Making Movies Turns 30 – A Pioneer in International Film Co-production Looks to the Next Decade
Helsinki-based film production company Making Movies Oy turns 30 this year. Founded in 1996, the company has been a pioneer in the internationalization of Finnish film and has produced more than a hundred films over three decades. Now the company is also breaking new ground in game development based on its films.
Making Movies' productions include Black Ice (Musta jää, 2007), The Fencer (Miekkailija, 2015), and Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence (2014). The Fencer received a Golden Globe nomination, and The Look of Silence received an Oscar nomination. The company's films have screened at festivals including Berlin, Toronto, Venice, and Sundance.
International co-productions and European funding have been at the heart of Making Movies' work from the start. The company's long-standing collaboration with European producers and financiers has made possible ambitious productions that could not have been realized on domestic funding alone.
“A production company's international success is the result of long-term work. At the heart of our films' stories is always some essential observation about life that audiences recognize regardless of their cultural background,” says CEO Kai Nordberg.
Making Movies is now extending its film worlds into games as well. The company is currently developing game projects based on its own films and looking for new ways to make use of its films' IP — that is, their stories, characters, and worlds.
“A film's IP can have a much longer life cycle than the film itself. I also believe that films' characters, visual style, and storytelling craft can bring something new to the games industry,” Nordberg says.
Making Movies has won numerous Jussi Awards and the Nordic Council Film Prize. Just before summer, the company secured European development funding for five international co-productions. In September, the Making Movies production Blue Baby (Hetki ennen valoa, 2026), directed by Klaus Härö, will premiere.
