The recipient of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s Honorary Award is Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner.

Hausner is being honored for her work in preserving and promoting diversity in the European film industry.

“One of the most original voices in not only Austrian but European cinema – a creator who refuses to be categorized and offers no conventional explanations. Her clinically beautiful world, both captivating and unsettling, consistently portrays women’s inner conflicts, isolation, and search for self-assertion,” the statement reads.

Hausner has made six feature films: Lovely Rita, Hotel, Lourdes, Amour Fou, Little Joe, and Club Zero, which have won awards at numerous festivals, including Cannes and Venice. In 2020, Hausner became the first female professor of directing at the long-established Vienna Film Academy.

PÖFF is also dedicating a special program to Hausner's work, entitled Eerily Captivating: A Tribute to Jessica Hausner, which will feature her earlier films Lovely Rita, Hotel, Lourdes, and her latest film, Club Zero. In addition, this year's festival will focus on new Austrian films – works that are currently touring festivals around the world and shaping the trends in auteur cinema.

You can meet Jessica Hausner on November 20 at 20:45 p.m. at Apollo Kino Solaris cinema during the screening of Club Zero, which she will introduce herself. On the same day, at 17:30 p.m., she will also hold a masterclass as part of the film industry Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, where she and her husband, composer Markus Binder, will discuss the relationship between images and music in her films.

Hausner will receive the award at the festival's closing ceremony, which will take place on Friday, November 21, at 18:00 p.m. at the Alexela Concert Hall.

This is the first time that PÖFF has presented this award.

Black Nights Film Festival ends on November 23.