Tallinn Black Nights announces the lineups of five juries that will be judging three competition programmes of the festival and evaluate films in several other categories.
The Official Selection will consist of seven members: produver Zeynep Atakan, PR and marketing consultant Dennis Davidson, director Naoko Ogigami, sriptwriter Graziano Diana, composer Zygmunt Krauze, director Laila Pakalnina and producer Ivo Felt. They will select the winner of the grand prize of the festival that includes a grant of 10 000 euros and eight other awards for best director, cinematography, script, actress, actor, music and production design.
The First Feature Competition will see the return of director Eitan Anner who’s film A Quiet Heart was awarded the Grand Prix at the last edition of Black Nights. He will be joined by festival director Takeo Hisamatsu, actresses Tiina Mälberg and Aiste Diržiute, producers Fernando Loureiro and Guillaume de Seille who will decide on three awards: best film and two special jury prizes.
The NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) will select the best Asian film in the programme, selected from the lineup of the Official Selection, First Feature Competition and the Asian world premieres in the other sections. Its members are journalists Keoprasith Souvannavong and Lekha Shankar and director Martti Helde.
FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) jury represents the voice of film critics. They pick their favourite from the First Feature Competition. The members for the 2017 edition are Kristin Aalen, Kata Orsolya Molnar and Emilie Toomela.
The Ecumenical jury brings together representatives of five major Christian churches and confessions in Estonia to highlight a film in the Official Selection that, through its script, performances or production notably represents Christian principles or general human principles beyond specific world views, an emphatic and mutually considerate attitude to life, traditional life values and the sanctity of life. The jury members are Andres Põder, Stefanus, Jaan Tamsalu, Erki Tamm, Indrek Sammul and Madis Kolk.
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES
Official Selection
Zeynep Atakan is a Turkish producer who has worked with director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s since 2006, including Once Upon A Time In Anatolia and Winter Sleep that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes film festival. Atakan won the European Film Academy’s Best European Co-Producer Award in 2010. She’s the Vice President of European Women’s Audiovisual Network Atakan and directs the Antalya Film Forum.
Dennis Davidson is a British PR and marketing consultant and the Founder of the DDA group of companies. His long list of credits include American Hustle, Jupiter Ascending, Cloud Atlas, Snowden, American Pastoral and Netflix series Sense8.
Graziano Diana is an Italian scriptwriter, writer and director whose work includes the scripts of Ultrà that won Silver Bear at the Berlinale and La scorta that was nominated for Palme d’Or at Cannes film festival.
Zygmunt Krauze is a renowned Polish composer whose work includes six operas, instrumental forms from miniatures to solo concertos, symphonic works engaging hundreds of musicians, music for theatre and film, choral pieces and spatial compositions.
Naoko Ogigami is a Japanese director whose films Glasses and Barber Yoshinohave won several awards at the Berlinale and have been screeened at PÖFF. Her most recent work Close-Knit will also be screened at this year’s PÖFF.
Laila Pakalnina is a Latvian director and scriptwriter who’s films have screened at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Locarno, Karlovy Vary and her last full-length feature Dawn premiered in the Main Competition competition of PÖFF.
Ivo Felt is an Estonian producer whose CV includes Tangerines that was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 2015 as well as The Fencer, nominated for a Golden Globe in 2016. Both films have won the Best Estonian Film award at PÖFF.
First Feature Competition
Eitan Anner is an Israeli film and TV director, scriptwriter and lecturer. His film A Quiet Heart won the Grand Prix and Best Actress award for Ania Bukstein at last year’s PÖFF.
Takeo Hisamatsu is the director of Tokyo International Film Festival, who has worked for the Shochiku Broadcasting Co and Warner Bros. Pictures Japan. He has participated in the production of films Unforgiven, Air Doll, Love, Honor and runs the production company My Way Movies.
Tiina Mälberg is an Estonian theatre, TV and film actress and lecturer on stage speech. She played the leading role in Mother (Best Estonian Film award at PÖFF 2016) for which she was awarded the Best Leading Female Actress award at the Estonian Film and TV Awards.
Aiste Diržiute is a Lithuanian actress best known for her role in The Summer of Sangaile, that screened at Sundance and the Berlinale in 2015, where she became the first Lithuanian actress to participate as one of the European Shooting Stars. She has a a supporting role in the biographical drama Kharms that will be screened at PÖFF this year.
Guillaume de Seille is a French producer who slate of more than 40 films includes titles like Much Ado About Nothing, I, Olga Hepnarova and Zoology that screened at PÖFF last year.
Fernando Loureiro is the co-founder of the L.A.-based production company Exhibit. His work includes Sweet Virginia (will be screened at PÖFF this year) and Thump-er, both of which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
NETPAC
Keoprasith Souvannavong has worked as a radio, TV and written press journalist and chief multimedia Editor at Radio France Internationale. In 1993 he played a role in Tran Anh Hung‘s The Scent of Green Papaya that won two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Lekha Shankar is Bangkok-based Indian film journalist and programmer. She has worked as programmer of the International Film Festival of India and writes currently on cinema for several publications in Thailand and India.
Martti Helde is an up and coming Estonian film director whose first feature In the Crosswind was selected for the international Toronto Film Festival and won several awards at PÖFF.
FIPRESCI
Kristin Aalen is a Norwegian journalist and film critic and creator of the website www.kulturkritikk.no.
Kata Orsolya Molnar is an editor, journalist and a branding and communications expert from Hungary. She is the editor-in-chief of the leading independent Hungarian online movie magazine Filmtekercs.hu.
Emilie Toomela is a freelance film journalist writing regularly for both Estonian and Baltic outlets.
Ecumenical Jury
Andres Põder
Estonian Council of Churches, President Archbishop Emeritus
Stefanus
Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Metropolitan
Jaan Tamsalu
Pastor of St. John`s congregation and rural dean of Tallinn
Erki Tamm
Union of Free Evangelical and Baptist Churches of Estonia, President Reverend
Indrek Sammul
The Bishopric of the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, actor
Madis Kolk
The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Editor-of-Chief of magazine Teater. Muusika. Kino
