Fanny Heinonen Appointed as New Director of Film Tampere

Fanny Heinonen from Tampere has been appointed as the Program Director for Film Tampere, within the Business Tampere organization. Heinonen previously served as the customer manager for Film Tampere for two years and now enthusiastically accepts this new challenge, believing in Tampere's vibrancy in the audiovisual sector in the future.

"We have done tremendously good foundational work here in Tampere in collaboration with the City of Tampere. The production incentive has robustly supported the local audiovisual service business. The focus on developing businesses centered around intellectual property rights (IPR) is now a major priority," Fanny Heinonen contemplates on current challenges shortly after her appointment.

"How can we motivate industry companies to invest and pursue growth? This attracts international partners and venture capitalists," Heinonen ponders.

In Finland, the audiovisual sector's sales have seen an increase as domestic drama series have been recognized globally and production has garnered international funding. International co-productions becoming feasible and the growth in the number of distributors have also played significant roles. Production incentives have a pivotal role in this growth, enticing international productions to Finland, thus enhancing expertise and employment.

The Tampere region is of international interest as a production area, and Film Tampere annually supports approximately 20 industry productions. Current highlights include the fourth production seasons of "Komisario Koskinen" and "Elämäni biisi" TV productions. This autumn saw the premiere of the disaster film "Avgrunden" (SF Studios), led by Swedish actor Tuva Novotny and Peter Franzén. It was shot not just in Tampere, but also in locations like Las Palmas and Kiruna in Sweden.

(Video in Finnish)

Since 2018, Film Tampere has granted production incentive money of around 3.5 million euros. Direct regional economic benefit has been estimated at over 30 million euros.

The production incentive granted by Film Tampere can account for 10-15% of the production costs incurred in the Tampere metropolitan area.

Alongside ensuring the continuity of production incentives and reinforcing content business, a focal area for Fanny Heinonen is the advancement of industry education. Plans for the upcoming year include introducing more film and TV education programs, facilitated by Tampere Vocational College Tredu and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK).