Tallinn Industry Confab Widens Program to Highlight Next Gen of Storytellers: Head Marge Liiske Discusses This Year’s Program

In its 23rd year, Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event has expanded in its scope and reach without moving away from its core: training, promoting Baltic film and TV filmmakers and connecting them with the rest of the world.

According to industry honcho Marge Liiske, this year’s event will focus on the role of cinema in larger society. “As the world undergoes profound changes, the role of cinema is more important than ever. At a time when humanity faces environmental challenges, social injustice and unrelenting conflict, our films need to be more than entertainment; they need to be calls to empathy, understanding and action.”

More than 800 delegates from 47 countries have signed up for the event, which spans eight days (Nov. 15-22) instead of the usual five, due to an extra three days dedicated to short films.

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The new Shorts Industry Shortcut for emerging local, regional and international filmmakers is meant to enhance the Tallinn Film Festival’s status as an Academy Award, BAFTA and EFA-qualifying short film festival. It also reflects the parallel growth of Tallinn’s overall industry platform next to the festival and their organic synergies.

As Liiske points out, several titles selected for this year’s festival are past industry presentations, such as last year’s industry winners “Mamifera” by Spain’s Liliana Torres, which bowed earlier in San Sebastian and SXSW and screens at Tallinn’s Best of Fests; Lithuanian “Southern Chronicles” by Ignas Miškinis; and “Two of Me” by Estonian twin brothers Raul and Romet Esko, due to screen respectively at Tallinn’s Baltic and First Film competitions.

This year, the bulk of the program consists of 120 talks and presentations of 76 films and series, which will result in more than 100 one-to-one meetings.

At the TV Beat Forum, around 40 heavyweight players from companies including Disney+, Keshet International, Beta Film, Red Arrow International and Wild Bunch will be on site to watch the 10 series pitch vying for the coveted Eurimages €50,000 ($55,000) Series Co-Production Development Award. Participants include AMC and Oble Studios’ Hungarian revenge drama “Fata Morgana” and the Icelandic/Danish crime “Norröna Murders.”

Another five high-end series will be showcased at the inaugural Screening Day on Nov. 20, and a new Honorary TV Beats Producer Award will be given to Ukrainian indie producer Kateryna Vyshnevska (“Those Who Stayed”) for her role in growing the internationalization of Film UA, despite the ongoing war in her country.

Meanwhile, Tallinn’s partner MIDPOINT Series Launch for emerging talents from Central and Eastern Europe, under Gabor Krigler’s helm, will unveil nine new projects.

On the film side, 17 works in progress from 15 countries will be pitched Nov. 21-22, including “Papers” by two-time Oscar contender Arturo Montenegro. Additionally, 14 projects looking for co-financiers and co-producers will vie for Eurimages’ non-reimbursable €20,000 ($21,000) Co-production Development Award. For the first time, kids and youth films are part of the strand.

“We didn’t want to create silos between children & youth and adult films. We’re promoting diversity across formats and genres, whatever the target audience,” Liiske explains.

Meanwhile, the popular European Genre Forum, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, will give center stage to eight projects from up-and-coming European filmmakers from eight countries, set to vie for the first time for the €25,000 ($26,400) post-production award sponsored by ATM Virtual.

Commenting on her 2024 market lineup, Liiske, who has led Tallinn & Industry @ Baltic Event for the past 11 years, says the heavy Eurimages film and series awards have “definitely weighed in” on attracting top-end projects. Also, the competition has toughened up for available coin from public funds and broadcasters, regardless of the co-production market, which has created a natural selection process.

Co-productions -with either majority or minority partners-are therefore more important than ever for the smaller Baltic nations, as foreigners can tap into the lucrative 30% local cash rebates which can be combined with local public funding for feature films, she argues.

Having Germany as the country Focus, a major European territory that has cut down its co-productions with the Baltics in recent years, will be an opportunity, says Liiske, to ask “why?” It will also give attendees a clearer picture of the current national and regional funding landscape and 2025 reforms to the German Federal Film Board (FFA), to be explained on stage Nov. 21 by Bérénice Honold, advisor to the CEO for international and European affairs at the FFA. “More than 40 producers and fund representatives will be on hand. We hope our event will reboot our collaborations,” states Liiske.

Training the next generation of talents and producers is another cornerstone of Tallinn@Industry & Baltic Event, and a series of new initiatives are debuting this year. Besides the Discovery Campus for screenwriters (via the Script Pool Project) music composers, actors, DOPs and production designers, 13 up-and-coming distributors working in small to medium markets will join the intensive five-day Tallinn Industry Academy, co-organized with Locarno Pro, while 13 emerging producers will attend the lab Breaking Into the Industry: Mentorship Programme for Aspiring Producers.

Meanwhile, the inaugural Generative AI Atelier co-designed with Creative Europe Media’s Storytek Innovation lab, will provide mentorship and training for 12 participants.

On the eve of the industry event kick-off, Tallinn’s main Nordic Hotel Forum hub was already packed with industry pros and festival goers. “We’ve reached our maximum capacity at the venue but don’t intend to move as industry and festival guests do value this central mingling space, Says Liiske.” The latter also underlines the valued financial stream from accreditation costs that contribute to her budget of around €450,000, covered at 70% by the EU-Creative Europe Media local funds, with the rest emanating from other EU and local coin.

“For 2025, we expect inflation to jump up and further cuts to be implemented by our government. We do hope the EU support will stay as is.”

Meanwhile, at another Kultuurikate Tallinn venue, the EU-supported parallel Industry Innovation Forum Tallinn 2024 celebrating its 10 years, will welcome 10+ EU heads of government, NGOs, leading tech executives and innovation experts who will discuss European media and content industries at a crossroad. Time for Europe to show resilience and solidarity.