The initiatives of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, Script Pool Tallinn and POWR Baltic Stories Exchange focusing on scriptwriting, announced selected projects - including participants from Chile, Turkey, Faroe Islands, Spain, Russia as well as Nordic and Central European countries, attending the programmes this year. 

The seventh Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) ended on Sunday 25 October. This year, the festival lineup consisted of 129 films in 10 thematic programs and was presented in a new format – films were available for viewing in person as well as online across Latvia. Viewers in Riga, Jurmala, Ogre, Liepaja and Valmiera used the festival's online screenings most frequently. Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s drama Conference (Konferentsiya, Russia), a film about overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder over the course of many years and coming to terms with a tragic event, won the festival's feature film competition's main prize.

Art can imitate life’s complex and idiosyncratic stories in many ways, making them emotionally resonant for audiences throughout the world and their messages universally recognizable. But it can also heighten the terrifying mundanity of mankind’s many dark hours to the extent that the cinematic handling of the real stories about the many fallacies of human nature can become art itself. This is only one of numerous cultural and social issues director Andrew Levitas tackles in his sophomore feature Minamata, a gruesome tale of the legendary war photographer W. Eugene Smith’s artistic war against the negligence of a powerful corporation dumping toxic chemicals to a river nearby Japanese city of Minamata. Smith’s trail of tears to document the effects mercury poisoning had on the people was captured in beautiful yet artistic and subtle tones by the famed cinematographer Benoît Delhomme, producing yet another film that is visually astounding and emotionally evocative at the same time.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival sub-festival announces 115 titles across five different competition as PÖFF Shorts (17th-25h November 2020) celebrates its first year of being an Academy Award qualifying festival.

The 2020 edition of PÖFF Shorts, an official sub-festival of the A-List Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, has revealed the films which will be part of its six competitions. More than 110 short films and animations will be screened between 17th and 25th November both online and in cinemas.

Nearly 40 Hungarian artists, graphic designers, illustrators, animation directors displayed how they perceive the freelancing lifestyle in an online exhibition entitled “Like fish in the sea”. The event was organized by Balka and was presented at Design Week Budapest. The title of the project derives from a Hungarian proverb which roughly translates to “sound as a roach” meaning someone feels alright and lives a carefree life. 

The six-day online workshop of the MIDPOINT Shorts program starts on Sunday, October 18 and runs through the week till Friday, October 23.

The intensive work of 8 selected filmmakers with script consultant Pavel Marek and producer tutor Marija Razgute will be enriched by the presence of guest tutors. 

Participants will start their pitching training with Gabriele Brunnenmeyer, who will also give her lecture How To Pitch Your Film: 6 Questions for the Pitch. 

Head of When East Meets West Co-production Forum Alessandro Gropplero will join the workshop with his lecture A Short Journey Through Co-production Markets.