THE 24th MIDNIGHT SUN FILM FESTIVAL

Founded in 1986 by the Finnish directors Aki and Mika Kaurismäki and the current festival director Peter von Bagh, the Midnight Sun Film Festival boasts one of the most unique atmospheres of any festival in the world: top directors, up-and-coming talents, an international audience and the avarege person on the street come together in a sincere and warm atmosphere under the midnight sun. Without any formal restraints, the festival is best characterised by its pure love for cinema.

The village of Sodankylä is located in the heart of Finnish Lapland, some 120 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Lapland's nature and the sun that never sets provide a backdrop that can't be seen at any other festival in the world.

The festival programme is an enticing combination of old and new. Timeless masterpieces will be presented side by side with the most recent achievements of contemporary cinema. In the master class screenings, leading film critics will provide their insight to cinema's finest classics, and music films are given a new spin in the karaoke screenings. To top it all the undisputed highlights of the festival are the glorious silent movies screened with life music.

Thanks to our guests throughout the years, the spirit of Sodankylä is well known around the world. Just to mention a few, the following persons have visited the festival
:
Samuel Fuller, Jonathan Demme, Michael Powell, Jim Jarmusch, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Agnes Varda, Stanley Donen, John Sayles, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Paolo Taviani, Rob Rafelson. Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica, Jean Rouch, Nanni Moretti, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Abbas Kiarostami, Milos Forman and many, many other masters of cinema.