The international Shorts Live-Action Competition will see 6 World Premieres: “A Perfect Maryam” (Dirs. Solmaz Etemadzadeh, Ara Torosian, 2025, Iran, USA), “No No Place Hotel” (Dir. Reinis Ubelis, 2025, Latvia), “Rotten” (Dir. Asli Bildirici, 2025, Netherlands), “Sirens” (Dir. Argyro Nicolaou, 2025, Cyprus), “Something Wild” (Dir. Zsuzsanna Konrad, 2025, Hungary), “Three Minutes” (Dir. Sofía Medrano, 2025, Argentina).

Laurence Boyce, Director of Short Film Programme: “The competition contains a plethora of delights, some of which have already garnered plaudits from the festival circuit whilst others will be making their debuts at PÖFF Shorts. This will be a chance for audiences to check filmmakers at the cutting edge of cinema whilst also enjoying some more established names who are at the top of their games.”

The New Talents sections consist of 20 live-action and 20 animated films, with also 6 films having their World Premiere at the Black Nights Film Festival: “Big Zeus” (Dir. Johannes Magnus Aule, 2025, Estonia), “But I Never Asked” (Dir. Nicole Humi?ski, 2025, Germany), “Can Circle Circles?” (Dir. Xuerou Huang, 2025, UK), “Dead Air” (Dir. Andrej Haring, 2025, Austria), “Liquor” (Dir. Yichen Huang, 2025, Germany), “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six” (Dir. Yingdan Lai, 2025, US, China).

Vassilis Kroustallis, Director of Animation Programme: “The international animation competition offers the latest and engaging in all sorts of animation shorts, from festival darlings to new discoveries and world premieres in 2D, 3D and stop-motion animation. From narrative to experimental discourses, all films — including our New Talents and our Children’s Animation competition programme — showcase a vast and quintessentially relevant overview of the contemporary animation scene.”

Among the 15 competing films in the Kids Animation Competition (part of the International Animation Competition), PÖFF Shorts will welcome the World Premiere of “Experiences And Learning. And Parenting” (2025) from Polish director Malgorzata Rybak.

The two Jury Prizes for the Best Film in the live-action and animation categories, as well as the best Estonian film selected by the international jury, will earn the right to be nominated for the short film Oscars. A nominee for the Best Short Film award of the European Film Academy will also be selected from among the competing films.

The films of the National Competition will be announced on October 14. The entire festival programme will be announced on October 30.

About Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Pimedate Ööde filmifestival, PÖFF) first took place in 1997. Since 2014, PÖFF is one of the 15 A-list film festivals accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) alongside the Cannes, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Locarno, Venice, Berlin, Cairo, Mar de Plata, Goa, Tokyo and other film festivals. The accreditation is renewed every year.

The aim of the festival is to present a comprehensive selection of world cinema from the last two years to a local and international audience, offering fresh film production with high artistic value.

Today, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with Industry @ Tallinn & Baltic Event and with the two sub-festivals, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts, has grown into one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe and the busiest regional industry platforms. The festival is an important meeting point for a rapidly growing number of industry professionals from around the globe.