Black Nights Stars, a program that spotlights up-and-coming actors and actresses, has unveiled its selection of eight promising young talents for this year's event. Chosen from a pool of over a hundred submissions, these emerging actors and actresses will be a part of a comprehensive program that includes workshops and lectures aimed at guiding them towards success in the international film industry.
Black Nights Stars, taking place for the 7th time already, is part of Discovery Campus, an international continuing education programme organized by Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and the lack Nights Film Festival.
The international jury selected the eight young talents from the Baltic Sea Region, consisting of Casting Directors and members of the International Casting Directors Association: Cassandra Han from Germany, Tanja Grunwald from Denmark, 3-time Emmy nominee Frank Moiselle from the UK/Ireland, and Kristina Kolytė, from Lithuania. The jury also included Talent Agent Malou T. Schultzberg, from Sweden; Oscar-nominated Director Tanel Toom, from Estonia; and Philippe Ros, a Cinematographer from France.
The head of the Black Nights Stars program, Claudia Landsberger, said that the programme is very honoured to present today the eight young talents meeting up in Tallinn from 14 to 18 November. "The selected talents will have the opportunity to meet with international casting directors, talent agents, producers and directors and participate in various workshops and panels designed to enrich them with new skills, contacts and information that can give them access to new career opportunities. In addition, the talents will also receive the special Black Nights Stars Discovery Campus ICDA Award as a recognition for being selected as Black Nights Stars 2023," she adds.
One of the highlights of this year's programme is the workshops run by director Shahar Rozen. The programme will also include a panel discussion with agents, a presentation by E-Talenta, and meetings and other Industry events. Check out the preliminary schedule.
The Black Nights Stars 2023 participants:
Saulius Ambrozaitis is a 25-year-old actor born and raised in Lithuania. Saulius graduated in acting from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Oskaras Koršunovas two years ago. He has performed professionally in theatre since 2020 and made his stage debut as "Iago" in Shakespeare's play Othello. During his years at the academy, he was involved in numerous short and feature films, such as Dance by Danielius Minkevičius. In 2021, Saulius got a role in a three-part TV docu-drama series, Royal Bastards: The Rise of the Tudors, directed by Julian Jones. This year, he landed his first leading role in the TV series Nest Dissembler ( Lizdų Ardytojas) by Raimundas Banionis, scheduled for release in late 2023 in Lithuania.
Tuulia Eloranta is a Finnish actress with an MA from the Theatre Academy of Helsinki. Already in her early years, she had a passion towards acting. She starred in several Finnish productions,e.g., Harvoin Tarjolla, dir. Veikko Aaltonen, Star Above, by Saara Cantell and Icky Rapper And The Bicycle Thief, by Mari Rantasila. At sixteen, she landed her first lead role in the feature film Devil's Bride by Saara Cantell. Her latest works include Romeo & Juliet at the theatre collective 00100 Ensemble, Agatha Christie's Murder Of The Oriental Express at the summer theatre of Suomenlinna, and the series Helsinki Syndrome and The Invincibles. In 2023, She played the female lead in the feature film Huijarit by Rike Jokela, which will have its premiere later this year. Tuulia is also a trained singer with a contemporary and ballet dancing background.
Balder Ljunggren is from Stockholm, Sweden. He has a storied background as a singer & dancer, performing at some of the biggest stages in Stockholm and on TV & radio. Only later, he found acting, making his debut at the Stockholm City Theatre in the play Diplomati (2014) at an early age. More recently, he played a role in the beloved Swedish crime TV drama Maria Wern, directed by Lisa Ohlin, and in Fartblinda by Jens Jonsson & Johan Lundin. His love of acting, especially film, has only deepened. Calder is studying filmmaking at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg under the tutelage of Ruben Östlund. Also, a significant part of the last four years has been spent assisting and collaborating with director John Skoog on his next film, Värn, featuring legendary French actor Denis Lavant.
Ritvars Logins is a 24-year-old actor from Riga, Latvia. He began acting at a young age, starting as a child actor. In his teenage years, Ritvars switched gears and honed his culinary skills, specializing in exploring and popularizing the Atlantic region's taste and hosting his radio cooking show. But Ritvars's passion for acting never left, and in 2018, he participated in a once-in-a-lifetime acting course helmed by Alvis Hermanis at the esteemed New Riga Theatre. In the first year as a professional actor in The New Riga Theatre, Ritvars received the Best New Actor award at the Latvian National Theatre Awards 2022 for his performance in The New Latvian Stories. He also earned a nomination for The Latvian National Film Award 2022 for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the mini-series Crime Solving For The Beginners. In 2022, Ritvars played the lead role in the short film Vacuum Cleaner Salesman, which was selected for the New Talents Live Action competition and had its premiere at PÖFF.
Karmel Naudre is an actress from Estonia. She studied acting at the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Translation. Since graduating, Karmel has been engaged in various projects, from experimental mechanical machine building, wherein she actively interacted with these creations on stage, to participating in television series and short films. Among her recent projects, she portrayed the complex and layered character of Rose in William Mastrosimone's play Woolgatherers and femme fatale Marleen in the Viaplay TV series Shot Otto Mueller. Additionally, she had the opportunity to collaborate with Italian photographers and filmmakers to capture a love story filming in Sardegna.
Maris Nõlvak is from Estonia. At 15, she started studying at the Estonian Theater for Young Audiences drama studio. Her first role on the screen was in a supporting role in the TV series Here We Go Again by Estonian directors Andres Maimik and Rain Tolk. After this film, she was cast as the leading part in Andres and Katrin Maimik's film Cherry Tobacco ( 2014), which premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. She continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tartu, where she received the Panso Award. While she was still in drama school, she was invited to play Anya in the theatre production of The Cherry Orchard at Tallinn City Theatre, where she works today. Since finishing school, she has also participated in several TV series, such as Munavere, Dads and Messed Up by Rain Tolk and Andres Maimik. The last feature film she took part in was the trilogy of Melchior, The Apothecary, by Elmo Nüganen.
Karolina Rzepa grew up in the countryside near Warsaw, Poland and decided to become an actress at eighteen. She took professional acting training at the Aleksander Sewruk Acting Studio, at the Stefan Jaracz Theatre in Olsztyn and later continued studying at the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow. She started working in minor roles in movies, television series, and student projects. In addition, Karolina performed in two of Jan Jakub Kolski's films, and 2020 Kolski invited her to work on his film, The Republic Of Children, in the lead role. After graduating, Karolina started working on the leading role in the series Dom Pod Dwoma Orłami (House of Two Eagles). Soon after, she played in The Green Glove Gang - a Netflix series directed by Tadeusz Śliwa, and Wojenne Dziewczyny, a television series produced by Filip Zylber. Karolina is awaiting the release of two premiers in 2023: a short film directed by Jules Sadowski, Comme Des Cowboys and Two Sisters - Łukasz Karwowski's movie. The film was shot in Ukraine during the war in August 2022 and is a Polish co-production with Ukraine.
Langston Uibel is a British-German actor who was born in South London and grew up in Berlin. Langston first became known for his role in the dramatic film Freistatt by Marc Brummund. He went on to star in various acclaimed projects including the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Netflix limited series Unorthodox directed by Maria Schrader, as well as Christian Alvart’s Netflix series Dogs Of Berlin and How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) by Arne Feldhusen. Langston currently stars in Christian Petzold’s Afire as Felix. The film premiered in competition at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear, Grand Jury Prize. In September, Langston made his professional stage debut in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream in the role of Demetrius at the Burgtheater in Vienna.