Tallinn selects eight Black Nights Stars including ‘The Girl With The Needle’ actress

EXCLUSIVE: Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has selected eight actors from the Baltic Sea region for its Black Nights Stars programme, including talents from Finland, Sweden and Poland.

The group includes Danish actress Tessa Hoder, who appeared in Magnus von Horn’s Cannes 2024 Competition entry The Girl With The Needle. Hoder has studied at the William Esper studio in New York and Iceland’s Lunga school, and has credits in Netflix series Rita and Danish shows including Those Who Kill.

Scroll down for the full list of actors

Also included is Estonian actor Ursel Tilk, a graduate of his country’s Academy of Music and Theatre. He won best actor at the 2021 Estonian Film and Television Awards for his lead role in Rainer Sarnet’s Locarno premiere The Invisible Fight, and has since starred in Helen Takkin’s Life And Love and Ewan Twohy’s Sundance 2025 title Bubble & Squeak.

Saku Taittonen won Finland’s Jussi award for breakthrough role of the year for playing Finnish rockstar Pertti Neumann in Mari Rantasila’s My Name Is Dingo in 2024; while Swedish actress Freddie Mosten Jacob won best actress at Torino Underground Cinefest for the lead in Joakim Paronen’s Suicide Tuesday.

The eight actors will meet in Tallinn from November 18-22, meeting with casting directors, talent agents, producers and directors and participating in workshops, panels and networking events.

Each actor will receive the Black Nights Stars Discovery Campus ICDA award. They were chosen from over 200 applicants.

The selected eight were chosen by a jury of casting directors Luci Lenox, Frank Moiselle, Minna Sorvoja, Magdalena Szwarcbart and Heli Jurisson; and talent agents Dragan Greensmith and Sten Hassing Moller.

“Black Nights Stars has served as a springboard for young actors from the region, helping them secure roles in films and TV series and sign with leading talent agents,” said Claudia Landsberger, who has run the programme for the past nine years.

Discovery Campus is part of the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event platform, running from November 14-21. Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) runs from November 7-23.

Tallinn Black Nights Stars 2025 

Kasparas Varanavicius (Lithuania), credits: Toxic, Landfill People (TV)

Karolina Bruchnicka (Poland), credits: Coach’s Daughter, Delegation, Supersisters, Moment Of Silence (TV)

Kristiin Raagel (Estonia), credits: The Rave (short film), Forgotten Summer Haze (short film)

Tessa Hoder (Denmark), credits: The Girl With The Needle, Rita (TV), Those Who Kill (TV)

Freddie Mosten Jacob (Sweden), credits: Suicide Tuesday, The Are Murders (TV)

Saku Taittonen (Finland), credits: My Name Is Dingo, Helsinki Syndrome (TV)

Samirah Breuer (Germany-US), credits: Die Discounter, Berliner (TV)

Ursel Tilk (Estonia), credits: The Invisible Fight, Life And Love, Bubble & Squeak

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