Shorts Live-Action Competition

The 2023 International Live Action Competition rages in the light of an unjust world. It abhors cruelty, rallies against war and suffering and screams long into the night about the broken systems and rampant prejudice that seem to be part and parcel of a modern world. Yet it also speaks of love and the promise it can hold for a better future. That there can be safety found in friendship and family. That we can transcend hate. That hope always exists for us to be better than we are. Some of the films here dwell in the realms of the serene, offering careful examinations of the human condition. Others come straight for us, a riotous mix of sound, colour and fury making us look at the world anew. There’s tremendous diversity, a myriad of styles, techniques and stories all making us look at the world in different ways. In a world that is often typified by chaos and the unknown, all these shorts help make us understand the world just a little better as they titillate our senses and excite our minds.

Shorts Animation Competition

From realism to surrealism and abstraction, all animated shorts of the competition programme manifest both depth and style. In the variety of 2D, 3D and stop-motion animation, the films' characters assume the form of animals to express what humans cannot. They focus their gaze on the nature of relationships, which can wither away. They explore femininity and motherhood and dare to examine social malaise as well. Their design ranges from the lush to the minimal, and their directors can bridge our new, online brave world with our old unexplored natural world. We can relate to nuns in love, gay male desires, anxious artists and overworked athletes all with one intake of air. The films are alternatively brave and witty, all revealing the need for connection – whether being one of the Greek gods or your familiar and lovable cow. It's all in the eye of the animation beholder.

Shorts New Talents Competition: Animation

Whether there’s no single bone in your body or it’s covered all over by soft colourful fur, this screening is especially for you! The PÖFF Shorts New Talents Competition programme for animated films offers a daring, unexpected and fresh view on an art form that knows no boundaries. It’s always interesting to see how young filmmakers observe the world and what are the trends and topics that influence them to make a film. From a personal approach to imaginary fantasy and non-narrative expression, these animations follow topical subjects as refugee crises, underground cultures and cruel aristocratic pastime sports. Foremost this carefully curated selection of films is a wide scale insight to humanity. Tragic, funny and weird stories teach us once again that bigger than anything is love. A suffocating love.

Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

In the 2023 New Talents selection, young auteurs from across borders speak of loss and the search for identity, taking us on a wild ride of different approaches to committing events to memory and challenging familiar modes of storytelling. This programme is about finding a way for the filmmaker's story to disrupt the status quo and remind viewers that the real power of change lies within them. The common thread in all the selected works by emerging filmmakers is the ambiguity of choice. Stand up or remain a silent witness. Rebel or submit to reality. It is about the choices that manifest as individual acts of courage, but also those that are thrust upon us against our will. The beauty of all these creative visions lies in their balance of sympathy and hostility toward a world on fire, and in their shared, unyielding hope that the humanity in us always has a chance to have its last say.

Shorts National Competition

As sure as the Estonian forests are green and the winters harsh yet beautiful – the best Estonian shorts have a certain indefinable magic. It’s always ironic that a nation that can often be (unfairly) maligned for a certain aloofness, can count on fiction, doc, and animation filmmakers with their achingly compassionate, persistently quirky, and defiantly humane shorts. The 2023 National Competition takes us from birth to death with the usual intricacies of love and conflict, with abstractness in between. The past, present, and future of both Estonia and humanity are all explored as realism, magic, elegant monochrome and a rainbow of colours unfurl before us. As always, many films emanate from the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School and the Estonian Academy of Arts, allowing the programme to shine a spotlight on young and future talents. But established masters are also here, making for a dizzying array of Estonian on-screen wonder in fiction, animation, and documentary.

Shorts Kids Animation Competition

Get ready, we'll take you on a journey where clumsy characters find their hidden talents, brave heroes save the day, and funny childhood fears turn into smiles. We'll explore the wonder of discovery, protect secret treasures, and share heartwarming moments of growth. You'll witness everyday life take unexpected twists, find connections that transcend generations, and dive into fantastic realms where imagination knows no bounds. Join these animated characters on thrilling adventures, learn valuable life lessons, and let laughter light up your day. Don't miss the enchanting lineup at our film festival – it's a celebration of creativity and fun that kids of all ages will adore! Films are live-dubbed in Estonian.

Rebels With Their Shorts

In the face of an absurd world, an absurd response can be expected. These Rebels and their shorts take an outwardly surreal examination of the world in which we live as they examine the creative urge, history and memory with a bold and provocative twist. Sometimes satirical, sometimes shocking, sometimes contemplative, sometimes confrontational these films are always thought provoking and allow to look at things in a completely new way. These films will take part in Rebels With A Cause, a competition section of the Black Nights Film Festival dedicated to films that defy the traditional modes of filmmaking. The selection provides a mixture of new filmmakers who will lead the way in cinema over the coming years and more established talent. Each short will be eligible for the honorific prize of Best Rebels Short chosen by the Rebels With A Cause jury members.

Doc@Shorts

Bad news: no matter how hard you try, you can never escape reality. However, you can still completely change your perception of it with short documentaries, giving you the chance to step into the shoes of your neighbours without having to stay there for too long. A fair warning: this selection might inspire empathy and even a wanderlust of sorts.

Shorts Panorama

A calming sight of the sea? A glimpse of mountaintops, or the wind running through some trees? Or perhaps a look into the deepest corners of someone's heart instead? The best view to the world must be a cinema screen, because film art can give you all that and more. Panorama illuminates the current state of humanity with an agenda to provoke and inspire.

Shorts Alternatives

There are times we have to change the way we move forward. With clever genre shorts, quality dance films and unexpected perspectives to the world around us, the Alternatives is a fun and fearless exploration of how far, low, deep and weird we can go.

Night Cinema

In a programme that fuels and recharges, you will find refreshing comedies, short horror stories and a lot of madness.