The programme of a seven-day hybrid-summit Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event, the largest business platform and trade fair in Northern Europe for audiovisual industry professionals, kicks off today with more than 110 lectures, workshops and masterclasses, hundreds of 1:1 meetings and around 650 participants. 

According to Marge Liiske, the Managing Director of Industry@Tallinn&; Baltic Event, this year’s summit welcomes around 650 guests in Tallinn, at Nordic Hotel Forum and online: “We are very glad to have so many film professionals joining us on the anniversary year in Tallinn. Organising the hybrid-event has its challenges, but we hope that this week will open up new collaborations and possibilities for participants as well as offer valuable insights and inspiration for the future.” 

First and foremost, Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event continues to be a place to do business. The programme includes 66 projects that are presented in six different categories, including the works in progress, script competition, co-production market, and, the newest addition, a drama series co-financing market, with public pitchings and/or one-to-one meetings. Also, accredited guests have access to a networking platform that allows them to get together with other attendees virtually and onsite.

As this year’s Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event has the United Kingdom as a Focus country (in collaboration with the BFI), the participants will have the opportunity to find out more about projects, companies and the regional business environment. The centrepiece of the UK Focus will be a case study presentation featuring three British-Estonian co-productions: Undergods, Sentinel and Burial

New learnings are one of the cornerstones for Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event. The insightful and exhaustive programme takes off today with TV Beats Forum, the drama-series-oriented strand that analyzes and discusses various aspects of the booming series production in comparison to film production. The two-day programme also includes several high-profile case studies including Icelandic medical drama Fractures and Croatian show Paper, picked up by Keshet and sold to Netflix. In addition, TV Beats Forum will present various series that are in production and will premiere in 2022 and will have screenings of around 20 fresh series from the region and beyond including several premieres.

The talent programmes have joined under a new banner this year - Black Nights Discovery Campus, lasting throughout the Industry @Tallinn & Baltic Event. It includes the established Music Meets Film, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Black Nights Stars, Black Room, Young Critics and Future to Film. The last one involves the Script Pool script competition along with a new collaboration with the European Film Academy, presenting Discovery Award nominated directors and with a headline masterclass from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. In addition, to live events and workshops carried out in Tallinn by award-winning film professionals, the programmes also include open lectures to accredited guests accessible online. Discovery Campus will gradually extend into a year-round online training platform.

As climate change also has a strong impact on film production, the summit takes a closer look at recent technologies, virtual and green production and sustainability in the whole creation process, and discusses how to implement those principles in creating magical films. 

A half-day conference, European Film Forum Tallinn 2021: Readiness for Industry Renaissance 2.0 zooms in the outlook for Europe's audiovisual, content and tech industries, looking answers for how to implement strategic foresight with the help of Artificial Intelligence and develop organisational data capacity in the audiovisual and content business, and what the newest leaps in European virtual production and extended reality and experience cutting-edge case studies in production. The event presents 14 international film and media industry professionals sharing their experiences and insights on the most pressing topics for the European film, television and content industry. 

Even though Virtual Reality (VR) has received much more attention from the mainstream during the lockdown period, the technology has also made great leaps and VR creators find themselves in an awkward position between films, games, art installations and other mediums. Emmy and Venice award-winning VR creator Ricardo Laganaro (Brazil) along with Robin Stethem from the Museum of Other Realities, Eero Tiainen from Embrace and John Canning from Digital Domain will discuss the digital future and new opportunities for artists. 

The case study on green production takes a closer look at The Wait, a film shot during the Covid19-pandemic and the first carbon-negative feature film made in Finland. During the panel discussion Actress-scriptwriter Inga Kallen, director Aku Louhimies, producer Andrei Alén and a specialist from Compensate.com will discuss what a carbon-negative production during a pandemic looked like and how our future requires us to take new approaches to storytelling.

In addition, there are workshops and masterclasses on leadership, storytelling in the new age, financing, sales and distribution, presenting acknowledged speakers such as Dirk Hoffmann (former Nokia and T-Mobile executive, currently European star on AI), Nusrat Durrani (media visionary, producer, co-creator and former CEO of MTV World, and Gloria Fan (Walt Disney Company, Head of Current Series). 

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, one of the largest film events in Northern Europe, takes place from 19-26 November 2021. The schedule, as well as the online events, are accessible at industry.poff.ee.