Tiina Lokk Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is once again jam-packed with world premieres, latest auteur cinema discoveries from the Baltic region and beyond, and Best of highlights from the festival circuit of the past year. "Inspired by the growing international acclaim of Catalan cinema," a curated selection of movies from the region of Spain is in focus this year. It includes the likes of Oliver Laxe's Cannes hit and Spanish Oscar contender Sirât and Carlos Marques-Marcet's tragicomic musical film They Will Be Dust, which will open the fest and its black carpet activities. Related Stories Business Disney+ Inks Content Partnership With CJ ENM to Bring TVING Originals to Japan Movies Lionsgate Does Deal With Millennium for 'Rambo,' 'The Expendables' Rights The Tallinn fest 2025, running Nov. 7-23, further features a spotlight on Austria, with organizers describing it as "a reminder that Austrian cinema is more than just Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl." Films from the likes of Jessica Hausner, Abu Bakr Shawky, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, and Johanna Moder are part of that. The team of PÖFF's Tiina Lokk, festival director and program director, has also added a new Baltic documentary competition this year, while the industry section Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event has continued to expand its offerings, including in the TV series space. Lokk and her team have made Tallinn into a key place for emerging auteur voices and discovery. "The selection holds up a mirror to our world," she said when unveiling this year's competition lineup. "Everything that worries and pains us is there - wars, the environmental crisis, political arrogance, migration, women's rights, and, above all, the fragile ties of family life." Don't expect PÖFF to take a political stance, though. While some fests and Hollywood stars like Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix have supported an Israeli film industry boycott, pledging to refuse to work with Israeli film institutions "complicit in war crimes" in Gaza, the Tallinn fest is concentrating on artistic criteria. "We are trying to discover films," Lokk tells THR. "And we are looking for some kind of fresh point of view. And I would like to keep my independence. I mean my independence in programming and also festival independence." She continues: "In the world right now, there are so many different countries hating each other and trying to put pressure on festivals. 'You cannot show this film,' or 'You cannot show films from this country,' or 'You can't host the delegation from this or that country.' We are trying to be free, but at the same time we are taking care that the films are in dialogue." This dialogue, and the hope to create dialogue, is also woven into this year's lineup. "Firstly, I always like to give a voice to the people who have something to tell us and who are fighting for human and democratic values," the Tallinn head explains. "That is the reason why we always have a, let's say, quite tricky and interesting program, because you can always find films from countries that you maybe don't expect. But if you are looking carefully, you see that there is also a balance. For instance, we do have Israeli films this year. They are really interesting and very strong films, and they are swimming against the official flow. And we do have a Palestinian film." Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36, the Palestinian entry for the best international feature film race at the 98th Academy Awards, is part of the Best of Festival selection at PÖFF. The Israeli titles include Netalie Braun's Oxygen, about a single mother who awaits her son's army discharge, and Shai Carmeli-Pollak's The Sea, which tells the story of a Palestinian boy who tries to reach the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in his life. Lokk's quality focus and support for the development of the regional industry has also made the launch of a Baltic documentary competition program possible this year. "Originally, we always picked documentaries and features for one competition because the number of films with an artistic level wasn't that big," she tells THR. "Now, we can fully support a competition dedicated to features and one dedicated to documentaries. Things have developed very quickly, and now these films need some kind of platform to go out." Highlights Lokk: "With our focus on the Baltic and Scandinavian region, we are the biggest festival in Northern Europe. And the festival includes our huge, and very well-curated, industry and training platform, which is giving us some kind of synergy." TV is among its newer and "rapidly developing" components, she adds. This year's TV Beats program, "aimed at highlighting the increasingly blurry line betw