The Finnish cinema has a long history, with first public screenings starting almost as early as modern motion picture technology was invented (the first screening in the world was in 1895, in Finland in 1896). It took over a decade before the first Finnish film was produced and screened in 1907. After these first steps of Finnish cinema, the progress was very slow. After 1907 there were two periods (1909–1911 and 1917–1918) when no Finnish films were produced. This was partly caused by the political situation, as Finland held a status as an autonomic part of Russia and was thus influenced by the worldwide political situation.

In 1917 Finland became an independent country and in 1918 there was a civil war. After the political situation had settled and stabilized, the Finnish society and its cultural life began to develop. This was very clear with cinematic arts. More films were produced and they became an important part of Finnish society. The culmination of this development came soon after the silent era, around 1940–50's, when three major studios were producing films and competing for the market. When the society changed in the 1960s, partly because of political trends and partly because of new forms of leisure, like television, the appeal of films vanished, practically all studios were closed and films became political and too artistic for masses, as commercial production was deemed as a thing from the past and distateful. Few filmmakers were opposed to this development, and kept producing popular films that were bashed by the critics but loved by the people.

Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027

Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.

Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.