The 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will take place from November 11-27, 2022. This year's program for the largest film festival in Northern Europe and the Baltics represents geographic, genre and thematic diversity from renowned, multi award winning filmmakers to returning Black Nights favorites. The full lineup featuring a host of German titles has been announced, as well as the new Critic's Picks competition section curated by Nikolaj Nikitin.

The Official Selection will feature SO LONG DADDY, SEE YOU IN HELL by Christopher Roth (Arden Film). Fourteen-year-old Jeanne has lived in a farm commune since she was two years old. Her mother and father live in city communes and rarely visit. This is one of the commandments given by Otto, who rules the commune: children are to grow up without parents. Knowing nothing else, Jeanne enjoys her outdoor life, surrounded by lots of other children, until she falls in love with 16-year-old Jean and her childhood paradise begins to fall apart. In doing so, she violates Otto’s greatest commandment: “Sex is allowed, but love is forbidden.” Jeanne rebels against this.

The German-Austrian co-production THE FOX by Adrian Goiginger (DE/AT, Geißendörfer Pictures) will also be shown in the Official Selection and is the true story of Franz Streitberger, Adrian Goiginger's great-grandfather, a motorcycle courier for the Austrian Army who was soon drafted into the German Wehrmacht. At the beginning of the Second World War, the introverted young soldier encounters a wounded fox cub, which he then looks after as if it were his own child and takes with him to occupied France. Through this unique friendship with the wild animal, his own past as an outcast farmer's son, which he has always run away from, slowly catches up with him ...

The First Feature Competition section will feature the film EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE LOVED by Katharina Woll (Zeitgeist Filmproduktion): A blisteringly hot summer day. Psychotherapist Ina notices something is wrong with her. But she doesn't have time to worry about it. Patients are waiting at the practice, her daughter is threatening to move in with her father, her boyfriend wants to emigrate to Finland, and her self-centered mother is celebrating her 70th birthday. Ina wants to please everyone. But then everything changes.

The graduation film SOLASTALGIA by Marina Hufnagel (University of Television and Film Munich) will be shown in the section Rebels with a Cause and is a cineastic, challenging hybrid film in which two young women search for ways to confront the climate crisis. Edda is overcome with solastalgia, the pain of the destruction of our planet. In her refuge on the North Frisian Island of Pellworm, she meets Sophie, a young farmer who is suing the federal government for her right to the future.

This year’s edition of Tallinn Black Nights will introduce a new competition programme, Critics’ Picks, led by critic and programmer Nikolaj Nikitin. Critics’ Picks will highlight more arthouse fare in the PÖFF lineup, starting with around 15 features in its first year. Among them is the German co-production ROXY by Dito Tsintsadze (DE/BE/RU, East End Film). Thomas Brenner is a taxi driver in his fourties, experiencing few surprises in his mundane day-to-day life. Ideally, he would like to be invisible to the world around him. However, one day, his customers, including their huge dog Roxy turn out to be Russians on the run from people who don’t like to be messed with. Levan, the boss, takes a liking in Thomas and asks him for some more rides and favors in the days to come. Initially, Thomas joins for the money, but when he meets Liza, Levan’s attractive wife and their young son Vova, his motives change. Thomas is sucked into a deep pit of lies, friendship, love and loyalty and develops skills he didn’t think he was capable of.

German Films supports the Ukrainian film LUCKY GIRL by Marysia Nikitiuk (UKR/DE, San Cinema), which will be screened in the Official Selection section, with a  marketing budget. The minor German film is about Nina Sokil, an ignorant, rude, merciless, selfish host of a popular TV talk show. The local cold-hearted superstar loves to provoke both programme guests and spectators with cheap intrigues to gather more likes by uncovering untruths on Instagram. Nina has charisma, and love and luck are on her side until the glamorous life suddenly sends hardship her way. How can such a strong and unbreakable woman overcome serious health problems?