TALLINN: Free Range, third feature from Venice Horizons award-winning Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu was selected as Estonia’s entry for the 2013 foreign language Oscar nomination despite ciritical domestic response.

TALLINN: Kertu by Estonian director Ilmar Raag (The Class, Une Estonienne a Paris) topped Estonian box office for domestic films in 2013 with over 38,000 viewers to date.

TALLINN: The board of the Estonian Film Insitute , the country’s main film financing body, has appointed new management.  Edith Sepp-Dallas will assume the post of general director, while Piret Tibbo-Hudgins will become the chief producer responsible for reviewing financing applications.

TALLINN: Estonia will launch its first regional fund for the audiovisual industry after the Berlin European Film Market in the end of February, 2013.

TALLINN: The Estonian Film Foundation, the nation’s public film financing vehicle established in 1997, has entered a period of major reforms which will broaden the agency’s scope, while awaiting the appointment of a new director.

TALLINN: The board of the Estonian Film Foundation, the nation’s principal public film financing and development body, has passed a decision to reorganise the Foundation into Estonian Film Institute. The new Institute will be launched 1 January 2013 and is likely to have a new director.

TALLINN: The Tallinn-based Baltic Film and Media School (BFM) has opened its new purpose-built premises in the main campus of Tallinn University in the centre of Estonia’s capital.

TALLINN: Estonian director Ilmar Raag (The Class, Une Estonienne a Paris) has wrapped shooting of his new social drama, Kertu, with the premiere planned for spring 2013.

TALLINN: The Venice Horizons award-winning Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu is shooting his third feature film with the working title Free Range, scheduled for release in March 2013.

A new film commission, increased cinema attendance driven in part by popular domestic films, and the construction of a new post-production facility are all signs that Estonia has continued to build on its healthy film industry.