Tallinn Black Nights Festival: New Artistic Director Triin Tramberg on Making Sure That at 30 It Stays ‘Bold, Unpredictable Yet Accessible’

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival – also known as PÖFF – marks a milestone this year as the festival celebrates its 30^th anniversary and the first under the helm of artistic director Triin Tramberg as festival founder Tiina Lokk moves sideways to a strategic role within PÖFF.

Tramberg’s own imprint on the festival as film curator and industry facilitator started more than 15 years ago. From program assistant to program coordinator, she has “played a central role in shaping the festival’s international profile,” said PÖFF in a statement, citing her achievements at the helm of the festival’s First Feature Films Competition, Discovery Campus educational strand attended annually by more than 70 professionals, and PÖFF Goes to Cannes event.

As founder and director of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event’s Script Pool program, Tramberg nurtured films that went on grabbing major awards, such as 2023 Berlinale winner “20,000 Species of Bees” and Cannes Un Certain Regard top winner 2025 “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.”

Unpacking to Variety her vision for the only FIAPF-accredited competitive film festival in Northern Europe – FIAPF’s so-called ”A” Festivals – Tramberg says her goal is “for PÖFF to keep going strong, especially amid the challenging times that we’re living and global political upheaval. PÖFF is bold, unpredictable yet accessible. We simply want audiences to keep coming to the cinemas and I hope new audiences will join in.”

Speaking a few days before festival kick off on Nov. 6, Tramberg is bullish. “We have one of the strongest programs ever,” she says of the jubilee line-up. Case in point: Out of nearly 2,000 submissions, the artistic director and her team of nearly 20 programmers have selected 230 feature films – including 71 world premieres – for PÖFF’s main festival and sub-festival Just Film for children and youth. Altogether, with the PÖFF Shorts sub-festival, 489 films from 87 countries will screen over Nov. 9-22.

Among the audience-pullers are 13 Oscar contenders for international feature film such as France’s “Minotaur,” Spain’s “La Bola Negra,” screening in the Best of Festivals, Lithuania’s “How to Divorce During the War,” competing in the Baltic film competition, and Latvia’s “Ulya,” set to open PÖFF Nov. 6.

The two Baltic films are playing as part of a wider Baltic cinema showcase taking in close to 40 feature films, shorts, classics and little gems from new auteurs, such as Janno Jürgens’ sophomore “No Me Without You” from Estonia, the only Baltic entry vying for the €20,000 ($22,400) Grand Prix.

Regarding Viesturs Kairišs’ “Ulya,” Tramberg says: “Tiina and I saw it separately at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, then we met and said-this is our opener! We knew we would have a Baltic Focus at PÖFF. This was an obvious choice as a marvellous feature with A-class festival potential, made as a co-production between Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania, showing what we can do in the Baltics and beyond.”

“Giving Baltic cinema a central place in this anniversary program feels especially meaningful,”” Tramberg adds, eagerly tagging the Baltics as “the next Scandinavia.” “We work well together, complement each other. These collaborations help Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian films get better and reach out to a larger international audience.”

Spanish, Latin American Momentum
Besides the Baltics, Spain’s Basque region gets a special nod, both in the festival and industry sidebar Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event. High-profile titles to track include Patricia Ortega’s “Caballé” about opera diva Montserrat Caballé, set to world premiere in the official competition, and Daniel Romero’s psycho thriller “The Daughters” in the Midnight Shivers. This is PÖFF’s second focus on a Spanish region after last year’s Catalan Spotlight.

Tramberg praises PÖFF programmer of Spanish-speaking films, Javier García Puerto, curator of the Rebels with a Cause competition, who has gradually consolidated ties with top Spanish and Latin-American players and talent, as Spanish-language pics were enjoying a global renaissance.

While musing on what she calls “the global over-drive of film production,” Tramberg says most PÖFF film entries this year hailed from Europe, followed by Latin America which offered one of the strongest and most varied crop to choose from, including from smaller countries. Uruguay, for instance, made it in the Critic’s Pick competition with the buzzy dramedy “When I Existed,” a Catalan co-production. Ecuador is running for best first feature with Christian Rojas’ “Princess” and the Dominican Republic is repped by “Sh*t Happens” in the official selection.

“We have been an A-list festival for more than 10 years now, so filmmakers and producers know that Tallinn is a very good launching pad. They know that their work will be seen here-not only by our audience, but also by international industry professionals and programmers,” notes Tramberg.

A-List Guests
Indeed, more than 2,000 guests from more than 50 countries are expected in the Estonian capital. Among A-list talent, Tramberg is particularly thrilled to welcome U.S. actor-director Tim Black Nelson. “I grew up watching his films and when we decided to select his film “The Life and Death of Wilson Shedd,” which I loved even before knowing he had helmed it. I felt: ‘Why not try to invite him?” We are over the moon that he will come, also to support “The Leader,” our Midnight Shivers selection in which he stars.”

Other top-tier talent confirmed include U.S. actor Griffin Dunne, for the screening of Max Korman’s “Joy Will Prevail” in which he plays Estonian-born luminary architect Louis Kahn, and U.K. star actor Ray Panthaki for his directorial debut “In Starland,” set to world premiere in the First Feature competition.

“Then we have our regulars,” adds Tramberg, citing Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, due in Tallinn for the world premiere of the Danish hybrid pic “Father’s House,” playing in the international documentary section, and Iranian-born Goldshifteh Farahani, star of the official competition entry “When She Hears the Bells.”

Tramberg also highlights beyond-the-screen luminaries – U.S. cinematographer/visual effects specialist David Stump (“The Morning Show,” “Breaking Bad” “Batman Forever”) and Oscar-winning British screenwriter Sir Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Father”), both jurors of the official competition.

Quizzed about possible common themes across the festival’s wide-ranging slate, Tramberg feels family stories – in particular about motherhood – are perhaps the most striking overarching themes. “Perhaps this is not surprising,” she says. “Mothers have an enormous influence on the people we become, and ultimately on the kind of society we create. So it makes sense that filmmakers are exploring family, parenthood and those relationships, as a way of looking at the world around us,” she adds.

Talking about mothers’ influence, how did she deal with the challenge of taking over PÖFF from the hands of her own mother, the esteemed Tiina Lokk, recently honored by Estonia’s Cultural Endowment for ‘putting Estonia on the world map of film festivals’?

“Yes I am a nepo baby, and of course, this puts extra pressure on me,” Tramberg answers. “That said, taking over the festival, at this time of my life feels just right,” adds the 31-year-old. “I greatly respect and admire what Tiina has achieved; she is a wonderful visionary. But I don’t compare myself to her and I have my own shoes to fill, my own path to follow and create,” she says.

“In the meantime,” she continues, “I will use this special 30^th anniversary to pay tribute to my mother’s work, which is why I wasn’t going to change anything this year. Tiina started with 24 feature films – now we have 230; she had around 20 international guests, now we have more than 2,000 guests. That says it all,” Tramberg notes.