After 15 days of PÖFF, it was time to give out the Black Nights Film Festival Awards 2025. The ceremony took place tonight in Tallinn. As I stated in my introductory piece, there are several festival sections, meaning there is no lack of awards. If people were complaining that last year’s ceremony was too brief, the PÖFF organisers clearly listened. This year, they decided to merge the industry and film sections into a single ceremony lasting 4½ hours.
In the most prestigious strand, the Grand Prix for the best film in the main competition was given to The Good Daughter, directed by Spanish filmmaker Júlia de Paz Solvas. The same film also won the Audience Award. It’s the first time in PÖFF’s 29-year history that the same film won both those awards.
The Best Director prize was given to Ali Vatansever for Lifelike. The Best Actress prize was yet another win for The Good Daughter, since its leading actress, Kiara Arancibia, won that award. Aladdin Detlefsen and Kanji Tsuda shared the award for Best Actor for their parts in The Frog and the Water. Best Cinematography went to Yutaka Yamazaki for The Imaginary Dog and the Lying Cat. Best Script was given to Ståle Stein Berg for No Comment. A decision that actually deserves a comment, not necessarily of the approving kind. Finally, the award for Best Original Score was given to Erdem Helvacıoğlu for Lifelike, marking the second award for that work.
Other Black Nights Film Festival Awards 2025
First Feature
Hercules Falling, by Christian Bonke, won the Best Film award in this section. Samuel Abrahams won the prize for Best Director for Lady. Hercules Falling won the FIPRESCI Award as well, which is an unexpected decision to put it mildly. The significant absence here was Pascal Schuh’s intriguing Interior. A few days after the festival ended, it was announced that it had actually won the section’s Audience Award. For another November 2025 film event, the Sounds of Silents 2025 festival also took place in Warsaw.
Baltic Film
The Baltic Film strand has two awards. The Visitor by Vytautas Katkus was named Best Film, while Gabriele Urbonaite won the Best Director prize for Renovation. Katkus was named Best Director at the Karlovy Vary Festival.
Rebel With A Cause
In one of the most exciting sections, the award for Best Film went to The Baronesses by Nabil Ben Yadir and Mokhtaria Badaoui. The award for Best Director went, deservedly, to Adrian Sitaru for Blindsight. The award for Best Short was presented to Pay Day, directed by Päivi Hirsiaho.
Critics’ Picks
This section tends to focus on genre films. The prize for Best Film went to China Sea by Jurgis MatulevičiusIt. Matías Szulanski’s A Summer Tale won the Best Director award. Finally, a Special mention was given to Eeva Mägi’s Mo Papa. Mägi presented Mo Mamma at PÖFF in 2023.
Doc@PÖFF
For the second time, Black Nights has a documentary competition curated by Marianna Kaat. Best Film Award went to Days of Wonder by Karin Pennanen. The prize for Best Cinematography went to Max Golomidov for Edge Of The Night. The Jury Special Prize was given to Raisa Răzmeriță for Electing Ms Santa.
An honorary Award was bestowed on Jessica Hausner for her body of work. I was lucky enough to interview the director. Look out for that conversation, which will be published shortly.
My view on these and other films will follow in later Black Nights Film Festival reports. Stay tuned for several reviews and interviews.
The complete list of winners, with even more comments, can be found on the festival’s webpage here.
