Audio-Visual Production Grants (Announced on 9 November 2017)

BUCHAREST: The overwhelming majority of members of the Europa Cinemas network consider lack of finances as the biggest barrier to innovation, according to the survey The New Approaches to Audience Building – A Survey of Innovation in the Europa Cinemas Network, commissioned by Europa Cinemas and issued at the 20th EC Network Conference in Bucharest (24-26 November 2017).

 

This year sees the launch of Creative Gate - a platform designed to increase the visibility of the Estonian creative sector and help it explore new opportunities for growth and export.

A number of Estonian organisations in the field of film, culture, fashion, art and education have joined to create Creative Gate, whose main focus will be companies and professionals in production/post-production, film music, costume design, art direction, shorts/animation, casting and acting.  

Creative Gate will be presenting a number of events at this year’s Black Nights Film Festival and also provide year-round activities. Among the latter are the development of a new international brand platform for Estonian film based on a study conducted by Tallinn University, the website www.filminestonia.eu, and a project to promote Estonia as a location for recording film music using local sound studios, orchestras and choirs. Another priority is to support the companies in their international sales activity.

Tiina Lokk, Director of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival:
- Supporting the development of the wider audiovisual and creative industry is a key aim for us and we are excited to launch Creative Gate together with our partner organisations. With Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival now recognized as an A class festival we can offer a strong platform for new collaborations to emerge. The “gate” we envision opens in two directions – it will enable our talent to explore new markets, and make it easy for the international industry to discover the craftsmanship and creativity Estonia has to offer.  

Aivar Roop, Head of Creative Gate:
- Creative Gate is a recognition of the crucial roles music, cast, post production and other art department professions play for the creation of great films and we will be providing a wide range of initiatives to help develop and support them. The recent success and achievements of Estonian film makers put us in a great starting position. Many of our activities taking place after the festival are already fully booked, so we see a strong interest from the industry.

The partners of the project are Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School of Tallinn University; ShortEst Estonian Short Film Centre, Estonian Film Institute; Estonian Fashion Brands’ Association; Estonian Film Industry Export Union; Estonian Film Art Department and Film Artists’ Union.

The project is supported with the amount of 300 000 EUR from the European Regional Development Fund.

Creative Gate events taking place during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival:

Music Meets Film - Production Music Mentoring sessions - November 30 -December 1
In collaboration with Music Estonia, Music Meets Film offers a showcase of Estonian film music, masterclasses, concerts and mentoring sessions. Speakers include music supervisor Maggie Rodford (The King’s Speech, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), composer Tom Player (The Hobbit, Game of Thrones), music agent Nick Leonard and composer Chris Brown (House of Cards, Mad Men). The programme is curated by Estonian music editor Michael Pärt (The Danish Girl) who will also lead a session on “The How and the Why of Recording Your Next Score in Estonia”. Full programme: http://creativegate.ee/lahiaja/production-music-mentoring-sessions

Black Nights Catwalk - November 28
This evening event takes place in the black box of Kultuurikatel (Tallinn Creative Hub), and will bring together film music, fashion, and film art for an evening featuring a presentation of the new fashion umbrella brand “Northern Spirit”, the opening of a costume exhibition (see below), a presentation of Screen Stars Tallinn and Focus on Flanders, and much more.

Art Department Masterclass - November 28
Uli Hanisch, production designer and art director from Germany, whose credits include Babylon Berlin, Cloud Atlas and The Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, will give a master class for local film artists. In the afternoon, Hanisch will participate in a panel discussion – "International Co-production projects and travelling the world for film" – with production designer Markku Pätilä (The Man Without a Past, A Man’s Job) and costume designer Tiina Kaukanen (The Fencer, Frozen Land)

International Film Casting - How to Score the Roles You Dream About - November 28,
Meet the Screen Stars Tallinn mentors in a conversation about how to build an international career. Participants: Stephanie Holbrook, casting director (USA), Debbie McWilliams, casting director (UK), Beatrice Kruger, casting director (Italy), Molly Wansell, agent (UK), Georg Georgi, agent (Germany), Laura Munsterhjelm, agent (Finland), Deborah Kara Unger, actress (Canada) and Steven Bernstein, director (USA).

Costume Exhibition - November 28 - December 3
An exhibition of costumes and props used in Estonian films will open at the Black Nights Catwalk event, and be on display at Nordic Hotel Forum until the end of the festival.

In addition, there will be "FAM tours" – trips to potential film locations, with a focus on the company Nukufilm and the Estonian e-residency programme.

The programme is arranged with support from Max Factor, Flanders Film Fund and German Films.

For more information, please visit www.creativegate.ee and www.filminestonia.eu

 

These grants were announced by the State Cinematography Fund on 27 November 2017.

 

On 27 and 28 November, representatives of film and audiovisual field, experts, policymakers and visionaries will gather in Tallinn for the international visionary conference to discuss topical issues of the European media and film industry. The conference is organised within the framework of the Estonian Presidency of the EU Council, during the 21st Black Nights Film Festival and is opened by the Estonian Minister of Culture Indrek Saar.

The objective of the conference, organised by the Estonian Ministry of Culture at the Tallinn cinema Kino Kosmos IMAX  is to assess the impact of technological changes on the EU audiovisual landscape. Leading experts and visionaries from the audiovisual sector will discuss where the contemporary media and film industries are headed long-term and how the development of business models and analysing of big data affect the industry as well as culture more broadly. The conference will also focus on new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality which may significantly impact the functioning of the entire sector in the near future.
 
Just like Skype changed telecom, Uber the taxi and Spotify the music industry, the audiovisual sector will most likely experience an impact on the similar scale in the near future, Mati Kaalep, Adviser for Audiovisual issues at the Estonian Ministry of Culture and one of the organisers of the conference explained. „It is already apparent that we cannot proceed in the old way. This is clearly illustrated by the exceptional ease of piracy, which in turn, affects the functioning of the entire audiovisual sector. If a film is not released sufficiently quickly in a given country, the consumers will find the opportunity to access it illegally on the Internet, and the effective enforcement of copyrights on a large scale becomes extremely complicated ,“ Kaalep said.
 
He added that the mediation of audiovisual content is only one of the great changes accompanying technological advances – the changes occurring in the mediums that enable content consumption may be just as great, including data collection about people’s consumption habits.  „This , however, may be felt by the consumers as rather intrusive towards their rights.  Are such techniques acceptable in the European cultural space and will it also impact our behaviour, or the content that we are provided in the future? During the conference, these and many other questions will be addressed in our discussions,“ Kaalep explained.
 
The conference will present an impressive line-up of renowned speakers. One of the main keynote speeches will be presented by Jeremy Darroch, the CEO of Sky Group; Barak Berkowitz, Director of Operations and Strategy at the MIT Media Lab; Efe Cakarel, the founder and CEO of MUBI, a company focused on the streaming of art-house films. The participants in the subsequent discussions will include, among others, representatives from Google, Netflix, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), the European Commission and the European Film Agency Directors (EFADs). The conference will be closed with a keynote by Sir David Puttnam.

More information on the conference is available HERE.
Follow the live broadcast of the conference via the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union website HERE.

A visionary conference in audiovisual field entitled Pictured Futures: Connecting Content, Tech & Policy in Audiovisual Europe will take place on 27 and 28 Novemberas part of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, at the initiative of the Estonian Ministry of Culture and in cooperation with the Black Nights Film Festival and the Estonian Film Institute, supported by the European Commission and Enterprise Estonia. #picturedfutures #EU2017EE

 

 

2017 saw two sub-festivals of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) – Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers – join forces under one banner PÖFF Shorts, which ran from 21st-26th November, became the newest festival in the Baltics dedicated to short films and animation. At an award ceremony held in Tallinn's Kino Sõprus on Saturday 25 November, the winners of the first edition of  PÖFF Shorts were announced.

The Animated Dreams International Competition saw Estonian animation studios Nukufilm and Eesti Joonisfilm presenting Heino Pars’ Nail, an award named after the legendary Estonian animator. The award was designed by Estonian animator Riho Unt. The winner will also receive full accreditation, accommodation and travel to PÖFF Shorts in 2018.

A special mention went to AMONG THE BLACK WAVES (Dir. Anna Budanova, Russia) for being “A highly poetic take on a northern tale, accompanied by mesmerising graphic style which shows such a steady and confident hand of such a young artist. The crafted drawn animation takes us on a dark ride to the bottom of the sea, from which we can only reflect on life’s cruelties.”

The winner was OROGENESIS (Dir. Boris Labbé, Spain / France) of which the jury said: “It is not so often that an abstract experimental film manages to catch the attention over narrative works. However, this film did stand out. It elegantly built a subtle mix between simple landscapes to complexed abstraction, followed by a total soundtrack that left us emotionally triggered with a new perspective on time and space.”

The jury for the Animated Dreams International Competition consisted of Mati Kütt (Estonia), the renowned Estonian animator, Yves Nougarède (France), a member of the selection committee at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and Uri Kranot (Denmark), a filmmaker and the main tutor and content supervisor of AniDox:Lab.

The Sleepwalkers International Competition highlighted the the best live action fiction and documentary films. A special mention was awarded in this section to Joanna Rytel for her film STAY UPS (Sweden) which was praised by the jury for “Honesty, courage of being emotionally naked and injections of dark, sophisticated humour. A film that does not rely on facial expressions of characters, but leaves room for viewer’s imagination; a film that is not afraid to show hidden feelings and deal with family issues in a unique, brave way.”

The winner – which receives a prize from Canon – was Ukrainian film TECHNICAL BREAK (Dir. Philip Sotnychenko, Ukraine) for “... bold, transgressive and emotional filmmaking that integrates both style and substance and works on various levels, including social criticism, gender roles and contemporary reality of a post-soviet country, employing innovative and smart use of cinematography and unfolding as an emotional slap in the face.” The film received its International Premiere as part of PÖFF Shorts.

The Sleepwalkers Student Competition – with a prize sponsored by Playstation – was awarded to THE LAW OF AVERAGES (Dir. Elizabeth Rose, Canada). The jury said they gave the award  “As an appreciation of the courage to make a comedy that talks to international audiences, has well-written, funny and human characters, is flawlessly professionally crafted and employs intellectual humour about serious subjects such as death and family relationships.”

The jury for both the Sleepwalkers International and Student Competitions was made up of Rain Tolk (Estonia), the actor and director most known for starring in Autumn Ball, which was awarded the Orizzonti prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2007, Liene Linde (Latvia), the Latvian director whose latest short Seven Awkward Sex Scenes. Part One was chosen to be part of Future Frames at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and Enrico Vanucci (Italy), short film advisor at the Venice Film Festival and a short film programmer at Torino Short Film Market.

The Animated Dreams Student Competition saw a special mention go to BARBEQUE (Dir. Jenny Jokela, UK) for a movie “...with rich visual artistry which led us to unexpected journey.”

The main prize – sponsored by Sony – went to SOG (Dir. Jonatan Schwenk, Germany) because, in the words of the jury,  “The movie creates in a very impressive way an imaginary world, which borders with prehistoric and fictional. This draws you in and leaves you in bewilderment.”

The jury was comprised of Märt-Matis Lill (Estonia), head of Estonian Composers’ Union whose compositions can be heard in numerous films, theatrical and dance productions, Clémence Bragard (France), a programmer and general coordinator of the Festival national du film d’animation for AFCA and a moderator of Annecy International Animation Festival, and Aleksey Savinsky (Russia) an animation curator, the founder of St.Petersburg Theater Laboratory “Like Theater” and Insomnia animation festival.

The PÖFF Shorts National Competition saw both animations and live action films competing side by side for the first time. A special mention went to ISA [MAN TO MAN] (Dir. Mihail Lustin, Estonia) as the jury were “... really stunned by the narrative concept.”

The winner  – with a prize sponsored by Overall – was MOULINET (Dir. Sander Joon, Estonia) of which the jury said “We agreed unanimously on the winner of this category in less that one minute and we discussed the reasons for more than one hour. So we reached the point that there are some things that we can’t understand no matter how hard we try.”

The jury was Reet Aus (Estonia), the fashion and costume designer well known for her work in fashion, theatre and film, Anna Zača (Latvia), a curator, programmer and project manager for Short Riga and Clémence Bragard (France), who also serves on the Animated Dreams Student Competition Jury.

The 2017 edition of PÖFF Shorts took place from 21st-26th November 2017 at various venues around Tallinn, Estonia. It is a sub-festival of the Black Nights Film Festival which takes place 17th November –3rd December 2017

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is a unique event combining a feature film festival with the sub-festivals of animated films, short films and children/youth films. The festival aims to present Estonian audiences a comprehensive selection of world cinema in all its diversity, providing a friendly atmosphere for interaction between the audience and filmmakers from all around the world.

PÖFF Shorts, http://shorts.poff.ee/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/poffshorts
Black Nights Film Festival, http://www.poff.ee
ShortEst Estonian Short Film Center, www.shortest.eu

 

Launch of a new study examining strategic investment in the future of film