Finnish government cancels proposed film industry budget cuts

The Finnish government has cancelled a previously planned reduction of up to €7.8m (US$8.7m) in public investment in film production, according to Yle.fi.

Mari-Leena Talvitie

The cuts would have impacted the Finnish Film Foundation’s (FFF) funding, reducing the organisation’s current budget by up to 35%, and affecting the domestic production of eight-to-10 features a year.

However the Finnish Minister of Science and Culture, Mari-Leena Talvitie now says the government will seek savings elsewhere. Initially, the government had categorised film support as a business aid, risking a significant reduction.

“The cuts in corporate support will not affect the film industry, Talvitie said. “The government has committed to finding replacement savings in the supplementary budget proposal in November.”

Throughout early autumn, the looming budget cuts triggered a strong response from the Finnish film industry that warned about the potential impact on production.

“Over the past five weeks, the entire film and audiovisual industry has successfully communicated the catastrophic effects of the cuts,” Lasse Saarinen, managing director of the Finnish Film Foundation, told Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

SF Studios and Nordisk Film – two of the region’s leading film companies – even united to contact members of the Finnish Parliament in response to a proposed cut in film funding.