HELSINKI — Midway through its 11-day run, Helsinki Love & Anarchy 2026 remains the Nordic film calendar’s busiest search phrase. The 39th Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy (HIFF) opened 17 September and closes 27 September, with the full programme online at hiff.fi under the motto “Together in Love and Anarchy.”
Programme director Outi Rehn and executive director Pauliina Ståhlberg lead a five-person curatorial team that succeeded longtime artistic director Pekka Lanerva. Speaking to *Variety* ahead of the 1 September lineup reveal, they stressed a festival that “proudly takes a stand” — every selection framed as a political statement, including what is not shown.
Scale: features, shorts and 417 screenings
Festival site figures (2 September announcement) put the lineup at 136 feature films and 114 short films across 417 screenings, drawn from more than 80 countries. *Variety* reported 136 films and 121 shorts in its exclusive preview — a small discrepancy worth noting for SEO readers comparing sources; Sunday Profile follows the festival’s own published counts for screening totals while recording both where they differ.
Sections stretch across Spotlight, Kids These Days, Live Laugh Love & Anarchy, Let’s Talk About Sex, Animated Dreams, Nordic Gems, East Side Stories, United States of Indie, Asian Cuts, More Than Human, Fight the Power / Fight for Power, Rewriting History, Crime & Punishment, Next Level, Uncanny Valley, Midnight Mayhem and the R&A Shorts national competition.
Galas: Cannes prizes on Helsinki screens
Opening gala on 17 September is Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s Spanish drama *The Black Ball*, which shared Cannes Best Director. Nordic Gala is Palme d’Or winner *Fjord*, with Cristian Mungiu among expected guests. Love & Anarchy Gala is Na Hong-jin’s *Hope*. Closing gala on 23 September is Andrey Zvyagintsev’s *Minotaur* (Cannes Grand Prix). Local gala pick *Nightborn* from Hanna Bergholm — Berlin competition world premiere — rounds the strand; Ståhlberg told *Variety* it signals Finnish talent’s festival and domestic strength (local films near 32% of the Finnish market).
Spotlight titles flagged by both HIFF and *Variety* include Nicholas Winding Refn’s *Her Private Hell*, Paolo Sorrentino’s *La Grazia*, James Gray’s *Paper Tiger* and Kasper “Kalle” Skovsbøl’s *No Rest for the Wicked*, plus Dupieux’s *Full Phil* and Kurosawa’s *The Samurai and the Prisoner* among other Spotlight names in trade coverage.
Tickets, guests and Finnish Film Affair
Regular tickets are listed at €14, discount €13 and gala €17. Confirmed and expected guests in press coverage include Mungiu, Bergholm, Trine Dyrholm, Sverrir Gudnason, John Adams and Toby Poser (*Mother of Flies*), Elle Sofe Sara (*Árru*) and Estonian filmmaker Meel Paliale (*Rolling Papers*). Industry sidebar Finnish Film Affair runs 23–25 September; *Fjord* also opens that market strand.
Why the mid-fest window still matters
For searchers querying “HIFF 2026,” “Love & Anarchy festival programme” or specific gala titles, the practical map is set: dates, ticket bands, gala order and section architecture. Primary sources: HIFF’s 2 September programme announcement and info pages, plus *Variety*’s 1 September exclusive. Remaining days still carry Nordic Gems, Midnight Mayhem and Affair networking — enough runway for late planners before the 27 September close.
Sections that define the anarchic mix
Beyond the galas, HIFF’s identity lives in the section architecture. More Than Human explores animals, plants and “merfolk” as equal subjects; Fight for Power / Fight the Power strands flag documentaries and features that take explicit political positions — from immigration raids in Glasgow (*Everybody to Kenmure Street*) to music under war (*Soldiers of Song*). Let’s Talk About Sex returns with titles including *Blue Film* and *Pillion*; Animated Dreams ranges from *Jim Queen* to Baltic shorts; Uncanny Valley and Midnight Mayhem cover the festival’s appetite for weird and horror, from Marion Cotillard in *Roma Elastica* to Swedish psychological horror *Dawning*.
Events around screenings — quizzes, discussions with *The Ulkopolitist*, a Juha Valjakka Trio set after a Bill Evans jazz film, and Tatskatytöt matchmaking — keep the anarchic brand social as well as cinematic. For mid-fest readers still hunting tickets, the gala calendar through 23 September and the Affair window through 25 September remain the densest industry-and-audience overlap of the run.