22nd Helsinki International Film Festival ? Love & Anarchy proudly welcomes interesting filmmakers from around the world as its guests.

HIERRO, screened in the festival?s Selection Semi-Officielle, is the latest film from producers of Pan?s Labyrinth and The Orphanage.
Director of HIERRO, Gabe Ibáñez, will visit Helsinki with his leading actress, Elena Anaya. Anaya is familiar from Julio Medem?s and Pedro Almodóvar?s films. In addition to the stylish thriller HIERRO, Anaya is also starring in festival films JUST WALKING (SOLO QUIERO CAMINAR) and MESRINE: PART 1 ?DEATH INSTINCT.

Gabe Ibáñez and Elena Anaya in Helsinki from September 24th to 27th.
Interview requests and additional information: Mika Siltala / Cinema
Mondo: mikas@cinemamondo.fi

9 TO 5 ? DAYS IN PORN, screened in the HIFF?s Under Bare Skin series, is a demystifying and critical documentary on the infinitely interesting porn industry. German director Jens Hoffmann and producer Cleonice Comino will attend the festival from September 17th to 21st.

Fernando Epstein, the acclaimed Uruguayan producer of three festival films (HIROSHIMA, GIGANTE and ACNÉ) will visit Helsinki from September 17th to 21st. Epstein, one of the members of the successful production company Control Z Films, can be seen in the credits of almost every film in the festival?s América Independiente -series.

Oscar winning director Adam Elliott?s feature animation MARY & MAX has been a huge hit around the world with its dark but warm humor. Melanie Coombs, producer of the visually stunning stop motion animation, will attend Love & Anarchy from September 25th to 27th. She will be coming with her award winning short animation film THE FUNK, which will be screened with MARY & MAX.

Several guests will attend the festival with films in the Tere Eesti!
series. Estonian filmmakers Jaak Kilmi and Kiur Aarma will be present at the screenings of DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR (24.-27.9.). Liina Paakspuu and Karin Reinberg-Shestakov, director and producer of A WISH TREE, will also visit the festival.

Information on other guests will be confirmed and published soon.
Interview requests and additional information:
Saija Holm / saija@hiff.fi / 050 355 82 74 www.hiff.fi


Finnkino Prize ? Official selection

For the second time Helsinki IFF will award a Finnkino Prize to one of the eight films on its Official selection.

As the ever growing audience of HIFF proves, Finnish moviegoers are expecting more versatility from their cinematic experiences. To ensure the diversity of the film distribution in Finland, HIFF arranges an audience competition in co-operation with Finnkino, the biggest film distribution company in Finland.

The audience will vote for their favourite film from eight nominees chosen by the HIFF programming Ministry. The nominees are prize winning and high quality films from countries seldom seen on Finnish screens.

The winner will be announced on Sunday the 27th September at the closing screening of the festival. The winner will be awarded with a national distribution contract. The winner film will be released in Helsinki during the winter 2009.

The nominees for the second Finnkino Prize are:
ABOUT ELLY, Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2009
AJAMI, Scandar Copti &Yaron Shani, Israel, 2009 ALL AROUND US, Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Japan, 2008 AMREEKA, Cherien Dabis, Yhdysvallat, Kanada, Kuwait, 2009 BORDERLINE, Lyne Charlebois, Canada, 2008 THE MAID, Sebastian Silva, Chile, 2009 NORTH, Rune Denstad Langlo, Norway, 2009 A YEAR AGO IN WINTER, Caroline Link, Germany, 2008


Further information www.hiff.fi