Canada-based world sales agent Delphis Films announced its most recent acquisition of a high quality family film from Finland, entitled Christmas Story, for the international marketplace outside Scandinavia.
Christmas Story is a feature debut by Juha Wuolijoki and recounts a unique and amazing journey of Santa Claus on his way to become the Santa that the world over know and love. Opened on 60 prints by Sandrew Metronome on November 16th across Finland, the film received over the weekend 21,883 admissions and won #1 position at the national box office after knocking off the previous front-runner Ratatouille to the second place.
Delphis Films plans to organise its international market premier of the film at EFM in Berlin next February.
“Christmas Story is the first major Finnish Christmas movie. After a gruelling shoot under extremely cold conditions in the northern part of Finland, as well as a really creative post-production period that included extensive CGI work, we are happy to present our labor of love to the world audience,” said Juha Wuolijoki, director and producer of the film and President of production company Snapper Films.” said Juha Wuolijoki, director and producer of the film and President of his production company Snapper Films.
As for Xiaojuan Zhou, executive producer of the film and Vice President of Delphis Films, Christmas Story is a natural fit in her catalog that includes global successes such as Minoes by Vincent Bal and The Italian by Andre Kravchuk. ‘‘I was instantly intrigued upon seeing a poster art design from the director: A boy looks down on the ice and sees Santa as his reflection. It has been exciting to see how another story on one of the world’s most famous characters can be told, from a brand new and engaging angle.’’
DELPHIS FILMS:
Founded in 2003, Delphis Films, the worldwide distribution division of the publicly traded media group company FRV Media, acquires and licenses all rights to award-winning film and TV productions with an expertise in high quality family films.
SNAPPER FILMS:
Snapper Films Oy is a Finnish movie and television production company. Snapper Films selectively develops both Finnish movies and English-language independent productions. International movie operations are mainly handled in the New York office, Snapper Films LLC.