The Finnish–French film Le Café de mes Souvenirs (The Cafe of My Memories) is being considered in several Academy Awards categories at the 2026 Oscars. The film’s production team has submitted it for consideration in multiple categories and the film meets the eligibility criteria of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Academy Awards. These criteria include, among other requirements, theatrical distribution in the United States in 2025. The official Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22, 2026. The idea of submitting the film for the Oscars gained support when it was screened in July and November at the prestigious Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, and it was the first Finnish film in history to be screened at the cinema. The theatrical screenings brought the film media attention in France, Italy, and Greece. The film is not competing in the Best International Feature Film category and it is being considered for nominations in several other categories, such as Best Actor (Lionel Nakache), Best Actress (Eveliina Kauhanen), Best Supporting Actress (Anouchka Delon), Best Costume Design (Anu Gould), Best Directing and Best Screenwriting (Valto Baltzar)  and the results of the nomination voting will be announced in January 2026.  

Anouchka Delon stepped into her first leading cinema role as the second female lead in The Cafe of My Memories. She is a graduate of the Cours Simon. Anouchka was impressed by the film’s innovative script. Prior to this film, she had done a few roles in films and had appeared in several theatre productions in Paris. In the film, Anouchka sings a delicate song. She has a soft, velvety voice that makes the film’s song come alive in her role as Maria. She appears alongside Lionel Nakache, a Parisian actor, and portrays a sharp female doctor. The film competed at the Milan Film Awards, where Anouchka Delon won an award for her role in the film.

Anouchka Delon has received significant media attention in the press for her role in a film that premiered last summer at the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills. We would like to thank publications such as Gala, Vogue France, Vogue Italia, Closer France,  Voici, Public, Sassilive, InStyle, and StarMag for featuring our film and helping us share this story with audiences around the world. We’re excited to be part of this year’s awards race, with Anouchka Delon submitted for Academy Award (Oscar) consideration for Best Supporting Actress.

An internationally renowned orchestra known for its film music plays the score for the film The Cafe of My Memories. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra is made up of leading Czech classical and jazz musicians, along with international guest musicians. They record music for films and TV series. The orchestra’s previous work includes iconic films like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Pan’s Labyrinth. The orchestration score for the film The Cafe of My Memories was created by Vili Ollila and the sound design was done by Juuso Oksala. The film’s songs were composed by jazz musician Heikki Sarmanto, and the modern arrangements of the music were done by Mika Laakkonen from Mökkitie Records.

The Cafe of My Memories is a musical film featuring scenes with elegant hairstyles and makeup looks. The hair and makeup design for the film was created by hairstylist Teresa Rachad from Salon Klipsi and make up artist Heidi Turpeinen. Heidi has worked as a makeup artist on several Finnish films and TV series, including The Unknown Soldier. The film's hairstyling was done using high-quality hair products from Salon Klipsi. The styling was done in collaboration with the film’s costume designer Anu Gould.

Valto Baltzar is a Finnish film director, screenwriter and lyricist.  The Cafe of My Memories is Baltzar’s first feature film. Baltzar is a professional actor and has also worked in theatre and film. He studied theatre at the University of the Arts Helsinki. He has written and directed several theatre and musical productions in Helsinki. Lyrics written by Valto, Heikki Sarmanto is the composer of the film. The director has found inspiration for the film in the classic musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. In the film, the lead characters nostalgically admire this classic. The rights to the film, which appears in one scene, have been acquired from Mathieu and Rosalie Demy, the son and daughter of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg director Jacques Demy.

Heikki Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer. Sarmanto began to play jazz during the 1960s. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Sarmanto has released numerous recordings, published scores, and has composed several film scores. Sarmanto has worked with jazz musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and Helen Merrill.  

"This is my first film project with director Valto Baltzar, but hopefully not the last. It all began when Valto gave me some scraps of paper with what appeared to be poetic texts and asked, “Do you think these could turn into something?” I looked at the papers and replied, “Absolutely—I will compose music for the texts.” Over the years, I have received countless texts—from poets like Paavo Haavikko and Elisabet Laurila to aspiring writers tucked away in drawers—but few have inspired me to create music. Valto’s texts sparked an immediate response and it was natural to begin work with those texts. Valto and I first met at a Tove Jansson birthday celebration when he was a young man, and since then we have met frequently in cafes around the city. Our film The Cafe of My Memories came later. The songs in the film convey a variety of moods, but if there is one word that tells the spirit of the collection, it would be longing: an ancient, timeless longing that seems to resonate from the soul of director Valto Baltzar. All the songs have their own charm and character. "

Heikki Sarmanto
Film composer

Irina Björklund features in a significant role in the film, playing the mother of the leading character. She also sings a song made for her character in the film. Björklund has featured in numerous Finnish and international films and is one of Finland’s most renowned artists. She is also a recording artist who has published several albums. She has published two albums with Finnish songs sung in French and The French Ministry of Culture has awarded her the title Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. Björklund has worked on many international productions. She played the leading role in the international TV series Peacemaker, portraying a leading peace negotiator.  After living years in California, she moved to the French countryside with her family.

Finnish design plays a central part in the set design. Yrjö Kukkapuro's design and Marimekko's textiles are featured in the film. Many of the costumes and set designs are made from recycled furniture and clothing, which also supports the ecological values of the project. The film was filmed by cinematographer Kimmo Koskela and it was filmed with Fortum's green energy. Kimmo Koskela is a Finnish cinematographer and director who has worked on many feature films and has been awarded for his work including the Jussi Award and Best Creative Film at the Festival International For Arts (FIFA) in Montreal, Canada. The film’s costume designer, Anu Gould, and production designer Maria Jännes have favored Finnish design in the film. Anu Gould is a Jussi Award–recipient costume designer living in Paris and she has worked on many international film productions. Maria Jännes is a set designer living in Finland and has worked on several theatre and film productions. 

The Cafe of My Memories is a beautiful French-Finnish musical, written and directed by Valto Baltzar, showing us the love story of Emilie, who works in her mother’s café in Helsinki and Philippe, a Frenchman who has moved to Finland to work as a French teacher. This lovely homage to the French classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is filmed on perfectly chosen locations in Finland (Helsinki, Mäntsälä, Kauniainen and Sipoo) and France (Cherbourg and Paris). The festival praised the excellent production design, also highlighting the creative incorporation of works by Finnish designers, including the ergonomic designs of the renowned Finnish architect and furniture designer Kukkapuro.


Best artistic direction, Ischia film festival

Finland today. Emilie works at her mother’s cafeteria. Frenchman Philippe teaches French at a local high school. The young woman and the Frenchman are lovers, they take walks in the seaside town and go to the cinema in the evenings to watch old movies. A film shows scenes from the Umbrellas of Cherbourg - a love duet of Genevieve and Guy, sung as a recitative before the couple breaks up. After that, the film turns into a modernized filmization of “Umbrellas”: break-up, challenges, and hope for new love await Emily and Philippe. The late director Jacques Demy would have turned ninety this year, and therefore the performance at the Moscow International Film Festival is dedicated to Demy’s memory. When Demy designed the youthful and energetic, modern film opera together with composer Michel Legrand in the early 1960s, many found the idea crazy. Director Valto Balzar had to be just as courageous when he decided to direct the Café of My Memories. Baltzar’s work is a third wave film, all new in its form of expression. Comparison for the original classic film sets the film almost automatically in a disadvantageous place, so an atypical move had to be made so that the film would not look like a pale copy or a pathetic parody. This move found its origins in the Finnish reality. Just like Demy’s Cherbourg, Baltzar's Helsinki is depicted as a seaside town a town alive with poetry and expectations of romantic encounters. Its raining in Helsinki too and colourful umbrellas open up above the lovers. Cherbourg is, of course, smaller and rural, though Helsinki doesn’t seem like the center of the universe either.

Demy’s movie was a bold experiment in film design: painted sets, play with sharp colors, a combination of natural life that the new wave directors loved and stylized glamor - all this was new then. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg gave a huge boost to cinematography development. The impact is seen in the films of many of the best directors of our time, from Pedro Almodovar to Damien Chazelle. The most famous of Finnish directors, Aki Kaurismäki, who confessed his love for the beauty of France in “Bohemian Life”, filmed in Paris, is among those who did not pass by Demy's discoveries. As a romantic tribute to the legendary country, the country of dreams, Baltzar invites Marja Packalén, an actress also known from Kaurismäki's films, to play a ragged beggar and to sing a playful song about Montmartre.

The greatest merit of the film is, however, that it does not copy French models, but creates a pictorial landscape and costume style based on recognized national achievements - the ecological design of Yrjö Kukkapuro and Marimekko. As for music (the film is not an opera, but partly a musical), it also has Finnish roots: the eclectic soundtrack is based on Heikki Sarmanto's songs and jazz compositions. The plot of the new film, albeit on a general level, reproduces the plot of the Demy film known by all, but with an important difference. The tear between the lovers of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg began with the Algerian war to which Guy was sent and this fact created the space for the film’s melodrama at a historic time. In the Café of My Memories, there is no sign of war, but a peaceful life is not always as sweet. Philippe falls victim to slander and intrigue at the high school where he teaches, which is characteristic of the “new ethics” era, and he doesn’t endure the stress in the end. The film thus shows how the cold realities of our time destroy people’s emotions and relationships, even without outright violence. The most touching and funniest part of the picture is shown in Cherbourg, where Philippe travels with his Finnish colleagues - teachers who are fans of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. They settle in a hotel that once housed Jacques Demy and the film’s lead actors - Nino Castelnuovo and Catherine Deneuve, who became the symbol of France, during the filming of the famous film. Lionel Nakache and Eveliina Kauhanen are not on par with Castelnuovo and Deneuve, though they manage their roles competently. And it’s even good that they’re different. As is the fact that the film focuses on the Finnish environment of the main characters, performing a whole round dance of the slightly ridiculous, not at all young, but charming characters. And to not lose the French spirit of the film, Anouchka Delon, the daughter of a legendary French actor, has been invited to play the role of the protagonist’s new love. And yet it was Finnish romance, Finnish humor, Finnish mentality that justified the risky film plan and gave flesh to the film’s idea of love for France. 

Film review by Kommersant 2021

Lionel Nakache is a french actor and director. He plays the male lead in The Cafe of my memories. Nakache has received the best actor award from the Art Blocks Film Festival and from the Eastern Europe Film Festival. Nakache has directed many internationally awarded short films.

I enjoyed working on this role because it is a fragile character with ideals. He is going through very strong emotions. It s a character who goes through his fragility and he struggles with himself. It is also a character who gets up and meets the woman of his life. It was great to work with Eveliina Kauhanen and Anouchka Delon. The music of the film is very beautiful. It was great to discover the beauty of Finland and to film there.  Valto Baltzar was very concentrated and listening in his direction. The Cafe of my memories is a powerful and sensitive story. The world in which the characters develop naturally made me think of Jacques Demy. What truly moves me in this story, however, is the sincerity and melancholy of the characters.  I enjoyed playing Philippe; my character is a sensitive and fragile man who experiences intense emotions throughout the story. The Cafe of my memories tells about the fragility of a love story. 

Eveliina Kauhanen plays the female lead, the role of Emilie, in the film. Kauhanen has studied musical theatre at the music theatre school in Helsinki and camera acting at the Ecole Paris Marais. The Cafe of my memories competed in the Catania Film festival where Eveliina received the award for best new actress.

It was great to play the role of Emilie in the film. The character is a sensitive yet determined young adult woman. Philippe is the first love of her life. The film shows the sweetness of a first love, the separation of a couple, and the continuation of life. The story reflects our times, and it has been wonderful to see that some festival-goers have even been in tears while watching the film. I hope that the music and story of the film, along with its many characters and stories, will resonate emotionally with people and inspire them to reflect on their own lives. I find the film’s music beautiful and delicate, and the Prague Philharmonic City Orchestra plays it beautifully throughout the entire film. It was also wonderful to work on the songs in the recording studio. I think the film’s actors sing the songs composed by Heikki Sarmanto with lyrics by Valto Baltzar beautifully. The film’s leading song, sung by Lionel, is particularly remarkable for its melancholy and nostalgic charm.

Anouchka Delon has received significant media attention in the French, Italian, and Greek press for her role in a film that premiered last summer at the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall. We would like to thank publications such as Gala, Vogue France, Vogue Italia, Closer France,  Voici, Public, Sassilive, InStyle, and StarMag for featuring our film and helping us share this story with audiences around the world.

French film icon Alain Delon’s daughter Anouchka Delon, is making her first supporting cinema appearance as the second female lead in Le Café de mes Souvenirs. Anouchka was impressed by the film’s unique script. She holds a diploma from the Cours Simon. Le Café de mes Souvenirs competed at the Milan Film Awards, where Anouchka received an award for her role. Anouchka Delon has described the laughter and great atmosphere on set during the film’s filming in Finland.