Industry@Tallinn Turns 25: 900 Professionals, 71 Projects, Baltic Focus

A record 900 accredited professionals from 54 countries have signed up for Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. The 12-day industry platform runs alongside the 30th edition of Tallinn's Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF). Marge Liiske, who has led the platform since 2016, laid out the program's numbers in an interview with Variety: 71 projects in total — 44 films and 21 series — plus more than 100 panels devoted to this year's focus, audience design, sales and distribution. Around 100 sales agents, distributors and festival programmers are among the attendees. The takeaway: the event has roughly tripled its original scope across a quarter-century.

How has the platform changed since 2013?

Liiske joined in 2013 to run the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, after seven years at the Estonian Film Foundation. She took over the whole platform in 2016. "My first priority was to merge our two strands, Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event, so that guests would have a single entry point, program and set of services," she said. "Today that umbrella is a brand of its own, and it works seamlessly."

Growth came by adding layers, not by enlarging one market. Key milestones:

• 2014: PÖFF receives A-category festival status, drawing more press, sales agents and producers to Tallinn.
• 2017: Series programming launches with the world premiere of "Babylon Berlin"; it has grown into TV Beats, with a conference, co-financing market and screenings.
• 2021: A short film industry program is added.
• 2023: Children's and youth film gets its own industry days; a dedicated Co-Production Market category followed a year later.
• 2024: Seven talent programs are united under the Discovery Campus.

Next targets include distributors and exhibitors, documentary — at least 15 documentary projects in development asked to join the co-production market this year — and new Discovery Campus plans for 2027, to be announced early next year.

What does the 2025 program deliver?

The annual focus is audience design, sales and distribution, following last year's financing theme. "We want to give producers very hands-on tools: how to design an audience strategy from the start, when a sales agent should come on board, and how a film can reach viewers in cinemas and online," Liiske said. Friday, Nov. 20 is dedicated entirely to sales, distribution and audience design.

The Baltics are this year's Focus Countries: 310 Baltic professionals, 81 films, 21 projects and 19 Discovery Campus talents, presented across screenings and a Nov. 19 showcase. A Spotlight on Basque Audiovisual brings 10 professionals, nine films and three projects.

Structural changes concentrate the schedule. All Script Pool and Co-Production Market projects present on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 18; all 16 works in progress screen on the morning and early afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 19, leaving teams the rest of Thursday and all of Friday for dealmaking before the Nov. 20 closing ceremony. The Discovery Campus has its own Discovery Hub at the Tallink Spa & Conference Hotel for the first time.

Can Baltic momentum become continuity?

Liiske names the core challenge plainly: "The biggest challenge is turning visibility into continuity in our small markets." A "Flow," a "Smoke Sauna Sisterhood" or a "Toxic" creates a moment, but producers need the next film, and companies need to survive between projects. National funds alone cannot finance ambitious work, she said, so international partners are a necessity.

New infrastructure includes the IDA Hub film complex, presented at this year's event. But, Liiske cautioned, infrastructure also needs projects and skilled crews. Two Estonian startups are showcased: the IRIS casting database and Mureel, a platform building sustainability and ESG compliance infrastructure for Europe's audiovisual industry.

Co-production trends point earlier and wider. Partners now come from France, Italy, Poland and beyond — no longer only neighbours. The Co-Production Market presents 15 projects from 10 countries, eight by debut directors. New this year: meetings between French and Baltic producers, and a meet-up for emerging Finnish and Estonian producers.

What does TV Beats offer?

"Babylon Berlin is a home-coming for us," Liiske said, referencing the series' 2017 world premiere at PÖFF ahead of the latest season's screening among seven TV Beats titles. This year, for the first time, international calls opened for both the Screenings and Coming Soon from the Baltics strands. The forum examines script development, the showrunner model across European traditions, and the Finnish-Japanese series "Blood & Sweat" alongside Korea's "Dear X." The European Writers Club invites writers to create stories together.

The Discovery Campus opens with Sir Christopher Hampton, Academy Award winner for "Dangerous Liaisons" and "The Father," on adaptation. Craft sessions feature cinematographers Julio Macat ("Home Alone"), Roberto Schaefer ("Finding Neverland," "The Kite Runner"), David Stump ("X-Men"), Dan Laustsen ("Frankenstein") and Michael Bauman; composer Martin Phipps; production designer Inbal Weinberg ("The Room Next Door"); and casting directors including Yngvild Haga ("Sentimental Value") and Nina Haun ("Triangle of Sadness").

Now in its fourth edition, the Just Film Industry Days centers film literacy and how young viewers discover films as social media habits change.

How does the event handle AI and rising costs?

"What interests me most is not the tools themselves, but how they change who gets to tell stories, and how," Liiske said. "AI can open doors for small teams and smaller countries like ours, but only if the human vision stays in charge. Otherwise it does not make any sense." This year the program keeps one focused session, led by Edmond Yang, Gold winner at Project Odyssey and a creative partner of Runway and Luma. A year-round, five-module Mastering AI program, supported by Creative Europe MEDIA, continues.

On costs, Liiske is blunt: "Estonia has become quite an expensive country." The event has cut free guest services and now covers expenses only for guests who actively engage with its projects. Backers include Creative Europe MEDIA — which just renewed its support — the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Film Institute, the City of Tallinn and the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency. Eurimages funds the Co-Production Development Award; the Council of Europe backs a €50,000 ($56,000) Series Co-Production Development Award at TV Beats. The event counts 72 partners this year.

With documentary expansion, distributor support and a redesigned Co-Production Market all slated for 2027 announcements, the platform's second quarter-century is already mapped out.