How to apply

Finnish Film Foundation provides government grants for the domestic film industry.

Our aim is to promote and develop diverse storytelling, ensure the accessibility of content on all platforms and to facilitate the internationalisation of the Finnish film industry.

Funding is available for film industry professionals and companies registered in Finland.

Available funding:

Submitting an application

Subtitles in English: press CC in the bottom right-hand corner

Application System

All applications are submitted through our application system. The application system will utilize Suomi.fi e-Identification. Suomi.fi e-Identification is a shared identification service for public sector e-services in Finland. 

Before submitting your application, please read both the grant annoucement and the support guide carefully. Pay special attention to the required application appendices. Grant announcements are available in Finnish and Swedish.

You may submit your application through the system at any time. However most support categories have designated application deadlines determined by the schedule of the support meetings. A grant annoucement is released for all available support categories for each processing round.

Please allot plenty of time for compiling your application and submit it well before the deadline of your chosen application round to avoid any possible technical issues arising from the system overloading during the last few hours leading up to the deadline. In some support categories applications uploaded to the system after the deadline will be automatically forwarded to the next application round.

Processing the application

The processing of an application can take anywhere between 3 to 10 weeks depending on the support category. We will nominate an administrator for your application within a week of the application deadline and you can see their name in the application system. During the process, the administrator may contact you by phone or email if the information in your application needs supplementing.

If you update your application or the appendices already submitted through the application system, please notify the administrator/film commissioner who handles your application of the changes by email. All updates and supplements should however be submitted through the application system as we can not receive them via email.

We may not give feedback on the application or information about the support decision recommendation during the processing phase.

More about our support application handlers:

Foundation personnel

Support decision

The person handling your application will present a support decision recommendation to the Finnish Film Foundation’s Managing Board based on the application. The application is evaluated based on e.g.:

  • Applicant’s professional status
  • Applicant’s ability to complete the project
  • Required appendices and other plans
  • Other potential funding for the project
  • Project content
  • Comparison to other applications in the same application round
  • Ensuring sufficient diversity
  • Social and environmental accountability
  • Compliance with previous support agreements and reporting requirements
  • Available funds at the Foundation

Guidelines for support proposals by the Foundation’s Production Department

See a timeline for our evaluation and decision making process:

Timeline for decision making

The support decision is made in a support decision meeting by the Foundation’s Board members. The decision is then uploaded to the application system. You will also receive an official decision letter in the post.

The Finnish Film Foundation may also commit to the funding of a project with a Letter of Commitment (LOC) prior to the support decision.

All of our support decisions are public. We post a list of supported projects on our website and send out a press release within a week of the support decision meeting.

Any funding from the Finnish Film Foundation should be acknowledged in all materials about the project. You can find information about the use of our print and animated logos in the support guides.

Look through previously supported projects:

Support decisions