The Midnight Sun Film Festival was founded in 1986 by Finnish filmmakers, e.g. the Kaurismäki brothers, and the Municipality of Sodankylä. The village of Sodankylä is located in the heart of Finnish Lapland, some 120 kilometers above the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn´t set at all in the summertime. The Lappish nature and the nightless night provide the Midnight Sun Film Festival a setting no other festival can compete !

The atmosphere of the Midnight Sun Film Festival is one of the most unique in the whole world: the most famous film directors of the world, young directors, the international audience and the in habitants of Sodankylä meet under the midnight sun in the relaxed and informal "spirit of Sodankylä".This festival is meant for people who truly love the art of cinema, there are no formalities or fancy cocktail parties, one doesn't have to be afraid of getting lost in the jungle of bureaucracy.

Films are screened in three venues for 24 hours a day, and the actual time is easily forgotten: the sun shines as brightly at 4 a.m. as at 4 p.m.

The festival can loosely be divided in three sections: films by the most famous film directors of all times, pearls of the newcinema and silent movies with live music. Very popular are also the morning discussions with the main guests, lead by festival director Peter von Bagh. Who wouldn't be interested in hearing, for example which films the famous directors would take with them to an uninhabited island!


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 Midnight Sun Film Festival:

1986: Samuel Fuller, Jonathan Demme, Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Pierre Gorin
1987: Michael Powell, Jacques Demy, Jim Jarmusch, D. A. Pennebaker, Juliet Berto, Thelma Schoonmaker
1988: Monte Hellman, Paul Schrader, Dušan Makavejev, Aleksei German, Krzysztof Zanussi, Ali Özgentürk, Helle Ryslinge
1989: Paul Morrissey, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Otar Ioseliani, John Berry, Vadim Abrašitov, Idrissa Ouedraogo
1990: Richard Fleischer, Manoel de Oliveira, Ettore Scola, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Octavio Bezerra
1991: Andre De Toth, Laslo Benedek, Alberto Lattuada, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Enzo Serafini, Etienne Chatiliez
1992: Roger Corman, Claude Chabrol, Jan Troell
1993: Joseph H. Lewis, Dino Risi, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Julio Medem
1994: Robert Wise, Mario Monicelli, Luis García Berlanga, Stanley Donen, John Sayles
1995: Robert Parrish, Agnieszka Holland, Maud Linder, Richard Price, Fridrik Thór Fridriksson, Victor Erice
1996: Jean Dreville, Claude Sautet, Daniele Dubroux, Robert Boyle, Doris Dörrie
1997: Gianni Amelio, Vincent Sherman, Jerzy Skolimowski, István Szabó, Costas Ferris
1998: Youssef Chahine, Terry Gilliam, Robby Müller, Stefan Jarl, Wim Wenders, Leonard Kastle
1999: Edgardo Cozarinsky, Costa-Gavras, Francesco Rosi, Angela Winkler, Murali Nair
2000: Bob Rafelson, Paolo Taviani, Ivan Passer, Shinji Aoyama
2001: Freddie Francis, Sergio Sollima, Jerry Schatzberg, Agnès Jaoui, Nana Djordjadze, Filippos Tsitos
2002: Francis Ford Coppola, Miklós Jancsó, Fernando E. Solanas, Denys Arcand, Luce Vigo
2003: Irvin Kershner, Emir Kusturica, Jean Rouch, Pascal Thomas
2004: Val Guest, Nanni Moretti, Marlen Hutsijev, Wolfgang Becker, Jörn Donner
2005: Roy Ward Baker, Jean-pierre & Luc Dardenne, Ye?im Ustao?lu, Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stolla
2006: Gian Vittorio Baldi, Caroll Ballard, Andrei Smirnov, Jafar Panahi, Isabelle Stever, Mercedes Álvarez, Jasmine Trinca
2007: Abbas Kiarostami, Claude Goretta, Vittorio De Seta, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Amos Gitai, Elia Suleiman, Pascale Ferran, Detlev Buck
2008: Milos Forman, Andrei Konchalovsky, Seymour Cassel, Lasse Pöysti

Photo gallery 2004
Photo gallery 2005
Photo gallery 2006
Photo gallery 2007
Photo gallery 2008

20th Midnight Sun Film Festival

Every year in our festival visits also the best directors of new movies, professionals from Finland and other countries and 150 - 200 representers of media. The capacity of accomodation naturally limits the amount of visitors. Sodankylä is pretty small town, but from year to year we have 15 000 - 20 000 visitors.

The next festival takes place in 11. - 15.6.2008 and the special guests are people from the top of the movie world. We also present 20 - 30 modern movies from all parts of the world and introduce 4 - 5 directors from young generation.