The Midwife is a nominee for the Golden Globes

The Midwife, directed by Antti J. Jokinen, has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award in the categories for the Best Picture and Best Actress in a leading role. The competition is held by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and it will screen the picture in advance in November. Director Jokinen and producer Markus Selin will attend the screening.

The Midwife won 18.10.2015 the Grand Prix – the prize for the Best Picture – at the Waterloo International Historical Film Festival and Krista Kosonen was awarded as the Best Actress. The festival is remarkable in its own genre and is specialized in historical movies.

Antti Jokinen comments the victory from Belgium, where he received the prizes: “A lot of movies are made about love. It is one of the toughest topics because it is such a personal experience for us all. I am very glad that The Midwife has been so well received in Finland and abroad. The war in Lapland interests and touches people. It gives a new perspective to the WWII and the perseverance of the Finns.”

The Midwife has passed the remarkable landmark of 200 000 spectators; the exact figure is 200 168. The movie premiered 4.9.2015 and reached the mark in seven weeks. Besides The Midwife, only three domestic movies have surpassed the 200 000 mark this year. The Midwife is the most watched drama movie this year in Finland.

Markus Selin, the producer of the movie, is more than happy about the success: “The fact that a pure drama can draw audiences like that shows us how sophisticated the moviegoers in Finland are. Not even the international quality drama movies can always do this. This shows that the audiences appreciate domestic drama.”

The Midwife will attend other international festivals this fall. Besides the Waterloo event, the movie will be screened in Brazil at the 39th Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival) in late October. The film is also taking part to the Camerimage main competition series in Bydgoszcz, Poland (23rd Edition of the International Film Festival of The Art of Cinematography). The event will be held in November 2015. The Midwife is shot by Rauno Ronkainen F.S.C.

The Midwife has enjoyed a lot of international success. It was screened in June at the main competition series of the A-listed Shanghai International Film Festival, where Krista Kosonen won the award for the best actress. The movie also took part in the Focus on World Cinema series at the Montreal International Film Festival.

The cast of the Midwife features Krista Kosonen, Lauri Tilkanen, Tommi Korpela and Pirkka-Pekka Petelius. The supporting cast includes Elina Knihtilä, Leea Klemola, Seppo Pääkkönen and Johannes Brotherus. The Midwife is based on the best-selling novel with the same title by Katja Kettu. Antti J. Jokinen has written the movie together with the author.