An Independently produced feature film Mitä meistä tuli (What Became of Us) has made it to the audience award section at the Jussi Gala - the Finnish equivalent of the Academy Awards aka. the Oscar Awards.

You can now vote us at http://www.nelonen.fi/ohjelmat/jussi-gaala-2010/jussi-yleis%C3%B6%C3%A4%C3%A4nestys

Browse our film from the list (Finnish name: Mitä meistä tuli) and vote, you'll get a chance to win movie tickets!

Voting time ends 29th January 2010.

We thank you for your support, Wreckamovie. Keep on wreckin'!

Hey guys and gals of Wreckamovie,

It's been hectic these last few days, as so many things have happened. But we have some GREAT news for you!

Our film, What Became of Us, has now won at two film festivals. Last weekend we got awarded Best European Feature at the International Film Festival South Africa. Earlier this fall the film won the Best Feature audience award at C&CIFF, France.

The good news don't end here. We managed to get a distribution deal with the biggest cinema chain in Finland, Finnkino. They agreed to screen our film starting from 11th December in Kinopalatsi, Helsinki.

None of this could've happened without your support. We really appreciate all the effort you've done for us. Please, keep spreading the word of mouth about us and usher your friends to come see the film!

Love,
The team

Dear wreckers, especially the ones not speaking Finnish ;)

Along with the site redesign we've finally launched a long-requested English version. We've even got a whole another domain name for that, so please visit www.whatbecameofus.com and tell us what you feel about it.

On a related note, we've now added the DEMAND button on our website. We hope to become the next Paranormal Activity of Finland (and why not the whole world?), so if you want to see your film in a cinema near you, just go and hit that DEMAND button.

Cheers!

Dear fellow Wreckers, check out what Essi and Timo thought about our film after its premiere:

"First off you should know that What Became of Us is a no-budget movie that is completely independently made. There is no distributor, no professional actors or even professional film makers involved. Regardless of this What Became of Us is one the best Finnish movies I have seen in years. It is not even in comparison to most of the so-called professional films that are produced in Finland each year. And do you know why? The answer is simple; the movie actually manages to move, make you laugh and surprise you. This is unfortunately more than I can say about most Finnish movies."

Read the whole text at: http://blog.starwreck.com/2009/10/03/what-became-of-us-the-attack-of-the-amateurs/

What Became of Us, the latest independent film by the 22-year-old writer and director Miika Ullakko, has been invited to Shanghai International Film Festival. The festival is one of the most important ones in Asia and the biggest one in China and it runs from June 13th to 21st.

“We submitted our film to many festivals but we were nevertheless surprised by the invitation,” said Ullakko. The producer Tianyi Pan, however, is not particularly happy with the situation. “We have to produce a 35mm film copy for the festival, which will cost us a lot more than the budget for the entire film so far,” Pan says. “But we will manage. At least we will try very hard.”

The Finnish Film Foundation refused to grant any money to cover the film copy costs due to the fact that the film was not produced by professionals. Now the filmmakers are trying to raise enough capital to fund the film copy by turning to the community and collecting small donations as payments for "pre-order" tickets.

What Became of Us is a movie about class reunion, a tale of gathering of the former elementary school classmates. The background story is related to something that happened over fifteen years ago in a local school of a quiet town. A shocking incident sparked by bullying at school has left its mark on everyone.

Miika Ullakko and his crew form a team called Misty Friday Films. In 2007, their previous film, Graffiti Within, won the best feature prize at AFIA Film Festival in Denmark.

Another example of prominent Finnish independent filmmakers is Energia Productions, whose scifi parody, Star Wreck, was released in 2005 and has already 8 million viewers worldwide.