Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff)

Overview

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) is Estonia's premier film festival and one of the 15 FIAPF-accredited A-list competitive festivals in the world. Founded in 1997, the festival has grown into the largest film event in Northern Europe. The 30th edition runs November 6 to 22, 2026, in Tallinn with sidebar screenings in Tartu. Poff received FIAPF A-festival accreditation in 2014, placing it alongside Berlin, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Venice, San Sebastian, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

The festival programs over 300 films across competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature films, short films, animations, and youth films. Two sub-festivals operate under the Poff umbrella: Just Film (youth and children's films) and Poff Shorts (animation and short films). The 30th edition in 2026 marks a milestone anniversary for the festival.

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event runs November 9 to 20, 2026, alongside the festival. It is Northern Europe's largest international co-production market and industry platform, connecting film and audiovisual professionals from Northern Europe with partners from the USA, Asia, and the rest of Europe. The 2026 edition celebrates the 25th anniversary of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event. The Baltic Event Co-Production Market, the core industry program, runs November 18 to 20, 2026, with submissions open from May 4 to July 14, 2026.

Submission Details

Submissions are accepted through FilmFreeway. Key details for the 30th edition (2026):

Submission fees (feature films, competitive and non-competitive):

Submission fees (#youngfilmmaker International Competition, up to 20 minutes):

Eligibility requirements:

• Feature films submitted to the Competition must be over 60 minutes in length.
• Films submitted to the Competition must have been produced after January 1 of the festival year.
• Entry applications must be submitted through FilmFreeway. Applications submitted by post, email, or any other form are not considered eligible.
• The festival has the right to refuse late submissions.
• A screening link must be provided for the selection committee.
• The festival requests at least five programmers or committee members to review each submission.

Key Sections

• Official Selection Competition - competitive section for feature films, the festival's main competition
• First Features Competition - competitive section for debut feature films
• Rebel Competition - competitive section for distinctive and innovative films
• #youngfilmmaker International Competition - competitive section for short films up to 20 minutes by young filmmakers
• Non-Competitive Programme - out-of-competition feature film selections
• Just Film - sub-festival for youth and children's films, with its own competitive and non-competitive sections
• Poff Shorts - sub-festival for animation and short films
• Forum - non-competitive section for bold and innovative cinema
• Special Screenings - gala screenings, premieres, and event films

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event is the festival's industry platform and the most commercially valuable component for filmmakers seeking financing, co-production partners, or sales agent representation. The 2026 edition runs November 9 to 20 and celebrates its 25th anniversary. The platform consists of four core pillars:

Film Industry Programmes:

• Baltic Event Co-Production Market - Northern Europe's largest international co-production market, running November 18 to 20. Submissions open May 4 to July 14, 2026. Selected projects receive the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. The market also accepts children and youth film projects.
• Works in Progress - showcases projects in production or post-production seeking sales agents or festival premieres. Three categories: Baltic Event Works in Progress, International Works in Progress, and Just Film Works in Progress.
• Script Pool - project competition highlighting five international projects with international potential, high distribution value, a final draft in place, and some financing secured. Submissions open June 1 to 30, 2026.
• European Genre Forum - co-production market for genre films
• Shorts Industry - industry program for short films
• Press & Industry Screenings - accredited screenings for industry professionals

TV Beats (Drama Series Summit):

• Co-Financing Market - for drama series in development
• Screening Day - showcase of completed series
• Forum & MIDPOINT - series development program

Discovery Campus (Talent Programmes):

• Black Nights Stars - for young actors and actresses developing international careers
• Black Room - for talents in art department. Submissions open until June 30, 2026.
• Music Meets Film - for film music professionals
• Frame Within a Frame - for cinematographers
• Breaking into the Industry - for aspiring producers. Submissions open in August.
• Tallinn Industry Academy - for emerging professionals in film circulation. Submissions open in August.

Goes to Cannes Partnership:

Poff partners with Marche du Film to present selected projects at the "Goes to Cannes" showcase. In 2026, two of three awarded projects at Goes to Cannes were presented by Poff, giving filmmakers exposure at the Cannes Film Market.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Poff is the only FIAPF A-list festival in Northern Europe and the Baltic region. For filmmakers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and the broader Nordic-Baltic region, Poff is the most important competitive platform. The Baltic Event Co-Production Market is the primary entry point for Northern European co-production financing, and the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award provides direct funding for selected projects.

The submission fees ($85 to $120 USD for features) are moderate compared to other A-list festivals. The #youngfilmmaker competition offers a significantly reduced fee (5 to 10 EUR) for short films up to 20 minutes, making it accessible for student and emerging filmmakers.

For filmmakers seeking industry connections, Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event provides access to Northern European producers, sales agents, and distributors. The Works in Progress program is particularly valuable for films in post-production seeking sales agent attachment or festival premiere opportunities. The Script Pool competition accepts projects with a final draft and some financing secured, offering a development pathway for projects that are beyond the concept stage but not yet in production.

The festival's partnership with Goes to Cannes creates a direct pipeline from Poff to the Cannes Marche du Film. Projects presented at Industry@Tallinn can be selected for the Goes to Cannes showcase at the following Cannes festival, providing a second high-profile industry platform.

Filmmakers should note that Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event operates on a separate submission timeline from the main festival. While film submissions close August 24, industry project submissions (Baltic Event Co-Production Market, Script Pool, Black Room) have deadlines in June and July. Filmmakers interested in both festival selection and industry participation should track both timelines.

Major Awards

Poff presents awards across its competitive sections. The main competition awards include:

Official Selection Competition:

• Grand Prix - best film in the Official Selection
• Best Director
• Best Screenplay
• Best Actor
• Best Actress
• Special Jury Prize

First Features Competition:

• Best First Feature

Rebel Competition:

• Best Film in the Rebel section

#youngfilmmaker International Competition:

• Best Short Film (up to 20 minutes)

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event Awards:

• Eurimages Co-Production Development Award - presented at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market
• Works in Progress Awards - across Baltic Event, International, and Just Film categories
• Script Pool Award - for the winning script project
• Additional awards recognizing promising producers and Discovery Campus talent

In total, the 2024 Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event presented 15 awards to film projects in various stages of scriptwriting, development, or post-production, plus two additional awards recognizing promising producers.

Festival History

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival was founded in 1997 in Tallinn, Estonia, shortly after the country regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The festival began as a small local event and grew steadily over three decades into the largest film festival in Northern Europe.

Poff received FIAPF accreditation as a competitive festival in 2014, a milestone that placed it among the 15 A-list festivals worldwide. This accreditation recognized the festival's international impact for films and the industry, alongside established festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Venice, San Sebastian, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event was established in 2001 and has grown into Northern Europe's largest international co-production market. The Baltic Event Co-Production Market has facilitated numerous co-productions across the Baltic-Nordic region and beyond. The 2026 edition marks the 25th anniversary of the industry platform.

The festival operates two sub-festivals: Just Film (founded for youth and children's cinema) and Poff Shorts (for animation and short films). These sub-festivals have their own competitive sections and submission processes, though all operate under the Poff umbrella and share the November festival dates.

The 30th edition in 2026 runs November 6 to 22 in Tallinn with sidebar screenings in Tartu, Estonia's second-largest city. The festival is organized by the Poff Foundation, a nonprofit organization that also operates year-round film education and industry development programs in Estonia.

Past Winners

The 30th edition (2026) has not yet taken place at the time of writing. Here are the winners from the three most recent completed editions:

2025 (29th Edition) Winners:

• Grand Prix (Best Film, Official Selection): The Good Daughter by Julia de Paz Solvas (Spain) - a family drama exploring conflicts through the eyes of a teenage girl. The film also won the Audience Award, making it the first time in Poff history that the same film won both the Grand Prix and the Audience Award. Sales agent: Beta Cinema. The film also won Best Actress (Kiara Arancibia, a non-professional actor).
• Best Director (Official Selection): Ali Vatansever for Lifelike (Turkey/Greece/Romania) - a meditation on mortality partly shot in VRChat. Also won Original Score (Erdem Helvacioglu).
• Best Actor (shared): Aladdin Detlefsen and Kanji Tsuda for The Frog and the Water (Germany), directed by Thomas Stuber
• Best First Feature: Hercules Falling by Christian Bonke (Denmark), starring Dar Salim (Game of Thrones, Borgen) as a former soldier with PTSD. Also won the FIPRESCI Prize.
• Best Film (Critics' Picks): China Sea by Jurgis Matulevicius (Lithuania)
• Best Film (Rebels With a Cause): The Baronesses by Nabil Ben Yadir and Mokhtaria Badaoui
• Best Film (Baltic Film Competition): The Visitor by Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania)

2024 (28th Edition) Winners:

• Grand Prix (Best Film, Official Selection): Silent City Driver by Sengedorj Janchivdorj (Mongolia) - a dark fairy tale using Mongolia's urban landscapes, also won Best Production Design (Munkhbat Shirnen). The Grand Prix comes with a EUR 20,000 grant from the city of Tallinn, shared by the director and producer. Janchivdorj's previous feature The Sales Girl (2021) won the Audience Award at Poff's summer festival Tartuffe.
• Best Director: Nir Bergman for Pink Lady (Israel/Italy) - comes with a EUR 5,000 grant from Alexela
• FIPRESCI Prize: Mongrels by Jerome Yoo (Canada) - a Korean family immigration story set in rural Canada in the 1990s, distributed by Game Theory Films. The film world premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where Yoo won the Horizon Award for emerging Canadian director.
• The 2024 edition broke the all-time audience record with 93,044 admissions, surpassing the previous record set in 2019. The festival hosted 1,705 guests from 65 countries and was covered by 141 journalists from 24 countries.

2023 (27th Edition) Winners:

• Grand Prix (Best Film, Official Selection): Misericordia by Emma Dante (Italy) - a film about humanity in a marginalized community, described by the jury as "beautifully directed, shot and acted"
• Best Director: Manuel Martin Cuenca for Andrea's Love (Spain)
• Best Cinematography: Goert Giltay for Natasha's Dance (Netherlands), directed by Jos Stelling
• Best Film (First Features): The Moon is Upside Down by Loren Taylor (New Zealand)

Notable Alumni

Poff has served as a world premiere platform for films that went on to Oscar submissions and international distribution:

• I, The Song by Dechen Roder (Bhutan) - world premiered at Poff 2024 in the Critics' Picks section, where Roder won Best Director. The film was the first Bhutanese film ever to premiere at Poff. Following Tallinn, it had its Asian premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, swept Bhutan's National Film Awards (winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and acting awards), and was selected as Bhutan's official submission for the International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.
• Rolling Papers - premiered in the Just Film lineup at Poff 2024, winning the audience award in the International Youth Competition. The film later won the Film of the Year honor from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and was selected as Estonia's Oscar submission for the 98th Academy Awards.
• The Good Daughter (2025 Grand Prix winner) - Julia de Paz Solvas's film was picked up by sales agent Beta Cinema. Winning both the Grand Prix and Audience Award at Poff gave the film commercial momentum for international sales. The film's Catalan cinema context was part of Poff's 2025 Focus on Catalan Cinema.
• Mongrels by Jerome Yoo (2024 FIPRESCI winner) - world premiered at Vancouver International Film Festival (Horizon Award), then won the FIPRESCI Prize at Poff. Distributed by Game Theory Films. The film follows a Korean family that immigrated to rural Canada in the 1990s.
• Silent City Driver (2024 Grand Prix winner) - Sengedorj Janchivdorj's film from Mongolia used the country's urban landscapes to tell a story about life on the edge. The director's previous feature The Sales Girl was an international hit including at Poff's Tartuffe summer festival.

Submission Tips

Poff accepts submissions only through FilmFreeway. Applications submitted by post, email, or any other form are not considered eligible. This is a hard rule - do not attempt alternative submission methods.

Feature films submitted to the Competition must be over 60 minutes in length and produced after January 1 of the festival year. The festival has the right to refuse late submissions, so adhere to deadlines strictly. Three deadline tiers exist: Regular (June 29, 2026), Extended (August 17, 2026), and Final (August 24, 2026), with fees increasing from 69 EUR to 100 EUR.

The #youngfilmmaker International Competition is a separate category for short films up to 20 minutes by young filmmakers, with significantly reduced fees (5 to 10 EUR). This is one of the most affordable competitive submission categories at any A-list festival. Student and emerging filmmakers should target this category.

The festival requests at least five programmers or committee members to review each submission. This means your film is evaluated by multiple perspectives, but also that the selection process takes time. Notification comes on October 11, 2026, less than a month before the festival begins on November 6.

A screening link must be provided for the selection committee. Ensure your link is accessible, password-protected if necessary, and available through the notification date. Do not let links expire before the selection process concludes.

For industry project submissions (Baltic Event Co-Production Market, Script Pool, Black Room), deadlines are earlier than the main festival submissions. Baltic Event Co-Production Market submissions close July 14, 2026. Script Pool closes June 30, 2026. If you want both festival selection and industry participation, track both timelines separately.

The Works in Progress program is for films in production or post-production seeking sales agents or festival premieres. Three categories exist: Baltic Event Works in Progress, International Works in Progress, and Just Film Works in Progress. This is a separate submission from the main film competition and targets projects at a different stage.

Industry Reputation

Poff is the only FIAPF A-list competitive festival in Northern Europe and the Baltic region. This accreditation, received in 2014, places it alongside Berlin, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Venice, San Sebastian, Tokyo, and Shanghai. For filmmakers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and the broader Nordic-Baltic region, Poff is the most important competitive platform.

The 2024 edition broke all-time records: 93,044 admissions (previous record was ~90,000 in 2019), 118 sold-out screenings, 250 feature films and 323 short films from 82 countries, 864 screenings, 1,705 guests from 65 countries, and 78 international press delegates. The festival covered media in nearly 100 countries with 43 billion potential media coverage contacts.

Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event is Northern Europe's largest international co-production market, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026. The Baltic Event Co-Production Market facilitates co-productions across the Baltic-Nordic region and beyond. The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award provides direct funding for selected projects. The market accepts both general projects and children/youth film projects.

The Goes to Cannes partnership creates a direct pipeline from Poff to the Cannes Marche du Film. In 2026, two of three awarded projects at Goes to Cannes were presented by Poff. Projects presented at Industry@Tallinn can be selected for the Goes to Cannes showcase at the following Cannes festival, providing a second high-profile industry platform.

The festival's Oscar submission track record is growing. I, The Song (Bhutan's 2025 Oscar submission) and Rolling Papers (Estonia's 2026 Oscar submission) both premiered at Poff. This makes Poff an attractive launch platform for films targeting the International Feature Film Oscar category, particularly for smaller film industries seeking festival exposure before the Oscar submission deadline.

The Grand Prix comes with a EUR 20,000 grant from the city of Tallinn, shared by the director and producer. Best Director receives EUR 5,000 from Alexela. Best Film in the First Feature Competition receives EUR 5,000 from R-Kiosk. Best Baltic film receives EUR 5,000 from Piletilevi. These are meaningful cash prizes compared to many A-list festivals.

The 29th edition (2025) was the first to combine the festival and Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event awards in a single ceremony. This integration reflects the festival's effort to connect its competitive and industry programs more tightly, creating a unified platform for both film exhibition and business activity.

Watch

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Official Poff trailer for Reading Lolita in Tehran, screened at the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2024. The film adapts Azar Nafisi's memoir about teaching forbidden literature in Iran.

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Official Poff trailer for Renovation (Remont) by Gabriele Urbonaite, screened at the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2025. A Lithuania/Latvia/Belgium co-production about construction and renovation.

See Also

Calculate your total festival submission costs and projected return using the Festival ROI Calculator. Estimate your acceptance probability with the Festival Acceptance Odds Estimator. For co-production deal structures, see Distribution Deals Explained. For festival strategy guidance, see Film Festival Strategy. Submit through the Poff FilmFreeway page or visit the official festival site. For industry project submissions, visit Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event.