Helmi Donner's The Lightning Rod to premiere in Cannes
The short film is a poetic horror drama about Irina, a young mother on the run from her poisonous relationship, and her grandmother who has her own wounds too. The film is Donner’s MA film for ELO Film School Finland at Aalto University.
“It feels really great that a Finnish student film is being recognised at a high international level,” Helmi Donner says. “But here at home, the cuts and misery being inflicted on film art and other culture are infuriating in their short-sightedness.”
Previous Finnish films in La Cinef (formerlyCinéfondation) are To Return Until (2010) by Salla Sorri and The Painting Sellers (2015) by Juho Kuosmanen. The Painting Sellers won the main Cinéfondation Award.
The Lightning Rod is produced by Sandra Enkvist and Hadi Nikzad, and it stars Oksana Lommi, Janina Berman and Samuel Kujala.
A total of 2,700 films were entered for La Cinef, out of which only 16 were selected to the section. Cannes Film Festival takes place May 13–24, 2025.
More information.
Read more news
Seven new honorary doctors in technology at Aalto University in 2026
The ceremonial conferment takes place on university campus in June.
Iris Seitz awarded for exceptional early-career achievement
Dr. Iris Seitz, former PhD student of Professor Mauri Kostiainen, has been awarded the 2026 Robert Dirks Molecular Programming Prize for her work on programmable protein architectures with nucleic acid origami.
Awards presented for top doctoral and master’s theses at the School of Science
In 2025, there were altogether 71 doctoral and 607 master's degrees in the School of Science. In March, seven outstanding doctoral and six master's theses were awarded.