Tallinn Fest Honcho Tiina Lokk on her Program and Challenges

Tiina Lokk, the founder and managing director of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF), one of the largest festivals in Northern Europe, has put together with her team of 15 programmers, another strong and varied harvest for the fest’s 28th edition unspooling Nov. 8-23 in the Estonian capital. 

Split into six main competition strands and another 37 sections, this year’s lineup frames a wealth of world film gems for all tastes, with an emphasis on the best from the Baltic and Nordic regions, Central and Eastern Europe. 

A total of 250 features and 323 short films from 82 countries will be showcased across PÖFF’S main program and the sub-festival Just Film for kids and youth, including 57 world premieres and 27 international premieres. 

Next to the German feel-good comedy “Long Story Short” set to kick start the event on Nov. 8, hotly anticipated world premieres include Klaus Härö’s “Never Alone” (acquired by Menemsha Films for the U.S.), the French thriller “Out of Control” starring Omar Sy, Latvian drama “The Exalted” by the award-winning Juris Kursietis (“Oleg”, “Soviet Jeans”) and Chilean psycho thriller “A Yard of Jackals” starring Nestór Cantillana and Blanca Lewin from the HBO series “Fugitives”.

Other highlights include special focuses on German cinema, on Georgian independent cinema, a Lifetime Tribute to Estonian master Peeter Simm, a new documentary competition strand, and the Dennis Davidson Spotlight Award to British-Palestinian helmer Farah Nabulsi for her debut pic “The Teacher,” And as a cherry on the cake,  the 88,000-plus film fan clients will be able to play with the new AI Susi recommendation tool to create their own program.  

One of the Baltic region’s biggest film players, ranked by Variety among “50 Women That Have Made an Impact in Global Entertainment” in 2021, Lokk sat down with Variety ahead of PÖFF to discuss her lineup and the challenges of festival programming amid ongoing global conflicts and budget cuts. 

How difficult was it for you and your team to put together your program amid global conflicts?

I’d say that last year was more difficult: the Gaza conflict had just started, we had a very fiery Focus region from the Balkans, the Russian-Ukrainian war. This year has been so far quite easy. But we’re very aware of what’s going on in various festivals. A new kind of censorship is emerging with the conflicts, and people in favor either of Palestine or Israel, Ukraine or Russia, China, Iran etc. are putting pressure on festivals. For me it’s vital to stay free and independent as a programmer. Otherwise I would quit.

Do you feel the job of a programmer is more challenging than ever?

Running the festival today is definitely tougher compared to when I started with PÖFF back in 1997. We’re sticking to our cultural and educational mandates, but nowadays, we also need to have a strong industry sidebar which can act as an engine to drive the local – and regional – audiovisual sectors and contribute to setting trends internationally. At the same time, we should create the best conditions for each country to tell its story and for filmmakers to establish a dialogue with the audience. We should also be able to defend each film, its topic and filmmaker equally. It’s a big responsibility. In addition to being well-oriented in the cinematic arts and film industry, I have to keep my finger on the pulse of international politics.

What is your stance about Russian films in your program?

We’re not including films from Russia with state financing due to the current war in Ukraine and there is no doubt that Russia is an aggressor in this conflict. But at the same time, I won’t close the doors to Russian filmmakers in exile, neither to Iranian, Palestinian, Israeli, Belarusian filmmakers. If I do close the doors to certain filmmakers because of what’s going on in their home country, I might soon be in a situation where I won’t have many countries represented at the festival, considering the problematic regimes in so many parts of the world. And in the current climate, there must be room for hope…

You also have a section dedicated to Georgian cinema. At a time when Western pollsters are questioning the victory of the pro-Russian Bidzina Ivanishvili’s government in Georgia, it feels all the more relevant to give space to independent Georgian filmmaking voices…

Absolutely. It’s essential for us to promote indie Georgian filmmakers who are free from any kind of censorship. I experienced censorship in my childhood and youth and never thought that we’d go back to this in our 21st century! Also censorship takes different shapes today, financial as well. During Soviet times, it was black and white. Censorship is more deceitful nowadays.

It’s been 10 years since PÖFF was upgraded to an A-list festival status. How do you view your position as the last big A-festival in the film calendar year?

The early years for us as an A-list festival were tough as producers, sales agents and distributors wanted to keep their major releases and world premieres for the following year, behind their production year. But somehow, we’ve been able to change that paradigm. Industry people suddenly noticed that films selected in our various competition programs are traveling very well on festival circuits, despite their year the production.

Is it easier for you today to secure world premieres?

Yes, although we are realistic. We’ll never be like Cannes, Venice, Berlin or even San Sebastian due to the small [Estonian] market behind us of 1.4 million inhabitants. We never even dream about premiering big U.S. blockbusters or films of famous film directors. Producers and sales agents of big commercial fare are clear about building their distribution strategy around major festival platforms in bigger markets. We are aware of our limitation.

That said, today, we’re in a very good place, and have reinforced our DNA as an auteur-focused film festival, where the commercial also meets the artistic. We’re very keen to please our large audience, to boost box office numbers as revenues from ticket sales make up around one third of our overall budget. It’s about keeping the balance especially in the competition sections, between auteur cinema and more commercial fare. We are an audience-friendly festival, and at the same time, we keep up the quality of auteur cinema in our program.

Are you O.K. budget-wise?

We’ve been O.K. only one year in our entire festival history and we’re perhaps the A-list festival with the smallest budget (€2.7 million: $2.9 million). Somehow, we’re managing, but for how long? Estonia still ranks as the country in Europe with the worst-performing economy. Under such circumstances, it’s hard to have much glitz and glamor. Every year, when stars tell us they want to come, I say “yes yes please do,” but at the same time I’m thinking “oh my God, don’t!”  We don’t have the money! Another issue is the logistics of bringing stars to Tallinn. Even within Europe, flights to Tallinn aren’t the most convenient. But we aren’t giving up and we have toughened up under the crisis, with the help of 700 volunteers. And if someday A-list stars would like to come, we’ll find the money!

Despite all odds, your festival lineup is superb. Can you say a few words about the submissions for this year’s program and selection process?

We have a strong team of 15 programmers. We all act as filters to titles that are submitted to us and split the films across the main competition, first features, documentaries. Then we all make suggestions for the Rebels with a Cause, the Critics’ Picks, Baltic Film Competition and Just Film section for kids and youth. Between April and late August, we’ve all watched 2,000+ films, but I do have the feeling that the volume has shrunk this year. We can still feel the COVID-effects on global production: There are less films on the market.

Why did you decide to introduce a documentary competition strand?

I’ve always been amazed by the sheer volume of documentaries submitted to us each year, despite the large number of documentary festivals and sections dedicated to the genre in other festivals. It was just becoming urgent for us to do something about it.

Secondly the documentary sector in Estonia – and in the Baltics – is thriving, contrary to fiction films that aren’t that strong these days, except in Lithuania. Therefore, it made sense to create a new competition section where documentaries could be promoted to the international community. Marianna Kaat and her team managed to put together an interesting international documentary competition, with strong emphasis on author cinema. Going forward, I’d like to build an industry sector for the doc film community next year, but without competing with existing doc platforms, notably in Latvia and Lithuania. We’d like to serve as a complementary doc platform in collaborations with them.

It’s hard to choose between your “babies,” but are there particular films that you’re proud to showcase in your flagship official competition?

As always, we have all kinds of films. The world is getting more storytelling-focused, but I come from a generation where films were closer to visual art than literature. I’m interested in all genres, fascinating stories, but I’m equally attracted to features where the director builds his narrative using symbols, audiovisual images and filmmaking tools in different challenging ways. I like multi-layered films. There are some true gems in the main competition but I won’t say which ones!

Have you noticed any thematic trend across the full festival lineup?

I would say a common theme across all sections this year is human relations, cross-generational, psychological dramas. During COVID, people were isolated and have obviously missed togetherness.

You will launch the first ever AI film recommender for PÖFF audiences called Susi. You must be thrilled to explore new ground with this audience-friendly tool?

Absolutely thrilled! Susi is our new AI generated child. We love him/her very much and so will the audience. It’s always tricky to choose from 200+ films on offer, but Susi will make the difference by suggesting films based on individuals’ tastes – country origin, genre, filmmaker, actor etc –  if you’re used to research tools on the web, you will love having this recommendation tool. I do hope it will help boost ticket sales at the festival!