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46th of Oulu's '100 acts': The 40-year anniversary of the Oulu Film Center

Julkaistu 31.07.2013

The Oulu Film Center has been promoting alternative film culture for a good 40 years. The anniversary was celebrated on October 10 with seminar on screenwriting. The Film Center’s biggest annual cultural event is the Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival, which has successfully established itself as a place to screen high-quality films for children and young people.

The Oulu Film Center is a northern Finnish cultural association, established in 1973, that promotes awareness of and research into cinema in a variety of ways. The center rents out films for non-commercial screenings and maintains the second-largest cinema archive in Finland. The center also has its own movie theater Studio, which is used by film clubs and offers daycare and school film screenings for children, for example. The various functions of the Oulu Film Center can all be found at the Valve Cultural Center.

International films for children and young people since 1982

The Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival will be held from November 18 to 24, 2013, bringing some one hundred movies to Oulu from around the world. As the only film festival in Finland devoted entirely to children and young people, the festival provides the residents of Oulu with an annual opportunity to enjoy films that are not available anywhere else in Finland.

The festival will also include an award ceremony, recognizing the best Finnish children’s filmmaker, the best film for young people and the best children’s film, for example. The winner of the main award of best children's film will be decided by a ten-person jury consisting of schoolchildren from Oulu.

A wide range of events for both children and adults

The Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival brings joy to Oulu during the darkest period of the year. During the festival, several exhibitions will also be open at the Valve Cultural Center and Oulu municipal library. The main library will be offering a two-day seminar on media education, and various workshops on filmmaking are also available for children and young people.

During the last few years, the Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival has brought together some 18,000 to 21,000 young and adult filmgoers from the Oulu region. The organizers have strived to keep the ticket prices low so that everyone interested can take part. As a result, as many as 60% of the film screenings are free of charge.

For more information, please contact: Oulu Film Center/Sauli Pesonen, tel. +358 8 8811 291, sauli.pesonen@oufilmcenter.fi
Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival/Mika Anttolainen, tel. +358 44 5881 134, mika.anttolainen@oufilmcenter.fi
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The 100 Acts program brings Oulu Region municipalities together and gives everyone the opportunity to highlight small and large actions that take the area forward and bring joy to the population. Take a look at the 100 Actions program and enter your own project or candidate at www.oulu.com/100tekoa