The 2025 Artist Award and four honorable mentions were presented at the festival’s opening ceremony. The winners of the OAF 2025 Award are Nilas Lindell and Hanna Heino from the OAF Literature Program.
The OAF Award is a €1,000 working stipend and an Elvis statue by Satu Nekala. The award was presented by Jenni Haukio, director of social corporate responsibility at WSOY. The winner was selected in OAF and WSOY cooperation. Jenni Haukio explained the jury’s desicion at the ceremony: “The hallmark of OAF literature is often the originality and self-determination of the texts. Nilas Lindell and Hanna Heino create a new kind of performing poetry that has the nature of an event. Their poetry is marked by the paradox of simultaneous presence and absence.
Lindell and Heino’s staged work of word art Paikka, jossa voi olla missä vaan, The place where you can be anuwhere, shows the possibilities of poetry and language to reach anywhere by combining text and dance. This work is the fascinating beginning of a collaboration and journey that deserves to be seen and awarded. The work moves through time and space with sovereign ease, moving and surprising both the listener and the viewer. The poems speak of loneliness and outsideness with delicate, minimal gestures. You recognize yourself in them. Everything necessary has been said. This is exactly what poetry is at its best.”
The 2025 honorary awards were awarded to four artists. Pertti’s Choice CEO Teuvo Merkkiniemi presented the Superhero of the Year Award to Pekka Luodeslammi, and Autism Foundation cultural coordinator Synnöve Lindberg presented the ward for Collaboration of the Year to Kalle Pajamaa for his long-term collaboration with outsider artists. Espoo city Cultural Director Susanna Tommila presented the Award for Positive impact to musician Sanna Ruokonen (Vapaa sana), and Cátia Suomalainen-Pedrosa from Helsinki City Caisa Cultural Center presented the Visionary of the Year Award to Neea Haapala. Warm congratulations to all artists! In the words of Nilas Lindell: It’s great to be an outsider!
