19/11/2014 - Industry@Tallinn kicks off on 24 November with an unprecedented line-up of heavyweight industry speakers from Asia, the US and Europe

The Black Nights Film Festival's Industry@Tallinn section, aimed at professionals, will take place from 24-28 November. Besides the central Baltic Event, it includes several segments that deal with the festival business, the European genre-film industry, the impact of feature-length television on the film industry, the business practices of Asian heavyweights, strategies for linking small-scale talents and post-production pools to international majors, and rebel release tactics in distribution.

The first day of Industry@Tallinn will feature the European Genre Forum (EGF) Pilot and Baltic Bridge East by West (B'EST) open plenaries on pitching projects and script development, led by Sibylle Kurz and Clare Downs.

On 25 November, the event gets up to full speed, starting with Film Music Sessions and a panel entitled “From Features to Television: Collaboration Between the US and Northern Europe”, which brings together executives from various Hollywood and independent production studios from the US to discuss case studies, the requirements and the possibilities for regional players entering the US film sector.

Next, the panel “Doing It Right: Secrets of the East Asian Film Biz” brings top-level sales and festival executives from Hong Kong and South Korea to Tallinn to reveal, through case studies, what local producers have to keep in mind when entering the Asian market and business collaborations in the region.

The last panel of the day, “Can You Really Fix It in the Post? Setting up the Successful Post-Production Workflow”, features case studies on international productions and a discussion with renowned post-production supervisors from the US, Finland and Estonia on how to effectively set up and handle international post-production projects and workflows. One of the case studies will be that of Spring.

26 November will be dedicated to the European Genre Forum Pilot, a brand-new initiative by the Black Nights FF, Fantastic Zagreb FF, Night Visions FF (Finland) and Screen Division agency (France), which aims to promote the European genre-film industry by mixing and matching the hottest up-and-coming genre-film professionals with already-established European industry figures.

The day will include panels on “How to Overcome the Tension Between Public Film Funding and Genre Films”, “Building the Festival and Sales Strategy for Your Production” and “Developing Your Talents for the Genre: Case Studies from Breakthrough Directors”, and will finish with the Project and Talent Pitching Session for eight fresh European genre projects from France, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Finland and Estonia, selected by the EGF partners.

An additional panel, “Setting up the Studio Biz: Managing Sound Stages and Studio Facilities”, will also take place on the 26th.

Following the session on “Alternative Windows, Alternative Strategies During the Decline of Theatrical Sales”, the last day of the event will be dedicated to the film festival business with Industry@Tallinn Film Festival Confab 2014, organised in conjunction with the Independent Cinema Office in London.

With an inspirational selection of the top movers and shakers on the international film festival circuit in attendance, the industry will be discussing the hottest topics in the festival business, including subjects such as “Programming Festivals: Collaborating, Competition and Identity”, “Festivals and Sponsorships: From Patronage to Creative Partnerships” and “The New Role of the Film Festival: Facilitator and Integrator at the Heart of a New Economy for the Independent Film Scene”.

The whole Industry@Tallinn section will come to a close with the Baltic Event Awards Gala, held at the Tallinn Town Hall.