Genre feature films from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands selected from 28 applications across the Nordic region
HELSINKI, FINLAND — Nordic Genre Lab, the new intensive training and networking program dedicated to genre feature film development in the Nordic countries, today announces the eight producer-director teams selected for its first edition. The program will take place on September 24–25, 2026, during Finnish Film Affair, the industry event of Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy. Nordic Genre Lab is made possible by Nordisk Kulturfond.
The program received 29 applications from across the Nordics, representing Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. The selection committee — comprising internationally renowned producer and consultant, Claire Willats (Two Magpies Entertainment, former Netflix executive), global genre cinema authority Todd Brown (founder of Twitch Film, former XYZ Films executive), and Norwegian genre producer Einar Loftesnes (Villmark Asylum, The Tunnel, Kraken) — has chosen the following eight projects:
ALMA (Finland)
When 17-year-old Jasmin meets her estranged grandmother Alma, she’s dragged into a deadly confrontation between Alma’s telekinetic past and the monster her powers created.
Director: Pete Riski | Writer: Ilja Rautsi | Producers: Pauliina Piipponen, Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho | Production Company: Making Movies Ltd
ECHO CHAMBER (Finland)
A Nordic psychological survival horror animation following two cursed sisters, Haruka and Yui, anyone who sees them up close transforms into a violent monster, who must cross a frozen landscape and return to the island where their mother died in a fire to break the curse, confronting the grief that has kept them apart.
Director: Juha Fiilin | Writer: Adam Cullen | Producers: Juha Fiilin & Debbie Stephens | Production Company: Fiilin Good Films Oy
LINDEN LANE 6 (Finland)
A recently divorced novelist seeking solitude moves into a remote apartment building inhabited entirely by women, where strange rituals and the disappearance of a former male tenant lead him to uncover a horrifying secret.
Director: Josefina Rautiainen | Writers: Aino Putaala & Kirsti Riekkola | Producer: Anita Hyppönen | Production Company: It’s Alive Films
LONG WAY HOME (Norway)
A character-driven dystopian road movie in which, after an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electricity across Western Norway, 22-year-old Tea and her neighbour Herman set out on a dangerous journey through a frozen and increasingly lawless landscape to reach her childhood home, confronting both the chaos around them and the darkness within.
Director/Writer: Kjersti Helen Rasmussen | Producer: Njål Lambrechts | Production Company: Truewest
SAUNA DIPLOMACY (Finland)
A dark comedy set during the height of Finlandization in 1970, in which a diligent Finnish diplomat is ordered to host a high-ranking Soviet official at his summer cottage for the weekend. What begins as an awkward diplomatic retreat descends into humiliation, manipulation, and psychological power games — an intimate and absurd portrait of how much a person, or a country, can bend before breaking.
Director/Writer: Teemu Niukkanen | Producer: John Lundsten | Production Company: TACK Films
THE EVIL EYE (Denmark)
An online found-footage horror film in which the main character, Oliver, is both the villain and the creator of the film we are watching – obsessed with Lucas, a successful young swimmer who bullied him as a child, he secretly films and infiltrates his victim’s life, sharing increasingly disturbing “films” on a closed online forum until the line between observer and destroyer disappears entirely.
Director: Kristian Lidegaard | Writers: Kristian Lidegaard & Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen | Producer: Maria Møller Kjeldgaard | Production Company: Manna Film
TRESPASSERS (Sweden)
A backwoods horror-thriller in which four young people from a failed anti-establishment movement travel to the vast wilderness of Northern Sweden to reconnect with nature, but after a river rafting accident leaves them stranded, they discover they are not alone — and not welcome — on land controlled by a group that has isolated itself for centuries with its own terrifying beliefs.
Director: Johannes Persson | Writers: Johannes Persson & Melina Maraki | Producers: Patrik Andersson, Jakob Abrahamsson | Production Company: Mylla Films
WHISTLER (Faroe Islands)
A survival folk horror set on the bird cliffs and grazing lands of the Faroe Islands, where four marine biologists race to catch the last ferry after their guide’s fatal climbing accident, only to find themselves hunted across forbidden grazing land by a reclusive farmer who uses a bone whistle to command a pack of grotesque half-human creatures.
Director/Writer: Gudmund Helmsdal | Producer: Jón Hammer | Production Company: Outlier Projects
“We were thrilled by the volume and quality of applications we received for this first edition,” said Claire Willats, co-founder and member of selection committee. “The 28 submissions we received from across the entire Nordic region confirmed what we already believed: there is an enormous wealth of genre talent in the North, and a real hunger for a dedicated space to develop and launch these projects internationally. The eight selected projects represent an extraordinary range of genre filmmaking — from folk horror rooted in Faroese landscape to dystopian survival thriller in Norway and from animated psychological horror to dark political satire from Finland and more — and we cannot wait to work with these teams in September.”
Head of the selection committee, and one of the most influential voices in global genre cinema, Todd Brown, added: “It was an absolute pleasure to go through all of the applicants and find an incredibly high level of quality and diversity. I think we’ve ended with a selection that is engaging, challenging, surprising and often quite fun. We can’t wait to dive into things in more depth with all of the teams.“
Over two intensive days, the selected teams will receive dedicated mentoring from Claire Willats and Todd Brown, pitch training, deck consulting, and the opportunity to pitch their projects in a live competition before a jury of top industry experts. The program also includes workshops, a studio visit to Fireframe LED Screen Studio in Helsinki, matchmaking meetings with potential partners, and full accreditation to Finnish Film Affair with access to the complete industry program including panels, masterclasses, and Helsinki International Film Festival screenings.
