Tallinn Black Nights Film Fest

Twenty film professionals from more twelve different countries will make up the 6 competition juries for films screening at the main programme of the 14th Black Nights Film Festival which runs from 24th November – 5th December 2010.

Concentrating on films from Europe and Asia, the International Competition EurAsia Jury will award a Grand Prix and jury prizes for Best Director, Actor and Actress from a diverse and excellent selection of competition films. The jury is made up of David Willis (USA), a producer of major motion pictures for over twenty years who can boast credits for films such as Die Hard: With a Vengeance and – currently in pre-production – the action film Kane and Lynch starring Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx. He will be joined Khaled Abol Naga (Egypt), a popular movie star in the Middle-East region who co-produced and starred in such films as Microphone and Heliopolis whilst also taking on the role UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Egypt, and Fatemeh Simin Motamed-Arya (Iran), one of the most celebrated actress in the history of Iranian cinema who has performed in over 50 films (including Men at Work that was shown at Black Nights in 2006), theatre plays and TV series. Finishing off the jury will be Intishal al Timimi (The Netherlands / Iraq), the programmer of Abu Dhabi Film Festival and advisory programmer of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Piret Tibbo-Hudgins (Estonia) a producer at Allfilm and lecturer of audiovisual management at the Baltic Film and Media School and Csaba Káel (Hungary), a consultant at the Budapest Palace of Arts and a lecturer at Werk Academy whose opera film Bank Ban (2002) was screened in many international festivals with success

The Tridens Baltic Feature Film Competition will shift the spotlight onto the best films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The jury includes Annamaria Percavassi (Italy), the artistic director of the Trieste Film Festival who also lectures at faculties and schools, edits books on cinematography and is especially interested in the cinematography of Central and Eastern Europe; Eduardo Valente (Brazil), a filmmaker whose three short films and first feature film (Eye of the Storm) have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival and Rasa Miskinyte (Lithuania) who works as an independent producer within her own company UAB “ERA FILM”, where she mostly produces creative documentaries, usually in international co-production.

The North American Independent Film Competition which presents a program of new indie films from the USA and Canada will be judged by Isabella Lindell (Sweden), who works as Distribution Manager at Scandinavian distribution company NonStop Entertainment, Brad Jurjens (USA), an Estonian native who has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 1996 and is the CEO of Hollywood-based production/distribution company Tavix Pictures, and Aivar Laan (Estonia), the founder of the first regular Estonian open-air cinema.

Other juries are the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) which will consist of Keoprasith Souvannavong (France), a radio, TV and written press journalist, Raman Chawla (India), the Senior Vice President of (The Film House) Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art which organises the well known Osian’s Cinefan festival of Asian cinema and Tiit Tuumalu (Estonia), a culture journalist and critic; the International Federation of Film Clubs from which André Viane (Portugal), Kersti Uudelt (Estonia) and Xavier Garcia Puerto (Spain) will represent those clubs and societies that keep film culture vital and thriving; and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) in which respected film journalists Margot Adorf (Estonia), Carmen Gray (New Zealand/UK) and Katharina Dockhorn (Germany) will present a prize from the critics perspective.

“An amazing array of films in competition demands an amazing array of people in the juries, and we’re honored to be able to welcome such a diverse range of industry professional from across the globe", POFF director Tiina Lokk declared in a prepared statement. Awards will be announced on Friday evening, 3 December at a gala awards ceremony that officially closes the ceremony (although public screenings will continue through Sunday). On Saturday evening, 4 December, the European Film Academy will be presenting the 23rd European Film Awards in Tallinn for the first time, kicking off a big year in 2011 for the city, when it be the European Capital of Culture.

Sandy Mandelberger, POFF Dailies Editor