16 NOVEMBER 2021 // NEWSLETTER

What's cooking?

• Black Nights Discovery Campus offers year-round education for film professionals
• Future to Film presents new promising film projects and the nominees of European Discovery Awards 2021
• We've got the UK in Focus this year in partnership with the BFI
• Check out the programme!
• European Film Forum Tallinn: Readiness for Industry Renaissance 2.0
• Get your online accreditation!

The 25th edition of the annual Ji.hlava IDFF closed its doors. The festival programme took on a hybrid form and presented 338 films and over 100 discussions. There were 5,698 accredited visitors and guests this year, and 85,000 viewers watched the films: more than 30,000 visitors in cinemas and almost 55,000 online viewers. The Inspiration Forum discussions, which are still accessible online, have had over 25,000 views. 

The programme of a seven-day hybrid-summit Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event, the largest business platform and trade fair in Northern Europe for audiovisual industry professionals, kicks off today with more than 110 lectures, workshops and masterclasses, hundreds of 1:1 meetings and around 650 participants. 

According to Marge Liiske, the Managing Director of Industry@Tallinn&; Baltic Event, this year’s summit welcomes around 650 guests in Tallinn, at Nordic Hotel Forum and online: “We are very glad to have so many film professionals joining us on the anniversary year in Tallinn. Organising the hybrid-event has its challenges, but we hope that this week will open up new collaborations and possibilities for participants as well as offer valuable insights and inspiration for the future.” 

First and foremost, Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event continues to be a place to do business. The programme includes 66 projects that are presented in six different categories, including the works in progress, script competition, co-production market, and, the newest addition, a drama series co-financing market, with public pitchings and/or one-to-one meetings. Also, accredited guests have access to a networking platform that allows them to get together with other attendees virtually and onsite.

As this year’s Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event has the United Kingdom as a Focus country (in collaboration with the BFI), the participants will have the opportunity to find out more about projects, companies and the regional business environment. The centrepiece of the UK Focus will be a case study presentation featuring three British-Estonian co-productions: Undergods, Sentinel and Burial

New learnings are one of the cornerstones for Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event. The insightful and exhaustive programme takes off today with TV Beats Forum, the drama-series-oriented strand that analyzes and discusses various aspects of the booming series production in comparison to film production. The two-day programme also includes several high-profile case studies including Icelandic medical drama Fractures and Croatian show Paper, picked up by Keshet and sold to Netflix. In addition, TV Beats Forum will present various series that are in production and will premiere in 2022 and will have screenings of around 20 fresh series from the region and beyond including several premieres.

The talent programmes have joined under a new banner this year - Black Nights Discovery Campus, lasting throughout the Industry @Tallinn & Baltic Event. It includes the established Music Meets Film, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Black Nights Stars, Black Room, Young Critics and Future to Film. The last one involves the Script Pool script competition along with a new collaboration with the European Film Academy, presenting Discovery Award nominated directors and with a headline masterclass from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. In addition, to live events and workshops carried out in Tallinn by award-winning film professionals, the programmes also include open lectures to accredited guests accessible online. Discovery Campus will gradually extend into a year-round online training platform.

As climate change also has a strong impact on film production, the summit takes a closer look at recent technologies, virtual and green production and sustainability in the whole creation process, and discusses how to implement those principles in creating magical films. 

A half-day conference, European Film Forum Tallinn 2021: Readiness for Industry Renaissance 2.0 zooms in the outlook for Europe's audiovisual, content and tech industries, looking answers for how to implement strategic foresight with the help of Artificial Intelligence and develop organisational data capacity in the audiovisual and content business, and what the newest leaps in European virtual production and extended reality and experience cutting-edge case studies in production. The event presents 14 international film and media industry professionals sharing their experiences and insights on the most pressing topics for the European film, television and content industry. 

Even though Virtual Reality (VR) has received much more attention from the mainstream during the lockdown period, the technology has also made great leaps and VR creators find themselves in an awkward position between films, games, art installations and other mediums. Emmy and Venice award-winning VR creator Ricardo Laganaro (Brazil) along with Robin Stethem from the Museum of Other Realities, Eero Tiainen from Embrace and John Canning from Digital Domain will discuss the digital future and new opportunities for artists. 

The case study on green production takes a closer look at The Wait, a film shot during the Covid19-pandemic and the first carbon-negative feature film made in Finland. During the panel discussion Actress-scriptwriter Inga Kallen, director Aku Louhimies, producer Andrei Alén and a specialist from Compensate.com will discuss what a carbon-negative production during a pandemic looked like and how our future requires us to take new approaches to storytelling.

In addition, there are workshops and masterclasses on leadership, storytelling in the new age, financing, sales and distribution, presenting acknowledged speakers such as Dirk Hoffmann (former Nokia and T-Mobile executive, currently European star on AI), Nusrat Durrani (media visionary, producer, co-creator and former CEO of MTV World, and Gloria Fan (Walt Disney Company, Head of Current Series). 

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, one of the largest film events in Northern Europe, takes place from 19-26 November 2021. The schedule, as well as the online events, are accessible at industry.poff.ee.

There are only four days remaining to send us your applications. Kids Kino Lab team together with our Tutors are waiting for up and coming writers / script consultants and young producers who would like to participate in our scholarship programme as Tutors’ assistants.

Application deadline: 22 November – don’t miss out!

As an assistant at our scholarship programme, you will acquire skills in the scope of:

• the construction of the movie script,
• analysis of script,
• tools used for consultation of projects: scripts or production aspects,
• building a childhood movie hero,
• understanding the market mechanisms of European children’s film productions, such as how films for children are financed, distributed, or sold.

You will have a chance to:

• take part in face to face sessions in Poland (2 sessions, one at Kids Kino Industry), Belgium during JEF Festival and Czech Republic during Zlin Film Festival,
• attend online individual and group consultations with our Tutors and Kids Kino Lab participants*,
• meet emerging filmmakers and industry experts in the field of kids content.

*the Kids Kino Lab selection will be announced next week!

Important information:

The scholarship is free of charge, which means there is no fee to take part in the programme, but at the same time, the participants will not be receiving a salary. Accommodation and food for participants during the stationary sessions is provided by the organizer, however, the travel costs are on the participant’s side.

You can take part in our scholarship either as a script consultant or a young producer (please check the right box in the application).

The working language is English, which means it is essential that you can communicate effectively in English.

The programme kicks off at the beginning of 2022.

Application deadline: 22 November.

Learn more about the programme HERE or APPLY NOW!

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Kids Kino Lab is an industry part of Kids Kino International Film Festival.

The programme is co-financed by the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe and Polish Film Institute.

Kids Kino Lab partners are: Zlin Film Festival, JEF Festival, Kids Kino Industry.

If you have any questions, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Official Selection and First Feature Competition programs are heating up at the 25th edition of PÖFF

The festival’s main competition programme contains seven world premieres, ten international premieres and two European premieres. Nineteen films will be screened in competition, with three films out of competition. It’s a packed lineup featuring a couple of legends, a raft of returning Black Nights favourites and several soon-to-be-stars, from all corners of the cinematic globe. Two international premieres will come to PÖFF after having their world premieres with our friends at Seville European Film Festival.

At the opening ceremony on Friday night, legendary Estonian actress Elle Kull was awarded PÖFF's Lifetime Achievement Award and Pääru Oja was recognised with the Bruno O’Ya award supporting up and coming actors.

The 25th edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival began with an opening gala in the Alexela Concert Hall, featuring performances from Holy Motors, and followed by a screening of Ildikó Enyedi’a The Story Of My Wife. The opening film, in a year that features a programme demonstrating the depth and breadth of Hungarian cinema, was attended by director Ildikó Enyedi, producer Monika Mécs and composer Adam Balazs.