Admissions per capita reached 1.8 (compared to 2.06 in 2023) and the ticket revenue was 18.4 m EUR (slightly down from 2023’s 20.98 m EUR).

The most attended film of the year was Despicable Me 4, followed by Inside Out 2 and the domestic title Alien 2, or The Return of Valdis in 17 Episodes / Tulnukas 2 ehk Valdise päästmine 17 osas, directed by Rasmus Merivoo and produced by Tallifornia.

The next domestic title, Life and Love / Elu jaarmastus directed by Helen Takkin and produced by Taska Film and Apollo Film Productions, took the 9th spot. It was preceded by Deadpool & Wolverine on the 4th, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune: Part Two, Moana 2 and The Garfield Movie. In the tenth spot we find the love drama It Ends with Us.

While nothing quite matched the international breakthrough of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood / Savvusanna sõsarad by Anna Hints (2023, coproduced by Estonian Alexandra Film, Icelandic Ursus Parvus and French Kepler 22 Productions), there were some unlikely success stories, like the DIY splatter-musical The Chainsaws Were Singing / Mootorsaed laulsid by Sander Maran (produced by Marani Bros) that gained attention at the top genre festivals like Fantasia (New Flesh Award for Best First Feature), Fantastic Fest (Best Horror Film) and Sitges.

There was a notable activity in the genre section of filmmaking, as several sci-fi and horror titles were released in the genres that have traditionally been neglected in Estonia.

PRODUCTION

The production year of 2024 was mostly characterised by delays. Several international coproductions that had been planned to be shot in 2024 were stalled in financing and moved to 2025. However, a few titles were still shot in 2024 as well.

Our Erika / Meie Erika is a historical biopic of the Olympic winning trek racer Erika Salumäe, who came from an extremely challenging background to rise to the top of the world of trek racing. The film is directed by German Golub and produced by Estonia’s Filmivabrik in coproduction with HansaFilm (Estonia), Uljana Kim Studio (Lithuania), Amber Land Films (Latvia) and Elisa Eesti (Estonia). The premiere is planned for February 2026.

New Money is a sequel to the 2023 film Free Money, and it is again directed by Rain Rannu and produced by Tallifornia. New Money will offer another entertaining look into the modern world of cryptocurrencies and alternative finances. It is scheduled for release in the Autumn of 2025.

Tallifornia also finished the shoots for two other titles that have already been released. Two of Meis a meta-level journey of self-discovery directed by twin filmmakers Romet and Raul Esko (also known as Eskobros), who also cast themselves in the lead of their directorial full-length debut. The film was theatrically released in the end of November 2024.

Long Papers is also a story of identity, about a generation of disillusioned youth in today’s Tallinn. The film is the second full-length feature film for Meel Paliale and it came out in January 2025.

In Aurora, we see the eponymous female character torn between the search for personal liberty and commitment to her religious familial background. The film is using the character-based improvisational method favoured by Mike Leigh, amongst others. Aurora was directed by Andres Maimik and Rain Tolk, and it was produced by Kuukulgur Film. It was released theatrically in January 2025.

Tolk and Maimik had a busy year because their hit from 2007, road film-comedy Jan Uuspõld Goes to Tartu, was greenlighted for a sequel. Jan Uuspõld Goes Home was also directed by Tolk and Maimik, and produced by Apollo Film Productions and Motor Entertainment Group. The film was theatrically released in February 2025.

Tõnis Pill’s debut feature Frank, produced by Allfilm, is a youth-oriented drama that focuses on a teenage boy who has grown up in an abusive environment for most of his childhood. Coming from a broken family, Paul ends up in a foreign city, where he starts making a series of wrong decisions to find happiness, but his inevitable downfall is prevented by a strange disabled man. The film premiered to great critical acclaim in March 2025 and surpassed itself in the box office every week for the first three weeks.

Another disconcerting trend in production is that few Estonian feature film projects have been chosen to be shot in the neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania instead of Estonia as the production there is considerably lower when it comes to crew, locations, transport, construction, etc.

Out of the minority coproductions shot in 2024, the Dutch/Estonian joint The Souls digs deeper into the mystical horror in a story where an urban man is stuck in a country house with his girlfriend after hurting himself on a hiking trail. The film is produced by PRPL in coproduction with Homeless Bob Productions, and it is directed by Tallulah H. Schwab, who helmed last year’s surreal Mr. K.

Another Dutch-helmed project coproduced with Estonia in 2024 is Idyllic / De Idylle by Aaron Rookus, an absurdly comedic family drama about three generations of a Dutch family questioning their past choices and future options. It is produced by Dutch Studio Ruba in coproduction with Estonia’s Allfilm and Polar Bear Films from Belgium.

Supporting Role by Ana Urushadze sees Georgia and Estonia uniting forces again in a tale about a once-famous star of Georgian cinema who, after contact with a younger female director at a casting session, begins to experience a process of self-transformation. The film is produced by Georgia’s Zazafilms (named after Zaza Urushadze, the deceased director father of Ana) in coproduction with Estonia’s Allfilm, Zeyno Film (Turkey), Cinetrain (Switzerland), Enkeny Films (Georgia) and Melograno Films (USA).

Ulya by the acclaimed Latvian director Viesturs Kairišs is an artistic biopic of a Latvian female basketball player Ulyana ‘Ulya’ Semyonova, who achieved the height of two meters by the age of 14 and became a legendary sportswoman. Director Kairišs is adamant that Ulya is not a sports film though, seeing it more like a Caspar Hauser story of Soviet Latvia. The film is produced by Lavia’s Ego Media, and coproduced by Estonia’s Allfilm, Lithuania’s Tremora and Poland’s Staron-Film. It stars male actor Karlis Arnolds Avots as Ulya. The film is scheduled to be released in 2026.

DISTRIBUTION

A total of 446 films were released in distribution in 2024 and out of those, 285 were new titles. A change from 2023 is that while the overall number of distributed titles rose slightly (from 424 in 2023), the number of new titles is almost the same (282 in 2023).

A total of 2.47 m admissions is a noticeable decline (from 2.82M), bringing in the box office of 18.4 m EUR (down from 20.98 m EUR in 2023). Admissions per capita were 1.8 and the average ticket price remained the same, 7.44 EUR.

There were 63 Estonian titles released theatrically, including 29 new titles. Estonian films had 323,741 admissions (almost half of 2023’s 613,227 admissions) with 2.3 m EUR revenue (down from 4.2 m EUR). Local market share, that had reached 21.75% in 2023, suffered a great fall, coming down to 13.11%.

VOD PLATFORMS AND ONLINE DISTRIBUTION

The VOD year of 2024 was quite generous in Estonia. There had never been such an abundance of selection and choices. Anyone can get Amazon, Netflix, Disney+ and Go3 next to the regular local telecoms for about 50 EUR altogether. Next to the main players there are a whole lot of niche providers focussing on arthouse cinema and other themes.

The Estonian Public Broadcast’s (ERR) Jupiter is improving its position as the only classical FVOD provider without advertising or any paywall, hitting 350,000 streaming clients monthly.

The Estonian film heritage is available on Arkaader. The platform offers access to a wide selection of Estonian films, ranging from classics of the Tallinnfilm era to contemporary works. Arkaader serves as an essential resource for schools, researchers, educators, and film enthusiasts, ensuring that Estonia’s cinematic legacy is preserved and accessible.

When we compare VOD data to linear TV statistics, it becomes clear that VOD cannot be ignored, and it takes up a large portion of any measurable screen time.

One notable trend is the growing versatility of the telecom’s TV-application offers. The new Telia TV box, for example, has made it much more comfortable to navigate between the HBO, Netflix and Telia’s own content. The client doesn’t have to juggle with different remotes and platforms any longer, getting a handier interface and better screen experience.

VOD platforms have started to create more of their own content than before. Go3 has produced several TV series, and partly even independently from its linear sister TV3, meaning also that not all content produced by Go3 would make it to TV3 channel.

Pan-Baltic collaboration has also become more active and there are various negotiations going on about projects planned to be coproduced.

EXHIBITION AND BOX OFFICE

Annual box office top ten numbers reflect the decline in theatrical statistics. The top spot is taken by Despicable Me 4 with 141,296 admissions, followed by Inside Out 2 with 134,912 admissions. In the third place, we find one of the two domestic titles, Alien 2, or The Return of Valdis in 17 Episodes / Tulnukas 2 ehk Valdise päästmine 17 osas by Rasmus Merivoo with 101,634 viewers. The film is a sequel to a super-popular 2007 short film that garnered over a million views on YouTube.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the strongest superhero title at number four with 93,969 admissions, followed by Kung Fu Panda 4 with 86,123 admissions. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two came in at number six with 82,689 admissions, followed by Moana 2 on the seventh position with 75,996 and The Garfield Movie on the eighth with 57,913 admissions.

In the ninth spot we find another Estonian title, Life and Love / Elu jaarmastus with 56,513 admissions. This directorial debut of Helen Takkin is an adaptation of the novel under the same title by the Estonian classic writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare. Produced by Taska Film and Apollo Film Productions, Life and Love tells the story of a young girl from the countryside, who moves to the big city and gets entangled with a wealthy dandy.

The Top 10 is rounded out by It Ends with Us, with 56,269 admissions.

The domestic Top 10 has a surprisingly good quota of documentary films, with three spots taken by docs. It is led by the two titles that also broke to the overall top 10, Alien 2, or The Return of Valdis in 17 Episodes /Tulnukas 2 ehk Valdise päästmine 17 osas (distributed by Tallifornia) with 101,634 admissions, and Life and Love / Elu jaarmastus (distributed by Hea Film) with 56,513 admissions.

The third spot went to The Shadow / Vari by Jaak Kilmi with 45,441 admissions. The film released by Hea Film is a fictitious historical “whodunit” where the role of a crime solving detective is given to the renowned Estonian poet Juhan Liiv. The Shadow was produced by Taska Film, Apollo Film Productions, HansaFilm and Ego Media.

The contemporary social drama Lioness /Emalõvi by Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo, a harrowing tale about a mother who loses a daughter to a street gang, came in fourth with 22,298 admissions. It was distributed by Hea Film and produced by Allfilm in coproduction with Latvia’s Ego Media, Germany’s Heimathafen Film and Estonia’s Elisa.

The film was awarded Best Estonian Film 2024 at the Estonian Film and TV Awards.

The fifth spot is taken by Two of Me / Mind on kaks by Esko Brothers, with 18,742 admissions, which was produced and distributed by Tallifornia. In the sixth and seventh place we find a tandem of sports documentary portraits going almost head-to-head. Anett, a portrait of the tennis player Anett Kontaveit directed by Kaupo Kruusiauk (produced and distributed by Flo Film) came sixth with 11,524 admissions, followed closely by Kelly: Someone Else’s Dream / Kelly. Kellegi teise unistus, a portrait of the freetsyle skiing prodigy Kelly Sildaru, with 11,377 admissions. The film directed by Helen Lõhmus and Leana Jalukse was produced by Oree Films and France’s PVS Company, and distributed by ACME Film.

The splatter-musical Chainsaws were Singing / Mootorsaed laulsid by Sander Maran achieved the eighth place with 7,026 admissions. The film was produced by Marani Bros and distributed by Tallifornia. In the ninth spot with 6,121 admissions we find another documentary, Vertical Money / Vara küps, an investigative exploration of the state of forests and forestry in Estonia. It is directed by Martti Helde, produced by Three Brothers and distributed by Hea Film.

The top ten is concluded by the long animated film A Greyhound of a Girl / Meisterkokk Mary by the Italian Enzo D’Alò. Produced by Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distributions, it involves several coproducers like Amrion (Estonia), Aliante (Italy), Jam Media (Ireland), Goag Productions (UK), Rija Films (Latvia) and Fish Blowing Bubbles (Germany). It was distributed by Hea Film and gathered 6,070 admissions.

Interestingly, in the field of distribution, the massive dominance of Hea Film receded in 2024. In the overall statistics, Hea Film is still the market leader with 46.04%, but it is slightly less than 2023’s 56.38%. ACME is in the second place with an improved position and 36.05% (up from 31.81%).

One big change in the overall picture is caused by the fact that the production company Tallifornia is distributing their own titles that have more success now, plus they are also picking up distribution duties of Estonian films by other companies. The result is third place in the overall distribution tally with a respectable 5.17% market share. Adastra Cinema follows with 4.22% and GPI with 2.22%. A total of 6.3% is left collectively to othersmaller distributors.

Tallifornia’s rise is especially glaring in the domestic market. While Hea Film still leads with 44.38%, Tallifornia claims second place, trailing closely behind with 39.42%. ACME has fallen to third place, going down to 7.42% (from 13%). The top three is followed by two more production companies - Flo Film with 3.56%, Homeless Bob Productions with 1.54%, and the rest are left with 3.68%.

American annual market share is lightly down with 61.67% (from 64% in 2023). Europe claimed the second spot from Estonia with 17.72%, and Estonia comes in third with 13.11%. The rest of the world shares the remaining 7.5% - a very pleasing result and a notable uptick from 2% in 2023.

While Latvia had an exceptional year and Lithuania also did well in terms of international success, Estonia had no standout arthouse hits on the festival circuit. Nevertheless, several Estonian films gained good exposure.

In the field of feature films, The Chainsaws Were Singing / Mootorsaed laulsid by Sander Maran emerged as an unexpected runaway hit on the genre film circuit. It got selected to three major genre film festivals: Fantasia, Fantastic Fest and Sitges, and ended up winning awards at two out of three. All in all, the film has amassed about 80 festivals as of today and shows no signs of slowing down.

The Chainsaws Were Singing also marked a certain emergence of genre cinema in domestic production. The Spanish director living in Estonia Miguel Llansó premiered his new dystopian sci-fi Infinite Summer / Igavene suvi (produced by Tallifornia, USA’s Savage Rose Films and Spanish Lanzadera Films) about a viral app that reduces people to dust, also at Fantasia.

Moonika Siimets’ alien-human exploration black comedy Black Hole / Must auk (produced by Amrion and Finland’s Aamu Film Company) premiered at Fantastic Fest, and went on to win the Free Spirit award in Warsaw. Alien 2 revisited the themes of alien abduction but the product was decidedly domestic.

On the more art house end of the spectre Marko Raat’s 8 Views of Lake Biwa / Biwa järve 8 nägu (Allfilm and Finland’s Bufo) premiered in Rotterdam and was later submitted by Estonia candidate film for the Academy Awards in the International Film category.

One of the 2023 titles, Invisible Fight / Nähtamatu võitlus by Rainer Sarnet, ended up as the nominee for the European film awards but didn’t make it past the first round. The film is a coproduction between Estonia, Greece, Latvia and Finland, premiered at Locarno in 2023 and was produced by Homeless Bob Productions and coproduced by Neda Film, White Picture and Helsinki Filmi.

There was some activity in the world of shorts. Notably, Anna Hints of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood / Savvusanna sõsarad had two short films coming out one after the other in the first half of the year. Weight of Light / Pimeala, about a rag picker girl in India that is being hustled by the parents, premiered in Tampere. Just a couple of months later Hints’ short film Sauna Day / Sanna päi premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week shorts programme.

In the sphere of animated short films, Anu-Laura Tuttelberg’s enchanting porcelain animation On Weary Wings Go By / Linnud läinud (Fork Film) premiered in the Locarno International Short Film Competition, and later won the Golden Dove for best short film at DOK Leipzig.

Domestically, Virgin Maali, the annual award by the Estonian Film Journalists’ Association, for 2024 went to the short hybrid documentary Sewing Machine / Õmbusmasin by Ülo Pikkov (produced by Silmviburlane), a personal animated documentary about the author’s Ukrainian roots, using archive film footage.

At the Estonian Film and TV Awards for 2023 held in April 2024, the big winner was Invisible Fight / Nähtamatu võitlus by Rainer Sarnet with nine prizes, including best film, screenplay (Rainer Sarnet), editing (Jussi Rautaniemi from Finland), music (Hino Koshiro from Japan), costume design (Jaanus Vahtra), hair & make-up (Anu Konze), actress (Ester Kuntu) and actor (Ursel Tilk). Another film to win in several categories was Smoke Sauna Sisterhood / Savvusanna sõsarad with best documentary, director (Anna Hints), cinematography (Ants Tammik) and sound design (Huldar Freyr Arnarson from Iceland).

GRANTS AND LEGISLATION

The Estonian Film Institute granted 7,785,631 m EUR to various film projects in 2024. Of this amount, 4,501,631 MEUR was allocated for the production of nine feature film projects, 303,000 EUR for the development of seven features, 91,000 EUR for feature film script support (17 projects), 150,000 EUR to three short films, 80,000 EUR for the development of three miniseries, 712,000 EUR for the production of 13 documentaries, and 128,000 EUR for the development of nine documentary projects. Estonian Stories documentary chronicles and documentary portraits got 150,000 EUR (12 projects). Nine animated films got 918,000 EUR for production, and five animated projects received 67,000 EUR for development. A total of 835,000 EUR went to ten minority coproductions.

Production grants went to the following feature films: Our Erika / Meie Erika by German Golub (produced by Filmivabrik), Fränk by Tõnis Pill (produced by Allfilm), Serafima by Veiko Õunpuu (produced by Nafta Films), Beatrice by Vallo Toomla (produced by Stellar Film), Pig Slaughter / Seatapp by Ove Musting (produced by Downtown Pictures), Dirt in Your Face / Musta porinäkku by Jaak Kilmi (produced by Taska Film), Something Real / Midagi tõelist by Evar Anvelt (produced by Nafta Films), At Your Service / Teieteenistuses by German Golub (produced by Stellar Film), and Morten by Ivan Pavljutshkov (produced by Kopli Kinokompanii).

From 31 minority coproduction applications, support was given to six feature films, one documentary and three animated films. The main production countries of those projects were Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland.

A total of 54 screenplay applications were submitted in 2024, of which 17 got supported (31.5%).

Out of 19 feature film development applications submitted, seven got supported (36.8%).

Out of 15 feature film production applications, six got supported (40%).

Out of 23 documentary development projects, nine got supported (39.1%).

Out of 18 documentary production applications, eight got supported (44.4%).

Out of 15 animated films development applications, five got supported (35.7%).

Out of 10 short animation production applications, seven got supported (70.0%).

Out of 15 short film applications, three got supported (20%).

Out of 31 minority coproduction projects, 10 got supported (32.3%).

In 2024, the Film Estonia cash rebate programme gave out a total of 5.93 m EUR for foreign projects shooting on location in Estonia. In 2024, which is the biggest number of projects thus far, 14 titles were granted a rebate.

The projects were a mix of animations, feature films and TV series originating from a range of different countries like Finland, USA, UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Once again Estonia had the honour of hosting a big scale Hollywood production with American spy thriller television series The Agency from Paramount+ with Showtime, produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith and Richard Gere.

Another large-scale project was a sequel to the massive box office hit Sisu- Sisu 2 by Jalmari Helander, to which Film Estonia allocated almost a quarter of its annual budget, which was 6 m EUR in 2024.

American drama film Bubble & Squeak written and directed by Evan Twohy, and starring Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Steven Yeun and Dave Franco, was shot entirely in Estonia, and it premiered as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

TV

While in 2023 it was evident that the audience was tired of heavier content related to war, politics and economy, the 2024 US presidential campaign and the consequent events brought international economy and security back in focus.

The Elections for the European Parliament also altered the power relationships, especially in domestic politics. Therefore, it is understandable that the audience returned to the objective and balanced coverage in news magazines and TV journalism.

But it is also important to emphasise the ascent in entertainment. Somewhat surprisingly, the most popular TV in 2024 were lifestyle shows (travelling, cooking, home design, etc). The year 2024 naturally belonged to sports as well. Paris Olympics and EU football championship brought along even the crowd generally not that invested in sports.

The TV year was full of variation. An average Estonian still watches TV for about four hours a day, and although the proportion of VOD and catch-up is on the rise, the trend seems to be slowing down, as sports and daily news have brought people back to traditional television.

CONTACTS:

ESTONIAN FILM INSTITUTE
Uus 3, Tallinn 10111
Phone: +372 627 60 60
Fax: +372 627 60 61
www.filmi.ee
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CULTURAL ENDOWMENT OF ESTONIA
Suur-Karja 23, Tallinn 10148
Phone: +372 699 9150
www.kulka.ee
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ESTONIAN ANIMATION UNION
Roo 9, Tallinn 10611
animaliit.ee
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ESTONIAN DOCUMENTARY GUILD
Ankru 10, 11713 Tallinn
www.dokfilm.ee
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ESTONIAN FILMMAKERS’ UNION
Uus 3, Tallinn 10111
Phone: +372 646 4068
www.kinoliit.ee
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Contact: Liisa Lotta Kask

ESTONIAN FILM INDUSTRY CLUSTER

Saue 11, Tallinn
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Contact:PiretTibbo-Hudgins

ESTONIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS ESC
Contact: Elen Lotman
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ESTONIAN FILM DIRECTORS’ GUILD
www.efg.ee
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Contact: LiinaTrishkina-Vanhatalo

ESTONIAN SCREENWRITERS’ GUILD
www.stsenaristid.ee
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Contact: Leana Jalukse

THE ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL ACTORS OF ESTONIA
Uus 5, Tallinn 10111
Phone: +372 646 4517
Fax: +372 646 4516
www.enliit.ee
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Contact: Reimo Sagor

THE ESTONIAN FILM JOURNALISTS’ASSOCIATION
Narvamnt 11e, Tallinn 10151
Phone: +372 669 8210
www.filmikriitik.ee
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Contact: Andrei Liimets

THE UNION OF ESTONIAN FILM CLUBS
Vikerlase 13-62, Tallinn 13616
Phone: +372 632 4662; +372 55 46042
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Contact: RaivoOlmet

ESTONIAN FILM MUSEUM
Pirita road 56, 10127 Tallinn
Phone: +372 6 968 600; +372 5620 8875
http://www.ajaloomuuseum.ee/en/filmmuseum
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Contact: Sten Kauber

ESTONIAN FILM DATABASE
Koidu 17-1, 10137 Tallinn
Phone: +372 6015982
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www.efis.ee/en 

ESTONIAN FILM ARCHIVES
Ristiku 84, Tallinn 10318
Phone: +372 693 8613
www.filmi.arhiiv.ee/index.php?lang=eng
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Report by Tristan Priimägi
Sources: The Estonian Film Institute, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia