PÖFF Shorts didn't begin as one event, but two — Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers.
Born a year apart, raised alongside the Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), and finally united in 2017 into the event we know today.
Animated Dreams started small in 1999, as a programme of about 70 animated shorts screened ahead of the feature films at the Black Nights Film Festival. Swiss animation specialist Otto Alder compiled the programme, while Mikk Rand chose which short ran before which feature. Estonian animation directors and studios, notably Eesti Joonisfilm, Nukufilm and A-Film, often helped shape the early programmes.
By 2001, timed to the 70th anniversary of Estonian animation, it had grown into its own competitive festival — billed that year as "Animated Action" — newly headed by Mikk Rand, complete with an international jury and its own Grand Prix trophy, the Wooden Wolf. The trophy would be replaced from 2014-2016 by The Nail, an award presented jointly by Joonisfilm and Nukufilm in tribute to legendary animator Heino Pars.
Over the years the festival was shaped by a line of dedicated Estonian filmmakers and programmers, including festival directors like Heilika Pikkov, Märten Vaher, Mari-Liis Rebane and Olga Pärn as the artistic director in 2016. The festival also welcomed a wide array of acclaimed international animators as guests, including Adam Elliot, Igor Kovalyov, Phil Mulloy, Michaela Pavlátová, Bill Plympton, and Emma de Swaef, among others.
Its international juries drew equally respected names, among them animation historian Giannalberto Bendazzi, animation critic and researcher Nobuaki Doi, and Chris J. Robinson, writer and organizer of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
The first Sleepwalkers Student Film Festival followed in 2000, as a PÖFF-supported pilot project to take place before the main festival. Organised by five young Estonian film students — Katrin Kissa, Kadri Kilp, Mart Taniel, Helen Valkna, and Marje Tõemäe — it was meant as a home for student shorts, screening around 70 films in the programme. The second edition, in 2001, had over 70 films from 12 countries, selected by Estonian filmmaker Jaak Kilmi, with the animation selection made by Priit Tender.
The festival grew steadily under a succession of festival heads through the 2000s and 2010s, including Katrin Rajasaare, Moonika Siimets, Helen Vinogradov, Peter Murdmaa and Martin Ruus. From 2006 the programme widened from student films to short films more broadly, and it grew into the first national short film competition in Estonia. In 2008 the festival formally partnered with the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School.
In 2014, the festival rebranded as simply Sleepwalkers, reflecting its evolution from a student showcase into a competition for international, professional short films, with International, Baltic Sea, Student, and National strands, alongside beloved late-night traditions like the Night Cinema marathon. Programmer Laurence Boyce, who joined the festival's jury in 2010 and relocated to Tallinn that same year, became one of its defining voices.
In 2017, the two festivals screening the short film format — Animated Dreams for animation, Sleepwalkers for live-action films — were brought together under a single banner: PÖFF Shorts.
Sleepwalkers' Laurence Boyce headed the live-action side. Priit Tender was brought in to lead the animation selection until animation journalist and researcher Vassilis Kroustallis took over as the programme director for animation in 2019.
Martin Ruus, formerly the head of Sleepwalkers, led the newly combined festival until 2018, with its first edition drawing roughly 4,000 submissions from 101 countries and screened 257 films. Once merged, PÖFF Shorts moved quickly to establish itself on the international stage.
The unified festival carried forward Sleepwalkers' BAFTA-qualifying status and joined the European Film Academy's short film network, with an EFA-eligible film chosen from competition every year. PÖFF Shorts organized itself around five competition strands drawing on the legacies of both predecessors: international competitions for live-action and animated shorts, each with a dedicated student sidebar.
A joint National Competition was created to spotlight talent working in Estonia, regardless of film medium, nationality or student status. The jury for the National Competition has traditionally included prominent Estonian filmmakers, artists and performers: Martti Helde, Sander Joon, Rain Tolk, Reet Aus, Triin Ruumet, Kirke Karja and Flo Kasearu, to name a few.
Launched the same year as the merger, "Rebels With Their Shorts" is an experimental short film competition alongside the rebellious feature-length work at the Black Nights Film Festival. By 2018, PÖFF Shorts was running its second edition a full nine days.
In 2020, under Grete Nellis's leadership, the festival reached its biggest milestone yet: Academy Award qualifying status, making the winners of its international competitions eligible for consideration in the Oscars' Live Action and Animated Short categories.
From 2021, the programme includes a separate competition for children's animation, highlighting the quality of craftsmanship of the genre.
In 2025, PÖFF Shorts and Black Nights Film Festival were also named among MovieMaker Magazine's "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World" — recognition not just for the calibre of the films on screen, but for the atmosphere around them.
PÖFF Shorts now stands as one of three pillars of the Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), alongside the main feature programme and the youth-focused Just Film.
The combination of qualifications — Oscar®, BAFTA, and European Film Academy (EFA), all at once — also places PÖFF Shorts among fewer than 20 short film festivals in the world holding all three credentials simultaneously, alongside names like Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Tampere, Oberhausen, and Krakow.
Yet its identity still carries the spirit of the two festivals that built it: Animated Dreams' belief that animation deserves to be taken seriously as an art form, and Sleepwalkers' conviction that a short film is never just a short film.