Exclusive: After seeing her debut feature Palimpsest win an HFPA Special Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Finnish writer-director Hanna Västinsalo has found her follow-up project in Will O’ the Wisp.
Slated for production this fall, the film expands upon the narrative of the 2009 short that got Västinsalo an invitation to study directing at AFI. Set in 19th century Finland, the story follows Elina, a courageous young woman who defies the darkness of her circumstances, choosing resilience over despair. When offered a chance at redemption by enigmatic water spirits, she embarks on a tumultuous journey, navigating the complexities of motherhood and survival against a backdrop of shifting times and unforgiving choices.
Västinsalo wrote the script with Cyril Abraham, who will produce for Thinkseed Films in Finland. Reel Suspects is handling sales outside of Finland.
Stated Matteo Lovadina of Reel Suspects, “We are incredibly excited to embark on this journey with...
Slated for production this fall, the film expands upon the narrative of the 2009 short that got Västinsalo an invitation to study directing at AFI. Set in 19th century Finland, the story follows Elina, a courageous young woman who defies the darkness of her circumstances, choosing resilience over despair. When offered a chance at redemption by enigmatic water spirits, she embarks on a tumultuous journey, navigating the complexities of motherhood and survival against a backdrop of shifting times and unforgiving choices.
Västinsalo wrote the script with Cyril Abraham, who will produce for Thinkseed Films in Finland. Reel Suspects is handling sales outside of Finland.
Stated Matteo Lovadina of Reel Suspects, “We are incredibly excited to embark on this journey with...
- 5/21/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
There was much to be thankful for in 2023. Besides new works by several legendary directors, there were personal opportunities that allowed me to spread a larger net and take stock of the cinema landscape from a more privileged vantage point. I got to attend the Cannes and Toronto film festivals for the first time and also became a voter for some key year-end awards. The experience of thus watching films, before most of my cinephile brethren, allowed me to contemplate how much campaigns and narratives can alter a film’s reception and trajectory.
What has come into sharper relief, and what is evident from the list below too, is that Cannes has the lock on much of the best product of the year––at least anything not...
There was much to be thankful for in 2023. Besides new works by several legendary directors, there were personal opportunities that allowed me to spread a larger net and take stock of the cinema landscape from a more privileged vantage point. I got to attend the Cannes and Toronto film festivals for the first time and also became a voter for some key year-end awards. The experience of thus watching films, before most of my cinephile brethren, allowed me to contemplate how much campaigns and narratives can alter a film’s reception and trajectory.
What has come into sharper relief, and what is evident from the list below too, is that Cannes has the lock on much of the best product of the year––at least anything not...
- 12/27/2023
- by Ankit Jhunjhunwala
- The Film Stage
Miia Tervo’s “The Missile,” an absurdist dramatic comedy based on the real-life story of a Soviet missile landing in Finnish Lapland in 1984, took home the top prize Thursday at the Finnish Film Affair, an annual industry event running parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy.
“The Missile” was one of five fiction feature works in progress that were pitched to an audience of industry guests in Helsinki on Sept. 21, during the Finnish Film Affair’s showcase of local and regional projects. The sophomore feature of Finnish director Tervo, known for the female-centered romantic comedy “Aurora,” the film is produced by Kaisla Viitala and Daniel Kuitunen of Helsinki-based Elokuvayhtiö Komeetta, with Stellar Film co-producing.
“The Missile” tells the empowering story of an abused single mother working at a small-town newspaper who gets drawn into the investigation surrounding the missile crash, which upends life in a small northern village.
“The Missile” was one of five fiction feature works in progress that were pitched to an audience of industry guests in Helsinki on Sept. 21, during the Finnish Film Affair’s showcase of local and regional projects. The sophomore feature of Finnish director Tervo, known for the female-centered romantic comedy “Aurora,” the film is produced by Kaisla Viitala and Daniel Kuitunen of Helsinki-based Elokuvayhtiö Komeetta, with Stellar Film co-producing.
“The Missile” tells the empowering story of an abused single mother working at a small-town newspaper who gets drawn into the investigation surrounding the missile crash, which upends life in a small northern village.
- 9/22/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The Helsinki showcase has become a must-attend event for the Nordic industry.
Miia Tervo’s absurdist comedy drama The Missile walked away with the €3,000 prize for the best fiction project award at Finland’s Finnish Film Affair, which draws to a close today (September 22) in Helsinki.
The Missile is now in post-production. It is set in 1984 in Finnish Lapland, where a single mother of two children is trying to get over her violent ex-husband. She finds herself working at a local newspaper, as reports come in that a Soviet Union missile has shot across the Finnish border.
The project is...
Miia Tervo’s absurdist comedy drama The Missile walked away with the €3,000 prize for the best fiction project award at Finland’s Finnish Film Affair, which draws to a close today (September 22) in Helsinki.
The Missile is now in post-production. It is set in 1984 in Finnish Lapland, where a single mother of two children is trying to get over her violent ex-husband. She finds herself working at a local newspaper, as reports come in that a Soviet Union missile has shot across the Finnish border.
The project is...
- 9/22/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Lukas Dhont’s Close, an intimate melodrama about an intense friendship between two 13-year-old boys, has won this year’s Lux European Audience Film Award, a prize handed out by the European Parliament.
Close premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2022, where it won the Grand Jury prize. It was Belgium’s Oscar contender and was nominated for an Academy Award in the best international feature category this year.
Close is Dhont’s second feature, after his 2018 directorial debut Girl, a drama inspired by the true story of a transgender ballet dancer, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and won multiple awards including the Camera d’Or for best first feature and the Queer Palm for best LGBTQ+ movie. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dhont said Close was a “continuation of the themes in Girl [but while] Girl really talked about gender identity and the relationship with the body,...
Close premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2022, where it won the Grand Jury prize. It was Belgium’s Oscar contender and was nominated for an Academy Award in the best international feature category this year.
Close is Dhont’s second feature, after his 2018 directorial debut Girl, a drama inspired by the true story of a transgender ballet dancer, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and won multiple awards including the Camera d’Or for best first feature and the Queer Palm for best LGBTQ+ movie. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dhont said Close was a “continuation of the themes in Girl [but while] Girl really talked about gender identity and the relationship with the body,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Will-o'-the Wisp opens tomorrow in the US in limited release
by Cláudio Alves
I love my country's cinema, so it's only logical I would yearn for its appreciation beyond borders. Yet, sometimes that joy comes suffused with a nagging curiosity. Do foreign audiences 'get' these films? Even when they're praised are they lost in cultural mistranslations? Perhaps that's too narrow a viewpoint that overestimates how closed-off Portuguese cinema is in its specificities. There's a universal appeal to great cinema, audiovisual idioms can transcend national barriers.
Still, I love to talk with non-Portuguese friends about Portuguese cinema they love and find myself learning along the way. Indeed, I'd love to chat about João Pedro Rodrigues' latest, currently enjoying an American release in selected theaters. Even if you don't get all the details of Will-o'-the-Wisp, there's plenty to love, from fireman eroticism to cumshots, musical stylings, and artificiality unleashed. It's an orgasmic blast from beginning to end…...
by Cláudio Alves
I love my country's cinema, so it's only logical I would yearn for its appreciation beyond borders. Yet, sometimes that joy comes suffused with a nagging curiosity. Do foreign audiences 'get' these films? Even when they're praised are they lost in cultural mistranslations? Perhaps that's too narrow a viewpoint that overestimates how closed-off Portuguese cinema is in its specificities. There's a universal appeal to great cinema, audiovisual idioms can transcend national barriers.
Still, I love to talk with non-Portuguese friends about Portuguese cinema they love and find myself learning along the way. Indeed, I'd love to chat about João Pedro Rodrigues' latest, currently enjoying an American release in selected theaters. Even if you don't get all the details of Will-o'-the-Wisp, there's plenty to love, from fireman eroticism to cumshots, musical stylings, and artificiality unleashed. It's an orgasmic blast from beginning to end…...
- 5/26/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Fairytales and fire stations merge in the new film from João Pedro Rodrigues.
Few filmmakers can count themselves as an ornithologist — or expert on birds — and a director, but Portuguese filmmaker Rodrigues is both. Now, he’s directed his first narrative feature since 2016’s “The Ornithologist” with the musical fantasy “Will O’ the Wisp.” The homoerotic, full-frontal-filled gay musical — Rodrigues himself, while also being a bird expert and filmmaker, is also openly gay — premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight last May before wending its way around the festival circuit. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, via here or the link below.
In “Will O’ the Wisp,” His Royal Highness Alfredo (Mauro Costa) is a king without a crown and also on a death bed, from which he’s taken back to distant memories from his youth, a time when he dreamed of becoming a fireman. In this chapter of his life,...
Few filmmakers can count themselves as an ornithologist — or expert on birds — and a director, but Portuguese filmmaker Rodrigues is both. Now, he’s directed his first narrative feature since 2016’s “The Ornithologist” with the musical fantasy “Will O’ the Wisp.” The homoerotic, full-frontal-filled gay musical — Rodrigues himself, while also being a bird expert and filmmaker, is also openly gay — premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight last May before wending its way around the festival circuit. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, via here or the link below.
In “Will O’ the Wisp,” His Royal Highness Alfredo (Mauro Costa) is a king without a crown and also on a death bed, from which he’s taken back to distant memories from his youth, a time when he dreamed of becoming a fireman. In this chapter of his life,...
- 5/1/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"My little rascal, you gave your all!" Strand Releasing has unveiled an official US trailer for a very strange, one-of-a-kind film from Portugal titled Will-o'-the-Wisp, originally known as Fogo-Fátuo in Portuguese. This musical fantasy by João Pedro Rodrigues first premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival last year, stopping by tons of other festivals including Toronto and New York. On his deathbed, his royal highness Alfredo, king without a crown, is taken back to distant youth memories and the time he dreamt of becoming a fireman. The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men immersed in love and desire, and the will to change the status quo. Starring Mauro Costa, André Cabral, and Joel Branco. This film will primarily appeal to anyone brave enough to wade into experimental cinema, but it looks like...
- 4/28/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Following 2016’s The Ornithologist, it’s been quite a wait for the next feature from João Pedro Rodrigues. It finally arrived at last year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight with Will-o’-the-Wisp, a delightfully sexual and imaginative queer firefighter musical fantasy. Now set for a May 26 release beginning at IFC Center, featuring the director in person and screening with his 2019 short Potemkin Steps, the new U.S. trailer has arrived from Strand Releasing.
Here’s the synopsis: “On his deathbed, his royal highness Alfredo, king without a crown, is taken back to distant youth memories and the time he dreamt of becoming a fireman. The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men immersed in love and desire, and the will to change the status quo.”
“I absolutely wanted to make a comedy,” said the director. “I’d already...
Here’s the synopsis: “On his deathbed, his royal highness Alfredo, king without a crown, is taken back to distant youth memories and the time he dreamt of becoming a fireman. The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men immersed in love and desire, and the will to change the status quo.”
“I absolutely wanted to make a comedy,” said the director. “I’d already...
- 4/26/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ukraine is to host its first ever queer film festival, it was announced at Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam.
Sunny Bunny – named after Kyiv-based Molodist Film Fest’s non-competition section, established in 2001 – is eyeing a summer slot.
“Maybe it’s a bit stereotypical to do it in June, as it’s Pride Month, but it will give us more time to prepare,” programmer Bohdan Zhuk revealed to Variety on Tuesday. Pointing out that the standalone event might still continue to be a part of Molodist in some form.
“The war is unpredictable, so you just have to adapt and be flexible. When we did Molodist in December, there were blackouts, so we needed generators. We also needed to plan where people would hide in case of raids, plan out shelters in cinemas or nearby metro stations,” he added.
“The plan is to do it separately, but also to keep that connection.
Sunny Bunny – named after Kyiv-based Molodist Film Fest’s non-competition section, established in 2001 – is eyeing a summer slot.
“Maybe it’s a bit stereotypical to do it in June, as it’s Pride Month, but it will give us more time to prepare,” programmer Bohdan Zhuk revealed to Variety on Tuesday. Pointing out that the standalone event might still continue to be a part of Molodist in some form.
“The war is unpredictable, so you just have to adapt and be flexible. When we did Molodist in December, there were blackouts, so we needed generators. We also needed to plan where people would hide in case of raids, plan out shelters in cinemas or nearby metro stations,” he added.
“The plan is to do it separately, but also to keep that connection.
- 1/31/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
A hopeful and bittersweet plea for a better future, Joao Pedro Rodrigues’ 67-minute oddity Will-o’-the-Wisp covers three periods in the life of Alfredo, a “Prince” of Portugal. If a little conceited and cutesy at times—perhaps “a musical comedy by” wasn’t literally needed to be specified in the opening credits—this a film that manages to remain likable throughout. Seemingly an accomplishment for something with so much on its mind.
Our first glimpse of Alfredo (Joel Branco) is on his deathbed in 2069 (we even see the shadow of a spaceship) and running through memories of his youth in what looks like a smaller room out of that similar scene near the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The memories of this “king without a crown” chart back to 2011 initially, as he falls in love with Portugal’s forests and trees as a young boy (depicted through what...
Our first glimpse of Alfredo (Joel Branco) is on his deathbed in 2069 (we even see the shadow of a spaceship) and running through memories of his youth in what looks like a smaller room out of that similar scene near the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The memories of this “king without a crown” chart back to 2011 initially, as he falls in love with Portugal’s forests and trees as a young boy (depicted through what...
- 9/17/2022
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
“Where is This Street? or With No Before and After,” co-directed by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, is screening in competition at Locarno.
The pic revisits locations and themes from Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film “Os Verdes Anos” (“The Green Years”), a best first film winner at Locarno in 1964 and considered to be a point of departure for Portugal’s Cinema Novo movement.
“We believe that the film works at its own level, and also gains further levels of meaning when viewed in conjunction with ‘Os Verdes Anos,’” explains Rodrigues. “By revisiting locations from the 1963 film, but without people, we planned to make an ode to Lisbon, a symphony of the city, working in the tradition of directors such as Walter Ruttman. This idea, that predated the pandemic, foresaw the atmosphere created by the lockdown which suddenly emptied the city.”
Rodrigues studied under Paulo Rocha at Lisbon...
The pic revisits locations and themes from Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film “Os Verdes Anos” (“The Green Years”), a best first film winner at Locarno in 1964 and considered to be a point of departure for Portugal’s Cinema Novo movement.
“We believe that the film works at its own level, and also gains further levels of meaning when viewed in conjunction with ‘Os Verdes Anos,’” explains Rodrigues. “By revisiting locations from the 1963 film, but without people, we planned to make an ode to Lisbon, a symphony of the city, working in the tradition of directors such as Walter Ruttman. This idea, that predated the pandemic, foresaw the atmosphere created by the lockdown which suddenly emptied the city.”
Rodrigues studied under Paulo Rocha at Lisbon...
- 8/5/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Returning to its standard May slot for the first time in two years, the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has now concluded, with a familiar Swede taking home top honors. While our coverage will continue over the next week or so—and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections—we’ve asked our contributors on the ground to share favorites.
See their picks below, and explore all of our coverage here.
Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)
1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
3. One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)
4. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)
5. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)
6. The Fabric of the Human Body (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
7. Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski)
8. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
9. Scarlet (Pietro Marcello)
10. Funny Pages (Owen Kline)
Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)
1. Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
2. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
3. Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski)
4. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
5. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells...
See their picks below, and explore all of our coverage here.
Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)
1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
3. One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)
4. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)
5. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)
6. The Fabric of the Human Body (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
7. Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski)
8. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
9. Scarlet (Pietro Marcello)
10. Funny Pages (Owen Kline)
Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)
1. Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
2. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
3. Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski)
4. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
5. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells...
- 5/31/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Portuguese helmer João Pedro Rodrigues returned to Cannes this year with his new film “Will-o’-the-Wisp” (“Fogo Fátuo”), which screened in Directors’ Fortnight and is his first feature since the well-received 2016 madcap journey of self-discovery, “The Ornithologist.”
The film begins in 2069, with Prince Alfredo on his deathbed, who begins to reminisce about his childhood spent in the King’s Pine Grove in Leiria, near Lisbon, which was devastated in the 2017 forest fires. Behind him we see Jose Conrado Roza’s enigmatic 18th century painting “The Wedding Masquerade,” featuring exotic, dwarfish figures with black skin and a character suffering from a skin disease, at a wedding ceremony.
After the forest fire the young Alfredo decides to join the volunteer fire brigade where he falls in love with a Black fireman, Afonso.
Rodrigues calls the film a “musical fantasy.” The homoerotically charged film establishes metaphorical links between the tall erect pine trees and the male member,...
The film begins in 2069, with Prince Alfredo on his deathbed, who begins to reminisce about his childhood spent in the King’s Pine Grove in Leiria, near Lisbon, which was devastated in the 2017 forest fires. Behind him we see Jose Conrado Roza’s enigmatic 18th century painting “The Wedding Masquerade,” featuring exotic, dwarfish figures with black skin and a character suffering from a skin disease, at a wedding ceremony.
After the forest fire the young Alfredo decides to join the volunteer fire brigade where he falls in love with a Black fireman, Afonso.
Rodrigues calls the film a “musical fantasy.” The homoerotically charged film establishes metaphorical links between the tall erect pine trees and the male member,...
- 5/30/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Six years after his evocative character study The Ornithologist, Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues is returning with a new feature. The 67-minute Will-o’-the-Wisp will premiere tomorrow in Directors’ Fortnight and follows a royal highness who, on his deathbed, recalls distant memories of his youth when he dreamt of becoming a fireman.
“The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade, opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men devoted to love and desire, and the will to change the status quo,” the logline reads, hitting at another sexually charged odyssey from Rodrigues. Ahead of the premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively debut the first trailer.
“I absolutely wanted to make a comedy,” said the director. “I’d already approached the genre with To Die Like a Man. Comedy is the most difficult genre to do successfully, and it is a genre to which I am greatly attracted.
“The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade, opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men devoted to love and desire, and the will to change the status quo,” the logline reads, hitting at another sexually charged odyssey from Rodrigues. Ahead of the premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively debut the first trailer.
“I absolutely wanted to make a comedy,” said the director. “I’d already approached the genre with To Die Like a Man. Comedy is the most difficult genre to do successfully, and it is a genre to which I am greatly attracted.
- 5/23/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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