Industry@Tallinnthe professional strand of the Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival, has grown significantly during the 10 years Marge Liiske has been at its helm.
As head of industry, Liiske has overseen the creation of strands such as the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, the works in progress, the European genre forum, the TV Beats Co-Financing Market (taking place from November 16-17) and the Discovery Campus.
Liiske talks to Screen about some of the highlights of this year’s wide-reaching programme.
How would you describe the festival’s industry strands this year?
We have a 360-degree programme - with the film market, the series market, the training programme and the conference and talks. As a small country and with quite small production countries nearby, we offer a menu that is eclectic and serves many different tastes.
The Basque Country is this year’s spotlight territory and the Baltics themselves are ‘In Focus’. What is the aim of these initiatives?
They are countries we could, or should, coproduce and work more with.Industry@Tallinn started as a Baltic event 25 years ago because it presented Baltic films to European and international decision-makers. Works in progress and the coproduction market followed.
The Baltics are still the region we care about and think about. There are 21 Baltic projects this year across the categories: dramas, series, films, works in progress, screening.
What are the key discussion topics this year?
We try to find one theme that is worrying everybody. Last year, it was financing. This year, we’ll talk about distribution, audience design and sales.
For the series market, they will talk about creatives finding access to commissioning editors, how to get your idea through, what the commissioning editors are looking for, and what is the right moment to approach them.
How is Black Night Stars helping Baltic acting talent break through?
When we started the programme in 2017, the general attitude was, ‘Why do we need it? We can never break through’. But now time has proven otherwise. Before, it was really important that actors spoke English. If you had an accent, you were either a villain from an Eastern European country or a prostitute - stereotypes. That has changed, and we have had Estonian actors cast in series.
Tallinn has been part of the European genre forum training programme with Imagine Fantastic Film Festival in Amsterdam and with Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival for 12 years. Why is genre so important for you?
The taste for genre has expanded, and its popularity is growing. We take on board only emerging filmmakers and/or producers to help them understand how the development and financing processes work. It is still not easy because, in Europe, public funds do not finance genre films much. But we have quite a few projects that came out of it, including the Latvian animated horror Dog Of God.
No comments yet