Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), one the fifteen FIAPF-accredited competitive film festivals in the world which will be held for the 21st time this year, will be collecting donations for development of the festival in addition to the support from businesses, the state, and the local government. One of the first goals is to translate as many films as possible into Estonian and Russian. So far, a third of the films screened at PÖFF have been translated into Estonian and Russian.
 
“PÖFF has been operating for years with a minimum budget, but maximum programme,” said Tiina Lokk, Director and Head of Programme of PÖFF. “To ensure a high standard of the festival and to bring the films to the audience with a high quality, we would like to involve the fans of PÖFF – to give them an opportunity to donate, to participate in organising the festival. PÖFF is an international film festival and the official language of the festival is English, due to the lack of funds, however, we have not been able to translate many of the films screened into Estonian and Russian. We would like to be closer to our home audience for the stories told by the films to reach the audience as convincingly and comprehensibly as possible.”
 
According to Tiina Lokk, the budget has allowed to translate a third of the films screened within the framework of the festival programme to Estonian or Russian. “We have received a lot of feedback about this and, due to requests from the audience, we will start collecting money for translating films for the next year’s festival. Translation of every single film is accompanied by remarkable expenses, which cannot be recovered simply by charging higher ticket prices,” explained Tiina Lokk. “If our idea is supported by the audience, we also intend to develop other activities”.
 
For the festival to be able to hold on to its position among some of the top film festivals in the world, which has been achieved through many years of work, and to continue its development, constant help is needed from supporters. As of this year, everyone interested who cares about cinematography and about expanding the world can help to develop, improve, and grow the festival. To do so, a desired amount of money can be transferred directly to the account of the festival by adding the comment “Toetan PÖFFi” (“Supporting PÖFF”) via the main menu on the website of PÖFF. Anyone interested can support the festival – private individuals as well as companies.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is an international film festival, which has been organized since 1997. As of 2014, PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe that has been given by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) the competitive status. The festival consists of various different events, including two sub-festivals (Just Film, PÖFF Shorts) and international film industry event Industry@Tallinn, which bring films and filmmakers from more than 70 countries from America to Asia to Tallinn every year.

CONTACT
Hannes Aava, coordinator of international communication, +372 5552 9211
/ hannes.aava@poff.ee

2016 Black Nights screening in Kosmos IMAX

2016 Black Nights Award Ceremony (credit: Ahto Sooaru)