This year’s Industry@Shorts, the rebranded industry arm of PÖFF Shorts, will take place from November 13–14.
The two-day event aligns with the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival's Baltic focus, highlighting the region's creators and film industry. Industry@Shorts features masterclasses, a panel discussion, presentations from short-film-focused festivals, speed-friending with industry professionals from across Europe, and lectures by award-winning directors.
As the third year’s PÖFF Shorts industry event arrives under a new name, the core idea remains intact — to give space to film students and emerging filmmakers to learn tricks of the trade from more established filmmakers and industry professionals, and to make the short-film world less confusing.
- Mirjam Mikk, Industry@Shorts programme manager
“It’s Shorts O’clock With the Baltics!” — a line-up of presentations organised in collaboration with the Latvian Short Film Agency — kicks off the event by bringing together key industry representatives from festivals and workshops in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They will present the initiatives available for short films in the Baltics at Vabamu on Friday, November 13.
Mikk Mägi, co-director of the 2019 cult animated feature “The Old Man: The Movie”, is making his solo directorial debut with the medieval action feature “Godkiller”. Mägi will join Industry@Shorts to share his creative process and techniques as a director working across different genres and film formats. Latvian filmmaker and artist Zane Oborenko, director of the “Kafka in Love” animation film (International Premiere at PÖFF Shorts 2024), will give a peek into her own filmmaking and animation process.
Over ten weeks, international creators have explored cinematic storytelling through Unreal Engine as part of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event’s “Unreal Engine: Storytelling & Cinematic Creation” programme. Industry@Shorts will showcase the participant projects, a look behind their creative process, and present an introduction to the possibilities of real-time filmmaking.
The masterclasses "Go Long! Shapeshifting with Director Mikk Mägi" and "Zane Oborenko: Sand, Letters, Kafka, and Love", as well as the showcase "Game Engine to Screen" will take place on Friday, November 13 at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Photo by Georg Korotkihh.
Director Augustė Gerikaitė and cinematographer Vasily Shramkov, the team behind last year’s PÖFF Shorts New Talent winner “Glitter Kiss”, will present a case study of their live-action short, dissecting the filmmaking process from idea to realisation. "The Anatomy of a Film Masterclass: Augustė Gerikaitė “Glitter Kiss” will take place on Saturday, November 14 at the Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School.
In the panel talk “All You Can Ask. The Short Film Industry Survival Guide”, four festival professionals – Jorge Rivero (Aguilar Film Festival), Lola Lambert (interfilm Berlin), Sona Morgenthalovan (MIDPOINT) and Lauma Kaudzīte (RIGA IFF Short Film) – will give a practical guide to key industry dynamics and festivals. The panel will be moderated by Maroš Pulščák.
Back by popular demand, the talk will be followed by our interactive speed-friending session: Speed Date with Short Film Professionals. Sign-up is available on site at the bar and theatre venue Von Krahl in Telliskivi, and is first come, first served.
Both the panel talk and speed-friending events will take place on Saturday, November 14.
Photo by Saara Mildeberg.
The third edition of the PÖFF Shorts Industry runs from November 13-14 in Tallinn, Estonia, during PÖFF Shorts (November 10-18) and Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event (November 9-20).