21/10/2025 - The newest films by Laurent Micheli, Jurgis Matulevičius, Lluís Miñarro, Adrian Sitaru and Spiros Stathoulopoulos feature in the two sections

The 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which will take place from 7-23 November, has announced the selection for its Critics’ Picks and Rebels With a Cause competitions - two of its boldest and most forward-looking programmes celebrating daring cinema and fearless storytelling.

The fourth edition of the Critics’ Picks competition offers ten dazzling world premieres handpicked from across the globe and served fresh in Tallinn. Nikolaj Nikitin, curator of the programme, describes this year’s line-up as “as wildly diverse as its passport stamps — from Iran to Peru, Canada to Tunisia, Mexico to Taiwan, France to Lithuania and, yes, Estonia too. [...] These are genre-bending gems that defy borders and expectations,” he adds. “From gritty noir and sharp political thrillers to sensual coming-of-age dramas and cinema-soaked thrill rides that remix the rules of storytelling — think of it as a gourmet menu for the cinephile palate: rich, risky and radically original. So, buckle up, movie lovers — these films aren’t just meant to be watched; they’re meant to be experienced."

The section includes new features such as Nino in Paradise (see the news), the new outing by Belgium’s Laurent Micheli (Lola [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Micheli
film profile]); China Sea, the new movie by Lithuania’s Jurgis Matulevičius (Isaac [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jurgis Matulevičius
film profile]); and Mo Papa, the new effort by Estonia’s Eeva Mägi (whose previous Mo Mamma [+see also:
film review
interview: Eeva Mägi
film profile] won the Special Jury Prize in this festival’s First Feature Competition back in 2023), as well as Oh, What Happy Days by Iran's Homayoun Ghanizadeh, starring Golshifteh Farahani and Shirin Neshat. The winners will be selected by Bhutanese director Dechen Roder, German film journalist Thomas Schultze and French producer Jean-Baptiste Babin.

On the other hand, the Rebels With a Cause competition is dedicated to viewers who want to be challenged and who wish to explore new ways of storytelling. Curator Xavier García Puerto says, “Rebels consolidates its commitment to the most daring films, combining powerful debuts from Japan, Turkey and Canada. Rebels’ spirit goes beyond bold language and the screen, featuring striking performances by James McAvoy and Marisa Paredes, in a posthumous appearance.”

This year, the programme features an all-world-premiere line-up, which includes titles such as Emergency Exit (starring Marisa Paredes, Emma Suárez and Naomi Kawase, among others - see the news) by Spain’s Lluís Miñarro (Falling Star [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luis Miñarro ­
film profile]), Blindsight by Romania’s Adrian Sitaru (Illegitimate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
film profile]), The Megalomaniacs by Greece’s Spiros Stathoulopoulos (Meteora [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), starring Angeliki Papoulia, Jan Bijvoet and Christos Passalis, and The Baronesses [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Belgium's Nabil Ben Yadir (Animals [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]), as well as Turn up the Sun! by British filmmaker Jamie Adams, starring James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi and Almudena Amor, screening out of competition. The jury for Rebels With a Cause includes Iranian director Ali Asgari, British film critic and curator Rogan Graham, and Spanish producer Alicia Reginato.

Here is the full selection of both sections:

Critics’ Picks

Invisibles - Junna Chif (Canada)
Oh, What Happy Days - Homayoun Ghanizadeh (Iran/USA/France/Canada)
Street Wanderers - Juan Martin Hsu (Argentina/Peru)
Mo Papa - Eeva Mägi (Estonia)
China Sea - Jurgis Matulevičius (Lithuania/Taiwan/Poland/Czechia)
Nino in Paradise - Laurent Micheli (Belgium/France)
Round 13 - Mohamed Ali Nahdi (Tunisia/Cyprus/Qatar/Saudi-Arabia)
The Silent Virgin - Xavi Sala (Mexico)
A Summer Tale - Matías Szulanski (Argentina)
That Burning House - Yin-Chuan Tsai (Taiwan)

Rebels With a Cause

Competition

The Baronesses [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Nabil Ben Yadir (Belgium)
Lo-Fi - Alican Durbaş (Turkey)
MieMie ~She Can See~ - Katsutoshi Furuya (Japan)
Vache Folle - Hugo Diego Garcia, Lorenzo Bentivoglio (France)
Leleka - Harald Hutter (Canada/France/Spain/Ukraine/USA)
Emergency Exit - Lluís Miñarro (Spain)
La Carn - Joan Porcel (Spain)
Blindsight - Adrian Sitaru (Romania/Turkey)
The Megalomaniacs - Spiros Stathoulopoulos (Greece/Colombia)

Out of Competition

Turn up the Sun! - Jamie Adams (UK)