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| Ciaran Creagh’s Ann Photo: Courtesy of POFF |
Explaining the new strand, festival director Tinna Lokk said: “The Critics’ Picks competition programme solves a challenge our programme team has seen for many years: brilliant arthouse films that are unfortunately often lost in the mix of our fast-growing line-up and large-scale international festivals. It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience.”
She added: “The critic programmers who have put together this new programme have succeeded in selecting some uniquely compelling and engaging features films. I can’t wait to introduce them to wider audiences this November.”
The Critics’ Pick programming team is headed by Nikolaj Nikitin, head of SOFA School of Film Advancement, bringing in several decades of experience as a curator, film magazine editor-in-chief, journalist and author.
He said: “I was not prepared for the amazing, diverse, excellent level and quality of films we had to choose from - it was easy in a way but, in another way, incredibly difficult to make the final selection. It’s a huge pleasure to join the Black Nights family and it’s been an honour to curate this competition with my own PÖFF debut - I feel privileged and very honored, especially as 13 outstanding titles are just a lucky number to start with and our opener ROXY, a genius and genuine genre thriller clearly proves - that European authors don’t have to hide behind Hollywood’s back.”
The inaugural Critics’ Picks selection includes ten world and three international premieres. Three films will screen out of competition, including a gala screening of Estonian co-production Call Of God.
The festival has also announced its Official Competition and Baltic Competition titles in the last week. The Official Competition features 19 world premieres, including Finnish director J.-P. Valkeapää’s Hit Big, and Irish director Ciaran Creagh’s Ann. As at many festivals this year, Ukraine is stepping into the spotlight, with three world premieres, Marysia Nikitiuk’s Lucky Girl, Sashenka, directed by Alexander Zhovna and Italian filmmaker Andrea Magnani's Italian/Ukraine co-production Jailbird.
Films in the Baltic competition, include the world premiere of Giedrius Tamosevicius and Vytautas V. Landsbergis's Lithuanian historical drama The Poet and Estonian sports drama Kalev, directed by Ove Musting, which will open the section.
The full selection by section is as follows:
Official Selection
- Hit Big (Finland/Estonia/Spain) – J-P Valkeapää
- And Yet We Were All Blind (France) – Béatrice Pollet
- Jailbird (Italy/Ukraine) – Andrea Magnani
- Piece of My Heart (Netherlands/Belgium) – Dana Nechushtan
- The Fox (Germany/Austria) – Adrian Goiginger
- Lucky Girl (Ukraine) – Marysia Nikitiuk
- Night (Norway) – Mona Hoel
- Bungalow (Canada) – Lawrence Cote Collins
- Cold As Marble (Azerbaijan/France) – Asif Rustamov
- Sanaa (India) – Sudhanshu Saria
- Ann (Ireland) – Ciaran Creagh
- Sashenka (Ukraine)– Alexander Zhovna
- Ducks An Urban Legend (Israel)– Shachar Rozen
- Plastic Symphony (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Poland) – Juraj Lehotský
- Servus Papa, See You in Hell (Germany) – Christopher Roth
- Stiekyt (South Africa) – Etienne Fourie
- Driving Mum (Iceland/Estonia) – Hilmar Oddsson
- A Cup of Coffee And New Shoes On (Albania) – Gentian Koçi
- The Wastetown (Iran) – Ahmad Bahrami
- River of Desire (Brazil) – Sergio Machado
- Ginji the Speculator (Japan) – Ryuichi Mino
- 578 Magnum, 2022 (Vietnam) – Luong Dình Dung
- The Punishment (Chile) – Matias Bize
Baltic Competition
- The Poet (Lithuania) – Giedrius Tamosevicius, Vytautas V Landsbergis
- A Letter From Helga (Iceland-Netherlands-Estonia) – Asa Hjorleifsdottir
- Lovable (Latvia-Estonia) – Stanislavs Tokalovs
- The Taste Of Water (Latvia) – Matiss Kaza
- Pensive (Lithuania) – Jonas Trukanas
- January (Lat-Lithuania-Poland) – Viesturs Kairiss
- Kalev (Estonia) – Ove Musting
- Vesper (Lithuania-Belarus-France) – Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper
- My Love Affair With Marriage (Latvia-US-Luxembourg) – Signe Baumane
- Aurora’s Sunrise (Armenia-Lithuania-Germany) – Inna Sahakyan
- Melchior The Apothecary (Estonia-Germany-Latvia-Lithuania) – Elmo Nuganen
- Traces (Croatia-Lithuania-Serbia) – Dubravka Turic
- Minsk (Estonia-Russia) – Boris Guts
- Remember To Blink (Lithuania) – Austeja Urbaite
- The Bog (Estonia)– Ergo Kuld
Critics' Picks
- Roxy – Dito Tsintsadze (Germany/Georgia/Belgium)
- Typist Artist Pirate King – Carol Morley (UK)
- Conversations on Hatred – Vera Fogwill (Spain/Argentina)
- About Us But Not About Us – Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)
- The Rise & Fall of Comrade Zylo – Fatmir Koçi (Albania)
- Wake Me – Marko Šantić (Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia)
- The Chambermaid – Mariana Čengel Solčanská (Slovakia)
- Suna – Çigdem Sezgin (Turkey/Spain/Bulgaria)
- In the Morning OF La Petite Mort – Yu-Lin Wang (Taiwan)
- A Childless Village – Reza Jamali (Iran)
- The Good Person – Eitan Anner (Israel)
- The Young Arsonists – Sheila Pye (Canada)
- The Bone Breakers – Vincenzo Pirrotta (Italy)
Critics’ Picks – Out of Competition
- Sparta – Ulrich Seidl (Austria/Germany/France)
- Call of God – Kim Ki-duk (Kyrgyzstan/Estonia/Lithuania)
- Karaoke – Moshe Rosenthal (Israel)
