The only A-class festival in Northern Europe, Black Nights / Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival, started in Tallinn on November 7, and from November 14, the festival's industry section Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event begins, where this year Latvia is represented by several upcoming film projects and a delegation of film professionals.
Published: 14.11.2025.
The Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event section of the Tallinn Festival film industry events is focused on the future – this week the focus is on upcoming film projects and almost ready-made films that find possible partners, distributors, festival curators, film professionals meet in various workshops, film market screenings and other events important to the industry.
One of the most important sections of industry events is the presentation of projects Works in Progress, where film professionals are introduced to films in the production process or post-production. In serious competition this year, musical Līgava / The Wedding Day by Marta Elīna Martinsone has been selected for the Baltic Event Works in Progress section, film is being produced by Ego Media as a Latvian-Czech co-production; and crime comedy Visiem vajag naudu / Kingpins (studio Mima Films) by Kristians Riekstiņš is selected. Studio Locomotive participates as a minority co-producer of the upcoming feature film Dice-Ching-O-Mat (director Kristijonas Vildziunas, producer Ulyan Kim). The best in this selection of eight projects are up for awards.
In the co-production projects section of the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, three projects have been selected this year, in the production of which Latvia is involved. Director Dace Pūce, together with producers Līga Gaisa and AntraGaile, develops the black comedy project Divi jauni zobi / Superheroine of the Wrong Side of Forty (studio Air Productions), producer Andrejs Ēķis together with Ukrainian producer Vitaly Dokalenko develops the film project Alise grib dzīvot / Alice Wants to Live, and as a co-production between Latvia, Estonia and Finland, the film Johnny is planned, directed by Jaak Kilmi,
Film projects at the script development stage are included in the industry events section Script Pool – there, among only five selected projects is the mystical comedy Alfrēds Krauze: The Case of a Missing Parrot / Alfred Krauze: The Case of a Missing Parrot (directed by Kristina Parvatkina, produced by Vadims Zaikovskis).
Following the trends of the era, the Series Market for multi-series film projects is expanding more and more widely, where a separate event is hosted by the Series Mania Institute, which is important in Europe. From November 13, the session Serial Bridges Baltics will take place, for which six projects have been selected, and Latvia is represented most widely – producer Gints Grūbe, director Juris Kursietis and scriptwriter Osvalds Zebris in cooperation with Estonian and Finnish partners are developing the journalistic investigative thriller Aurora. Redakcija / Aurora Newsroom, producer Raitis Ābele, director Lauris Ābele and screenwriter Zanda Zeidaka are working on the project Purva ēnas / Shadows of the Swamp, while producer Lelde Kovaļova and screenwriter Vladislavs Kovaļovs developing the series Nomale / The Outskirts.
Among the three projects selected in the Coming Soon from the Baltics section, the upcoming Latvian crime series, the original content of the streaming platform TET – the eight-episode film Ķīlnieki / The Hostages by director and screenwriter Vladislavs Kovaļovs in the post-production stage.
Within the framework of the industry section Baltic Event, events organized by Creative Europe MEDIA offices are also taking place – on November 19, the MEDIA offices of the Baltic, Nordic, Catalan and Austrian MEDIA offices are organizing a networking event with the participation of 35 producers (including three from each of the Baltic States), 9 representatives of MEDIA offices and representatives of 10 film funds responsible for film production issues. The representatives of Latvia who will work on their projects and look for cooperation partners at this event will be producers Sniedze Kāle, Līva Vernere and Elīna Gediņa-Ducena.
As already reported, this year the world premieres and international premieres of several Latvian films are taking place in the competitions and programmes of the Tallinn Film Festival – Lailas Pakalniņa's latest documentary Putnubiedēkļi / Scarecrows, Jānis Ābele's documentary Testaments / The Last Will and director Vitaly Manskis' documentary Laiks līdz mērķim / Time to the Target, Alises Zarina's second feature film Nospiedumi / Flesh, Blood, Even a Heart, and by Oskars Rupenheits feature Tumšzilais evaņģēlijs / Red Code Blue.
Traditionally, the National Film Centre has participated in the preparation of the release of the Baltic Film magazine, created in cooperation with the film institutions of all three Baltic States, especially for the Tallinn Festival. This time, the topics of the Latvian film industry are represented by interviews with directors Alise Zariņa, Jānis Ābele, a large material dedicated to the director Laila Pakalniņa, a separate article also looks at all three Baltic states' entries for the U.S. Academy Award for best International Feature.
A shortcut to the possibility to view the magazine online can be found HERE.
The industry events section of the Tallinn Film Festival will end on November 21, with the last screenings for the audience on November 23.