Season 3. Photo credit: Mitro Härkönen. Courtesy of Topic

When I covered the previous two seasons of the Finnish police procedural “Arctic Circle,” I was down on the first for stretching 6-7 episodes worth of a season-long crime story out to 10. I accordingly praised the second for trimming its single mystery to a tight 6 episodes. They’ve kept that in mind (assuredly not due to my opinion; they surely got the same feedback from more influential sources), again presenting a worthy tale with plenty of subplots in the same number of episodes.

Since that previous review was 22 months ago, below is a link my review of the first two for a memory refresher:

Arctic Circle – TV Series Review

As Season 3 opens, we watch the jacking of a sleek experimental car with a handful of killings in the process. Cut to...

First Look Media’s niche streaming service Topic has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the second season of the Nordic thriller “Arctic Circle,” which just started shooting in the icy wilderness of Lapland.

Lagardère Studios Distribution, which was recently acquired by Mediawan Group, is handling international sales on the series and participated in its financing. “Arctic Circle” was produced by Yellow Film & TV for Elisa, the leading Finnish streaming service.

The series’s second season will be filming until March and will launch on Elisa at the end of the year. Lagardere Studios previously sold season one of the show to Topic, as well as Polar+ (France), Rts (Switzerland), BeTV (Belgium), Videotron (Canada), Npo (The Netherlands), Ivi (Russia), Canal Plus (Poland), Rtp (Portugal), Cosmopolitan TV (Spain), Elisa (China) and Ftv Outre-mer 1e (France overseas), among others.

The show is headlined by Iina Kuustonen, Pihla Viitala, Mikko Leppilampi and Max Brückner.

Finland has a reputation as a curious country filled with lakes, saunas and forests as well as the home of Santa Claus. Now it is hoping to be known for its ambitious television series with a swathe of big-budget dramas interesting international buyers and will be front and center at Mipcom in Cannes to demonstrate this.

Scandinavia has long been known for producing cutting edge scripted series such as Danish hits The Killing and The Bridge, Norway’s Lilyhammer and Skam and Sweden’s Wallander and Humans. However, despite many considering Finland a member of this gang, it is not actually part of Scandinavia, but rather part of the Nordic bloc with more in common with Iceland.

Finnish local producers are hoping that high-profile projects including a local Sherlock Holmes original, Sky-backed crime drama Bullets, sci-fi epic The White Wall and climate change thriller Sands of Sarasvati can replicate...