Estonia Showbiz Latest News and Updates

One of the favorites to make the Oscar documentary feature shortlist this year takes viewers to a remote area of Estonia, within the healing space of the smoke sauna. It is an ancient tradition in that part of the world, a way of “connecting family and friends to cleanse body and soul inside a place of peace and contemplation.”

The Eurovision Song Contest was certainly dramatic with calls for the competition to be boycotted and one act disqualified the day of the Grand Final. But despite the drama, the Contest went ahead on Saturday night in Malmo and reigning champion Loreen handed over the trophy to a new winner. Let's take a look at the final result.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Principal photography has ended on Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze’s second film, “Supporting Role.” The first images have been released. It follows on from the success of Urushadze’s 2017 debut “Scary Mother,” which premiered and won best first feature at Locarno Film Festival before going on to pick up the top prize in Sarajevo. It was nominated for the European Film Academy’s Discovery Award and was Georgia’s entry for the 90th Academy Awards.

Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest on Thursday evening, as thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in the host city of Malmo, Sweden, to protest against the country’s participation in the competition. 

Naman Ramachandran The European Film Academy has added a record 709 new members in its 2024 annual intake. New members include Cate Blanchett (Australia/U.K.), Jovan Marjanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Maria Bakalova (Bulgaria), Juraj Lerotić (Croatia), Anna Hints (Estonia), Ariane Toscan du Plantier (France), Stéphan Castang (France), David Thion (France), Marie-Ange Luciani (France), Latifa Saïd (France), Rebecca Houzel (France), Thomas Hakim (France), Sami Mustafa (France/Kosovo), Mohamed Siam (France), Hanna Bergholm (Finland), Hamze Bytyçi (Germany) and Christian M.

Film Bridge Sets ‘Helloween’ As First Film On Genre Slate With Shogun Films

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The seventh edition of The Changing Face of Europe, a section in Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival, explores the cultural, economic and political forces shaping contemporary Europe. From an investigation of a right-wing group in Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning’s “Norwegian Democrazy” to the fight for bodily freedom in Elina Psykou’s “Stray Bodies,” this year’s selection broaches a series of urgent — and, at many times, highly-sensitive — sociopolitical topics at the forefront of European society from filmmakers who may not always get the support they need within the international festival landscape.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Peaky Blinders’ and ‘Gangs of London’ star Joe Cole and ‘True Spirit’ and ‘Titans’ actor Teagan Croft have both just wrapped contemporary neo-noir thriller Override, the fourth feature from directing duo Natasha Merkulova and Alexey Chupov. It marks the English-language debut for the Russian helmers, whose Captain Volkonogov Escaped played in Venice’s Competition strand in 2021.

Ellise Shafer TikTok is returning as the official entertainment partner for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. This marks the social media platform’s third year teaming up with Eurovision, the world’s largest music event.

SeriesFest has set its lineup and it now includes the likes of New Amsterdam star Jocko Sims and creator David Schulner, All American’s Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Dr. Death creator Patrick Macmanus.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor European Film Promotion has unveiled the seventh edition of the Changing Face of Europe, a section that runs as part of Toronto documentary festival Hot Docs, which runs April 25 – May 5. The section features nine European documentaries, selected by the Hot Docs programming team, that “illustrate and examine a new and contemporary Europe from a cultural, social, geo-political and economic perspective.” In addition to attending the screenings and the festival’s industry program, the directors and producers of the films will be part of on-site and online events organized by EFP, including networking sessions and one-on-one meetings with distributors, buyers and festival programmers from North America. “Kelly – Someone Else’s Dream” follows Estonian freestyle skier Kelly Sildaru.

Even though he was third in line to the throne when he was born on 10 March, 1964, the Duke of Edinburgh never faced any realistic prospect of becoming King in the UK - but he almost did abroad! This surprising revelation comes from an odd request made to Prince Edward back in 1994.The Line of Succession is something that can't be changed based on personal preference, but it seems one foreign country didn't quite understand this. In 1994, during a time of big changes in their country, Estonia asked Prince Edward to become their head of state. Buckingham Palace kindly turned down this "charming" offer.

For those who resisted binge-watching the entire series, Trigger Point came to a dramatic end on Sunday night (March 3). Back in January, the drama made a welcomed return to screens with actress Vicky McClure back as bomb disposal officer Lana Washington.

Emiliano De Pablos “Professor T,” the crime series produced by Eagle Eye Drama, and starring Ben Miller (“Bridgerton”), has been greenlit for a fourth season by ITV and PBS Distribution. Attracting audiences of over four million viewers on ITV and making a successful debut on France 3, the highly acclaimed drama has been sold to almost 120 territories worldwide. Most recently, Telekom acquired rights in Germany, TV3 bought the series for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova 1 for Moldova, and BBC and TVP for Poland.

EXCLUSIVE: Beta Film has has sold a slew of dramas to Australia’s SBS including big-budget TIFF entry Estonia as part of the pair’s multi-year license deal.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Black Tea,” Abderrahmane Sissako‘s lushly lensed romance drama set in China, has been bought by major distributors in key territories ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Gaumont, which co-produced the film, has sold it to Caramel (Spain), Academy two (Italy), Pandora Films (Germany, Austria), Cineart (Benelux), Films4you (Portugal), Provzglyad (CIS), Mozinet (Hungary), Another World Entertainment (Norway), Film Bazar (Denmark), MCF Megacom (Former Yugoslavia, Albania), Filmstop (Latvia, Estonia), MB Taip Toliau (Lithuania), Imovision (Brazil), AV Jet (Taiwan), Falcon (Indonesia), Pathé BC (Sub-Saharan Africa, Maghreb) and New Cinema (Israel).

Nick Holdsworth European film agencies, festivals and organizations could do more to support Ukrainian filmmakers, the head of Germany’s state film promotion body, German Films, says. Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films — which supports the promotion of national filmmakers at festivals and events worldwide — says there is a lot of talk at festival panels and industry gatherings of supporting Ukrainians, but little financial backing.

Christopher Vourlias One year after sharing the stage at the European Film Market as joint Countries in Focus, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia continue to shine. Despite the downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, the lingering fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the growing economic uncertainty worldwide, production across the region has been at or near record highs in recent years.

Christopher Vourlias To get a sense of the state of cinema in the Baltic countries today, you could look instead to Park City, Utah, where two of the region’s filmmakers — Estonia’s Anna Hints and Lithuania’s Marija Kavtaradze — took home directing prizes at last year’s Sundance Film Festival: Hints for her debut documentary “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Kavtaradze for her sophomore feature “Slow.” Those wins felt somehow emblematic for the tiny Baltic nations, which — with a combined population of roughly six million — have nevertheless shown a knack for punching above their weight. Last year, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia shared the stage at the European Film Market as joint Countries in Focus, a spotlight that underscored a period of steady — even surprising — growth.

Trigger Point viewers were left issuing a complaint over the opening episode of series two - but those who binge-watched the entire series ended up finding themselves sharing the same verdict.

The second series of Trigger Point is set to explode onto our screens after almost a two-year hiatus, with some new faces joining Vicky McClure.The ITV drama follows Lana Washington, played by Line of Duty star Vicky McClure, as a bomb disposal expert with the Metropolitan Police as she attempts to crack down on terrorism across London. After its first season, the show became a fan favourite with its explosive twists and turns with a talented cast keeping us on the edge of our seats! As we get ready to welcome back the ITV drama, let's take a closer look at the cast and where we recognise them from...

A new season of smash hit drama Trigger Point is returning to our screens very soon. Fans have been patiently waiting for two years for the show's next instalment.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Fisher King, the leading Finnish company behind some of Scandinavia’s biggest scripted hits including “Bordertown” and “The Helsinki Syndrome,” has gone bankrupt amid challenges that have thrown the Scandinavian TV industry into turmoil. Beta Film, which acquired Fisher King in 2019 and subsequently launched the umbrella banner Beta Nordic Studios, said the company was declared bankrupt on Dec.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba will be coming to the big screen, along with a sneak peek at the new season.Described as an extra-sized blockbuster experience, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Hashira Training- will allow fans to revisit the finale of the Swordsmith Village Arc while also getting a glimpse at the highly anticipated Hashira Training Arc (season four).The upcoming event marks the first time the finale of the Swordsmith Village Arc has ever been shown in cinemas, and also the first-ever showing of the Hashira Training Arc‘s beginning.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Hashira Training- will screen in UK cinemas from February 23.

The European Film Academy has unveiled its new board which has been voted in under updated guidelines aimed at ensuring a more balanced geographical representation of its members.

Marta Balaga Picture Tree International has boarded international sales and debuted the trailer for Miia Tervo’s upcoming comedy “The Missile,” set to world premiere at Göteborg’s just-announced Nordic Competition. Produced by Finland’s Kaisla Viitala at Elokuvayhtio Komeetta and Estonia’s Daniel Kuitunen at Stellar Film, the movie will be distributed in Scandinavia by Aurora Studios. Tervo’s second feature after the award-winning “Aurora” – which opened the Swedish fest back in 2019 – teases a “uniquely crafted mix of political satire, heartfelt comedy and kitchen-sink drama, rooted in Northern brevity and melancholy,” according to its description.

Marta Balaga As the battle for international feature film Oscar heats up, female directors behind this year’s submissions urge Academy members to stay open-minded. “Many outstanding films won’t be noticed simply because people don’t watch them. Established directors, big production companies or rich distributors are in a better starting position, but I encourage Academy voters to go for bold and diverse choices,” says Estonia’s Anna Hints, who’s behind crowd-pleasing doc “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.” “The safest choice is not always the best,” echoes Tizza Covi, who co-directed Austrian selection “Vera” with Rainer Frimmel.

“Each year, First Feature Competition is something truly special. We can’t wait to introduce these emerging talents to the world.”, she adds.

Vended have announced a massive UK and European tour set to kick off in the spring of next year.The band, which includes Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor‘s son Griffin and Slipknot percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan’s son Simon among its bandmembers, will play the first show of their tour on April 25, 2024 at Turock in Essen, Germany.From there, they will make stops in cities including Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Zurich, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Antwerp, Birmingham, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Nottingham, Brighton and Swansea. The tour will wrap up on June 2, 2024 at Sub 89 in Reading.Bands Profiler and The Gloom In The Corner are set to serve as opening support for the shows.