The Midwife, directed by Antti J. Jokinen, is competing at two festivals in California

The Midwife, directed by Antti J. Jokinen, has been chosen to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and to the Cinequest Festival in San Jose. Cinequest will be held in March and the Santa Barbara festival this month.

The Midwife has so far drawn over 226 000 spectators in theatrical release domestically. It premiered in September 2015 and passed the 200 000 mark in seven weeks. It was the fourth most watched Finnish movie last year – only four domestic movies passed the 200 000 mark last year.

The DVD and Blu-Ray are published today. The movie can also be bought in iTunes and GooglePlay-services.
The festival success of The Midwife has been exceptional; it has been chosen to 11 international film festivals. The movie has won several prizes and has been nominated for the Finnish Film Award in three categories: best actress in a leading role – Krista Kosonen, best actor in a supporting role – Pirkka-Pekka Petelius and best cinematography – Rauno Ronkainen F.S.C. Pessi Levanto has been nominated to a Scandinavian HARPA-prize (Nordic Film Composer Award) for his score of The Midwife.

Krista Kosonen won the prize for the best actress in the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival in the main competition series. The Midwife won the best movie award at the Waterloo International Historical Film Festival and Kosonen won the prize for the best actress at the same festival.

The Midwife was competing in the main series of Camerimage festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The D.O.P. of The Midwife, Rauno Ronkainen F.S.C. was nominated for his work. The movie was also featured at the Montreal International Film Festival in Focus on World Cinema series and in Brazil, at the São Paulo International Film Festival, at the Chennai International Film Festival in India, at the Week of the Finnish Cinema in St. Petersburg in Russia and the international Czech Nordic Movie Festival in the Czech Republic. Besides, The Midwife was the Finnish Entry for the Golden Globes in the U.S.