Traditionally, the Finnish film and television industry has revolved around producing feature films and television series for local distribution. In the past five years, however, the industry has been transformed by a rising demand for high-end drama series. In addition to the positive
developments for the economic stability of production companies, challenges are unfolding as the demand for new content keeps growing. This article introduces three recent and central developments, drawing on interviews with four local producers and an analysis of industry and media reports.
First, new players have entered the market and introduced new financing opportunities, both domestic and international. Second, international co-production opportunities have grown through production companies’ new international focus. And finally, the introduction of the Finnish production
incentive for the audio-visual industry has enabled more ambitious projects. These developments have led to two main challenges that the industry is currently facing: the imminent lack of experienced crew and the need for revised practices for screenwriting, development and production.
The success of a film depends not only on the quality of individual elements in the film but also on cultural factors that may influence the viewers’ reactions. In this study, we investigated the role of these factors by presenting Spanish and Finnish participants films produced in Finland, Spain, or the United States. Emotional reactions were assessed online through a response system synchronized with the films and offline through questionnaires. Results indicated that overall emotional reactions of the two audiences were very similar, suggesting a high degree of universality. However, we also found differences in the way the two audiences reacted to some specific sequences within the films. Qualitative analyses suggested that these differences are related to some cultural dimensions (e.g., collectivism). We interpret the data as supporting both universality and cultural mediation where cultural variation might be more evident in films varying in narrative structure, genre, or cultural origin.
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