Last year’s record-breaking audience of over 73 000 placed us among the most visited of Nordic festivals. This year, as we celebrate 100 years of Estonian Cinema, the Black Nights slogan is “PÖFF surprises!” There are many surprising moments in the programme with some real gems – a special programme of Japanese Nikkatsu studio for fans of Asian cinema and a retrospective of the golden years of Mexican cinema. Also this year’s focus – Greek cinema and the new German cinema fit nicely into the list. Films from around the Baltic Sea are being shown in a new competition of feature debuts – a great opportunity to discover some new talent.

The opening film - French auteur Leos Carax’s so-called comeback film, Holy Motors is exhilarating, opaque, heartbreaking and completely bonkers, it is a deliciously preposterous piece of filmmaking that appraises life and death and everything in between, all reflected in a funhouse mirror.

The Black Nights will present over 600 screenings throughout the cinemas of Tallinn and around Estonia, along with events outside of traditional cinemas, like the “gourmet cinema” with a dinner at the newly opened Seaplane Hangars.

According to FIAPF president Benoit Ginisty, Black Nights has become one of the most important meeting places for key film industry figures from Asia and North, Central and Eastern Europe. So this year’s Industry Days from 26 November will see an impressive number of independent filmmakers from around the world gathered in Tallinn.

The complete programme of the Black Nights on www.poff.ee. Tickets for Black Nights Film Festival are on sale on www.piletilevi.ee  and www.poff.ee.