Black Nights announces debut feature line-up

Samuel Abrahams' Lady among competition

by Amber Wilkinson

Lady stars Sian Clifford
Lady stars Sian Clifford Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has announced the 13 films that will compete for the Best Debut Film Award, the year including nine world premieres and four international premieres. All of the filmmakers will be present in Tallinn.

The UK will be represented by Samuel Abrahams, whose mockumentary about a fame-seeking aristocrat, Lady, will screen after its world premiere at London Film Festival this month. It stars Fleabag's Sian Clifford in the lead.

Programme curator Triin Tramberg describes this year’s line-up as bold and unconventional, offering perspectives that challenge audiences and push them out of their comfort zones.

“It’s exciting to see that more and more Works in Progress from our industry programme are finding their way back to the festival,” Tramberg said. “This year’s Interior is a great example – the film won the Audience Award in the Works in Progress section at last year’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, and now returns to PÖFF in the Debut Feature Competition.”

The full line-up is below:

  • Admission (Taiwan), dir: Quentin Hsu
  • A Safe Place (Romania), dir: Cecilia Ştefănescu
  • Backstage Madness (Kyrgyzstan), dir: Amanbek Adžõmat
  • Dump of Untitled Pieces (Turkey), dir: Melik Kuru
  • Easy Girl (Germany), dir: Hille Norden
  • Elena’s Shift (Greece), dir: Stefanos Tsivopoulos
  • Hercules Falling (Denmark), dir: Christian Bonke
  • Interior (Germany), dir: Pascal Schuh
  • Juana (Mexico), dir: Daniel Giménez Cacho
  • Lady (UK), dir: Samuel Abrahams
  • My First Love (Norway), dir: Mari Storstein
  • Sunday Ninth (Belgium), dir: Kat Steppe
  • This Is Not Happening (Poland), dir: Artur Wyrzykowski

The Main Competition will be announced on October 10.

Share this with others on...
News

The ultimate act of friendship Robin Campillo on picking up the threads from the late Laurent Cantet

Reaching for a better future Daniel E Catullo, Julie DeVercelly and Gary DeVercelly on hazing and 4000 Days

Escaping perfection Andrew Durham on adapting Alysia Abbott's memoir Fairyland

Playing it safe Will Bates on early musical influences and scoring Tuner

For love of the game Scott Adkins on mixing it up with Deadpool, The Rip, Brawler and Reckless

Marjane Satrapi passes away at 56 Friends and family say Persepolis director died 'of sadness' a year after her late husband

More news and features

We're bringing you news, reviews and more from ImagineNative and Tribeca.



We're looking forward to Docs Ireland and the Fantasia International Film Festival.



We've recently brought you coverage of Cannes, Queer East, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Visions du Réel, Fantaspoa, Overlook, BFI Flare and SXSW, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival and the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

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.


It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest:


Fantasia Second wave of titles announced


Tribeca Artistic director Frédéric Boyer discusses the highlights of this year's edition


Cannes The 2026 Palme d'Or has gone to Fjord


Cannes Everytime wins Un Certain Regard prize


Cannes Yuri wins Palm Dog for La Perra


Cannes La Gradiva tops Critics' Week awards