For the first time, Estonian Short Film Centre ShortEst in collaboration with its Lithuanian and Latvian partners and Creative Gate will present short film mini-market pilot event Baltic Preview as part of POFF Shorts Programme at PÖFF I 21st Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Exclusive screenings, talks with discussion sessions dedicated to subjects related short film will run from Nov 24th to 25th. 

Friday, November 24 

12.00 - 13:00 Cinema Kosmos
Kubrick Hall: Studio Presentation: Neuer Österreichischer Trickfilm (60 min) * Everyone welcome. Limited seating. Poff Shorts Accredited guests and students have priority
Lem Hall: Private market screenings * invitations only 

Johannes Schiehls will give an overview of the history of animation in Austria, talking about the local funding situation and the ways of connecting Austria to the European co- production network. He will introduce his studio “Neuer Österreichischer Trickfilm” a.k.a. “New Austrian Animation” as a forward-thinking example when it comes to commissioned works. 

“Neuer Österreichischer Trickfilm” is a Viennese animation studio focusing on narrative animated films and the creation of authentic and intelligent animated characters for film and television. The directors’ award-winning graduation shorts “Heldenkanzler,” “366 Days,” and “The Visit” premiered at the Viennese Filmcasino. Rich in their variety of style, the shorts feature Austrian milieus and characters and were all voiced by famous actors and comedians. Moving their studio to Vienna, the directors started to work on European animation productions and producing their own work, also creating animation and visual effects for Austrian, German and International movies. www.trickfilmer.at

14.30 - 15:45 Cinema Kosmos
Kubrick Hall: Shorts of Tomorrow: Discussion Panel: Short Film Distribution outside Festivals (75 min). Panelists are local film experts Eliis Pärna (Estonia), Siim Rohtla (Estonia), Marianne Ostrat (Estonia) and a commissioning editor at YLE Finnish Broadcasting company, Sari Volanen (Finland). Moderated by Peter Murdmaa (ShortEST).
* Everyone welcome. Limited seating. Poff Shorts Accredited guests and students have priority 

In these shifting times each film requires a different strategy for distribution, but filmmakers seem to struggle to find the right way to reach their audiences. This time we are mainly asking professionals who are in the position of decision-making in film distribution outside of festival circuits, to speak their mind and share their thoughts among filmmakers and rights-holders about the future of short film; the outlook of distributing shorts; and whether their predictions of the future look grim or glorious. 

Saturday, November 25 

10.00-11.30 Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School, SuperNova Cinema
Creative Platforms: Online Market T-Port
How Can Festivals Discover the Next Generation of Filmmakers?
Presentation by Niv Fux (Israel). * Everyone welcome. 

Niv Fux from Israel will give a presentation of the brand new online market T-Port, which showcases new films from the finest film schools across the world, all on one online platform. This presentation is first and foremostly targeted towards film students. T-Port gathers the newest shorts, made by students in leading film schools around the globe, in one place. The platform enables film professionals to watch the films online and contact the correct owners of the films directly and easily. Its prime goal is to bridge the gap between film schools & the commercial film industry. The platform was officially launched in June 2017 and currently presents approximately 250 films from 20 different film schools (among them: USC, Lodz film school, Filmakademie Baden- Wuerttemberg). It includes 200 users from the professional industry and is constantly growing. www.tportmarket.com

12:00-13.30 Cinema Kosmos, Kubrick Hall
Creative Platforms: AniDox Development of animated documentary projects Uri Kranot (Denmark) * Everyone welcome. Limited seating. Poff Shorts Accredited guests and students have priority
ANIDOX is a creative platform for the development and production of animated documentary projects. A laboratory, a professional training course, a residency program and masterclasses. Bringing together international film professionals to attend seminars and hands-on creative workshops. Its main goal is to foster and develop collaborations between animation and documentary creatives, and help them move further with their projects. In this compilation we will present both pitch trailers which were made during the lab, and 4 completed short films that were done at the residency. www.anidox.com

14.00 - 15.00 Cinema Kosmos, Kubrick Hall
Baltic+ Studio presentation: Alfred Film & TV
Presentation by Silje Bürgin-Borch (Norway) 

Silje is going to talk about the financing structure and co-production possibilities for short films with/in Norway. From year 2015, Silje runs the production company Alfred Film & TV, that is based in the north of Norway. The company’s main area of production is developing original content, mainly within factual entertainment and documentary series for the European market. The company also specialises in animated short films. www.alfredfilmtv.com 

15.30 - 16.30 Cinema Kosmos, Kubrick Hall
Shorts of Tomorrow. Discussion panel: Short Film Programming and Development Struggles, Shifts & Strategies.
Panelists Jukka-Pekka Laakso (Finland) Thom Palmen (Sweden) Doris Bauer (Austria) Matea Milic (Croatia) Moderated by Peter Murdmaa

How will festival programming work in 2020 and how much does a short film festival need to think about its development strategies? Who is responsible for the future of short film? Is it the filmmakers, the festival programmers or the audience? Festival programmers will provide insight into their film programming practices and discuss finding “new gems” of the generation; what is essential for them in the year 2017; and what it will be like in two years’ time. What sort of struggles does a festival have to face in order to develop and educate its viewers and engage new audiences?