From its humble beginnings in 1997, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia has developed into one the top events in all of Northern Europe, as evidenced by the impressive attendance at last year’s event. In all, 73,000 spectators turned out for the festivities in 2011, and more than 600 films were presented on movie screens across the city of Tallinn.
While the festival was originally meant to serve as a presentation of Nordic film, it has since expanded to include celebrate international works as well. Greek film is the main focus this year, and festival organizers intend to posthumously award influential Greek director Theo Angelopoulous with a lifetime achievement award. The festival will also celebrate the 100th year anniversary for the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Black Night’s movie screens will play host to a number of world and regional premieres, including “Christmas. Uncensored” by Lithuania’s Maris Martinsons and “Achal: The Stagnant” from India’s Bikramjit Gupta, according to the news source.
The festival will be held from November 12 to November 28. In comments to The Reporter, programmer Helmut Jänes promised works from a number of new names in the Baltic Sea filmmaking region. A competition program, Tridens Herring, has been established this year solely to feature debuts from talents from this area.
Black Nights and other similar festivals provide new talent with the opportunity to be seen on a major stage while also offering established filmmakers with the platform to debut new and exciting work. Powering these events with industry-leading indoor and outdoor movie screens, like the AIRSCREEN inflatable movie screen, is a must for any festival organizer.