Tallinn’s PÖFF Turns 30: How a Film Fest in a Country of 1.3 Million People Became an A-List Event

Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is opening its 30th edition, having grown from a small 1997 event into Northern Europe’s largest film festival. Its expansion has made Estonia a more prominent stop on the international festival circuit and helped establish a platform for films beyond mainstream Hollywood.

This year’s festival will screen 230 feature films and 259 shorts from 87 countries; its first edition showed 24 films. Attendance rose from about 6,000 in 1997 to nearly 95,000 last year, and PÖFF gained FIAPF A-list accreditation in 2014. Founder Tiina Lokk, who recently moved from festival director to a strategic role, began the project despite limited cinemas, funding and political support in post-Soviet Estonia, whose population is 1.3 million.