A specially curated Estonian Olympic Committee Sports Film Programme, running as part of the Black Nights Festival, feature the Croatian biopic Something Larger Than Me (Dražen).

The feature film about famous Croatian basketball player Dražen Petrović currently screening across Croatian cinemas, is the project of authors and producers Ivor Šiber and Ljubo Zdjelarević, of which the latter is also credited as co-director, alongside director Danilo Šerbedžija and screenwriter Ivan Turković-Krnjak.

The world premiere of the Croatian minority co-production, Empire of the Rabbits, directed and written by Turkish director Seyfettin Tokmak and co-produced by Siniša Juričić (Nukleus Film), will screen in the Black Nights’ Official Competition. It tells the story of a daring boy’s journey against the cruel entanglements of deception and inadequacies of the world of adults. Alongside co-producer Siniša Juričić, the Croatian portion of the crew included Vladimir Gojun as the film’s editor.

Greek Apricots directed and written by Jan Krevatin will screen in the parallel short film festival – PÖFF Shorts. The film is part of the First Feature Competition for promising young filmmakers. Greek Apricots recently had its world premiere in competition at the CINÉMED festival. It was produced by the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, with Jan Krevatin and Josip Gregov as the producers.

The PÖFF Shorts Animated Documentary competition will feature No Room directed by Jelena Oroz and produced by Vanja Andrijević (Bonobostudio). Earlier this year, the film won the ASIFA Croatia Award for Best Croatian Professional Film, to date screening at numerous world animation festivals such as Animest, Animateka, Fantoche and others. 

In addition, Milivoj and Veljko Popović’s Žarko, You Will Spoil the Child! is screening in the Night Cinema programme. The film premiered at Animafest Zagreb, where it immediately won two awards (Best Croatian Film and the Audience Award), as well as the awards received at the KIKI International Film Festival for Children, Mediterranean Film Festival Split and Croatian Film Days. 

One of the animated film jury members at PÖFF Shorts is Croatian filmmaker Martina Meštrović.

PÖFF Shorts (8th – 20th November) is the largest short film and animation festival in the Baltics and an integral part of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. The winning titles in competition programmes at PÖFF Shorts directly qualify for BAFTA nominations, awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, as well as for the European Film Awards and the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards.

The second Black Nights sub-section – the Youth & Children’s Film Festival, Just Film, will screen Klemen Dvornik’s feature Block 5, a minority Croatian co-production (with Croatian co-producers Katarina Prpić and Danijel Pek, Antitalent). The film had its world premiere at this year’s 77th Locarno International Film Festival. In Tallinn, the film is part of the Children’s Competition Programme, also competing for the ECFA Award, bestowed by the European Children’s Film Association. The winning title will be presented with the award during the next edition of the Berlinale. 

This year’s 28th Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) will showcase 249 feature films and 323 shorts from 81 countries. Since its inception in 1997, Black Nights has grown into one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe, annually receiving 80 000 visitors.

Since 2014, its international competition programme boasts the FIAPF – International Federation of Film Producers Associations accreditation, making it an A-category festival on a par with Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, San Sebastián, Karlovy Vary and others. More details are available on its official website.