As Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival has closed its 28th edition, superlatives seem well-deserved. Even though the dizzying number of about 600 participating films, topping last year’s 551 films, is no unbridled cause for celebration. Minus the approximately 350 shorts among this confounding cinematic crowd, this leaves an overwhelming 250 films. A number only competed by the Berlin International Film Festival whose persistent programming issues apparently didn’t deter the organizers of PÖFF, as the biggest film event of the Baltic commonly is referred to. One would barely be able to watch all of the feature films during one long sleepless binge watch.
This is what the 17 festival days sometimes feel like. The huge number of participating productions makes it much harder to spot exceptional works. All the more if they buried in one of the 45 sections beyond the headliners Official Competition, Critic’s Picks and First Feature Competition. Tellingly, the run for audience attention is easiest won by features from the category Best of Festivals and Screen International Critic’s Choice, showcasing works that already had successful runs at leading film festivals. The latter’s proclivity of combining popular and political choices also seems to guide the pick of the 28th Black Night’s winners.
Most original, artistic and unusual among them were the melancholic Mongolian Silent City Driver whose director Sengedorj Janchivdorj took home the Grand Prix, the award for the best first-time director for Chilean Diego Figueroa‘s hypnotic horror A Yard of Jackals. Much more conventional favorites were the first feature award for No Dogs Allowed as well as the award in the section Rebels with a Cause for Protected Men, both German productions of which there seem to be far too many, considering Germany was this year’s Focus Country even though it’s hardly an underrepresented film nation.
This would rather be Bhutan (bringing the mystery music film I, the Song), Ecuador (whimsical psycho pictorial Fishgirl), Serbia (evocative tragedy Sun Never Again), Palestine (politically pressing drama The Teacher), Iceland (reflective When The Light Breaks), Georgia (second spotlight country, heartfelt Holy Crosses) or Slovakia (stop-motion kid’s comedy Living Large). Some may be flawed, but they and many others still highlight Tallinn’s potential to showcase a multifaceted cinema beyond the conventional constraints and Eurocentric elitism of many big A-Listers. Even the controversy regarding Russian director Boris Guts‘ Official Competition entry Deaf Lovers, ultimately underlines the attention directed towards the Black Nights.
Important challenges for the future will be to maintain the creative chaos without getting lost in it. To define their own style of festival films which will be seen as characteristic Black Nights. To elegantly handle controversies, streamline a program on the verge of collapse and declutter the sections. Also, to be cautious where (near) absence such as that of films from the African continent shows, and where conservative conventions such as dividing Best Acting Awards by binary gender concepts, become political positions. That all this seems possible here at the Black Nights Film Festival, presents in itself a win.
Full List of Prizes of the 28th edition
Grand Prix Best Film: Silent City Driver
Best Director (Official Selection): Pink Lady
Best Cinematography: Claudia Becerril Bulos for Empire of the Rabbits
Best Script: Seyfettin Tokmak for Empire of the Rabbits
Best Actor: Lee Hyo-Ye for The Loop
Best Actress: Pirjo Lonka and Elina Knihtilä for 100 Liters of Gold
Doc@PÖFF Best Film: The Watchman
Best Original Score: Alyana Cabral and Moe Cabral for Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
Best Production Design: Munkhbat Shirnen for Silent City Driver
Best First Feature Film: No Dogs Allowed
Best First Feature Director: A Yard of Jackals
Critics’ Picks Best Film: The Brothers Kitaura
Critics’ Picks Best Director: I, The Song
Best Baltic Film: Southern Chronicles
Best Baltic Director: Drowning Dry
Rebels with a Cause Best Film: Protected Men
Rebels with a Cause Best Director: Contact Lens
Audience Award: Pyre
FIPRESCI Award: Mongrels
Just Film Grand Prix: Kontra
