EVENT Lighting up the Black Nights

Lighting up the Black Ni ghts

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is about to kick off its 26th edition. With no obvious signs of a hangover from the 25th birthday party last year, the festival organisers come to the end of 2022 with pure minds and fingers crossed for something like a normal festival after several editions affected by the COVID pandemic.

By William Smith

But for all the challenges an A-category film festival and a massive cultural event might face, Black Nights goes from strength to strength: growing, improving and adapting.

Festival Director Tiina Lokk put it this way: “Every year is the same and every year is starting over. One thing that is consistent at PÖFF is that we grow. Growing is also both a blessing and a curse. The wheel of a huge vessel is hard to turn, and it takes time to turn as well. But we must take these opportunities to change with open arms.”

From small beginnings, the festival has grown into an internationally renowned showcase and meeting place for film. As this transition has taken place, the festival has always prided itself on perhaps being less stuffy and more agile than its peers at the top of the film festival hierarchy. This year, this pride is manifested in newly reconfigured and adjusted competitive and non-competitive programme sections: the central goal always being to find the very best ways to introduce the best of world cinema to PÖFF’s voracious audience.

A NEW COMPETITION - CRITICS’ PICKS The 26th edition of Tallinn Black Nights will introduce one new competition programme, Critics’ Picks, led by critic and programmer Nikolaj Nikitin. Critics’ Picks joins the established Official Selection, First Features, Baltic Competi-

It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience.

tion and Rebels with a Cause programmes. Critics’ Picks kicks off with 16 features in its first year – the inaugural selection includes ten world and three international premieres. Three films will screen out of competition, including a gala screening of Estonian co-production Call of God.

Each film is handpicked by the festival’s programme team, which has for many years included a number of internationally renowned professional film critics and theorists. It serves to highlight and celebrate a curated selection of powerful and artistically-outstanding works which might otherwise be overlooked in PÖFF’s broader programme. Critics’ Picks screenings will take place from November 17–25.

Festival Director Tiina Lokk commented that, “The Critics’ Picks competition programme solves a challenge our programme team has seen for many years: brilliant arthouse films that are unfortunately often lost in the mix of our fast-growing lineup and large-scale international festivals. It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience.” She added: “The critic programmers who have put together this new programme have succeeded in selecting some uniquely compelling and engaging features films. I can’t wait to introduce them to wider audiences this November.”

Nikolaj Nikitin, head of SOFA School of Film Advancement and new Critics’ Pick programming team lead, brings in

the Black Ni ghts Photo Liis Reiman Baltic Competition curator Edvinas Pukšta on PÖFF TV.

Black Nights Film Festival programming team in 2021.

Photo Aron Urb

Winter wolves, including Nikolaj Nikitin of Critics’ Picks (centre).

several decades of experience as a curator, film magazine editor-in-chief, journalist and author. Nikitin commented on the Critic’s Picks selection that “I was not prepared for the level and quality of films we had to choose from – it was easy in a way but, in another way, incredibly difficult to make the final selection. It’s a huge pleasure to join the Black Nights family and it’s been an honour to help organise this competition for the first time.”

For the first time, most programmes also have their own lead curators – with Triin Tramberg handling First Features, Edvinas Pukšta on Baltic Competition duty, Javier Garcia Puerto heading the Rebels programme, Helmut Jänes leading Midnight Shivers, and Tiit Tuumalu responsible for DOC@PÖFF.

AN UPDATED BALTIC COMPETITION The Baltic Competition, highlighting the very best and freshest films from the festival’s home region, has also seen a number of small adjustments – to better connect films with audiences, be they local cinema goers or international film professionals looking for homegrown talent.

This year’s reconfigured programme includes non-Baltic directors leading Baltic co-productions, lining up with Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event’s co-production market’s selection criteria and featuring films from Armenia, Iceland and Croatia. This year also features only fiction and animation films, with Baltic documentaries stepping into the festival’s DOC@PÖFF strand.

The 2022 Baltic Competition programme includes one world premiere and four international premieres, along with a host of previously critically-acclaimed releases. The competition will be opened by the world premiere of Lithuania’s The Poet and a screening of Estonia’s Kalev. Both hark back, from quite different perspectives, to pivotal moments in Baltic history, which continue to cast a long shadow over current events.

Rebels and First Features competitions will continue to represent their respective niches – experimental works and fiction debuts.

It’s also wonderful to have several films in competition which have been developed in part through our programmes.

AN IMPRESSIVE OFFICIAL SELECTION Coming back to the headlining act, the leaders of the wolf pack - the Official Selection lineup is stronger than ever in 2022. The films selected represent the diversity of geography, genre and theme present in this year’s refreshed competition programmes, with films coming from both renowned, multi-award-winning auteurs, and returning Black Nights favourites. It includes a record-breaking nineteen world and four international premieres.

Festival Director Tiina Lokk commented, “I never stop being surprised by the quality of films we are able to present in the Official Selection. Again, we have a huge number of world premieres and it means a great deal to me and the festival that so many filmmakers – both the established and up-and-comers – trust us to introduce their new works to the world.” She continued, “It’s also wonderful to have several films in competition which have been developed in part through our programmes in Industry@ Tallinn & Baltic Event. Looking at the full lineup, I think the competition for this year’s prizes will be stronger than ever.”

Israeli film will be in Focus in this year’s 26th edition, alongside a smaller Showcase of Brazilian cinema. The festival runs from November 11–27, 2022. EF