As curator of the first feature competition at Tallinn Black Nights (PÖFF). Malaika Bova has overseen the 12-title selection of world and international premieres, including Polish director Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska’s pole-dancing drama, Exotic, and UK actor-director Ray Panthaki’s In Starland.
She believes that with the Tallinn brand behind them, the films, even those without sales agents, see their chances of securing distribution opportunities and further festival exposure rise sharply.
“Films that come to us then move on to other festivals quite easily,” says Bova, citing Júlia de Paz Solvas’ The Good Daughter, which won the grand prix for best film and the audience award at PÖFF 2025 and went on to screen around the world at festivals from Gothenburg to San Sebastián.
The former artistic director of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival started working for Black Nights five years ago, scouting for UK titles, which she continues to do, along with taking over the first feature competition for 2026.
“My role was to put Tallinn on the UK map,” she explains. “Filmmakers from the UK didn’t know that much about Tallinn and tended to go to the American or bigger European festivals. They didn’t know how Tallinn could launch their films. Now, little by little, the trust is growing, and I am very pleased with this year because we have, among others, the world premiere of Ray Panthaki’s In Starland.
“Raindance taught me a lot about how to deal with first features, balancing the relationship with press, sales agents and with an audience. It’s about making sure there is specific attention to a category of filmmakers who need special treatment.”
Bova points out Black Nights is an A-category event with a distinct footprint. “We are in a very interesting position between a very large festival where mid- to smaller-range films get lost and a more boutique type of festival,” she says.
The festival works hard to make its November dates - post-Venice, pre-Berlin and at the start of the awards race - a positive attribute.
“In fairness, it is a tricky date, but Tallinn can count on incredible access to territories that are less known to others: Central Asia, the whole of Northern Europe,” says Bova. “Festival founder Tiina Lokk and now [new artistic director] Triin [Tramberg] have secured the trust of filmmakers and built the brand, and so we get gems that otherwise, because of the dates, would be hard [ to secure]. There is a huge network of scouts in Europe, Asia, in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic regions, and in the Balkans. We tend to avoid repeating countries in the same competition, and we really make a point of selecting as widely as possible.”
Overseeing the first feature competition provides Bova with the opportunity to help support the filmmakers in their careers beyond their Black Nights launch
“Our filmmakers become part of a cohort, a community, that we invite back regularly for industry events or as jury members,” she explains. “ It’s a relationship that continues. With the First Film competition, I am very active in promoting the films in conversations with other [festival] programmers and sales agents. This is an informal business, and the more you create a buzz around a film, the more you create a conversation, the larger the network you have, the better it is for the filmmakers.”
World premieres are important to Black Nights.
”Being an A-list festival that is what we are supposed to do We have a responsibility toward our status,” says Bova. “Having said that, there are exceptions. We go case by case for films we particularly like and that we think will have a strong audience in Tallinn. For example, Exotic went to New Horizons, but we loved the film. We think it can sell out in Tallinn.”
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