Marjo Viitala is a film director and a media artist holding an MA in children’s film from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (2012). She creates both narrative drama and conceptual art, with her films screening at festivals worldwide and her media artworks showcased in solo and group exhibitions at venues such as Galleria Huuto, Art Center Mältinranta, and Seinäjoki Art Hall.
In addition to her artistic career, Viitala holds an M.Sc. in Engineering and Management from Aalto University, Helsinki. She wrote her thesis at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva (2000), and before transitioning to film, she worked at Nokia. She has also worked as a theatre producer, with performances staged at Teatteri Universum, KokoTeatteri, Ylioppilasteatteri, and the Finnish National Theater.
Viitala lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Her work has been supported by institutions such as the Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, YLE, Art Promotion Centre Finland (Taike), The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Järviseutu-säätiö, and Säästöpankkisäätiö.
Fun fact: She once played in the Finnish Champion League in football.
About my work:
My work moves between narrative film and new media art, circling around questions of how people relate to one another—through play, through moments of crisis, and through the fragile constructions of identity.
In my short films, I often work with children and young people, exploring emotions that are difficult to name: the end of a friendship, questions of gender equality, paranoia in love, the first steps into substance use, or the small justifications we give ourselves for harmful actions. Across comedy, drama, and horror, absurd elements puncture the surface, opening cracks where reality becomes unstable and emotionally revealing.
In new media art, my focus shifts to games and play as metaphors for adult life. I explore the idea of the “inner child” as a space where vulnerability, imagination, and survival strategies converge. My recent projects bring Finnish and Beninese play traditions into dialogue, examining how cultural practices of play shape identity, memory, and belonging. A forthcoming project will expand this inquiry to Japan, where I plan to study traditional forms of play and their cultural resonances.
Parallel to this, I am developing several feature-length screenplays that extend my interest in emotionally complex relationships, power dynamics, and the ways people adapt to unstable or ethically compromised environments.
Across forms and genres, my practice persistently returns to a central question: how do we invent ways to live together, and what do those inventions reveal about us? By this, I refer to the rules, rituals, and games we create to connect with one another—and to how these forms expose our negotiations with power, intimacy, identity, and belonging.
Birdflight / Linturetki available on Koulukino
Sure Sign / Varma merkki available on Koulukino
Liar Girl / Valehtelija on YLE Areena (not active at the moment) https://areena.yle.fi/1-4120569
Penis Envy / Peniskateus available on Vimeo
Mirror / Peili available on AV-Arkki
Artist page in AV-ARKKI IMDB Instagram Facebook Linkedin
Contact: marjoh.viitala @ gmail.com +358405108201
Latest moods in Instagram:
MARJO VIITALA 