An American distributor knows he’s already found a winner with this year’s Finnish Oscar hope
"I instantly loved both the film Girl Picture and the director so much that we acquired the rights for distributing it in the U.S. market, said Marcus Hu, co-founder of Strand Releasing
Whether or not Finland’s Oscar nominee for this year’s best foreign film takes the prize, Strand Releasing couldn’t be happier with having secured U.S. distribution rights for Girl Picture.
Marcus Hu is co-founder of Strand Releasing, the American distributor best known for promoting international, artistic, and LGBTQIA+ films. Perhaps the first thing one notices when talking with Hu about his business is his uncompromising passion for great movies. Of course, every business needs to keep a close eye on the bottom line, but when choosing films to distribute, it’s clear Marcus Hu – along with his business partner Jon Gerrans – first and foremost focus on one simple question: “How much do we love in this film?”.
What’s most notable is the film’s strong empathy for its characters that makes it intimate, winning and utterly charming.
“We first saw Girl Picture when it was at Sundance Film Festival, in January, 2022.”, Hu explains. “The Finns at Sundance actually set up an early meeting via Zoom, so I got to meet the film’s director, Alli Haapasalo and the team, and I instantly loved both the film and the director so much that we acquired the rights for distributing it in the U.S. market. Alli is so charming and so winning, and when she later came out to support and promote the film in New York she simply won people over. Everyone just loved her!”
Universal yet unique
Girl Picture is hardly Hu’s first encounter with great cinema from Finland. “I have always been interested in Finnish film, so to some extent such quality was not a surprise for me. For example, we distributed Aki Kaurismäki’s 2006 film, Lights in the Dusk. In fact, Finland every year has such a great roster of films that we make a point of watching them at every film festival we go to.”
Girl Picture is about three fairly normal teenage girls growing up in Helsinki, and some unforgettable moments they share.
Asked to say a bit more about why the film so impressed him, Hu explains it this way: “The film is two things. It gives insight into unique qualities of Finnish culture, and yet it is also quite universal and accessible, with key elements that are similar to those found in many coming-of-age films from many cultures. But what’s most notable is the film’s strong empathy for its characters that makes it intimate, winning and utterly charming.
Finland every year has such a great roster of films that we make a point of watching them at every film festival we go to.
These young women are people who you would love to meet and know, and their values are so outstanding in so many ways. It’s such a positive story – the opposite of the type of film where teens are on drugs, etc. The characters are the kind of people you would love to have in your own family. They seem so genuinely balanced and honest in how they communicate with each other and also with older people. They are so enlightening and charming that, simply put, I was totally won over.”
Girl Picture (2022) won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival and has since then won both more awards and hearts around the globe. Photo: Citizen Jane Productions
Oscar calling?
Of course, even the most passionate film distributor understands that love by itself won’t pay the bills, and Strand Releasing seems to know exactly how to combine their passion for cinema with clear-eyed pragmatism – pointing out that of all American releases Girl Picture was recently ranked as the 6th highest rated film of the year on popular review site Rotten Tomatoes. “To some degree we focus on contemporary art-house, documentary and foreign films. But we are also known for carrying films that have been Oscar entries in the Best Foreign Film category. For example, our films have been shortlisted in this category with Charlatan and Sun Children. And we’ve been nominated for The Missing Picture, so we’ve had great success in this category.
When we decided we wanted the distribution rights to Girl Picture we had no idea – or designs – that the film would be chosen as Finland’s Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film – but naturally we were so thrilled when it was!”
