05/12/2011

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which had its 15th edition in November, boasts a large industry section comprising Baltic Event Film and Co-production Market, Black Market Industry Screenings, Industry Days and Books to Film literary rights market.

14 projects from the Baltic countries, Finland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Azerbaijan and Georgia were presented at the co-production market. The main prize, the Screen International Best Pitch Award, went to Finnish producer Ikka Matila for the historical drama Never Alone, to be directed by Klaus Härö (pictured). Two free accreditations for the Cannes Market in May went to Georgia’s Levan Koguashvili who will also direct Teacher in Love and Hungary’s Ferenc Pusztai for Godly Shift, to be directed by Mark Bodszar.

The Baltic Event screened eight new films from the region, including the biggest Lithuanian local hit ever, Donatas Ulvydas’s Tadas Blinda: The Legend is Born, and Estonia’s international hope for this year, Rainer Sarnet’s adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.

The Industry Days consisted of two days of panels on the topic 'Film Industry in the New Economy'. Speakers including Tim Cagney (British Film Institute), Simon Perry (Ateliers du Cinema Europeen),Chris Marcich (MPA EMEA), Linnar Viik (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), Charlotte Appelgren (Cineregio), producers, distributors and representatives of film bodies and commissions from the Baltic countries, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, USA, Thailand and South Korea, discussed film policies and politics, the role of film commissions as drivers of local film industries, new models of addressing online piracy, co-production structures, Eastern European municipal funds, and MEDIA’s new Guarantee Production Fund.