TALLINN: The hostage drama Deserted by Kadri Kõusaar received the top prize for best film at the 6th annual Estonian Film and Television Awards (EFTA). The best documentary award went to The Diary of Vaino Vahing by Rainer Sarnet, who also won the best director award.

TALLINN: Kalev, a biopic about the legendary Estonian basketball team of the nineties, will be released domestically by Hea film on 22 September 2022, after a difficult production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kalev is the directorial debut of the renowned music video maker Ove Musting.

TALLINN: The Estonian/German/Latvian/Lithuanian trilogy Melchior the Apothecary by Elmo Nüganen has been acquired by Global Screen. The final instalment of the series, Melchior the Apothecary: The Executioner's Daughter will be released in Estonia on 14 October 2022.

TALLINN: Melchior the Apothecary: The Ghost, the second film in a series of adaptations of Indrek Hargla’s medieval whodunits, had 20,181 admissions over the opening weekend. Besides leading the weekly box office, Elmo Nüganen’s film is the third to break the 20,000 opening weekend mark in 2022 after Minions: The Rise of Gru (68,636 admissions) and the first installment of the series, Melchior the Apothecary (29,642 admissions).

TALLINN: The second edition of the Animist International Animation Festival will screen 104 films of which 49 will be competing in the best short animation and best student animation categories. Held in Tallinn 17-20 August 2022, Animist is the only film festival in Estonia dedicated to animation.

TALLINN: The magical-realist tragedy 8 Views of Lake Biwa / Biwa järve 8 nägu by Marko Raat is currently shooting in Estonia. The Estonian/Finnish coproduction is led by Estonia’s most established film production company Allfilm, partnering with Helsinki-based Bufo.

TALLINN: The president of Estonia Alar Karis appointed Piret Hartman as new Estonian Minister of Culture on 18 July

TALLINN: Five short animated films based on the renowned writer Andrus Kivirähk’s short stories for children, are set to be released in the winter of 2023 as an omnibus long animated film titled Poop, Spring and Others. Two of them are already ready and three are still in production.

TALLINN: Estonian Cultural Endowment has given out 386,000 EUR as production and development grants for feature, animated and documentary films.

TALLINN: The domestic comedy Faulty Brides / Vigased pruudid by Ergo Kuld was shot during 18 days from 8 June to 10 July 2022 in the Matsalu National Park in the Lääne County, Estonia. It is also lensed by the director Ergo Kuld.