Snapper Films takes Flight Attendant Academy to Rome Film Fest

Helsinki, October 20, 2008

Snapper Films' transatlantic comedy feature project ‘Flight Attendant Academy’ has been selected to take part in the New Cinema Network hosted by Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma. One of 14 selected participants, helmer Juha Wuolijoki competes for the Best European Second Feature Film Project prize of 30.000 euros.

Other event participants include directors Jens Jonsson (Sundance winner ‘King of Ping Pong’) and Gabriel Range (‘Death of a President’).

Juha Wuolijoki's feature debut ‘Christmas Story’, produced by Snapper Films, will be screened in the ‘Fabbrica dei Progetti’ section of the festival, in which a jury of ten young filmmakers will select the best first feature.

The Rome Film Festival, to be held October 22–31, opens the second holiday season for ‘Christmas Story’, the top-grossing Finnish film of 2007. The heart-warming family film will open theatrically in several European countries, including Spain, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Estonia, later this year. The Finnish distributor of Christmas Story, Sandrew Metronome, brings the film back to theatres across the country for a second round starting November 14th.

The English dub of Christmas Story, starring Noah Emmerich (‘Pride and Glory’, ‘The Truman Show’, ‘Cop Land’), Golden Globe nominated Cannes-winner John Turturro (‘Transformers’, ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’, ‘Barton Fink’) and Emmy awarded Michael Badalucco (‘The Practice’) will be available at the Casa del Cinema to professionals attending NCN. ‘Pride and Glory’, directed by Gavin O'Connor and starring Noah Emmerich, is in competition in Rome.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT ACADEMY is a transatlantic comedy about a determined young lady trying to succeed in the high-flying world of flight attendants: Can she follow in her mother’s footsteps and become the ‘top gun’ of the aisles, or does she have her head in the clouds? The English-language feature film helmed by Juha Wuolijoki is budgeted at 6 million Euros, with principal photography planned for 2010.

CHRISTMAS STORY is the feature debut by Juha Wuolijoki and recounts the unique and amazing journey of Santa Claus on his way to becoming the Santa that the world knows and loves. The film, produced by Snapper Films and world distributed by Delphis Films, has been sold to more than 90 countries with theatrical releases in several territories.

SNAPPER FILMS is a Helsinki- and New York-based production company founded in 1998. Snapper specializes in selectively developing and producing high-quality Finnish- and English-language films.