The group introduces its projects at one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe - PÖFF in Tallinn.
Black Nights Film Festival (aka PÖFF – Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival) takes place in Tallinn on November 13-29. This is one of the biggest festivals in Northern Europe and the only one in the region that is accredited by FIAPF – International Federation of Film Producers Associations.
The screening of the family saga There Will Be People already happened on November 13th. The series participates in the special program for TV projects - TV BEATS. The creative producer, Olesia Lukianenko made a special video message introducing the series specially for the festival. The saga is available for online-screening till December 2nd, on the online platform of the festival.
There Will Be People is a twelve-episode saga based on the novel by Anatoly Dimarov and produced by FILM.UA with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information policy of Ukraine. It premiered on the STB TV channel this Autumn. The film is set in the Poltava region in the early 20th century. Its heroes live through the tumultuous events that changed the lives of everyone – World War I, revolution, collectivization, and Holodomor. Each of them chooses their own way and defends their own truth. The series raises questions of national-, self-identification, self-reflection, the realization of personal history, the threat of propaganda, and others. These themes are not only important for Ukrainians but are also a good example of the glocal context - when global is viewed through the prism in local history.
Within the festival, there is also Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event - a big industry co-production market for the Baltic States. It takes place on November 23-27. Usually, the main goal of this event is to connect global producers to potential Baltic co-production partners. But this year, it shifted a bit due to the global changes and the industry’s move online, with the added benefit of making new touchpoints between the audiences and films outside of their regions. The new focus is experience exchange between tho countries as the players of the global markets in the new circumstances. One of the highlights of this event (on par with the case of the Netflix project - Stranger Things) will be the case from FILM.UA studios.
A panel discussion UKRAINE FOCUS: FILM.UA within the TV BEATS Forum will take place on November 27th in an online format. The group will be represented by producers Kateryna Vyshnevska and Olesia Lukianenko. They will tell about the experience and strategy of the studio using as an example the first Ukrainian noir detective series Hide and Seek, the saga There Will Be People, the animated series for teenagers and adults Hrafn Academy. They will also tell about new international co-productions.
Kateryna Vyshnevska comments:
"We are very pleased to receive an invitation to this event because it confirms the value of our strategy. We have a lot in common with the Baltic States: we all face the task of producing commercially successful content with international potential in conditions of limited local market capacity (we are going to elaborate using the example of Hide and Seek). Another important goal is to preserve ourselves at the same time (the saga There Will Be Humans refers to the important topic of national self-identification). Also, we all want to create more and better, so we will tell about our experience of co-production with other countries (Hrafn Academy - with Iceland and Koza Nostra - with Italy)."
FYI
Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) - a festival started in 1997, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has grown into one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe and busiest regional industry platforms, hosting more than 1000 guests and industry delegates and over 160 journalists. The festival screens around 250 features and more than 300 shorts and animations and sees an attendance of 80 000 people annually.
Since 2014 the festival holds the FIAPF accreditation for holding an international competition program which puts the festival into the so-called A-category of film festivals, alongside other 14 festivals in the world.
