Official Selection - Competition

Brand new films by well-established filmmakers, representing the geographical, thematic and stylistic diversity of the cinematic art. Only world and international premieres.

First Feature Competition

The first films of promising young talents, representing youthful vivacity, questing ideas and unexpected viewpoints – the future of cinematic art. Only world and international premieres.

Critics' Picks Competition

The newest currents in the art of film through the eyes of a film critic. For a demanding palate. Only world and international premieres.

Rebels with a Cause Competition

Films produced in a more experimental format or carrying a more rebellious message from all over the world. Testing the boundaries of the cinematic art. Only world, international or European premieres.

Baltic Film Competition

The best of Estonian, Latvia and Lithuanian film, assessed by international experts.

Official Selection - Out of Competition

Films which carry the spirit of the competition programme but have been screened at other festivals.

Rebels with a Cause - Out of Competition

Films which represent a more experimental format or a more rebellious message from all over the world, which have already been screened at other festivals.

Critics' Picks - Out of Competition

New films by renowned authors closely related to the history of PÖFF, which are important for us, but have already been screened at some other festivals.

Opening film

A film from the focus programme to symbolically introduce the Festival.

Gala Screenings

Long-awaited film. The brightest stars. Nothing but glamour.

In Focus: Yugoslavian Black Wave

Relatively unknown but very intriguing chapter in film history – the new wave of Yugoslavian films from the 60s and 70s that showcased the taboos of a socialist environment and the dark side of man by experimenting with form.

Focus: Serbia and SEE* Neighbours

Connecting films from the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia and its main partners, Croatia, Montenegro North Macedonia and Slovenia, in action. Prominent selection of fresh cinematic art from the five countries.

Old Gold: Classic Films Come to Life

Films from near and far have been restored and brought back to life. Exciting guests and new perspectives.

Special Screenings

Films, the authors of which have a special meaning for the Festival.

Spotlight: Spanish High Five!

Five great films from Almodóvar to Amenábar, one from each decade, to celebrate the fifth Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU.

Best of Festivals

Crème de la crème of the art of film of the world. Films that have already premiered or won awards at other prestigious festivals.

Screen International Critics' Choice

True cinematography through the eyes of critics. Iconic works selected by the prestigious Screen International.

Doc@PÖFF

Exciting personas, intriguing topics, dramatic conflicts. Real life, which can be more unbelievable than fiction.

Flowers are not silent. Resistance films of Belarus

Oppositional Belarusian filmmakers in action. Cooperation with the Northern Lights Film festival.

Midnight Shivers

Over-the-top fantasy spree. The best of recent horror, fantasy and B Category films.

Science360°

Science is fascinating. Science is wonderful. Current problems facing humanity from the perspective of science. Supported by the Estonian Research Council.

Estonian Olympic Committee Sports Film Programme

Sports and film – more than just a sports film. The Estonian Olympic Committee presents.

European Green Capital 2023 presents: PÖFF environmental film programme

The climate is warming. The environment is changing. PÖFF is highlighting it. The title of the European Green Capital is not the end goal for Tallinn but an opportunity to contribute even more to building a sustainable green world city. For us, a green capital means that Tallinn is a resilient and inclusive city where people and the city work together to create a better urban space and support an environmentally friendly and sustainable way of life.Therefore, we wish to bring a programme of environmental films to this year’s PÖFF to raise people’s awareness of environmental issues.

TV Beats

A programme dedicated to TV series, aimed at highlighting the increasingly blurry line between the small screen and the big screen.

PÖFF Expanded: Tallinn Photomonth

Pöff Expanded in collaboration with Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial is an international artists' film programme. In 2023 Pöff Expanded is exploring the collaborative dynamics in artists’ moving image and expanding the realm of cinematic arts through personal, essayistic, performative and speculative approaches.

International Youth Competition Programme

Just Film’s International Youth Competition brings along new and fascinating films from all over the world. This year’s programme is very broad in topics and geographically as well. Just Film’s Grand Prix will be handed out by the members of the International Jury and the Youth Jury.

Children's Competition Programme

Children’s Competition Programme is prepared for film-viewers aged 10-13, their parents, and grandparents. This programme offers young PÖFF wolves the best selection of family films created during the year. Some of the programme’s films are dubbed into Estonian.

Juniors Competition Programme

Juniors' Competition Programme is prepared for the youngest film-viewers, their parents and grandparents. The programme brings to the viewers joyful fairytales and many funny and unexpected adventures. Some of the programme’s films are dubbed into Estonian.

Youth Programme

The Youth Programme is an overview of this year’s prime youth films that have already received a lot of attention all over the world.

Children's Programme

Children’s Competition Programme is prepared for film-viewers aged 10-13, their parents, and grandparents. This programme offers young PÖFF wolves the best selection of family films created during the year. Some of the programme’s films are dubbed into Estonian.

Toddlers' Screening

Just Film Toddlers' Screening is prepared for the youngest film-viewers, their parents, and grandparents. The programme brings to the viewers joyful fairytales and many funny and unexpected adventures. Toddlers' screenings are dubbed into Estonian.

Children's Rights Programme

Just Film’s Children’s Rights Programme consists of films that address children’s and young people’s lives. All the films talk about children and young people who are still discovering the world and themselves. Often they are faced with difficult decisions in life. Some are lucky enough to get help from their parents, but others have to stand alone. The young are happy and proud about their achievements but also feel sadness when they fail. The Children's Rights Programme is put together by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, Social Insurance Board and Estonian Union for Child Welfare. The Children’s Rights Programme will run at the Just Film Festival for the 13th year.

ECFA Competition Programme

With the ECFA Award, ECFA both gives special attention to quality films for a young audience and shines a spotlight on European children’s films. A number of European children & youth film festivals, all members of ECFA, are selected annually to host an ECFA jury and vote for the ECFA Award for their particular festival. Each festival adds their winning film to a shortlist of nominated films, competing for the overall award. The final vote is open to all ECFA members, choosing the ‘Best European Children’s Film of the Year’. The award is handed out during the International Filmfestival Berlin – Berlinale. The ECFA Award was launched in 2011. There is no money prize connected to the ECFA Award. However, it is the only European children’s film award given out by professionals so the value and prestige of this award can’t be underestimated.

Just Film x Koolitants

Noorte- ja lastefilmide festival Just Film toob koos festivaliga Koolitants kinoekraanile kolmteist noorte osalusel valminud lühitantsufilmi. Tantsufilmide programmis KOOLITANTS@Just osalevad tantsufilmid on valminud Tallinna ja Tartu tantsu- ja üldhariduskoolide juures.

#youngfilmmaker

The programme consists of films that have been created during the PÖFF and Just Film scholarship call and are made by international school-kids themselves. Come and experience what the youth has to say and support their efforts and their expression.

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.

KinoFF Shorts

International Shorts programme dedicated to the women’s rights, identity and life of the national minorities.

Night Cinema

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