The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF, 11-27 November) has announced its full line-up of competition titles, after disclosing the first seven selected titles earlier this month.

According to the festival team, the films will “represent the diversity of geography, genres and themes, coming from both renowned, multi-award-winning auteurs and returning Black Nights favourites”. On this occasion, the Estonian gathering will host 19 world and four international premieres, including the five world and two international premieres previously announced.

Among the European highlights of the 2022 competition are J-P Valkeapää’s Hit Big [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: J-P Valkeapää
scheda film] (Finland), which revolves around a motley crew of Finns, transplanted to the Costa del Sol; Béatrice Pollet’s And Yet We Were All Blind [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Béatrice Pollet
scheda film] (France), a legal drama starring Maud Wyler, Géraldine Nakache and Grégoire Colin; Adrian Goiginger’s The Fox [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrian Goiginger
scheda film] (Germany/Austria), which focuses on the bond between a lonely military motorcycle courier and the titular fox as they embark on a turbulent wartime journey; and Hilmar Oddsson’s road trip Driving Mum [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hilmar Oddsson, Hera Hilmar
scheda film] (Iceland/Estonia), described as “an intensely personal, dreamlike journey against the stunning backdrop of Icelandic nature”.

It is worth mentioning the strong presence of Ukrainian cinema, with two Ukrainian productions – Marysia Nikitiuk’s Lucky Girl [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marysia Nikitiuk
scheda film], presented as “a tale of one strong woman, energetically told in a bold colour palette”, and Alexander Zhovna’s Sashenka [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], “based on a decidedly heavy true (Soviet murder) story” – and one co-production with Italy, Andrea Magnani’s Jailbird [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], starring Adriano Tardiolo (Happy as Lazzaro [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alice Rohrwacher
scheda film]) and labelled as “a film about freedom and testing your boundaries”.

Commenting on this year’s selection, festival director Tiina Lokk said: “I never cease to be surprised by the quality of the films we are able to present in the Official Selection. Again, we have a huge number of world premieres, and it means a great deal to me and the festival that so many filmmakers – both the established ones and the up-and-comers – trust us to introduce their new works to the world.” She continued, “It’s also wonderful to have several films in competition which have been developed in part through our programmes at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event. Looking at the full line-up, I think the competition for this year’s prizes will be stronger than ever.”

Moreover, the 2022 edition will see the introduction of a new competitive strand, Critics’ Picks. Led by critic and programmer Nikolaj Nikitin, Critics’ Picks thus joins the established Official Selection, First Features, Baltic Competition and Rebels with a Cause programmes. Specifically, Critics’ Picks is being introduced “to highlight more arthouse fare in the PÖFF line-up, starting with around 15 features in its first year”. Meanwhile, the Baltic Competition will exclusively screen fiction films and also considers minority Baltic co-productions eligible. The Rebels and First Features competitions will continue to represent their respective niches – namely, experimental works and fiction debuts.

For the first time, most programmes also have their own lead curators – with Triin Tramberg handling First Features, Edvinas Pukšta on Baltic Competition duty, Javier Garcia Puerto heading up the Rebels programme, Helmut Jänes leading Midnight Shivers and Tiit Tuumalu responsible for DOC@PÖFF. This year’s focus will be on Israeli film, organised alongside a showcase of Brazilian cinema.

Here is the full list of titles:

Official Selection – Competition

Hit Big [+leggi anche:
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intervista: J-P Valkeapää
scheda film] – J-P Valkeapää (Finland/Estonia/Spain)
And Yet We Were All Blind [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Béatrice Pollet
scheda film] – Béatrice Pollet (France)
Jailbird [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Andrea Magnani (Italy/Ukraine)
Piece of My Heart [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dana Nechushtan
intervista: Yannick Jozefzoon
scheda film] – Dana Nechushtan (Netherlands/Belgium)
The Fox [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Adrian Goiginger
scheda film] – Adrian Goiginger (Germany/Austria)
Lucky Girl [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marysia Nikitiuk
scheda film] – Marysia Nikitiuk (Ukraine)
Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mona J. Hoel
scheda film] – Mona Hoel (Norway)
Bungalow – Lawrence Cote Collins (Canada)
Cold as Marble [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Asif Rustamov (Azerbaijan/France)
Sanaa – Sudhanshu Saria (India)
Ann [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ciaran Creagh
scheda film] – Ciaran Creagh (Ireland)
Sashenka [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Alexander Zhovna (Ukraine)
Ducks an Urban Legend – Shachar Rozen (Israel)
Plastic Symphony [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juraj Lehotský
scheda film] – Juraj Lehotský (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Poland)
Servus Papa, See You in Hell [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christopher Roth
scheda film] – Christopher Roth (Germany)
Stiekyt – Etienne Fourie (South Africa)
Driving Mum [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hilmar Oddsson, Hera Hilmar
scheda film] – Hilmar Oddsson (Iceland/Estonia)
A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gentian Koçi
scheda film] – Gentian Koçi (Albania)
The Wastetown – Ahmad Bahrami (Iran)
River of Desire – Sergio Machado (Brazil)
Ginji the Speculator – Ryuichi Mino (Japan)
578 Magnum, 2022 – Lương Đình Dũng (Vietnam)
The Punishment – Matias Bize (Chile)