Photo: Soppakanuuna / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Mika Kaurismaki is the Finnish director I think gets quietly overshadowed by his brother, but his own filmography earns the respect. Trained at the film school in Munich and decorated with the Pro Finlandia Medal and a French Legion of Honour, he clearly built a career that crossed borders rather than staying boxed into one national scene. What I find appealing is the range, jumping between fiction and music-driven work without losing curiosity. Born in 1955 in the small town of Orimattila, he strikes me as someone who turned a modest origin into a genuinely international body of work, and I respect that persistence.
Overview
Mika Juhani Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈmikɑ ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born 21 September 1955) is a Finnish film director.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Mika Kaurismäki
- Name (Japanese)
- ミカ・カウリスマキ
- Reading
- みか・かうりすまき
- Born
- September 21, 1955 (age 70)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Goat
- Origin
- Orimattila, Päijät-Häme, Finland
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- screenwriter / film producer / film director / actor / film editor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Television and Film Munich
Awards & achievements
- 1994 Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland
- 2001 Knight of the Legion of Honour
- 2018 Aho & Soldan lifetime achievement award
- 2015 Annual award ACFK
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Screenwriter — see all → · Film producer — see all → · More people from Finland →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.