EAVE March News 2025

• Interview with EAVE graduate Tiina-Mari Pitkänen, producer of the series QUEEN OF FUCKING EVERYTHING
  “I always try to protect the integrity of the story.”
• Newsflash: 8 Oscars for EAVE Producers in 2025!
  press release

Interview with EAVE graduate Tiina-Mari Pitkänen, producer of the series QUEEN OF FUCKING EVERYTHING

EAVE: The series "Queen of Fucking Everything" has achieved unprecedented viewership numbers on YLE in Finland, achieving the biggest single-week number in the country ever. What do you believe contributed most to this overwhelming success?

Tiina-Mari Pitkänen, Rabbit Films, Finland: First of all, I think the topic is relevant at the moment, as many of us are facing financial challenges due to inflation. People are having to rethink their living expenses, and a sense of frustration is bubbling under. It doesn’t help that when you reach out for help, it’s often a robot answering your questions. In the series, Linda is trying to get assistance from different offices, but she faces bureaucratic red tape everywhere. Tiina Lymi, the writer-director, identifies these everyday frustrations well. Of course, we also have an incredible cast. I'm especially happy with Laura Malmivaaras' role as Linda. She was the perfect choice for the role, as she’s previously been seen in more calm, reserved roles. I love how her appearance changes throughout the episodes as the pressure builds. There’s also humour in her performance. Linda wants to keep up appearances—looking nice and stylish is a big part of her job. It's also sad how she can't be honest about her real situation at work, for example. She tries to open up to Anna, her friend at work, but it almost seems like being truthful could ruin their relationship, which is built on the success they’ve shared as real estate agents.

When I first read the script, I laughed and cried. And I think that’s always a good sign! I believe the series resonates with people because it touches on themes that are easy to relate to. We all play different roles in our lives, and there’s an underlying question of honesty. Who can you truly be honest with and trust that they won’t walk away? For Linda, it’s her childhood friend Marke—what a fantastic character! I think we all should have a Marke in our lives.

Partly the series achieved this success because people have been talking about it so much afterward. I’ve heard people discussing it at hairdressers, gyms, horse-riding stables, and so on. With such a wide range of characters, it’s relatable to all kinds of people—young and old, all genders, etc. It also blew up on social media, with lots of memes. Huge thanks to YLE’s fantastic social media team! They’ve done a great job, and it’s clear they’ve had fun creating content for the show.

Lastly, I must say the quality is top-notch. At every level, we had the opportunity to work with high-calibre artists and crew. The artistic quality was always in our sights from start to finish. Personally, I’m thrilled that we managed to showcase Helsinki from so many different angles. One of our goals was to present Helsinki as an exciting part of the Nordic cities.

© Peter Salovaara / Rabbit Films

The female-led show is defined as a “black comedy crime” series, do you think the genre blend had an impact on its success?

Yes, definitely! If you look at the most popular series or films lately, they often mix different genre elements. For example, I recently saw Anora, and after watching, I found it hard to define the genre. It was brilliantly done—it started as a drama with music film elements, blended with humour, then turned into a violent crime story, and ended as a love or breakup story. People are so used to seeing different types of content now that we, as filmmakers, need to be brave and ready to mix genres, but of course, we must do so with good taste and intention.

In Queen of Fucking Everything, some of the scenes are so dark that we have to inject humour into them. It’s both awful and funny at the same time, like when Spora shows up at Linda’s house with his finger cut off, and Marke hasn’t checked the right timetable for freezing it properly so it could be reattached. It makes me laugh every time, thanks to the marvellous performances of Katja Küttner (Marke) and Joonas Heikkinen (Spora). 

 

What were the primary challenges faced during the development and the production phase, especially when compared to producing a feature film?

With a series, of course, there are more filming days than with a feature film nowadays. We had 50 shooting days, mostly in Helsinki and the surrounding area, with a mini-unit crew traveling to Spain for three days to film in Malaga with a local crew. We were fortunate that our DOP, Aarne Tapola, was already familiar with the project, having discussed it with the director and our executive producer Minna Haapkylä. He’s also very flexible to work with, even though we had so many different locations to shoot. My job was also to question whether there were any elements we could cut from the script without compromising the story too much. It’s not always easy to do since the script has already been carefully thought out, but I always try to protect the integrity of the story while suggesting changes that might make sense for the shooting schedule.

There were also some things beyond our control. For instance, we had scenes where Linda was supposed to go skiing. We had a supervisor measuring the ice thickness every week to ensure the location was safe, but last winter was so rainy that there was no snow on the ice when the shoot day arrived. So, Laura Malmivaaras (Linda) had to learn how to ice skate quickly, and she made it look effortless! In the end, we were lucky to have a beautiful fog at the location, which made the scenes look amazing, so it all worked out.

Of course, it was stressful at times when we couldn’t control everything. There were also some last-minute casting changes due to scheduling conflicts. In the end, Janne Reinikainen jumped into the role of Lauri, Linda’s business partner. It turned out to be hilarious, as I think Lauri’s character is one of the funniest in the script—playing someone who’s depressed and has fallen out of the fast-paced world of real estate.

I haven’t produced a feature yet—I’ve only worked on this series and Summer of Sorrow (Munkkivuori), which won the Best Drama Series award in Finland in 2023. But I have worked as a line producer and production manager on several feature films. In comparison, series production tends to be longer, as the filming period is spread out, but it also ends sooner since there are no tours or premieres like with a feature film. We did organize a cast-and-crew event where we watched some of the episodes together, but this doesn’t always happen.

Financially, we were lucky to produce this series with YLE and other NEW8 partners. We also received backing from Business Finland and the Finnish Film Foundation, which made the production process much smoother and allowed us to greenlight the project with confidence.

At the end of the day, it’s important to understand that series production involves more people, and not everyone will be as passionate about the project itself—sometimes they’re just doing their job, and that’s okay.

© Jaakko Kahilaniemi / Rabbit Films

The marketing strategy seems to have played a crucial role in the series' popularity. What promotional approaches did you use to engage the audience?

As we were working with YLE, Finland’s national broadcaster, the marketing of the series was in good hands. YLE has its own marketing team dedicated to building awareness about the series. The first trailers were released in November and ran for about 6-7 weeks on YLE Areena (the streaming service) and on linear TV. We had great timing, as the series launched on January 1, 2025, when people were spending their holidays and more likely to tune in to the first episode.

For the Finnish launch, we used an iconic still that Finnish audiences would recognize, featuring the famous street in downtown Helsinki, with Linda standing there, looking desperate. We also had our international premiere at Content London, where the poster was different. For the international launch materials, we used the slogan Betrayed. Bankrupt. Ready for Revenge.

We also held a press day in November where the main cast attended, followed by radio promotions in the first weeks of January. And, of course, we went big on social media! YLE’s social media team created great stories and posts on Instagram. Before the launch, they introduced all the characters to give the audience a preview. Afterward, they created memes. One meme humorously says “Back to work!” on Epiphany, January 6, which is the last day of the long Christmas holidays for many people. Humour has been a huge part of our social media presence, and I think when it suits your content, it’s a jackpot. It really extends the life cycle of the content!

© Jaakko Kahilaniemi / Rabbit Films

For some years now, EAVE accepts also series projects at the Producers Workshop. You participated in EAVE Producers Workshop in 2019 with the series project “The Town of Tails” by Minna Panjanen. Can you share any updates on that project?

It's still a work in progress. The latest news? It’s evolving into a Christmas detective calendar! The idea now is to feature shorter episodes aimed at an adult audience, adding a fresh twist to the concept.

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Newsflash: 8 Oscars for EAVE Producers in 2025!

After a fantastic festival start for EAVE Producers in 2025, including prestigious awards like 4 Silver Bears, 8 Golden Globes, 5 Sundance awards, we are thrilled to add 7 Academy Awards to the list of success stories!

We are thrilled and immensely proud that FLOW by Gints Zibalodis, produced and co-written by EAVE Marketing Workshop graduate Matiss Kaza won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature! The film's marketing strategy was developed at the EAVE Marketing Workshop in 2022.

"EAVE Marketing Workshop gave us plenty of food for thought about the potential directions the Flow campaign could go in, as well as valuable advice in designating the right target audiences for the film, which was difficult to sell as a concept alone." - Matiss Kaza, Trickster Pictures, Latvia.

FLOW has achieved unprecedented success, becoming the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award. This dialogue-free animated feature, created with open-source software Blender, tells the story of a cat and other animals seeking refuge after a catastrophic flood, scooped several important awards, including the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature, the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film, Best Animated Independent Feature award at the Annie Awards, and many more. At the Latvian National Film Awards, FLOW secured five awards, highlighting its domestic acclaim, and a statue of the cat protagonist has been installed in Riga in recognition of the film's impact!

The film's innovative storytelling and international recognition have not only set a new benchmark for Latvian cinema, but have also showcased the global appeal of independent animated films.

In addition, THE BRUTALIST by Bradley Corbet, co-producer: EAVE graduate Viktoria Petranyi won Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, EMILIA PEREZ by Jacques Audiard, co-producer: PUENTES graduate Nicolas Celis won Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song, CONCLAVE by Edward Berger, executive producer: EAVE FFF graduate Lorenzo Gangarossa won Best Adapted Screenplay and I'M NOT A ROBOT by Victoria Warmerdam, producer: Interchange graduate Trent won Best Live Action Short Film.

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