Tallinn announces competition line-up

20-title showcase includes 13 world premieres

by Amber Wilkinson

Familiar by Călin Peter Netzer
Familiar by Călin Peter Netzer Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Film Festival

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has revealed the full line-up of its official selection, adding 16 films to the four announced last month.

It takes the total of world premieres in the section, incuding Boaz Yakin's Once Again (for the very first time) and Golden Bear winner (for Child's Pose) Călin Peter Netzer's Familiar.

Yakin's film sees "a legendary street dancer and a young spoken word poet reflect on their lives and past relationship, through dreams, dance battles, rap battles and memories", while Netzer's tale about a Romanian film director "who decides to make a film about his family's emigration to Germany in the Eighties".

The newly added titles also include five international premieres and features Paula Ortiz's Teresa, an adapatation of the stage play La Lengua en Pedazos by Juan Mayorga.

Festival director and head of programme, Tiina Lokk said: "This year's diverse programme has remarkably high artistic value with sharp social perspective. Each film tackles contemporary and relevant issues with a stimulating, fresh angle. At the same time, our Official Selection aims to connect high-quality narrative films with auteur cinema. Hence, new artistic approaches and cinema languages have always caught our attention."

The Grand Prix for best film comes with a €20,000 (£17,287) prize from Tallinn City Council. The full programme for the 27th PÖFF will be announced on October 17. The festival runs from November 3 to 19.

The full list of competition titles is below:

Amal Belgium. Director: Jawad Rhalib

Andrea's Love, Spain. Director: Manuel Martín Cuenca

Bad Actor, Mexico. Director: Jorge Cuchi

Ben-Joe, Japan. Director: Akira Iwamatsu

Consent, France. Director: Vanessa Filho

Familiar, Romania; France, Taiwan. Director: Călin Peter Netzer

Forever Hold Your Peace, Montenegro, Serbia, Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovenia. Director: Ivan Marinović

Invisible Windows, India, 2023. Director: Dr. Bijukumar Demodaran

Misericordia, Italy. Director: Emma Dante

Natasha's Dance, Netherlands. Director: Jos Stelling

October Metafiction, South Korea. Director: Kyu-jun Cho

Once Again (for the very first time, US. Director: Boaz Yakin

Oxygen Station, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia. Director: Ivan Tymchenko

Patient #1, Georgia, Russian Federation. Director: Rezo Gigineishvili

Ten Months, Israel. Director: Idan Hubel

Teresa, Spain. Director: Paula Ortiz

The G, Canada. Director: Karl R. Hearne

The Man From Rome, Netherlands, Germany. Director: Jaap van Heusden.

The Magnet Man, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands. Director: Gust Van den Berghe

White Flag, Mongolia, Switzerland, Japan. Director: Batbayar Chogsom

Share this with others on...
News

The division belle Suzannah Herbert on facing the US' troubled history and making Natchez

Spin-off alchemy Claude Schmitz on bringing back cop pairing for Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems

Past crime Christoffer Boe on creating a world for his period mystery Special Unit - The First Murder

The hidden river Helen MacDonald and Philippa Lowthorpe on adapting H Is For Hawk

This wild channel David Shadrack Smith and Jake Fogelnest on the content creation revolution and Public Access

Sundance announces winners Josephine, Nuisance Bear, Shame And Money and To Hold A Mountain take top prizes

More news and features

Interact

As we move into 2026, don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.

With awards season in full flow, you can keep track of the latest news on that here:

César nominations Nouvelle Vague leads the race for France's biggest awards

BAFTA nominations One Battle After Another and Sinners almost neck and neck

Golden Eddies Nominations for editing brilliance announced

OFCS Awards One Battle After Another triumphs; Sinners dominates