Biography

Award-winning director Miia Tervo grew up by Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland in a working-class family. Before studying documentary filmmaking at a university-level film school in Helsinki she studied poetry and worked in the fish factory in Norway. Her short films have all made several rounds at film festivals worldwide including IDFA (all the schoolwork and documentaries) and Torino, and won several awards. "The Little Snow Animal" (2009) also received an EFA nomination. Tervo's debut feature film Aurora (2019) was a critical and box-office success. It received its world premiere as the opening film for the Gothenburg Film Festival, in the South by Southwest (SXSW) it had its US premiere, and in EdinburghIFF Aurora won the Best International Feature award. In the Finnish Oscars/ Jussi awards it won eight awards including Best Film, Best Director, and Screenplay. Tervo's second feature The Missile (2024) premiered also in the Gothenburg Film festivals main competition and Oona Airola won the main award for leading role. The Missile is now circulating festivals worldwide, having its theatrical release in Germany November and acquired by Netflix in September 2024.
- IMDb mini biography by: Onerva Rankka

Miia likes to swim in the frozen lakes and long distances in the summer.