Midnight Sun Film Festival

67°25′N 026°35′E / 67.417°N 26.583°E / 67.417; 26.583

A queue to Rosetta in 2005

The Midnight Sun Film Festival (Finnish: Sodankylän elokuvajuhlat) is an annual five-day film festival in Sodankylä, Finland. The festival usually takes place in the second week of June. One of the main characteristics of the festival is to show films without a break around the clock while the sun shines around the clock.

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is non-competitive. The program consists mostly of films directed by the main guests, 20–30 modern movies from all parts of the world, contemporary Finnish films and cinema classics, some of which are usually presented as "master classes" by various film theory experts. Typically, the festival introduces 4–5 young directors who are also guests of the festival. In recent years, attendance has been between 15,000 and 25,000.

The festival was first arranged in 1986 and the first international director guests were Samuel Fuller, Jonathan Demme, Bertrand Tavernier and Jean-Pierre Gorin. Later on it hosted some of the biggest names in cinema, such as Jim Jarmusch, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roger Corman, Terry Gilliam, Francis Ford Coppola, Abbas Kiarostami and Miloš Forman.[1]

Guests

Here follows the list of guests who have attended the festival since its first edition:[2]

Sodankylä Forever Documentary

Co-founder of the festival, Peter von Bagh released a 4-hour documentary based on footage from panel discussions titled Sodankylä Forever. It features clips of various filmmakers discussing the broader impact of films and filmmaking within history and culture. Some of the directors that appear in the documentary include, Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer, Ettore Scola, Michael Powell, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Elia Suleiman, Francis Ford Coppola, John Sayles, Samuel Fuller, Bob Rafelson and Jonathan Demme.

References

  1. ^ Cangialosi, Jason (14 November 2011). "'Sodankyla Forever' Explores Legacy of War at 34th Starz Denver Film Festival". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  2. ^ "Midnight Sun Film Festival - History (1986-2012)". Archived from the original on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Midnight Sun Film Festival.