where was dead of winter filmed

The 2025 action-thriller Dead of Winter (starring Emma Thompson and set in snowbound Minnesota) was filmed primarily in Finland and Germany.

Main filming locations

• Koli, North Karelia, Finland – Snow-covered forests and hilltops around Koli and the wider Lieksa/Joensuu area were used for most outdoor winter scenes, doubling for rural northern Minnesota.

• Lieksa and Joensuu, Finland – Additional exterior work took place in these nearby towns, contributing to the remote, frozen landscape.

• North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany – Interior and controlled-environment sequences were shot here, with a large share of the production days in this region.

• MMC Studios, Cologne, Germany – Used for key studio work, including blizzard and cabin interiors that needed precise control.

• Bonn, Germany – Some further German location shooting was done in and around Bonn.

Though the story is set in isolated northern Minnesota, the production chose Finland and Germany to reliably capture deep-snow conditions and to access established studio infrastructure.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.