Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) reveals the selection for the Rebels with a Cause competition. The side-competition, dedicated to films that push the boundaries of cinematic art, contains 6 world premieres and 4 international premieres. 

"The filmmakers who come to our Rebel Area, don't fight or rebel for anything, they've already won," says Javier Garcia Puerto, the main curator of the programme. "They expose their crisp ideas, concerns and proposals in a very authentic, attractive and personal way, making them universal through a daring way of challenging the current norms of standard, industrial cinema."

Launched in 2017, the competition strand has become increasingly popular with festival audiences. "It's a candy for the audience," comments Puerto.  "For those who see themselves as a conscious audience and who want to discover a different, engaging and a surprising way to immerse themselves in the joy of cinema."

Puerto also discloses the selection process: "Most of the time, we don't make our choices based solely on the films. We curate the programme with those viewers in mind who want to be challenged and discover different ways of storytelling. There are, of course, themes such as gender roles and their contemporary evolution, the labyrinths of the creative process, or the daily struggle in a post-pandemic society. But it's a selection that goes beyond themes and current genres, showing a wide palette of references and bets. There are crazy comedies, rage music films, a playful beyond-the-line doc-sex self-portrait or even a reinterpretation of a Western cultural myth."

The counterpart of the PÖFF Shorts sub-festival, Rebels With Their Shorts, consists of 14 works, including one world premiere and one international premiere. Programme details will be available from the 1st of November. 


REBELS WITH  A CAUSE COMPETITION 2024: FILM DETAILS 

A Sip Of Hell, 2024, Argentina; 
directors: Pilar Boyle, Mariano Asseff. World premiere.

Carole & Grey, 2024, USA;
director: Jon Bass. International premiere. 

Contact Lens, 2024, China;  
director: Ruiqi Lu. World premiere.

Everything That Will Happen Has Already Happened, 2024,USA, Belgium, Lebanon, France;
director: Vladan Nikolic. World premiere. 

I Can't Have Sex, 2024, Argentina;
director: Bel Gatti. World premiere.

Okamoto, 2024, Japan;
director: Soujiro Sanada. World Premiere. 

Protected Men, 2024, Germany;
director: Irene von Alberti. International premiere. 

TESA MAN, 2024, Latvia;
director: Uģis Olte. International Premiere.

The Memory Boom, 2024, United Kingdom;
director: Xenia Glen. World Premiere.

Yellow, 2023, Germany;
directors: Oliver Hirschbiegel, Albert Oehlen. International Premiere.

REBELS WITH THEIR SHORTS TITLES

 - Being John Smith, dir. John Smith (United Kingdom, 2024)

 - A Visualization of a Cut, dir. Claudia Munksgaard-Palmqvist (Denmark, 2024)

 - Occhio, dir. Giulia Falciani (Germany, 2024)

 - Claudia (working title), dir. Adrian Sitaru (Romania, 2024)

 -  Additional Scenes, dir. Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk (Ukraine, 2024) . INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

 - Locas del Atico, dir. Tamara García Iglesias (Spain, 2024)

 - 阿达, dir. Pahriya Ghalip (China, 2023) - WORLD PREMIERE

 - Dinosauria, we , dir. Maxime-Claude L'Écuyer (Canada, 2023)

 - The Posthuman Hospital, dir. Junha KIM (Republic of Korea, United States, 2023)

 - High Street Repeat, dir. Osbert Parker, Laurie Hill (United Kingdom, 2023)

 - The Point Of Permanence, dir. Nana Kawabata (Japan, 2024)

 - Mauled by a Dog, dir. Sion Thomas (United Kingdom, 2024)

 - Les Animaux vont Mieux, dir. Nathan Ghali (France, 2024)

 - Angie, dir. Anthony Coveney (Canada, 2023)



The 28th edition of PÖFF l will take place from the 8th until the 24th of November, while the festival’s industry platform Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event will run from 14th until the 22nd of November. 

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and with the two sub-festivals, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts, has grown into one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe and the busiest regional industry platforms.