PÖFF’s 30th edition opened with a celebration of three careers in cinema. Estonian animation director Priit Pärn, Estonian film composer Sven Grünberg and Icelandic filmmaker Hilmar Oddsson received the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Awards on Friday evening at Tallinn’s Alexela Concert Hall.
Oddsson, 69, helped put Icelandic cinema on the international map in the 1980s. Rooted in Icelandic culture, identity and traditions, his films often follow men wrestling with questions of purpose, fear and longing. As rector of the Icelandic Film School, he helped shape a new generation of Icelandic filmmakers.
His most recent feature, the Icelandic–Estonian co-production Driving Mum, won the Grand Prix at PÖFF in 2022.
The award also pays tribute to the Nordic filmmakers whose work helped launch PÖFF in 1997. Oddsson came to Tallinn for that first edition with Tears of Stone, which returns to the festival this year as part of the anniversary programme This Is Where It All Began.
Sven Grünberg was honoured for his contribution to Estonian film music. The composer, who will soon turn 70, has written scores for nearly 130 Estonian and international films. Curse of Snakes Valley alone drew 32 million cinema admissions in the Soviet Union in its first year of release.
His credits include Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, Lotte from Gadgetville, Naksitrallid, Klaabu, Corrida, Hundiseaduse aegu, Lepatriinude jõulud, Reekviem, *Näkimadalad *and The Last Ones, as well as the television series Wikmani poisid.
In 2012, listeners of Estonia’s Klassikaraadio voted Grünberg the best film composer of the first century of Estonian cinema. He has also taught students in Estonia and Finland how music can shape the way a film tells its story.
Priit Pärn, who recently turned 80, was recognised for his contribution to Estonian animation. One of Estonia’s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers, Pärn is best known for Breakfast on the Grass (1987), a penetrating portrait of the pressures of everyday life under Soviet rule.
Pärn developed his own approach to teaching animation and has mentored a generation of animators in Estonia, Finland and around the world. This is his 13th lifetime achievement award.
Pärn also designed the visual identity for PÖFF’s 30th edition, drawing on the Kilplased, a cast of comic characters from Estonian folklore.
The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival runs until 22 November.
The festival is presented by Elisa and Nordic Hotel Forum. Elisa has supported PÖFF for 11 years and contributes to Estonian culture by producing and bringing Estonian films and series to audiences and supporting the development of cinema. Nordic Hotel Forum has been the festival’s host hotel since 2008. Its continued support for Estonian culture has been recognised several times with the Friend of Culture title.
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