The hot projects that caught the eye of international execs at Tallinn Black Nights 2025

International attendees at this month’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival(POFF) praised the quality of the films and projects at this year’s event, and welcomed the focus on Ukraine of the industry programme.

“It was great that Tallinn supported so many Ukrainian projects, both in works in progress and co-production markets,” noted Leo Hervada Seux, sales agent at France’s Loco Films.

Ukrainian projects to catch Seux’s eye included Office Of Magical Forces, Crickets Sing In The Rye, Kira’s Dream and Alice Wants To Leave.

“[The projects] had some good potential, for their unique way of talking about their present or their past and how they manage to produce stunning images, despite obvious financial and production difficulties,” continued Seux.

The final panel held at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic event was called Filming in Ukraine 2026 During Wartime. Introduced by an emotional Marge Liiske, who heads up the programme, the panel announced a €50m cultural fund and 30% cash rebate for international productions shooting in Ukraine.

“It’s great that POFF have their ‘Stand With Ukraine’ strand,” said UK producer Ben Pullen, who recently wrapped shooting a fiction feature in Ukraine. “As the story becomes less interesting to markets and festivals, it’s great to see Tallinn keeping the faith.” 

Elsewhere, there was praise for the European Genre Forum, which saw the most promising project award presented to UK horror project Little Bird. “I believed Little Bird distinguished itself through its compelling, high-concept interpretation of an adult fairy tale,” said Yana Georgieva, head of sales at the UK’s Bankside.

In the international works in progress strand, Zurich Film Festival’s head of programming Anja Frohner noted Spanish project Wolf Grrrls as a particular standout. ”I felt the scope of the project was clear and not too broad for a first feature,” she said. “The setting and choice of characters feels authentic, and the trap music aspect is exciting.”

Dual appeal

From the main festival, attendees praised Tallinn’s ability to programme films that straddle the line between arthouse and commercial effectively.

Nauval Yazid, programmer at Indonesia’s Europe On Screen festival, said The Stories; The Imaginary Dog And The Lying Cat; The Frog And The Water; and No Comment were his highlights of the international competition.

“All of these films have a common thread of being an audience-friendly work that excels in straightforward storytelling,” Yazid said. “It is very likely these films, along with a few others, will have long festival legs, which works in favour of Tallinn being one of the highly sought-after festivals that screen these kinds of films, outside the usual big festivals in other months.”

Fellow festival programmer Bernd Buder at Filmfestival Cottbus praised China Sea (Critics’ Pick) as well as Baltic Competition titles Red Code Blue and Flesh, Blood, Even A Heart.

“POFF offers perfect chances to scout for Baltic films and projects, especially since we dedicated our “Close-Up” sections this year to Estonian cinema, while Latvia and Lithuanian will follow in 2026 and 2027,” Buder continued.

Long awards ceremony 

For the first time, the awards ceremonies for the festival and the industry programme were combined into the same event at Tallinn’s Alexela Concert House on Friday (November 21).

While attendees admired the opportunity for upcoming projects to share the stage with prominent films, the four-and-a-half-hour ceremony was less welcome.

“There is something positive in mixing the two because works-in-progress projects will undoubtedly soon be on the international stage, so it’s always good to put them on a par with current films,” said Zadig Paloyan, sales agent at France’s Le Pacte, of the event which saw Spanish drama The Good Daughter win the Grand Prix.

“But I feel that the ceremony was too long, with a lot of awards without really knowing what they correspond to.”

Overall, however, there was plenty of admiration for the festival’s organisation, which continues to impress attendees. “This is one of my top industry events,” said sales agent Justyna Koronkiewicz at Germany’s Media Move. “It has perfect organisation, locations, solid numbers of attendees and especially producers with great ideas and energy - and means! - to pursue them.”

”This year, as every year, the festival has been evolving into a fantastic event,” said Steve Calavitis, distributor at Sweden’s Camera Nordic. ”The organising team, which incorporates so many disciplines of our industry, is second to none. I must say it is truly a celebration of our industry.”

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