Tallinn Black Nights 2.0: Reinventing the Festival’s DNA

• Black Nights prepares a new digital environment for online screenings, a virtual market for films, projects and talent, a country promotion channel and an educational platform
  
  
• Festival donates submission fees and ticket revenue for crisis relief
  
  
• Submissions are open for #PÖFF24
  

The film industry has most likely never changed as much in such a short time as it did during the last 3-4 months. Unaware of what awaits us in the months ahead, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is pushing forward with preparations for its 24th edition, set to take place from the 13th until the 29th of November.

The festival is preparing for several possible scenarios, getting ready to expand many of the festival's physical activities online to enhance the geographical reach and make it possible for industry professionals and foreign press with possible travel restrictions to still attend the events and see the films and projects. „We will see a fundamental change taking place this year, “ says Tiina Lokk, the head and founder of Black Nights, „as some of the changes that are being prepared will actually rewire the festival’s DNA, making it more digital, networked and ubiquitous and inclusive than ever before. We might as well call it Black Nights 2.0,“ she added with glee.

The plan includes building online screening capabilities that cater to the festival’s needs in terms of screening public and closed screenings, conferences and other content to both the regular audience, industry and international press. Additionally, it will include an extensive online industry platform that includes a market place, virtual meeting and pitching rooms and year-around project market to connect projects at all stages of their cycle with respective parties of interest – financiers, producers, distributors etc.


During the last edition of the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival that was organised 100% virtually due to the pandemic. The Black Nights team got to experiment organising a remote panel with participants from 6 different time zones. Watch it here!

Another important aspect will be the year-around promotion of Estonia as a location for production and recruiting talent, including the introduction of locations of interest, a database of the country’s professionals and the services they provide, and of course, the content they have produced. This is definitely something that later will see a geographical expansion to include other countries in the region (Latvia, Lithuania, Finland etc). PÖFF has two committed partners, Estonia’s first two regional film funds two help: the Viru Film Fund and the Tartu Film Fund who will be in charge of keeping the locations and talent pools up to date.

The third element is education, that will see the launch of PÖFF Academy, based on the framework that has been laid by the festival’s platform Creative Gate. The academy will have three main target audiences – international and local industry professionals; students of vocational school and universities; school students – aiming to provide high-quality audio-visual education with the partners at the Estonian Film Institute, the Baltic Film, Media, Art and Communication School and the Pallas University of Applied Sciences.

The Black Nights universe is looking for new films

Tallinn Black Nights that will return alongside its two sub-festivals – the Youth and Children's Film Festival Just Film and International Short Film and Animation Festival PÖFF Shorts – for the 24th edition this November. Each of the three has diverse programmes complete both in terms of the programming and events for the target audiences and industry.

Just Film has become one of the most recognized youth’s and children’s festival in Northern Europe, screening ~55 feature-length films and animations and holding an international competition for youth films while also presenting a candidate for the annual European Children’s Film Association Award. As a new initiative Just Film also presents a Works In Progress section for youth and children films in the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event framework. There Is currently a summer sale taking place for Just Film submissions in FilmFreeway.

Loaded with the explosive creative energy that’s characteristic to filmmakers who work with the short and animated formats, PÖFF Shorts is exactly as wittily playful as their ironic slogan: Make Films Short Again! Combining the international short and animation community under an Academy-qualifying umbrella, it is the place where you can kickstart your career with your short film / animation that’s waiting to be discovered!

The Black Nights team feels that greater collective (and global) action is required in the world. All of the ticket revenue of the Black Nights’ side-festival, the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Festival were donated for the Estonian Food Bank for Corona relief, while, as a new endeavour, the festival will be directing a part of the revenue from the submission fees to fight climate change and deforestation. An Estonian startup called Local Offset will help Black Nights to find the best way to make a contribution to the world's forests, as a combination of carbon offseting and planting new trees.

Submit here

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival @ FilmFreeway
Youth and Children’s Film Festival Just Film @ FilmFreeway
International Short Film Festival PÖFF Shorts @ FilmFreeway

Request a meetingTiina Lokk, PÖFF Director / Head of Programme, tiina.lokk@poff.ee
Request a meetingMarge Liiske, Head of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, marge.liiske@poff.ee
Request a meetingMikk Granström, PÖFF CEO / Youth and Children’s Film Festival Just Film Director, mikk.granstrom@poff.ee
Request a meetingJaan Leppik, Development manager, Head of Ticketing, jaan.leppik@poff.ee
Only via E-mail -->Triin Tramberg, PÖFF Programme Coordinator / Creative Gate Project Manager, Industry@Tallinn Script Pool & Works in Progress Manager, triin.tramberg@poff.ee
Only via E-mail -->Leana Jalukse, Baltic Event Co-Production market manager, coproduction@poff.ee
Only via E-mail -->Hannes Aava, PÖFF Head of Communication and Press, hannes.aava@poff.ee
Only via E-mail -->Javier Garcia Puerto, PÖFF Programmer & Film Adviser, javiergarcia.puerto@poff.ee

2020 In Numbers