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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : J-P Valkeapää
fiche 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Béatrice Pollet
fiche film] (France), a legal drama starring Maud Wyler, Géraldine Nakache and Grégoire Colin; Adrian Goiginger’s The Fox [+lire aussi :
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interview : Adrian Goiginger
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interview : Hilmar Oddsson et Hera Hil…
fiche 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marysia Nikitiuk
fiche film], presented as “a tale of one strong woman, energetically told in a bold colour palette”, and Alexander Zhovna’s Sashenka [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], “based on a decidedly heavy true (Soviet murder) story” – and one co-production with Italy, Andrea Magnani’s Jailbird [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], starring Adriano Tardiolo (Happy as Lazzaro [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alice Rohrwacher
fiche 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : J-P Valkeapää
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And Yet We Were All Blind [+lire aussi :
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interview : Béatrice Pollet
fiche film] – Béatrice Pollet (France)
Jailbird [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Andrea Magnani (Italy/Ukraine)
Piece of My Heart [+lire aussi :
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interview : Dana Nechushtan
interview : Yannick Jozefzoon
fiche film] – Dana Nechushtan (Netherlands/Belgium)
The Fox [+lire aussi :
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interview : Adrian Goiginger
fiche film] – Adrian Goiginger (Germany/Austria)
Lucky Girl [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marysia Nikitiuk
fiche film] – Marysia Nikitiuk (Ukraine)
Night [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mona J. Hoel
fiche film] – Mona Hoel (Norway)
Bungalow – Lawrence Cote Collins (Canada)
Cold as Marble [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Asif Rustamov (Azerbaijan/France)
Sanaa – Sudhanshu Saria (India)
Ann [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ciaran Creagh
fiche film] – Ciaran Creagh (Ireland)
Sashenka [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Alexander Zhovna (Ukraine)
Ducks an Urban Legend – Shachar Rozen (Israel)
Plastic Symphony [+lire aussi :
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interview : Juraj Lehotský
fiche film] – Juraj Lehotský (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Poland)
Servus Papa, See You in Hell [+lire aussi :
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interview : Christopher Roth
fiche film] – Christopher Roth (Germany)
Stiekyt – Etienne Fourie (South Africa)
Driving Mum [+lire aussi :
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interview : Hilmar Oddsson et Hera Hil…
fiche film] – Hilmar Oddsson (Iceland/Estonia)
A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gentian Koçi
fiche 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)