Finland Picks Family Time for International Feature Race

Finland has picked the dramedy Family Time to represent the country for the 2025 Oscars in the best international feature category.

The film, by writer/director Tia Kouvo, is a sharp look at the familial ties that bind, following three dysfunctional generations as they come together at their grandparents’ house over the holidays. Ria Kataja, Elina Knihtilä, Leena Uotila, Tom Wentzel and Jarkko Pajunen star in the dark comedy which puts the cringe back in Christmas.

Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka produced the feature for Aamu Film Company together with Vilda Bomben Film. The film is a feature adaptation of Kouvo’s 2018 short of the same name.

Family Time premiered in Berlinale’s Encounters section last year and bowed in Finland last November. It went on to sweep Finland’s Academy Awards, the Jussis, taking best film, best director and best screenplay. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

Finland has a single Oscar nomination in the best international feature category — for Aki Kaurismäki’s The Man Without a Past in 2002 — and no wins to date. Kaurismäki’s last feature, 2023’s Fallen Leaves, and Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6 in 2021 both made the Oscar long list but did not get nominated.

The deadline for submissions for the 96th Oscars is Nov. 14, 2024. The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2.

The Finnish jury writes: “Family Time, an exceptionally original and masterfully told film, shows how form and emotion can become a combination of cinematic virtuosity. Precise observations about Finnish ordinariness expand into a universal experience, as the film’s international success has proven.”