Tallinn Black Nights turns 30 with 230 features and a Baltic focus

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, known in Estonia as PÖFF, opens its 30th edition on Friday 6 November with Ulya, a co-production led by Latvia with Estonia, Poland and Lithuania that premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year. Running until 22 November in Tallinn and Tartu, the festival will show 230 feature films and 259 shorts from 87 countries, according to the full programme it published ahead of the opening. Counting its youth strand Just Film and its animation and shorts strand PÖFF Shorts, the festival has 107 world premieres and 47 international premieres.

Key facts

• Dates: 6–22 November 2026 in Tallinn and Tartu; 834 screenings; tickets €13 ($15) for the main programme and €11 ($12) for Just Film and PÖFF Shorts
• Opening film: Ulya (Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania), directed by Viesturs Kairišs, Latvia’s submission for the international feature Oscar
• Official Competition: 12 films, all world premieres, judged by a jury led by Christopher Hampton; the Grand Prix carries a €20,000 ($22,000) grant from the City of Tallinn
• First Feature Competition: 12 debuts (nine world and three international premieres) picked from more than 400 submissions from 86 countries
• Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the festival’s market and conference strand, marks its own 25th edition from 9 to 20 November

The anniversary edition is built around Focus: Baltics, which puts close to 40 feature films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania across the programme, from classics to premieres. The festival describes itself as Northern Europe’s only FIAPF-accredited competitive feature film festival. This year its industry strand also presents the three countries to visiting producers as places to shoot, with the backing of their national film agencies.

The opening film

Ulya is drawn from the life of the Latvian basketball player Uljana Semjonova, who won two Olympic titles and three world championships. It follows its heroine from an isolated rural Old Believer community into professional basketball, where her height draws as much attention as her game. Kairišs, whose earlier features include The Sign Painter and January, directed from an original idea by the actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots, who also plays the lead. Ego Media, Allfilm, Staron Film and Tremora produced.

The screening at the Alexela Concert Hall follows a ceremony at which the festival hands out its lifetime achievement awards and the Bruno O’Ya young actor scholarship. Triin Tramberg, the festival’s artistic director, called the film “a very good example of what the Baltic film industries can achieve by working together and with partners beyond our region”.

The competitions

The festival runs seven competitions in its main programme, plus four at Just Film and six at PÖFF Shorts. The two documentary competitions, Doc@PÖFF International and Doc@PÖFF Baltic, come first, from 7 to 13 November. The fiction competitions follow from 13 to 19 November, and the festival says filmmakers from every title in the Official and First Feature competitions will be in Tallinn.

The 12-film Official Competition covers 15 countries once co-producers are counted. Its line-up is A Job Well Done (Switzerland, Frédéric Baillif), Caballé (Spain and Belgium, Patricia Ortega), Drumskin (Argentina, Joaquín Cambre), I Just Want to Talk to My Mom (Iran and Türkiye, Mohsen Rabiei), No Me Without You (Estonia, Janno Jürgens), On Top of the Cliff (Mexico, Peru and Switzerland, Enrica Perez), One Sweet Hour (Ireland, Declan Recks), Sh*t Happens (Dominican Republic, José María Cabral), Sinless (Hungary, Attila Hartung), The Assignment (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, Patrice Toye), The Matriarch (Germany, Alison Kuhn) and Where Is My Son? (Kazakhstan, Dias Bertis).

Hampton, who won Oscars for the screenplays of Dangerous Liaisons and The Father, judges them with the Lebanese producer Myriam Sassine, the American cinematographer and visual effects specialist David Stump, the French producer Julie Billy of June Films and the Estonian actress Tiina Tauraite.

The First Feature Competition, now curated by the former Raindance artistic director Malaika Bova, spans 19 countries and includes debuts from Taiwan, the Philippines and Ecuador alongside European titles. Its winner receives a €5,000 ($5,600) grant from the law firm Tegos.

The Baltic Film Competition has 12 titles, with three world premieres and one international premiere. Its curator, Edvinas Pukšta, said five of them were directed by filmmakers from outside the three Baltic states, with Baltic talent and expertise playing large roles in their production. The line-up includes Ana Urushadze’s Supporting Role, Andrius Blaževičius’s How to Divorce During the War and Jaak Kilmi’s Dirt In Your Face. The jury is chaired by the producer Mariette Rissenbeek, and the best Baltic feature receives a €5,000 grant from the ticketing company Piletilevi.

The Critics’ Picks Competition, curated by Nikolaj Nikitin, has ten world premieres from countries including China, India and Morocco. Rebels with a Cause, curated by Javier Garcia Puerto for films that break with convention, has nine.

Outside the competitions the programme includes award winners from other festivals and Oscar contenders, among them Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, which opens Thessaloniki on 5 November, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland and Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky. Thirteen films in the programme are their countries’ submissions for the international feature Oscar, and 15 are on the European Film Awards preselection list.

The Baltic pitch

Focus: Baltics is promoted by the Estonian Film Institute, the National Film Centre of Latvia and the Lithuanian Film Centre. Besides the films, it is meant to introduce the region’s crews and companies to visiting producers through the industry strand’s development, financing and training sessions.

The festival’s own announcement set out the incentives on offer: cash rebates of up to 40% in Estonia, up to 50% in Latvia when state and regional funds are combined, and a tax incentive of up to 30% in Lithuania, each subject to its own eligibility rules. It also listed the productions that have already used the region, including Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and the spy series The Agency in Tallinn, and Stranger Things and Chernobyl in Lithuania.

The festival also points to recent Baltic successes abroad: Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow won Latvia the Oscar for best animated feature, and Lithuania’s Toxic took the Golden Leopard at the 77th Locarno festival in 2024.

New leadership

This is Tramberg’s first edition as artistic director. She has worked at the festival for more than 15 years and founded its Script Pool programme. Tiina Lokk, the festival’s long-serving director, stays on as chief executive and now concentrates on strategy and development.

The festival expects nearly 2,000 guests from more than 50 countries, including Hampton, Tim Blake Nelson, Golshifteh Farahani, Griffin Dunne and David Dawson. The World Congress of Science and Factual Producers is also being held in Tallinn from 9 to 12 November, in cooperation with the festival, according to the congress’s organisers.

Our reading

Tallinn’s 21 world premieres across its two main fiction competitions arrive in a crowded stretch of the calendar: Thessaloniki opens a day earlier, and Marrakech starts on 20 November while Tallinn is still running. The FIAPF A-list status the festival puts in its own description will not decide which premieres it gets. Tokyo’s jury president Rolf de Heer said last week that the label changes little for a festival already counted in that tier.

For producers, the more practical part of this edition is the Baltic pitch: three small markets offering incentives of 30% to 50% and presenting themselves jointly through one festival. The test is whether it brings new shoots. The first evidence will be the projects and deals announced at Industry@Tallinn between 9 and 20 November, which we will report as they come.

Full selection

The full line-up below is taken from the festival’s online programme and its competition announcements, listed section by section as the festival publishes them; a film that appears in more than one section is listed in each. Directors’ names follow the festival’s press releases where they give a spelling with diacritics. The PÖFF Shorts competitions and packages, and Just Film’s #youngfilmmaker strand, are short-film programmes and are not listed. The festival’s online programme lists only two titles for Spotlight: Basque Audiovisual.

Opening film

• Ulya (dir. Viesturs Kairišs; Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania)

Official Competition

• A Job Well Done (dir. Frédéric Baillif; Switzerland)
• Caballé (dir. Patricia Ortega; Spain, Belgium)
• Drumskin (dir. Joaquín Cambre; Argentina)
• I Just Want to Talk to My Mom (dir. Mohsen Rabiei; Iran, Türkiye)
• No Me Without You (dir. Janno Jürgens; Estonia)
• On Top of the Cliff (dir. Enrica Perez; Mexico, Peru, Switzerland)
• One Sweet Hour (dir. Declan Recks; Ireland)
• Sh*t Happens (dir. José María Cabral; Dominican Republic)
• Sinless (dir. Attila Hartung; Hungary)
• The Assignment (dir. Patrice Toye; Belgium, Germany, Netherlands)
• The Matriarch (dir. Alison Kuhn; Germany)
• Where Is My Son? (dir. Dias Bertis; Kazakhstan)

First Feature Competition

• Black Slaughter (dir. Gigi Betito; France, Israel)
• Exotic (dir. Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska; Poland)
• Happy Ending (dir. Atena Mahmoudi; Iran)
• In Starland (dir. Ray Panthaki; United Kingdom, United States)
• Lionheart (dir. Nagieb Khaja; Denmark)
• Oblivion (dir. Danielius Minkevičius; Lithuania)
• Princess (dir. Christian Rojas; Ecuador, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia)
• Running Wild (dir. Wang Yi-Ling; Taiwan)
• Status : Rejected (dir. Vahn Leinard Pascual; Philippines)
• The Sweetness of Bitter Things (dir. Andrey Volkashin; North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia)
• When She Hears the Bells (dir. Chabname Zariab; France, Germany, Belgium)
• White as Salt (dir. Murat Eroğlu; Türkiye)

Baltic Film Competition

• Amathia (dir. Dean Radovanović; Serbia, Estonia)
• DICE-CHING-O-MAT (dir. Kristijonas Vildžiūnas; Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)
• Dirt In Your Face (dir. Jaak Kilmi; Estonia, Latvia)
• How to Divorce During the War (dir. Andrius Blaževičius; Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ireland, Czechia)
• Kingpins (dir. Kristiāns Riekstiņš; Latvia)
• Lex Julia (dir. Laura Hyppönen; Finland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden)
• Supporting Role (dir. Ana Urushadze; Georgia, Estonia, Türkiye, Switzerland, United States)
• The Bog (dir. Reinis Kalviņš; Latvia, Germany, Estonia)
• The Child (dir. Linda Olte; Latvia, Lithuania)
• The Flaw (dir. Theophilos Papastylianos; Greece, Latvia)
• Three Weeks Under the Sea (dir. Martin Kuba; Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania)
• Vesna (dir. Rostislav Kirpičenko; France, Lithuania, Estonia)

Critics’ Picks Competition

• Apart (dir. Stelana Kliris; Cyprus, United Kingdom, Greece)
• IOU (dir. Steven Zhang Zhonghua; China)
• Jimoto Loop (dir. Masaya Tsutsumi; Japan)
• Kidney (dir. Aakarsh Sansanwal, Agrim Sansanwal; India)
• Mo Amor (dir. Eeva Mägi; Estonia)
• One Month (dir. Maya Vitkova-Kosev; Bulgaria, Romania, Spain)
• Rahma (dir. Faysal Soysal; Türkiye, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy)
• The Great Family (dir. Matías Meyer; Mexico, Italy)
• Until Dawn (dir. Mohamed Zineddaine; Morocco)
• When I Existed (dir. Alejandro Damiani, Martin Avdolov; Uruguay, Spain)

Rebels with a Cause Competition

• Aroma (dir. Xue Ma; Republic of Korea, United States, France)
• Arrow For a Stone Heart (dir. Luiza Calagian; Brazil)
• Beril_XXX (dir. Can Evrenol; Türkiye)
• IRREPARABLE (dir. Klych López; Colombia)
• LAMB (dir. Christian Checa, Sol Picó; Spain)
• Night Vision (dir. Christopher Yates; Belgium)
• Pop Pop (dir. Dylan Stephen Levers; United States)
• Sounds of the Desert (dir. Emilija Škarnulytė; Lithuania, Norway)
• The Two Hornets (dir. Dominik György; Slovakia)

Doc@PÖFF International Competition

• Birthday Candles (dir. Murad Allahverdi; Azerbaijan)
• Child of Sinaï (dir. Loup Bureau; Egypt, France)
• Father’s House (dir. Adam Nielsen, Andreas Koefoed, Eva Mulvad; Denmark)
• Fruitcakes: Dawn of Drag (dir. Vesa Kuosmanen; Finland, Denmark)
• Lost and Found: Thirty Years, Not Together (dir. Laurentiu Garofeanu; Romania)
• Love Exposed (dir. Filip Remunda; Czechia)
• Sentenced at Birth (dir. Daniela Miron, Diana Vlas; Moldova)
• The Taste of Democracy (dir. Péter Akar, Ambrus Fatér; Hungary)
• The War We Carry (dir. Kaspar Astrup Schröder; Denmark)
• Three Comrades (dir. Anastasiia Vedenskaia; France)
• Tingatinga Between Two Homes (dir. Yong Zhang; China)

Doc@PÖFF Baltic Competition

• Baltic UXO (dir. Alexander Belinski, Agnė Dovydaitytė; Lithuania, Germany, Latvia)
• i want to be human (dir. Rinaldas Tomaševičius; Lithuania)
• Ice, Men and a Starling (dir. Mihkel Oksmann; Estonia)
• La Pietà (dir. Pepe Andreu, Rafa Molés; Iceland, Lithuania, Spain)
• Living On (dir. Nerijus Milerius; Lithuania, Ukraine)
• Memory from the Sea (dir. Francesco Rufini; Lithuania)
• Riga my Love (dir. Karolina Peterson; Latvia)
• The Perfect (dir. Laura Liventaal; Estonia)
• To Die To Live (dir. Yuliia Hontaruk; Ukraine, Latvia, Slovakia)

Special Screenings

• A Photographer in Cannes (dir. Kullar Viimne; Estonia)
• Dangerous Liaisons (dir. Stephen Frears; United Kingdom)
• JJ: Every Inch a King (dir. Taavi Arus; Estonia)
• Joy Will Prevail (dir. Max Korman; United States)
• Red Snow (dir. Ilja Rautsi; Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
• Slava: Shooting With Music (dir. Jacqui Morris, David Morris; United Kingdom)
• The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd (dir. Tim Blake Nelson; United States)

Best of Festivals

• A Long Winter (dir. Andrew Haigh; United Kingdom, Canada)
• Armony (dir. Dario Albertini; Italy)
• Behemoth! (dir. Tony Gilroy; United States)
• Ben’Imana (dir. Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway)
• Black Money for White Nights (dir. Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov; Bulgaria, Greece)
• Brace Your Heart (dir. Amanda Kernell; Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland)
• Brave New Love (dir. Maria Bäck; Denmark, Sweden, Greece)
• Bunker (dir. Florian Zeller; France, Spain)
• Elephants in the Fog (dir. Abinash Bikram Shah; Nepal, France, Germany, Brazil, Norway)
• Everybody Digs Bill Evans (dir. Grant Gee; Ireland, United Kingdom)
• Everytime (dir. Sandra Wollner; Germany, Austria)
• Falling House (dir. Mohsen Gharaei; Iran, United States, Germany)
• Fatherland (dir. Paweł Pawlikowski; Poland, Germany, Italy, France)
• Furies (dir. Rami Kodeih; Lebanon, Brazil)
• Heysel 85 (dir. Teodora Mihai; Belgium, Netherlands, Germany)
• I Play Rocky (dir. Peter Farrelly; United States)
• Jim Queen (dir. Nicolas Athane, Marco Nguyen; France)
• Josephine (dir. Beth de Araújo; United States)
• La Gradiva (dir. Marine Atlan; France)
• Love, After All (dir. Andreas Dresen; Germany)
• Low Expectations (dir. Eivind Landsvik; Norway, Denmark)
• Minotaur (dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev; France, Latvia, Germany)
• No Paradise If You Are Killed By a Woman (dir. Halkawt Mustafa; Norway, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Sweden)
• The Beloved (dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Spain, France)
• The Black Ball (dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo; Spain, France)
• The Debut (dir. Jesse Eisenberg; United States)
• The Echo Chamber (dir. Andrea Pallaoro; Italy, Belgium)
• The Idiot(s) (dir. Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert; Poland, Germany)
• The Incomer (dir. Louis Paxton; United Kingdom, Ireland)
• The Smell of Apples (dir. John Trengove; South Africa, Netherlands, Chile)
• The Spiral (dir. Paolo Strippoli; Italy, Belgium, France)
• Violette (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet; France, Italy)
• What Belongs to Others (dir. Grzegorz Dębowski; Poland)
• Wicker (dir. Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson; United Kingdom, Australia)
• Wild Horse Nine (dir. Martin McDonagh; United Kingdom)
• Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep (dir. Rakan Mayasi; Lebanon, Belgium)
• Youri (dir. Sander Burger; Netherlands)

Best of Docs

• American Doctor (dir. Poh Si Teng; Malaysia, Qatar, Denmark)
• Burgundy (dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw; United States, France)
• Candidates of Death (dir. Maciej Cuske; Poland)
• Closure (dir. Michal Marczak; Poland, France)
• Daughters of the Forest (dir. Otilia Portillo Padua; Mexico)
• Letters from the Silenced Country (dir. Andrei Kutsila; Poland, Germany, Lithuania)
• Nino – A Film about Nino Rota (dir. Walter Fasano; Italy)
• The Beauty of Errors (dir. Jukka Kärkkäinen; Finland, Sweden, Norway)
• The History of Concrete (dir. John Wilson; United States)
• The Siege of Paradise (dir. Gar O’Rourke; Ireland, Switzerland)
• Tin Castle (dir. Alexander Murphy; Ireland, France)
• Traces (dir. Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk; Poland, Ukraine)
• Whispers in May (dir. Dongnan Chen; Hong Kong, Netherlands, Sweden, China)
• YO (Love is a Rebellious Bird) (dir. Anna Fitch, Banker White; United States)

In Focus: the Baltic States

• “I am Not a Tourist, I Live Here” and “Tallinn Market” (dir. Konstantin Märska, Peeter Urbla; Estonia)
• A Photographer in Cannes (dir. Kullar Viimne; Estonia)
• Amathia (dir. Dean Radovanović; Serbia, Estonia)
• Baltic UXO (dir. Alexander Belinski, Agnė Dovydaitytė; Lithuania, Germany, Latvia)
• Born in the Jungle (dir. Edmunds Jansons; Latvia, Poland, Czechia)
• Christmas in Vigala (dir. Mark Soosaar; Estonia)
• i want to be human (dir. Rinaldas Tomaševičius; Lithuania)
• Ice, Men and a Starling (dir. Mihkel Oksmann; Estonia)
• In the Shadow of Death (dir. Gunars Piesis; Latvia)
• JJ: Every Inch a King (dir. Taavi Arus; Estonia)
• La Pietà (dir. Pepe Andreu, Rafa Molés; Iceland, Lithuania, Spain)
• Letters from the Silenced Country (dir. Andrei Kutsila; Poland, Germany, Lithuania)
• Lex Julia (dir. Laura Hyppönen; Finland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden)
• Living On (dir. Nerijus Milerius; Lithuania, Ukraine)
• Memory from the Sea (dir. Francesco Rufini; Lithuania)
• Minotaur (dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev; France, Latvia, Germany)
• Peegel (dir. Jaak Kilmi, Andres Keil; Estonia)
• Red Snow (dir. Ilja Rautsi; Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
• Riga my Love (dir. Karolina Peterson; Latvia)
• Sandra: The Drift Queen (dir. Juozapas Mikulėnas; Lithuania)
• Sounds of the Desert (dir. Emilija Škarnulytė; Lithuania, Norway)
• The Child (dir. Linda Olte; Latvia, Lithuania)
• The Crossroad Street (dir. Ivars Seleckis; Latvia, USSR)
• The Devil’s Bride (dir. Arūnas Žebriūnas; Lithuania)
• The Eternal Light (dir. Algimantas Puipa; Lithuania)
• Ulya (dir. Viesturs Kairišs; Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania)
• The Perfect (dir. Laura Liventaal; Estonia)
• The Road Never Ends (dir. Viktors Buda; Latvia)
• The Shrew of Destiny (dir. Marcin Wasilewski; Poland, Lithuania)
• Three Weeks Under the Sea (dir. Martin Kuba; Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania)
• To Die To Live (dir. Yuliia Hontaruk; Ukraine, Latvia, Slovakia)
• Toomas Leius. Life On the Line (dir. Henrik Kalmet; Estonia)
• Vesna (dir. Rostislav Kirpičenko; France, Lithuania, Estonia)
• When I Was a Child (dir. Algirdas Araminas; Lithuania)

Spotlight: Basque Audiovisual

• Caballé (dir. Patricia Ortega; Spain, Belgium)
• The Daughters (dir. Daniel Romero; Spain)

Midnight Shivers

• 5 More Minutes (dir. Javi Ruiz Caldera; Spain)
• Bloody Tennis (dir. Nikias Chryssos; Germany)
• Breeder (dir. Alex Goyette; Canada)
• Corpus (dir. Corrin Evans; United States)
• Nervous (dir. Abner Pastoll; Republic of Korea, United Kingdom)
• Red Snow (dir. Ilja Rautsi; Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
• River (dir. Joshua Giuliano; United States)
• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (dir. Jane Schoenbrun; Canada, United Kingdom)
• The Daughters (dir. Daniel Romero; Spain)
• The Leader (dir. Michael Gallagher; Canada, United States)

Standing with Ukraine

• Camouflage (dir. Mykyta Gibalenko; Germany)
• I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (dir. Isabelle Stever; Germany, Ukraine)
• Living On (dir. Nerijus Milerius; Lithuania, Ukraine)
• Slava (dir. Denys Sobolev; Ukraine)
• Slava: Shooting With Music (dir. Jacqui Morris, David Morris; United Kingdom)
• To Die To Live (dir. Yuliia Hontaruk; Ukraine, Latvia, Slovakia)
• Traces (dir. Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk; Poland, Ukraine)
• Vesna (dir. Rostislav Kirpičenko; France, Lithuania, Estonia)
• Wings (dir. Ana Rocha de Sousa; Portugal, Ukraine, Cyprus)

Old Gold: Classic Films Come to Life

• “I am Not a Tourist, I Live Here” and “Tallinn Market” (dir. Konstantin Märska, Peeter Urbla; Estonia)
• Christmas in Vigala (dir. Mark Soosaar; Estonia)
• Death in Venice (dir. Luchino Visconti; Italy, France)
• Devil’s Island (dir. Friðrik Þór Friðriksson; Iceland, Germany, Norway, Denmark)
• Drifting Clouds (dir. Aki Kaurismäki; Finland, Germany, France)
• In the Shadow of Death (dir. Gunars Piesis; Latvia)
• Ludwig (dir. Luchino Visconti; Italy, France, Monaco)
• Mamma (dir. Suzanne Osten; Sweden)
• Tears of Stone (dir. Hilmar Oddsson; Iceland, Germany)
• The Crossroad Street (dir. Ivars Seleckis; Latvia, USSR)
• The Damned (dir. Luchino Visconti; Italy)
• The Devil’s Bride (dir. Arūnas Žebriūnas; Lithuania)
• The Double Life of Véronique (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski; France, Poland, Norway)
• The Eternal Light (dir. Algimantas Puipa; Lithuania)
• The Lonely Wife (dir. Satyajit Ray; India)
• The Promised Land (dir. Andrzej Wajda; Poland)
• Warsaw Bridge (dir. Pere Portabella; Spain)
• When I Was a Child (dir. Algirdas Araminas; Lithuania)

PÖFF Is Celebrating! This Is Where It All Began

• Devil’s Island (dir. Friðrik Þór Friðriksson; Iceland, Germany, Norway, Denmark)
• Drifting Clouds (dir. Aki Kaurismäki; Finland, Germany, France)
• Tears of Stone (dir. Hilmar Oddsson; Iceland, Germany)

Environmental and Science Film Programme

• In Cod We Trust (dir. Guro Saniola Bjerk; Finland, Norway)
• Jason’s Box (dir. Michael Strassburger; Germany)
• Let Our Mountains Live (dir. Håvard Bustnes; Finland, Norway)
• Nuisance Bear (dir. Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman; Canada, United Kingdom)
• PLASTIC LOVE! (dir. Sybilla Patrizia, Clementine Nuttall; Austria, Japan)
• Time and Water (dir. Sara Dosa; Iceland)

Estonian Olympic Committee Sports Film Programme

• Peegel (dir. Jaak Kilmi, Andres Keil; Estonia)
• Perfect Road (dir. Adam Bonke, Christian Bonke; Denmark)
• Sandra: The Drift Queen (dir. Juozapas Mikulėnas; Lithuania)
• SUMO: Spirit Weighs Nothing (dir. Erik Shirai; Japan, United Kingdom, United States)
• The Match (dir. Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco; Argentina, Spain)
• The Road Never Ends (dir. Viktors Buda; Latvia)
• Toomas Leius. Life On the Line (dir. Henrik Kalmet; Estonia)
• Up Again (dir. Eliška Cílková; Czechia)
• Villeneuve: Rise of A Champion (dir. Yan Lanouette Turgeon; Canada)

Just Film: Children’s Competition

• Children of Liberty (dir. Rémy Schaepman, Léahn Vivier-Chapas; France, Belgium, Luxembourg)
• Emil and the Detectives (dir. David Dietl; Germany)
• Jasmine & Jambo (dir. Silvia Cortés; Spain)
• Learning to Breathe Under Water (dir. Rebekah Fortune; United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland)
• Pikkuli and Starlight Reindeer (dir. Metsämarja Aittokoski; Finland)
• Tanit (dir. Pep Garrido; Spain)
• The Bryce Lee Story (dir. Arnold Lim; Canada)
• The Shrew of Destiny (dir. Marcin Wasilewski; Poland, Lithuania)

Just Film: ECFA Competition

• Children of Liberty (dir. Rémy Schaepman, Léahn Vivier-Chapas; France, Belgium, Luxembourg)
• Emil and the Detectives (dir. David Dietl; Germany)
• Jasmine & Jambo (dir. Silvia Cortés; Spain)
• Learning to Breathe Under Water (dir. Rebekah Fortune; United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland)
• Pikkuli and Starlight Reindeer (dir. Metsämarja Aittokoski; Finland)
• Tanit (dir. Pep Garrido; Spain)
• The Shrew of Destiny (dir. Marcin Wasilewski; Poland, Lithuania)

Just Film: International Youth Competition

• Change of Heart (dir. Hannah Elbke; Denmark)
• Henry’s Ebb (dir. Thomas Mendolia; United States)
• Holy Light (dir. Marian Crisan; Romania, Moldova, Slovakia)
• Joe Speedboat (dir. Sam de Jong; Netherlands)
• Liquid States (dir. Maria Wider; Poland)
• One of Them (dir. Marie Rosselet-Ruiz; France, Belgium)
• Such a Vivid Imagination (dir. Ina Lüders; United Kingdom)
• The Bitch Pack (dir. Claudia Estrada Tarascó; Belgium, Spain)
• The Bully Club (dir. Eunhye Hong Kim; Republic of Korea)
• Will You Care If I Die? (dir. Rojda Sekersöz; Sweden)

Just Film: Juniors’ Competition

• Betty Balloon (dir. Puk Grasten; Denmark)
• Julian (dir. Louise Bagnall; Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Luxembourg)
• Mumbo Jumbo (dir. Karsten Kiilerich, Stine Marie Buhl; Denmark)
• Papaya (dir. Priscilla Kellen; Brazil)

Just Film: Children’s Programme

• Atlas of the Universe (dir. Paul Negoescu; Romania, Bulgaria)
• Barry & Me (dir. Markus Welter; Switzerland)
• Born in the Jungle (dir. Edmunds Jansons; Latvia, Poland, Czechia)
• Extraordinary (dir. Marina Andree Škop, Vanda Raýmanová; Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Serbia)
• Garuda: Dare to Dream (dir. Ronny Gani; Indonesia)
• Just Call me Frida (dir. Katja Benrath; Germany)
• King of the Wanderers (dir. Janne Schmidt; Netherlands)
• Koschka (dir. Bernd Sahling; Germany)

Just Film: Children’s Rights Programme

• 17 (dir. Kosara Mitic; North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia)
• A Family (dir. Mees Peijnenburg; Netherlands, Belgium)
• A Place to Heal (dir. Cédric Kahn; France)
• Adam’s Apple (dir. Amy K. Jenkins; United States)
• Goodbye Cruel World (dir. Félix de Givry; France, Belgium)
• Hold Onto Me (dir. Myrsini Aristidou; Cyprus, Denmark, Greece)
• Joe Speedboat (dir. Sam de Jong; Netherlands)
• King of the Wanderers (dir. Janne Schmidt; Netherlands)
• River (dir. Zane Borg; Australia)
• Sad Girlz (dir. Fernanda Tovar; Mexico, France, Spain)

Just Film: Youth Programme

• 17 (dir. Kosara Mitic; North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia)
• A Girl Unknown (dir. Jing Zou; China, France)
• Big Girls Don’t Cry (dir. Paloma Schneideman; New Zealand)
• Congo Boy (dir. Rafiki Fariala; Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy)
• Extra Geography (dir. Molly Manners; United Kingdom)
• Mouse (dir. Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson; United States)
• Nuclear Boy (dir. Joren Molter; Netherlands)
• Oasis (dir. Jannis Lenz; Germany, Austria)
• River (dir. Zane Borg; Australia)
• Tangles (dir. Leah Nelson; United States)

Just Film: Doc@Just

• Adam’s Apple (dir. Amy K. Jenkins; United States)
• Crocodile (dir. Pietra Brettkelly, The Critics; Nigeria, New Zealand)
• The Mystery Package (dir. Silje Evensmo Jacobsen; Norway)

Just Film: Just Anime

• The Violinist (dir. Ervin Han, Raúl García; Italy, Spain, Singapore)

Sources

• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Discover the Full PÖFF30 Programme: Films from 87 Countries await
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Discover the Official and First Feature Competition Lineups
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Baltic Film Competition Lineup Highlights International Collaboration
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Get Your Ticket to the Opening Ceremony
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Sir Christopher Hampton to Lead PÖFF Official Competition Jury
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, PÖFF30 Focuses on Baltic Cinema
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Turns 30 with Major Leadership Changes and a New Curatorial Vision
• World Congress of Science & Factual Producers, WCSFP Sets Tallinn as 2026 Host City
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, TEGOS partner page
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, PÖFF30 online programme (film search, all programmes)
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, PÖFF Announces Documentary Competitions and Special Screenings