The Women’s Nights Film Festival NÖFF is an inclusive festival which celebrates women in all their diversity and glory. NÖFF showcases the work of women on both sides of the camera. Women are the centre of our stories either as filmmakers, performers, or main characters in the stories.
All films that screen at NÖFF must be made by women, for women or of the woman’s experience. Films from filmmakers of all nationalities, ages and genders are welcome. Each year the festival focuses on a specific topic to encourage discussion.
Why have a film festival concentrating on women, women filmmakers, and stories about the experience of being a woman? Research shows that the film industry is still a very sexist industry. It is found that 99% women working in the film and TV industries have experienced sexism. That is in correlation to the fact that by role, women comprise the minority amongst directors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers. Thus, the portrayal of women in film is still very stereotypical and unrealistic. Studies
show that in films with at least one woman director there are substantially more women employed in other key behind-the-scenes roles. Women support women.
Women deserve to be heard and seen on screen and behind the camera. NÖFF offers a platform for professional women authors, artists, performers and filmmakers, may they be only just starting out in the industry or are well known already. NÖFF is set on offering quality content, entertainment and profound discussions to broaden mindsets and keep building for a better tomorrow for womanhood.
The theme of the seventh festival will be WOMAN and MAN. Yin and Yang, opposites, balance, harmony, opposite genders, lovers. NÖFF 2025 seeks to unravel the complex, exhilarating, contradictory, and multifaceted dynamics of relationships between women and men.
The screening of films is supported by Mrs Tiina Lokk-Tramberg and her Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival team.
The Women’s Nights Film Festival NÖFF gifts each year an award to an outstanding younger generation Estonian woman filmmaker. It is a sort of traveling trophy. The trophy is a mini sculpture named „The forever dance “ which is made by Estonian sculptor Hille Palm. The sculpture was gifted to legendary film director Leida Laius 1985 for her film „Naerata ometi.“ Leida Laius’s goddaughter has given the sculpture to the festival to commemorate the late director.