The European Film Awards, aka as the "European Oscars", will take place for the first time in Tallinn, Estonia as part of the final weekend of events at the Black Nights Film Festival, the Baltic region's largest and most respected film event. The star-studded gala, presented by the European Film Academy, kicks off Tallinn's celebrations as European City of Culture for 2011.

A large delegation of European producers, actors, filmmakers, distributors and industry professionals is expected to wing into Tallinn for the weekend, with a host of Festival/Awards events planned for the next few days. A lingering concern for organizers is the snowy weather that has largely crippled air traffic over Europe in the past week. Snow is definitely on the ground here in Tallinn, contributing to an astonishing "winter wonderland" feel for the historic city, particularly its medieval old town.

For the past week, POFF has hosted public screenings of most of the films that are up for awards on Saturday evening in the Nokia Concert Hall, including such celebrated titles as ARMADILLO (Jan Metz, Denmark/Sweden), BAL (Honey, Semih Kaplanoglu, Turkey/Germany), CARLOS (Olivier Assayas, France/Germany), CELDA 211 (Cell 211, Daniel Monzon, Spain/France), DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX (Of Gods And Men, Xavier Beauvois, France), DIE FREMDE (When We Leave, Feo Aladag, Germany), THE GHOST WRITER (Roman Polanski, France/Germany/UK), THE ILLUSIONIST (Sylvain Chomet, France/UK), and KAWASAKI'S ROSE (Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic).

Other EFA films screening in Tallinn this week include LEBANON (Samuel Moaz, Israel/Germany/France), STEAM OF LIFE (Joonas Berghall, Finland/Sweden), LOOSE CANNONS (Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy), ON THE PATH (Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia/Herzegovian/Austria/Germany/Croatia), OUR LIFE (Daniele Luccheti, Italy), NOTHING PERSONAL (Urszula Antoniak, The Netherlands/Ireland), THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY (Veiko Ounpuu, Estonia), SAMMY'S ADVENTURES: THE SECRET PASSAGE (Ben Stassen, Belgium), THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina/Spain)  and SUBMARINO (Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark).

Other pre-Awards events include an Underground Film Party to be held on Friday evening on Freedom Square and a Conversation with Bruno Ganz, the recipient of this year's European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by a special screening of JULIA'S DISAPPEARANCE, a Swiss film by director Christoph Schaub on Saturday afternoon. For complete information on the nominees for the 2010 European Film Awards, visit: www.europeanfilmacademy.org

Sandy Mandelberger, POFF Dailies Editor