Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Narva Creative Incubator OBJEKT introduces this year at Black Nights Film Festival and Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event a new audiovisual media development programme, TV Beats, with the aim to grow the TV production ecosystem in the Baltic region.

TV Beats continues to develop a program dedicated to TV series, which presented three new international series to festival audiences last year. This year’s project gives TV Beats a brand new dimension, as it aims to facilitate the growth of the local TV production ecosystem.

In the framework of the programme, TV Beats Forum will take place before the official start of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event on November 23rd, 2018, where world-class TV producers from Great Britain, Finland and Russia will share their valuable experience. Participants will be given the opportunity to learn how the best formats are found, produced, and channelled and to discuss the main principles of building a successful TV production industry ecosystem.

"The TV Beats programme aims to highlight the increasingly blurred borders between the small and big screens. The development program and the forum contribute to the growth of essential industry competence on the ground; and Estonia could become a place for co-production of TV series and other formats in the future," explained Tiina Lokk, Director of the Black Nights Film Festival, regarding the future plans for the programme.

The programme started with IdeaLabs in Narva and Tallinn last week, gathering video bloggers and TV producers, as well other audiovisual media professionals and enthusiasts to discover new formats, technologies, business models, and to develop the industry network. Hackathon, the next step after IdeaLabs takes place in Narva between December 7th and 9th. Organisers have chosen the following areas where fresh ideas are sought: TV production, vlogging, VR and AR, visual effects and animation. After the hackathon, the best teams will have a chance to take part in the pre-acceleration and present their demo to potential investors at @sTARTUpday in Tartu on January 24th, 2019.

TV Beats is organised with the help of Europe's most experienced B2B accelerator, Startup Wise Guys. “Hackathons are a great birthplace of talented startup teams, as it can be seen from the example of Garage48 and many of our portfolio startups. But making it for real, and big, after the initial 48h of fun and sweat requires immediate work, and the guidance of experienced mentors. This is the exciting side of the TV Beats program – it follows an idea from the start to pre-acceleration,“ says Farid Singh, Startup Wise Guys Program Lead.

Speaking about the organisers' expectations, Jana Pavlenkova, Managing Director of the Narva Creative Incubator OBJEKT, explains: "We are welcoming people who are already active in the industry, but also those who are still making their first steps in the area of audiovisual media and TV production, and need a professional boost. In addition, participation in TV Beats gives you the opportunity to create new acquaintances in the TV industry and be part of the PÖFF and Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event network."

The 22nd Black Night Film Festival runs from the 16th of November until the 2nd of December.

The TV Beats programme is financed from the European Regional Development Fund via Enterprise Estonia (EAS) through the project EU51523.