TALLINN: Maria’s Paradise a new project by the acclaimed Finnish director Zaida Bergrot is currently shooting in Estonia. This Finnish/Estonian coproduction is based on the real events of Åkerblom's movement, a religious sect which became notorious in the 1920s Finland.

TALLINN: The Estonian Film Institute has allotted 40,000 EUR in its first ever round for TV-miniseries development, and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia has allotted seven production grants in the amount of 273,800 EUR in its second round of 2018.

TALLINN: The Cultural Endowment of Estonia has allotted 322,800 EUR for film production in its first session of 2018.

TALLINN: The Estonian Film Institute (EFI) allotted 214,000 EUR in its first animation session of 2018. Three animated film projects received production funding and two development funding.

TALLINN: The Estonian Film Institute allotted 1,080,000 EUR for feature film production and minority co-production in the first sessions of 2018.

ESTONIA: Eia's Christmas at Phantom Owl Farm, the last of the feature films that won the Estonia 100 film competition, is now in production. The second film by writer-director Anu Aun is set to screen during Christmas 2018.

TALLIN: Estonian cinema had a successful year in 2017 and continued to break records. Total admissions reached an all-time high of 3.51 m, a 6.3 percentage-point increase from 2016. Another record is 2.67 admissions per capita. Total box office reached a record of 19.39 m EUR, with 9.1 percentage points more than in 2016.

TALLINN: A total of 21 Estonian films premiered in cinemas in 2017 and two of them made it to the top ten. The Dissidents, directed by Jaak Kilmi and produced by Taska Film, ranked 2nd with 85,306 admissions and over 480,000 EUR gross, while Swingers, directed by Andrejs Ekis and produced by Platforma Film, ranked 7th.

TALLINN: Estonian Film Institute and the audiovisual endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia have allotted 37,000 EUR and 383,515 EUR respectively for film development and production in the last sessions of 2017.

TALLINN: Estonia has successfully experimented with alternative ways of distribution lately, but opinions vary as to whether a simultaneous release in cinemas and on SVoD is beneficial for such a small industry.