The Oulu Music Video Festival (OMVF) has unveiled the official selections for its 33rd edition, revealing both the screening schedule and the films competing in its national competition and newly launched European music video competition.
The festival's inaugural European Music Video Competition attracted 161 submissions, with just 14 videos selected. The programme spans nine countries and showcases an eclectic mix of established artists and emerging talents. Highlights include Leise rieselt der Schnee by Christian "Flake" Lorenz, best known as the keyboardist of Rammstein; This Arrow Points by Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Siegfried A. Fruhauf; Sinatra by Norwegian rapper Arif Murakami; and Don't Break by Dutch multi-instrumentalist ZEP. Finland is represented by Keijut ja perhoset ("Fairies and Butterflies"), the latest work by Ida-Maria Olva, winner of the 2024 Golden Pumpeli Award.
"Europe is living through a time of war, and that reality echoes throughout this year's selection. The programme moves between reality and fantasy, childhood perspectives and queer joy. Sixteen-millimetre film sits alongside AI experiments, while classical storytelling meets abstraction”, OMVF's artistic director Joel Karppanen says.
The international jury—filmmaker Ben Russell and curators Kaisa Karvinen and Ksenia Kaverina—will award the Europumpeli Grand Prize together with a pair of Genelec 8351B SAM™ studio monitors. The competition programme will also be screened simultaneously at Espoo Ciné.
Lost Cities, New Visions
OMVF's long-running Finnish Music Video Competition received 253 submissions, from which 50 videos have been selected. The line-up features some of Finland's biggest names, including Turisti, Olavi Uusivirta, OLGA, KUUMAA, Stam1na and Mirella, who is pictured.
This year's competition unfolds across five screening programmes inspired by the festival theme Hauntopolis, each named after a legendary lost city. The jury consists of journalist and critic Kalle Kinnunen, producer James Mackay, and producer-curator Ida Karoskoski. Winners will be revealed at the festival's famously unpredictable Pumpeli Gala, which will take audiences from the Europe of the 1930s to Icelandic soundscapes and Tanzanian dance floors.
“A beloved Finnish cultural figure will host the evening, and the stage will also welcome an artist once celebrated by the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher”, Karppanen hints.
The festival's top honour, the Golden Pumpeli Award, includes a €3,001 production grant in the form of a gift voucher donated by Kinos Rentals. Additional awards include the Teen Pumpeli for Best Emerging Director, Postpumpeli for Best Post-Production, Linssipumpeli for Best Cinematography, and the Audience Award.
Post-Digital Futures
This year's professional programme turns its attention to the changing technological landscape of music video production. As generative AI rapidly reshapes creative workflows, analogue film and photochemical processes are experiencing an unexpected resurgence. Rather than treating these developments as opposing forces, OMVF invites audiences to consider what kind of post-digital ecosystem they are creating together.
The public discussion features journalist Kalle Kinnunen alongside artists Ieva Balode and Marc Richter, both of whom also have work in the European competition.
Elsewhere, artist Mika Taanila joins Kiasma curator Saara Karhunen for a conversation at Oulu City Hall. Karhunen's exhibition Earworm – Media Art from Kiasma includes Birdy, Taanila's celebrated music video for Finnish cult band 22-Pistepirkko.
Oulu Music Video Festival welcomes Anna Eriksson as this year's domestic director guest.
Once a schlager singer, Eriksson has spent the last decade establishing herself as one of the most distinctive voices in Finnish cinema, with challenging, boundary-pushing work screened at prestigious festivals such as Venice and Locarno. In her masterclass, Erikssond discusses her career and creative process as a filmmaker, and showcases music videos she has directed — including works made for Stam1na and for herself.
Two brand-new feature films will also receive their Finnish premieres at the festival.
Barrio Triste (2025) is veteran music video director Stillz's delirious love letter to 1980s Colombia. Blending found footage with magical realism, the film is scored by Arca's haunting soundtrack. Produced by Harmony Korine, it echoes elements of Baby Invasion, which screened at OMVF last year.
Rescued from the archives and painstakingly restored, Nova '78 (2025) is built from previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Howard Brookner and Tom DiCillo at the legendary Nova Convention. The event honouring William S. Burroughs brought together spoken word, performance art and experimental music, with appearances from Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass and John Cage.
Spotlight on Africa
Oulu Music Video Festival is launching a new collaboration with Uganda's Nyege Nyege label and festival, which has grown into Africa's leading platform for experimental music.
Tanzanian production duo Sisso & Maiko are heading to Oulu, bringing singeli — a breathlessly fast-paced strain of electronic dance music rooted in the ngoma and taarab traditions. In their distinctive live performances, Maiko plays wild, improvised keyboard melodies while Sisso reshapes the sound in real time using DJ techniques. The duo perform regularly at clubs and festivals across Africa and Europe, and their Oulu appearance marks their first ever show in Finland, with support from Oulu's own Lara Kaaos.
OMVF will also present a music video screening curated by Nyege Nyege, taking audiences straight to the streets of Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Kinshasa and Durban.
Deepening the African focus is Mohammed Shebl's cult classic Anyab (1981) — a riotous fusion of camp, horror and disco musical, often described as Egypt's answer to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Underground scenes, archives and ghosts
Veli Kauppinen's traditional showcase Velisen sunnuntai returns to celebrate its 15th year, alongside Stunning Incidents: Bad Vugum's music videos from the 1990s, curated by Ida Karoskoski and Tuomas Vartiainen. Spanning everything from Keuhkot to Radiopuhelimet, this programme gathers gems from Finland's unruly 1990s underground and offers a glimpse into the more warped corners of homegrown rock.
A rare treat awaits in Anton Nikkilä and Mika Taanila's The Double (1993), a compilation of Russian industrial music videos from the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Viewed from today's vantage point, its interviews with underground musicians — and videos that turn the arms industry into carnival spectacle — feel like eerie premonitions of Russia's current descent into decay and the rise of a fascist police state.
This hauntological thread continues through the festival's art exhibition, which turns its gaze to the microbes of suburban landfills, monuments of a bygone world, and the phantom limbs left behind by Google Street View's algorithmic glitches. Featured artists include Ieva Balode, Saara Ekström, Toivo Heinimäki & Tommi Pasanen, Utu-Tuuli Jussila, Mikko Paakkonen and Hanna Råst.
Oulu Music Video Festival runs from 27–30 August. The selected films for the domestic and European music video competitions, along with the full festival schedule, will be announced next week.
The opening screening of the Oulu Music Video Festival on 27 August will present a unique film performance. Projected on the large screen of Valvesali Hall is Blue (1993) by Derek Jarman, a towering figure of 20th-century British art: a radical and singular feature-length film in which the screen is filled entirely with a single, unchanging color – International Klein Blue.
The film will be presented in a brand-new live version as its composer, acclaimed English musician Simon Fisher Turner, travels from London to Oulu to perform an updated score. The immersive soundscape – built from piano, ambient textures, and field recordings – intertwines with Jarman's intimate monologue, originally voiced by performers including Tilda Swinton. In this performance, the text will be delivered live by Niko Hallikainen, one of the leading Finnish performance poets and writers of his generation.
Blue is a meditation on AIDS, mortality, love, and the color blue, moving between the everyday and the fantastical. In lyrical, hypnotic prose, Jarman reflects on the progression of his illness and the fading of his vision; by the time of the film's completion, he could see only in shades of blue. Without a single cut or camera movement, the film draws the viewer into a trance—both overwhelming and purifying. Jarman's final testament stands as a masterpiece of experimental cinema: as esoteric as the paintings of Yves Klein, as political as the queer counterculture of Thatcher-era Britain.
Simon Fisher Turner has previously performed Blue in various configurations at venues including Tate Modern, the Pinault Collection, and the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. The version presented at the Oulu Music Video Festival marks its Finnish and Nordic premiere.
Blue (Live) is a collaboration between OMVF and Cultural Centre Valve, and is part of the Oulu2026 programme. Tickets are available at the Valve ticket office and via Ticketmaster. Kaiku Card option is available, seats are limited.
The Oulu Music Video Festival takes place for the 33rd time 27–30 August. The full programme will be announced later in May and June.
Artists
Simon Fisher Turner has composed the music for several of Derek Jarman’s films, beginning with Caravaggio (1986). He has also collaborated with Mike Hodges, Kamal Aljafari, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and has released his own music on the renowned Mute Records. Turner is the recipient of the prestigious Ivor Novello Award. His latest solo album, STUFF, was released in April 2026.
Niko Hallikainen is an award-winning Helsinki-based performance poet and novelist. Hallikainen’s intense and transgressive works observe the ambivalent intersections of class, eroticism and spirituality. His text-based solo performances have premiered, among others, at the Performa Biennial in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki and the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art.
Derek Jarman was an artist whose work spanned film, painting, writing, stage design, and gardening. A pioneer of the music video form, he directed promos for artists including The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Patti Smith, and Suede. Jarman was a key advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights and one of the first public figures in the UK to openly address issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.
The theme of the Oulu Music Video Festival this year is Hauntopolis. At the festival, unrealized futures haunt the present. What could the world have been like?
The programme approaches the city as both a hauntological and embodied space. Rather than a static monument, the city emerges as a living, ever-evolving organism—one shaped by the traces each generation leaves behind. The utopian dreams of modernism, the euphoria of club culture, the defiance of subcultures, and the cold logic of digital algorithms all converge and intertwine within it.
The concept of hauntology, first introduced by Jacques Derrida and later popularised by cultural theorist Mark Fisher, suggests that reality is shaped not only by what is present, but also by what is absent: unrealised futures that linger and return like ghosts.
Popular culture has long been filled with visions of alternative futures. In the late 20th century, music often functioned as a laboratory for imagining what lay ahead. Today, however, contemporary culture increasingly recycles and reinterprets the past. Music videos capture the aesthetics of their moment while simultaneously echoing earlier visual languages and conventions. The new emerges from within the old. Hauntological aesthetics are often marked by distortion, decay, and the material traces of obsolete media—such as cassette tapes and VHS recordings.
"In a culture saturated with artificial intelligence and digital kitsch, analogue formats and the embrace of imperfection feel newly relevant. It's time to descend from last year's hyperreality back to ground level," says the festival's artistic director, Joel Karppanen.
Hauntopolis transforms Oulu into a temporary city of music videos and cinema, where eras, cultures, and aesthetic forms intersect. Through music, the city becomes a shared, communal space. At its core is queer culture, whose self-determined practices have historically given rise to temporary zones of autonomy—spaces where new ways of living and being together can be imagined and enacted. Within this audiovisual flow, glimpses of lost futures flicker—futures still waiting to materialise.
"We invite our audience to look more closely at these ghosts. Perhaps one of them can still be realised—a better present, a better future," Karppanen reflects.
The festival's visual identity, along with the Pumpeli Awards for the best music videos, have been designed by Toivo Heinimäki. Heinimäki (b. 1995) is a Finnish photographer, graphic designer, and publisher. In his personal projects, he frequently explores themes of the built environment and urbanisation.
The first programme announcements will be released in May. Submissions are currently open for both the national and European music video competitions at filmfreeway.com/omvf.
Registration for the 33rd Finnish Music Video Competition is now open. The deadline for submitting music videos is Friday, June 8. Registration and more information can be found at:
filmfreeway.com/omvf
Music videos directed by Finnish directors that have not been previously screened at festivals are eligible to participate. Directors may also submit videos made for international artists. The same video can be entered into both The Finnish Music Video Competition and the OMVF Nordic Music Video Competition, but registration must be completed separately for each.
Submitted videos will be reviewed by a preliminary jury and divided into competition and showcase screenings. The competition screenings will be curated into thematic programs, and all videos will be shown at the festival in free public screenings. All videos submitted to the competition will participate in the audience vote and will be archived in the world's largest archive of Finnish music videos, maintained by OMVF. The archive currently holds 7,851 works from the years 1994–2025.
The winners will be announced at the festival's awards gala, Pumpeligaala, on Saturday, August 29. The gala will also include the award for the winner of OMVF’s first international competition, the OMVF Nordic Music Video Competition. Winners of The Finnish Music Video Competition will be selected by an independent jury.
In addition to the honor, directors competing in The Finnish Music Video Competition vie for the grand prize, the Golden Pumpeli, which comes with a 3000 € gift card donated by Kinos Rentals. A promising new director will receive the Teen Pumpeli along with a prize provided by Toast. The best post-production work will be awarded a product prize from Valco. The best cinematography will be recognized with the Lens Pumpeli and an equipment rental prize sponsored by Valofirma and Kamerafirma. Additionally, the jury will award four honorary mentions, and the audience vote winner will receive the People’s Pumpeli.
This year’s Pumpeli statuettes are designed by Toivo Heinimäki, who also created this year’s visual identity for the festival.
The Finnish Music Video Festival will be held from August 27–30, 2026, as part of Oulu Festival Weeks. This year’s festival theme is Hauntology, and the themed festival program will be published at the end of May.
Photo: The 2025 Kultapumpeli was awarded to Heini Susanne for her direction of NCO’s "Ei rakkaut" music video. Oulu August Festivals / Toivo Suomalainen
The Oulu Music Video Festival (OMVF) has recently launched its first European music video competition and is touring across Europe this spring. The tour features a curated screening programme of just over an hour, assembled by the festival’s Executive Director Juhani Oivo from the OMVF archive. The programme presents a selection of rare and intriguing music videos spanning the years 1994–2025.
OMVF holds the world’s largest archive of Finnish music videos, comprising nearly 8000 works. The archive has been built since 1994 through the national music video competition, with every submitted video preserved. A significant portion of the videos included in the screening are not available even on streaming platforms such as YouTube.
Selected tour dates will also include screenings of the documentary Sähkö, directed by Jimi Tenor. Featuring rare footage of the internationally acclaimed Sähkö Recordings label in the mid-1990s, the film has attracted considerable global interest. Experimental in style, the documentary includes appearances by key Finnish electronic music pioneers such as Mika Vainio and Mono Junk.
Tour dates and cities:
20 Feb – El Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia (Madrid)
20 Feb – La Redazione (Rome)
21 Feb – Saint Louis College of Music (Rome)
21 Feb – L863 (Rome)
7 Mar – Blank Blank Studio (Oslo)
14 Mar – Reinstate (London)
22 Mar – Mickey Zoggs (Bristol)
28 Mar – Paavli Kultuurivabrik (Tallinn)
18 Apr – Top Kino (Vienna)
24 Apr – Mutant Radio (Tbilisi)
23 May – Time is the new space (Rotterdam)
The world’s oldest music video festival, Oulu Music Video Festival (OMVF), is launching its first European music video competition, the OMVF European Music Video Competition. The competition is a continuation of the Nordic Music Video Competition successfully held in 2025.
Submissions are open via FilmFreeway until 8 June, 2026. An independent jury will select 15 outstanding music videos from all submissions to be screened as part of the official competition programme. The selected works compete for the title of Best European Music Video at the festival and will be screened during the festival which takes place 27–30 August. The winner will receive a prize designed by artist Toivo Heinimäki, as well as a Genelec 8351B SAM™ studio monitor pair, provided by Genelec, with an approximate value of €8,000.
The OMVF European Music Video Competition is part of the official programme of Oulu 2026 – European Capital of Culture, and will position Oulu as a key focal point for European music video culture in 2026.
More information about eligible countries and submission guidelines can be found at this link.
OMVF’s long-running national music video competition, held annually since 1994, will be organised separately. Submissions for the national competition will open later in early 2026. The festival programme also includes music video and film screenings, industry programme, exhibitions and audiovisual afterparties.
The full festival programme and detailed competition schedules will be announced at a later date.
The member festivals of Oulu August Festivals will create a truly European August of experiences in 2026 by being part of the European Capital of Culture programme. The summer culminates in the Delta Life grand finale weekend, which invites the whole world to pause the wheel of time at the birthplace of Oulu.
Oulu August Festivals in the European Capital of Culture year:
- Elojazz (30 July–1 August) brings a New Orleans–style jazz street to the city together with Oulu2026.
- Oulunsalo Soi Chamber Music Festival (5–9 August) resounds with Eurovision! High quality with a low threshold.
- Muusajuhlat Literature Festival (19–23 August) explores what it means to be European and how its conscious or unconscious influence shapes both Finnish and international literature.
- Oulu Arts' Night transforms into Oulu No Arts Day (20 August), which extends throughout the weekend as the Delta Art Days (21–23 August). The Oulu No Arts Day prompts reflection on what life would be without art, while the Delta Art Days present a cavalcade of creativity and tune the city for the following week’s Delta Life grand finale.
- Air Guitar World Championships are part of the Delta Life grand finale. On the Delta Stage, at the birthplace of the City of Oulu, the greatest air guitar show of all time will unfold. The first final round takes place on Friday, 28 August, and the second on Saturday, 29 August, when the world champion will be crowned.
- Oulu Music Video Festival (27–30 August) launches a new European music video competition. Entries for the international competition open at the end of 2025, and for the national competition at the beginning of 2026.
- Premiere on 27 August: Faravid’s Land, a new immersive work created by Flow Productions and Oulu Theatre.
- Delta Life Grand Finale (27–29 August) crowns Oulu August Festivals. As the sun sets on the Delta Stage, at the birthplace of Oulu, global influences meet the life of the Oulujoki River. A carnival-like yet deeply moving, all-encompassing cultural experience awaits – free of charge.
The 32nd Oulu Music Video Festival culminated on Saturday evening with the awards gala at RioLive, where the best Nordic and Finnish music videos and their creators were celebrated.
The first ever Nordic music video competition was won by Norwegian Sander August Dahl with the video Honningbarna – Rød Bic. Dahl received a pair of Genelec 8351B SAM™ speakers worth €8,000. An honourable mention went to Icelanders Anna Róshildur B. Bøving and Simon Bendroth for the video Roshildur – Timi, ekki lioa.
The main award of the Finnish competition, went to Heini Susanne for her video NCO – Ei rakkaut. She received a 3001 euros gift card donated by Kinos Rentals. The award given to a promising new director, together with a colour grading gift card donated by Toast, was awarded to Aatos Ketvel for Kirsikkapuu – Kirsikkapuu kaatuu. Ketvel also composed and wrote the lyrics for the song.
The award for best cinematography, along with an equipment rental prize sponsored by Valofirma and Kamerafirman, was awarded to Hannu Käki for his cinematography in Kissa Uolevi & Sebastiwan – Vierelläin, directed by Joonas Schwanck. The award for the best post-production and a Valco product gift card went to kaverikarimfor the video Sexmane – V!ttu.
The audience vote crowned Yoki – Oon pahoillani as the public’s favourite. Honourable mentions were awarded to Miikka Lommi, Eva-Liisa Orupõld, Oliver Webb and Jaro Koho.
This year’s jury for the Finnish competition consisted of journalist Anton Vanha-Majamaa, Tromsø International Film Festival director Lisa Hoen, and film director Mika Ronkainen. The Nordic juryincluded filmmaker Mika Taanila, director Marcus Söderlund, and artist Billy Roisz.
The Oulu Music Video Festival, August 21 to 24, offers music video screenings featuring the latest music videos and selections curated by industry professionals. In addition to the videos, the after-parties will offer a diverse selection of live music from Finland and around the world. The theme of the 2025 music video festival is hyperreality.
In addition to its traditional domestic music video competition, this year OMVF is organizing the Nordic Music Video Competition. Videos from both competitions will be screened at separate events, which are free to attend. The competition will culminate in the Pumpeligaala, where the best entries in both competition categories will be awarded. Tickets for the popular Pumpeligaala are sold in advance. For more information about the gala, visit the OMVF website.
Music videos that did not make it into the domestic competition series will also be shown in their own free screenings.
In addition to the competition, the festival will feature curated music video screenings. In Carte Blanche screenings, curators will present their favorites, while some screenings will be organized around a specific theme. In the Master Class and retrospective screenings, creators shed light on their careers in music videos and reveal their methods.
The festival also offers a unique opportunity to see five longer music-themed films.
Tickets for curated screenings, special screenings, and film screenings are sold in advance. You can buy tickets at Valve Ticket Office, Oulu10 service points and Ticketmaster. Afterparty Club tickets are sold at the door.
You can visit the Broken Edge exhibition at Valve Gallery free of charge from August 5 to 24. It's also free to visit the Silakkalounge events, with music provided by local DJs.
Screenings, clubs, and other related events will be held throughout Oulu city center. The venues are Valvesali and Studio Cinema at Cultural Centre Valve, 45 Special, Snooker Time, Real Deal, Mallassauna, and RioLive.
See full program and schedule at the Oulu Music Video Festival website.
