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They say third time’s a charm, and that can be true of our third visit to the Estonian capital city of Tallinn, for the annual Black Nights Film Festival. Taking place every November, HeyUGuys were fortunate enough to be invited back to celebrate all things cinema, in one of our stand-out events of the film calendar.

With the city prepping for the festive period, the wooden shacks in the old town square readying themselves to fill up tourists and locals alike with mulled wine – before the Christmas spirit engulfs the city, comes a festival that offers a uniquely diverse programme of films from around the world, showcasing stories from filmmakers both old and new, from such a myriad of fascinating voices.

Though our stay was sadly somewhat brief, during our four-day visit we still managed to get a flavour of the festival without having an all-encompassing experience, but even during our limited stay,...

Keshet International (Ki) has picked up global rights to Finnish sci-fi thriller “Valhalla Project” (“Operaatio Valhalla”), produced by L.A. and Helsinki -based Snapper Films for Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde.

The Elisa Viihde Original six-part series, currently in post-production, will be sneak peeked April 7 at MipDrama in Cannes, MipTV’s buyers and press’ only showcase for premium dramas.

Toplining the international cast of the high-end series, which is filmed in English, Finnish and Russian, are Sara Soulié, Alistair Brammer, Iben Dorner, Joonas Saartamo and Pääru Oja.

The “Valhalla Project” is directed by Snapper Films’s founder and producer Juha Wuolijoki from a screenplay by award-winning writer Jari Olavi Rantala.

The multi-layered story delves into the concept of parallel dimensions, while also exploring themes of humanity, identity, and the limitations of life.

We follow climate researcher Alina Railo (Soulié) as she travels to the Finnish Lapland with an international expedition to...

Valkeapää has premiered his fourth feature ‘Hit Big’ in Tallinn this week.

Finnish filmmaker J.-P. Valkeapää is developing his English-language debut, the thriller Comeback for which Charades has boarded international sales.

Now at script stage, the film will follow a worn-out filmmaker who has a masterplan for a comeback – he will track down an active serial killer and make a documentary about him. He persuades his estranged sound engineer daughter to help and a bloody mess ensues.

Valkeapää described the script as “an intense thriller with more than a few morbid laughs – a film about death and redemption.”

Finland’s...

Charades has come on board “Hit Big”, a dark humor-laced crime film set in Spain and directed by critically acclaimed Finnish filmmaker, Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa (“They Have Escaped”).

Currently in post production, the film is being presented at the work-in-progress sidebar of Goteborg Festival’s Nordic Film Market. On the ground in Goteborg is Daniel Kuitunen, who is producing the movie through his Helsinki-based banner Komeetta.

“Hit Big” revolves around Marjaleena, a 60-year-old, boozed-up former beauty pageant star who left Finland for Spain’s Costa del Sol where she runs Bar Belle, once a popular spot for Finnish tourists, with her handyman Mikko. One day, they hear that Marjaleena’s husband, Worm, will be released after 20 years in prison and is planning a dream life with his cell-mate lover thanks to the stashed proceeds of a major heist. Feeling betrayed, Marjaleena sets off to get her share of the millions.

The...

Sadness and a sense of unease pervade this Western-inflected drama from Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu, which is set in a outpost of Finland that feels as though it is just beyond the edge of nowhere. It is here in this small community - dominated by men, with all the problems that brings with it - that the commercial drive of mining is coming up against the more traditional reindeer herding way of life, although both are threatening to either crumble or, possibly, explode.

It's not just the choice of employment, everything here has the feel of being caught between one thing and another, including Rupi (Pääru Oja), who works for the mines but whose ageing and infirm father (Sulevi Peltola) is flatly refusing to sell his land to unpleasant mining boss Kari. Rupi is also hovering between the legal...

Estonia is the latest country to select its entry for the International Feature Film category of the Oscars with the Nordic Western “The Last Ones,” directed by Veiko Õunpuu, flying the flag for the Baltic country.

The film will world premiere as part of the Baltic Competition program of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which runs Nov. 13-29.

An expert committee called together by the Estonian Film Institute chose the film. The committee consisted of film director Tanel Toom, producers Evelin Penttilä and Ivo Felt, film journalist Tõnu Karjatse, costume designer Eugen Tamberg, former distributor and current advisor on audio-visual matters to the Minister of Culture, Siim Rohtla, and the Estonian Film Institute’s Edith Sepp.

“The Last Ones” takes place in the wild tundra of Lapland. Young miner Rupi is hollowing out the tundra in the hope of putting together enough money to leave the mining village behind forever.

The Stars’ programme will focus on navigating a career in an online world.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has unveiled the eight Black Nights Stars, its industry showcase of rising actors from the Baltic Sea region.

In additon to the six actors from the Baltcis, this year, this year it has added two from Russia as part of the festival’s Russia In Focus programme.

The eight actors are:

Aaron Hilmer (Germany)

Credits include: The Last Word, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, The Peppercorns;

Antoni Sałaj (Poland)

Credits include: Legion, The Crown Of The Kings,...

For the past few years we’ve had the privilege of partnering with the European Film Promotion’s sterling initiative, the Shooting Stars. This week we sat down with the latest cohort to find out more about these stars of the future.

These interviews were conducted at the Berlin Film Festival, and the ten winners were selected by a jury of industry experts from 28 nominations, most of the talent are already award-winning in their home countries.

The winners are Martina Apostolova (Bulgaria), Pääru Oja (Estonia), Victoria Carmen Sonne (Denmark), Zita Hanrot (France), Levan Gelbakhiani (Georgia), Jonas Dassler (Germany), Bilal Wahib (The Netherlands), Bartosz Bielenia (Poland), Joana Ribeiro (Portugal), Ella Rumpf (Switzerland).

Stefan Pape spoke to the chosen ten to ask them what the programme means to them, how their early successes have informed their career so far, and what they were doing when they heard that they had been selected.

European Film Promotion has unveiled the 10 Shooting Stars, up-and-coming acting talents set to break out internationally, who will be honored at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

The selection comprises Bartosz Bielenia from Poland, star of Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi,” among films shortlisted for this year’s best international feature film Oscar; France’s Zita Hanrot, the voice talent of Zunaira in animated Oscar contender “The Swallows of Kabul” who broke out locally with Philippe Faucon’s “Fatima”; and Portugal’s Joana Ribeiro who is currently shooting Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller “Infinite” for Paramount alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Previous Shooting Stars include Alicia Vikander, Alba Rohrwacher, Matthias Schoenaerts, Pilou Asbæk and Baltasar Kormákur.

The Shooting Stars initiative is also honoring German actor Jonas Dassler, who made a splash at Berlin last year with his performance as a serial killer in Fatih Akin’s “The Golden Glove”; Dutch actor Bilal Wahib,...

Newell to speak at festival’s Music Meets Film event.

This year’s industry activity at the Tallinn Black Nights Festival, the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, gets underway today (November 26) in the Estonian capital and runs until Friday, November 30.

Included in the line-up is the 2018 European Film Forum, which closes the week on November 30. The focus of this year’s Forum is ‘Creativity, Technology, Finance: Sustaining European Diversity post-2020’.

Backed by Creative Europe’s Media programme, topics discussed this year will include innovation in the global content race, how European cinema can benefit from short form, narrative games and robotics,...