The Emerging Producers Training Programme UP! is returning to Vilnius for its second edition from 5-9 October, expanding its geographical reach beyond Lithuania to welcome emerging producers from all three Baltic countries.

UP!, designed to help producers develop their international careers through intensive training and networking opportunities, is billed as the only programme for emerging producers in the Baltics. It will unfold as part of the Baltic Pitching Forum, the largest short-film industry event of the region.

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This year, 15 emerging producers with different backgrounds and levels of experience from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been selected.

From 5-7 October, the selected participants will attend lectures, seminars and workshops led by Lithuanian and international film-industry professionals. The sessions will address some of the key issues currently shaping the sector, covering areas including how to navigate the international film market, the principles of international co-production, film promotion, sales and distribution strategies.

The aim is to provide the new generation of Baltic producers with practical tools to deal with the increasing complexities of the film business, as well as help them strengthen their position on the international scene.

From 7-9 October, the participants will then join the activities of the 14th Baltic Pitching Forum, where they will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their projects to an audience of international industry representatives, including producers, distributors, sales agents, festival professionals and television executives.

For its 2026 edition, UP! has been developed in partnership withTalentBridge, the European film-training programme powered by industry platform T-Port and designed to help emerging filmmakers navigate the professional film sector.

The head of studies for UP! is Marija Razgutė, one of Lithuania’s most active film producers and a member of the European Film Academy. Razgutė is known for her collaborations with filmmakers such as Marija Kavtaradze, Vytautas Katkus, Karolis Kaupinis and Andrius Blaževičius. She is joined by Amos Geva, who will serve as the T-Port TalentBridge mentor at UP!. Geva, based in Germany, is a producer as well as the co-founder and managing director of T-Port.

The five Lithuanian participants selected for the programme are post-production manager Adelija Ribokaitė, producer Leticija Čiužauskaitė, producer and director Marija Stonytė, producer and production coordinator Morta Verbickaitė and producer’s assistant Saulė Žvikaitė.

Representing Latvia are emerging producers Grēta Grebže, Nikola Ozola and Rēzija Grēta Štrausa, alongside the writer-director, producer, actress and stuntwoman Victoria Alexandria Lele.

The Estonian delegation includes producers Grete Kaio, Henry Laasalu and Uku Pärtel Rand, producer, director and screenwriter Jaanika Kozlova, head of development Johannes Magnus Aule, and casting manager Robin Marten Leppik.

Throughout the training sessions, the participants will deepen their knowledge and practical skills in areas such as project-presentation strategies, co-production practices, the international short-film circuit, festivals and other distribution methods. They will also receive individual feedback, carry out practical assignments and take part in direct consultations with the programme’s lecturers.

The confirmed mentors for the 2026 edition are Vanya Rainova of Portokal (Bulgaria), Anne-Laure Guégan of Need Productions (Belgium), Gabriele Brunnenmayer, a Baltic Pitching Forum tutor from Germany, Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė of Just a Moment (Lithuania), Stine Wangler of Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg (Germany), and Brigita Beniušytė of M-Films (Lithuania).

The full list of selected participants is available here.

The Baltic Emerging Producers Training Programme UP! is organised by the Lithuanian short film agency Lithuanian Shorts in collaboration with T-Port TalentBridge. TalentBridge is co-funded by Creative Europe MEDIA and the FFA German Federal Film Board. The regional partners of UP! are PÖFF Shorts (a part of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival) and the Estonian Film Institute, and its main partner is Baltisches Haus. Further information about the full T-Port TalentBridge training programme can be found here.