Black Nights Film Festival Kicks Off
Text Stewart Johnson Photo PÖFF
James McAvoy on the set of the film “California Schemin’.”
Since 1997 the Black Nights Film Festival—PÖFF in Estonian—has garnered a larger and more respected following each year. Since 2014 it has enjoyed A-list status from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, which is the same classification as Cannes. This year’s festival kicks off on Friday, 7 November, and runs for a full two weeks. It will show 252 feature films and 275 shorts from a most impressive 79 countries.
As a testament to the festival’s growing world renown, the directorial debut of James McAvoy will take place on 8 November in Apollo Kino Solaris, presented by the A-list actor himself. He has appeared in over 60 films in his career, most notably for audiences in the “X-Men” series, and as the principal antagonist in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split and Glass”, the sequel to the extremely popular film “Unbreakable”, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson, both of whom reprised their roles to work with McAvoy.
Screenings will take place in more than eight cinema complexes in both Tallinn and Tartu. Attendance has grown steadily over the last years, with 2023 seeing 80,000 visitors, and another record-breaking 93,000 last year. We can expect over a hundred thousand for this year’s film festival. To understand the popularity of PÖFF, the Cannes Film Festival by comparison attracts approximately 35,000 each year.
This year’s Black Nights Film Festival is headlined with the phrase “Standing With Ukraine”, as you can see on their website. The full schedule for all screenings is available here, and information about festival passes is available here. It is worth noting that PÖFF has not raised their ticket prices from last year, with individual tickets priced between €9–11.
To learn more about this and similar topicsBlack Nights Film Festival Events in Tallinn Film James McAvoy Movies PÖFF Tartu
