PÖFF at 30: Triin Tramberg Takes Charge With 489 Films and a Baltic Bet

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival opens its 30th edition on Nov. 6 with 489 films from 87 countries — and, for the first time, a new artistic director: Triin Tramberg, who has taken over from founder Tiina Lokk, her mother.

Lokk, recently honored by Estonia's Cultural Endowment for 'putting Estonia on the world map of film festivals,' moves sideways into a strategic role within PÖFF. Tramberg, 31, has spent more than 15 years inside the organization, rising from program assistant to program coordinator. PÖFF credits her in a statement with having 'played a central role in shaping the festival's international profile,' citing her leadership of the First Feature Films Competition, the Discovery Campus strand attended annually by more than 70 professionals, and the PÖFF Goes to Cannes event.

As founder and director of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event's Script Pool, she also nurtured films that went on to major awards, including the 2023 Berlinale winner '20,000 Species of Bees' and the 2025 Cannes Un Certain Regard top winner 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.'

What does the 30th edition look like?

Speaking to Variety days before kickoff, Tramberg called the line-up 'one of the strongest programs ever.' Her claim comes with numbers. Out of nearly 2,000 submissions, a team of nearly 20 programmers selected 230 feature films — including 71 world premieres — for the main festival and the Just Film strand for children and youth. Adding the PÖFF Shorts sub-festival, the total reaches 489 films screening Nov. 9–22.

Audience draws include 13 Oscar contenders for international feature film: France's 'Minotaur,' Spain's 'La Bola Negra' in Best of Festivals, Lithuania's 'How to Divorce During the War' in the Baltic film competition, and Latvia's 'Ulya,' which opens the festival Nov. 6.

'Ulya,' directed by Viesturs Kairišs, anchors a Baltic showcase of close to 40 features, shorts and classics. 'Tiina and I saw it separately at Cannes' Un Certain Regard, then we met and said — this is our opener!' Tramberg said. 'This was an obvious choice as a marvellous feature with A-class festival potential, made as a co-production between Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania, showing what we can do in the Baltics and beyond.'

She called giving Baltic cinema a central place in the anniversary program 'especially meaningful' and tagged the Baltics as 'the next Scandinavia.' 'We work well together, complement each other. These collaborations help Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian films get better and reach out to a larger international audience.'

Janno Jürgens' sophomore feature 'No Me Without You' is the only Baltic entry competing for the €20,000 ($22,400) Grand Prix.

Where is the program's center of gravity?

Most entries this year came from Europe, followed by Latin America, which Tramberg said offered one of the strongest and most varied crops, including from smaller countries. Uruguay reached the Critic's Pick competition with the dramedy 'When I Existed,' a Catalan co-production. Ecuador competes for best first feature with Christian Rojas' 'Princess,' and the Dominican Republic is represented by 'Sh*t Happens' in the official selection.

Spain's Basque region receives a special focus — PÖFF's second Spanish regional spotlight after last year's Catalan Spotlight. High-profile titles include Patricia Ortega's 'Caballé,' about opera diva Montserrat Caballé, world premiering in the official competition, and Daniel Romero's psycho thriller 'The Daughters' in Midnight Shivers. Tramberg praised programmer Javier García Puerto, curator of the Rebels with a Cause competition, for consolidating ties with Spanish and Latin American players as Spanish-language cinema enjoys a global renaissance.

Asked about themes across the slate, Tramberg pointed to family stories, especially motherhood. 'Mothers have an enormous influence on the people we become, and ultimately on the kind of society we create. So it makes sense that filmmakers are exploring family, parenthood and those relationships, as a way of looking at the world around us,' she said.

Who is coming to Tallinn?

More than 2,000 guests from over 50 countries are expected. The list includes:

• U.S. actor-director Tim Black Nelson, presenting 'The Life and Death of Wilson Shedd' and starring in Midnight Shivers selection 'The Leader.'
• U.S. actor Griffin Dunne, for Max Korman's 'Joy Will Prevail,' in which he plays Estonian-born architect Louis Kahn.
• U.K. actor Ray Panthaki, whose directorial debut 'In Starland' world premieres in the First Feature competition.
• Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, for the world premiere of hybrid documentary 'Father's House.'
• Iranian-born Goldshifteh Farahani, star of official competition entry 'When She Hears the Bells.'
• Official competition jurors David Stump ('The Morning Show,' 'Breaking Bad,' 'Batman Forever') and Oscar-winning screenwriter Sir Christopher Hampton ('Dangerous Liaisons,' 'The Father').

What does the leadership change mean?

On succeeding her mother, Tramberg is blunt. 'Yes I am a nepo baby, and of course, this puts extra pressure on me,' she said. 'That said, taking over the festival, at this time of my life feels just right.' She added: 'I greatly respect and admire what Tiina has achieved; she is a wonderful visionary. But I don't compare myself to her and I have my own shoes to fill, my own path to follow and create.'

She promised continuity this year: 'I will use this special 30th anniversary to pay tribute to my mother's work, which is why I wasn't going to change anything this year. Tiina started with 24 feature films — now we have 230; she had around 20 international guests, now we have more than 2,000 guests. That says it all.'

Her stated goal for the only FIAPF-accredited competitive film festival in Northern Europe: 'for PÖFF to keep going strong, especially amid the challenging times that we're living and global political upheaval. PÖFF is bold, unpredictable yet accessible. We simply want audiences to keep coming to the cinemas and I hope new audiences will join in.'

Whether a Nepo-baby succession can hold that ambition is the question the next twelve months will answer.