EVENT
Old Wise Wolf The
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) finds itself at a special age: twenty five editions have been successfully held. It’s all grown up, accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as an A-category non-specialised competitive film festival and put up in the same bracket as festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin. PÖFF has even taken up a seat on the board of FIAPF this year. By William Smith Photos by Erlend Štaub and Liis Reiman
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Festival Director Tiina Lokk plants the first tree in the PÖFF park
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ESTONIAN FILM
n addition to main and side programmes of feature films, the festival has grown over the years to also encompass Just Film (focused on childrens and youth films) and PÖFF Shorts, whose winners can now qualify for the Baftas, EFA awards and Oscars. Estonia’s East is served by sub-festival KINOFF and genre fans can visit the seaside Haapsalu Horror And Fantasy Film Festival each spring. PÖFF’s First Features competition is a powerful springboard for new directors and its Official Competition attracts an increasingly strong lineup of global author films, both stacked with world premieres. That’s not to mention the ris-
ing profile of the experimental, edgy Rebels with a Cause and the very best place to discover what our region has to offer in PÖFF’s Baltic Competition. The festival will feature Hungary as its main focus country in 2021, with programmes of both recent films and archive classics from the Central European state. The lineup will also include smaller sections of German, Russian and British features. The full programme also includes Current Waves, Midnight Shivers, Doc@PÖFF, #PÖFFtrending, Screen International Critics’ Choice, the Environmental Agency’s Film Programme, the Estonian Olympic Committee Film Programme and screenings of the European Film Academy’s Discovery Award nominees. The eternally young-at-heart Festival Director Tiina Lokk comments, “PÖFF has become something we could have not imagined in the early days. We have developed into a truly international festival, giving a spotlight to hundreds and thousands of great films from old and new authors over these 25 years.” Regarding PÖFF birthday plans, she added: “There’s something important to celebrate this year and we will certainly have some parties to toast our success,
