4th Oulu Children's Film Forum 19 Nov. 2024
The Speakers
Kris Brown
Director, Yargh!
Kris Brown is a filmmaker, animator and designer from New Zealand, currently based in Germany. From 1999 to 2001 Kris studied traditional 2D character animation under the veteran Disney animator John Ewing. He has worked on animated TV series in New Zealand and Germany, including The Amazing World of Gumball for The Cartoon Network. He is now writing, producing and directing his own live-action short films and working as a freelance designer.
Saara Cantell
Director, Raspberry Hill
Saara Cantell is an award-winning film director, screenwriter, author and Doctor of Arts. She has directed eleven feature films and numerous short films and television series.
Mervi Enqvist
Director, Power of the People
Mervi Enqvist (Inderjit Kaur Khalsa) is a writer, film director and actress. She graduated as an actress from the Theatre Academy in 1997, after which she studied film in New York. She has directed three feature-length documentaries, of which Power of the People (2021) is the latest.
Gunnbrjörg Gunnarsdottir
Director, Victoria Must Go
Gunnbjörg Gunnarsdottir is a half Norwegian, half Icelandic, self-taught director and film maker. Her career stretches back to 2012, making music videos, short films and documentaries across the world. In the recent time she has written and directed the critically acclaimed feature film “Victoria must go”, which has been successfully screened in Norwegian cinemas and a number of international festivals.
Alli Haapasalo
Writer-Director
Alli Haapasalo is a film director and screenwriter. Her third feature film, Girl Picture (2022), won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was selected for the the Berlin Film Festival competition and was an award-winner at several international film festivals. In its home country, it won four Jussi Awards. Women-driven stories are at the heart of Hapasalo's work. Haapasalo graduated as a film director from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and from Aalto University's Department of Film. In 2022, she was awarded the Finland Award for her work as a film director.
Outi Hupaniittu
PhD, Director of Archives, Finnish Literature Society (SKS)
Outi Hupaniittu is a cinema historian and archivist. In research, she specializes in the economics of film and cinema history. Her PhD dissertation (2013) focused on the early cinema business in Finland. Her research interests include the economics of cinema, actors, publicity and film culture. She is the vice chair of Finnish Society for Cinema Studies and vice member of Audiovisual Programme Board.
Aino Isojärvi
Moderator
Aino Isojärvi is a PhD researcher in film studies, a teacher of film and creative media and an alumna of the University of Kent. She specialises in the intersection of children's fiction, popular culture and gender studies, and her main areas of interest are animation and adaptation.
Janne Isokääntä
Digital Artist, Animator, Teacher
Janne Isokääntä is a digital artist and animator with experience in 2D and 3D art, motion graphics and game art. He is a teacher in the new Digital and Game Art course at Liminka Art School. He is creating a new curriculum focusing on digital art, animation and game design, combining artistic expression with cutting-edge technology.
Sidse Jeppesen
Head of Production, Copenhagen Film Festivals Foundation
Sidse Gry Jeppesen is Head of Production at the Copenhagen Film Festivals Foundation which runs Buster Children’s Film Festival and CPH:DOX. She has a background in the music industry both as an international music manager and codirector of a venue. The last couple of years she has, simultaneously with producing CFF, been teaching innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability at the Danish Rhytmic Conservatory. The climate crisis spurred her to take an education in Sustainability Management with a focus on driving sustainability processes in the culture sector. Through her work in production she has worked hard to drive down the CO2 emissions for the two festivals, and has also spearheaded the process towards gaining a sustainability certificate for both festivals.
Ted Kjellsson
Director, Håkan Bråkan 2
Ted made the Swedish cult movie shorts Tompta Gudh and Kapten Sverige in the early to mid-2000s. He found out that Sweden wasn't ready for genre movies with folklore and superheroes. Instead Ted became a name in the commercial industry making projects with big brands. This made Ted a fearless director with great knowhow regarding SFX, VFX and production design. In 2012 he made a comeback to the Swedish film and tv scene with the sci-fi series Skrotarna. There and then he realised that it was here he belonged. So he aimed for a feature film debut, while continue making TVCs and groundbreaking web and SoMe projects with commercial clients. The epic space adventure Ensamma i Rymden (Alone in Space) became his first feature film. Then he made 2 seasons of LasseMaja for Cmore wich won the award Kristallen. And the last years he has been shooting the super sucessfull trilogy about Håkan Bråkan. The first one, "Die Hard for the family", won in Oulu last year. The second one, "Rambo meets Goonies", screens at this festival! And Ted has just finished shooting the third one! Håkan Bråkan 003 is meant to be some kind of James Bond movie... stay tuned.
Marjo Kovanen
Senior Specialist, School Cinema Association (Koulukino)
Marjo Kovanen works as a senior specialist at Koulukino (School Cinema Association). Koulukino develops film education and film literacy in Finland and promotes school cinema screenings. Kovanen is currently finalising a PhD on children's film and film education at Tampere University and is a member of the board of The Finnish Society for Cinema Studies, The Finnish Society on Media Education, and ECFA.
Heta Mulari
Post-doctoral Researcher, Youth Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University
Heta Mulari is a post-doctoral researcher at Youth Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University. Her PhD discussed girlhoods and feminisms in Swedish youth films in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. Mulari's research interests include youth and subculture studies, film studies, urban studies and feminist ethnography.
Magdalena Nieć
Director, Lampo, the Travelling Dog
Magdalena Nieć, MA, graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Cracow and was a scholarship holder at the École National Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières in France. She works as an actress for theatre and cinema as well as an author. Lampo, the Travelling Dog has won the award for the Best Polish Children’s Film of 2023 and many foreign awards including Best Film at the 54th Giffoni Festival in the 6+ category, and European Children's Film Award and Award of the Kids' Jury at the 29th Schlingel Film Festival.
Markéta Pášmová
Artistic Director, Zlín Film Festival
Markéta Pášmová started working at the Zlín Film Festival in 1999 and became its artistic director in 2013. She focuses on European cinema for young audiences and is active in educational programmes for children and young people. She is a member of the board of directors of the FILMTALENT ZLÍN foundation, which supports young talented filmmakers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Markéta Pášmová is also the head of Zlín Industry Days – a programme for film professionals.
Kaisa Rastimo
Producer-writer-director, Nasrin's Voice
Director Kaisa Rastimo has over 30 years' working experience as a director, scriptwriter, editor and producer. All of her films from documentary to fiction have repeatedly been awarded at film festivals both in Finland and internationally. Characteristic of Rastimo's films is experientality and uniqueness. Many of her films have been ahead of their time. Children also like Kaisa Rastimo's eccentric films. Her children's films Hayflower and Quiltshoe (2002) and Stormheart (2008) continue to interest child viewers year after year.
Outi Rousu
Co-producer, The Making of a Japanese
Outi founded in 2001 the film production boutique Pystymetsä with her sister Sirkka Rousu. They focus on themes tell something relevant about us. We recognize especially well the themes that tells about children, youth and families. Rousu has a vast experience in film culture, media education and film production since 1985. To this date, she have produced some 45 films, in all film genres. She is also an active co-production partner. In the past years, she has co-produced, among others, with all five Nordic countries, Germany, Poland, Japan, US, Ireland, Netherlands and the UK. She became an EAVE graduate in 1997.