Tallinn Black Nights (PÖFF) announces new programmes and adds world premieres to the programme of the 24th edition.
Running from the 13th until the 29th of November, PÖFF screens 172 feature-length, 28 short films, 13 series this year. Adding to this, sub-festival, youth and children’s film festival Just Film, screens 44 feature-length films, PÖFF Shorts has selected 166 shorts and 123 animations and Russian-focussed side festival KinoFF shows 13 features and 1 short film. The programme of the main festival will see a record number of 33 world, 29 international, 9 European premieres.
According to festival director (Mrs) Tiina Lokk the festival was not pursuing the premieres as a special agenda this year, but instead strived to give as many big screen screening opportunities to new films in these tough times. "The bigger was the surprise when we received so many fresh films made with a strong and original creative vision! The decisions what to take and what to leave out have never been this hard! We are hoping that all the great films that we were not able to accommodate, will also be able to be exhibited on the big screen!" she added.
Still from The Body Fights Back
Bigger changes in the programme include the popular Fashion Cinema that has received a new identity and is now called #PÖFFTrending, offering stories of trendsetters and pioneers in various fields of life. A rich smorgasbord of urban cultural phenomena. Screening six films in total, the programme will be opened by the world premiere of the Estonian documentary The Body Fights Back by director Marian Võsumets, who studies five people dealing with the paradoxes of diet culture.
Still from Jakarta, the City of Dreamers
Other world premieres in the programme include Jakarta, City of Dreamers by Indonesian director Ertanto Robby Soediskam and The Club of Angels by Brazilian director Angelo Defanti that screen in the Current Waves section.
A completely new programme at the festival is dedicated to the burning environmental issues we are collectively faced with. The Environmental Agency Environmental Film Programme will screen films Wolves at the Borders, Truffle Hunters, I am Greta, The Hidden Life of Trees and The Mark Baumer Story.
Still from Tangerines
Out of the two smaller retrospectives, the first will make a reverence to the Georgian director Zaza Urušadze (1966-2019) who worked closely with Estonian producer Ivo Felt, producing Tangerines that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2015, screening also in the Main Competition of Black Nights. Other films in the programme of In Memory of Zaza Urušadze are Anton and Three Houses.
The other retrospective is dedicated to Estonian cinema and is curated by critic Tristan Priimägi, celebrating the publication of his new book 101 Estonian Films, screening 10 Estonian gems made between 1925 and 1989 .
See all films HERE