EVENT PÖFF – The Old Wise Wolf

The OldWise Wolf

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

Festival Director Tiina Lokk plants the first tree in the PÖFF park In 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 rising 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,

but we will always be looking to the future: discovering talent, nurturing it and finding new ways to get more people involved in the world of cinema. Usually the birthday kid is getting gifts, but we will break with tradition and the festival will give a present to our home city: a PÖFF Park, with trees planted in honour of filmmakers and PÖFF friends in Estonia and all over the world.”

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the industry summit hosted during PÖFF, has become one of the busiest meeting places for film professionals in Northern Europe. It’s 2020 online-only film industry and Black Nights has adapted its platforms to support filmmakers in the best ways possible, with a view to continuing for another 25 years ahead. In the digital realm, the festival’s web cinema will continue to offer quality films to Estonian viewers around the year and the PÖFF Film School, in partnership with the European Film Factory, will continue to help Estonia’s kids and young people learn about cinema in school.

In more down to earth terms, Black Nights will make concrete steps to improve its environmental impact and the natural environment the wolfpack calls sert. The electronic opera featuring actor-singers, virtual opera soloists, live electronics and robots, is a fantasy version of the last film made by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. It will be performed for the first time in Estonia, on November 24, near where Taskovsky shot his 1979 masterpiece Stalker and then on November 25 in Tartu.

In a year where hopefully many things go back to normal, the festival organisers have enlisted the help of various innovative Estonian products to ensure the health and safety of an event which prides itself on bringing people

PÖFF has become something we could have not imagined in the early days. We have developed into a truly international festival.

Memories of past PÖFFs: the 20th and 15th birthday celebrations

edition brought a whole new audience of international decision makers and talent in contact with its many programmes. This year, the event will continue in a hybrid format and will see the launch of a new Discovery Campus brand for film talent in partnership with the European Film Academy. Turn over for more information about everything planned there.

THE YOUNG WILD WOLF PÖFF may be a member of the A-category club, but it’s also the youngest member, without any of the baggage and stuffy formality. Like the young country it calls home, the festival prides itself on its openness to change, sustainable development and digital transformation. The challenges of 2020 and the COVID-pandemic have affected every corner of the home. Together with key partner, the City of Tallinn, PÖFF has planted the very first tree in what will come to be the PÖFF park. Located in North Tallinn, around the grounds of the soon-tobe Tallinn Film Wonderland studio complex, Black Nights will take care of the landscape design of this new creative quarter. Trees planted will be dedicated to festival winners, filmmakers and friends of the festival. A PÖFF Green Wolf Foundation will continue to support the park’s development, improving Tallinn’s green spaces and sustainably managing our local forests, with guests given the option to donate a birthday gift to the festival.

The festival will also celebrate its connection to the city and its history by welcoming the opera “Tarkovsky - The Eighth Film”, produced by Eesti Konttogether in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere. Respiray’s personal air purifiers will be issued to public-facing PÖFF staff, med-tech startup Certific will provide at-home COVID testing and BioBlock nasal sprays will be available at a discounted price for ticket holders. Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event’s conferences and networking events will be hosted at Estonia’s most COVID-safe hotel, the Nordic Hotel Forum.

With these new provisions in place, the festival team is confident that celebrating PÖFF’s birthday with international filmmakers, industry professionals and press, as well as the many tens of thousands of locals who are part of the festival each year, can go ahead as planned and the dark days of November in Estonia will once again be lit up by sparkling cinema. EF