Tallinn Black Nights (PÖFF) announces new programmes and adds world premieres to the programme. The festival will have seven juries overseeing various section of the festival.
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, offering filmmakers a change to screen at domestic festivals, to give more people a chance to see films on the big screen during these uncertain 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.
Bigger changes in the programme include the popular Fashion Cinema that has received a new identity and is now called #PÖFFTrending, offering stories of trend-setters and pioneers in various fields of life offering a rich smorgasbord of urban cultural phenommenon. Screening six films in total, the programme will be opened by the world premiere of the Estonian documentary Body Fights Back by director Marian Võsumets, who studies five people dealing with the paradoxes of diet culture.
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.
Out of the two smaller retrospectives, the first will make a reverence to the Georgian director Zaza Urušadze (1966-2015) who worked closely with Estonian producer Ivo Felt, producing Tangerines that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2012, 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 .
The festival also announces the lineups of its seven juries:
OFFICIAL SELECTION COMPETITION JURY
Mark Adams, head of the jury, Film Critic, UK
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director, Bangladesh
Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik, Producer, Poland
Ester Kuntu, Actress, Estonia
Dante Spinotti, Director of Photography, Italy/ USA
FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION JURY
Elfar Adalsteins, Director, Producer, Iceland
Juris Kursietis, Director, Latvia
Diana Mikita, Producer, Estonia
Rene van Pannevis, Director, Netherlands / UK
Ulrich Thomsen, Actor, Director, Producer, Denmark
BALTIC COMPETITION JURY
Marjorie Bendeck, Head of Co-production Market, Germany
Tine Klint, Sales Agent, Denmark
Paul Thiltges, Producer, Sales Agent, Distributor, Luxembourg
COMPETITION PROGRAMME “REBELS WITH A CAUSE” JURY
Paolo Bertolin, Producer, Writer, Programmer, Italy
Alina Serban, Actress, Playwright, Director, Germany
Matthew James Wilkinson, Producer, UK
NETPAC (NETWORK FOR THE PROMOTION OF ASIAN CINEMA) JURY
Watches the Asian films in the Official Selection – Competition and First Feature Competition
Andreas Ungerboeck, Journalist, Austria
Kan Lume, Director, Singapore
Zakir Hossain Raju, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Bangladesh
FIPRESCI (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS) JURY
Watches the First Feature Competition.
Denise Bucher, Switzerland
Márcio Augusto Sallem, Brazil
Annika Koppel, Estonia
ECUMENICAL JURY
Watches the films of the Official Selection – Competition
Andres Põder, Archbishop Emeritus, President of Estonian Council of Churches
Rainer Sarnet, Film and Theatre Director
Madis Kolk, Editor-in-Chief of culture magazine Teater. Muusika. Kino
Marge-Marie Paas, Press Officer, Roman Catholic Church in Estonia
Tõnis Kark, Chaplain of Defence Forces (Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church), Film Critic, Musician
