The Tampere Film Festival is the largest short film festival in the Nordic countries where friends of film art and professionals meet every year in March. In 2023, the event will be held for the 53rd time from 8 to 12 March.
The Tampere Film Festival is attended by professional guests and more than a hundred volunteers. The festival's program consists of competitions, themed programs and public and professional events. In addition to film screenings, the festival hosts annual internationally acclaimed and high-quality film competitions: An international competition for short films, a domestic competition for short films and feature documents, and a Generation XYZ competition for short genre films. Numerous public and professional events are also held during the festival, such as seminars, workshops, discussion events and club nights. One of them is a queer feminist self-defence workshop where participants will practice verbal and physical self-defense together and reflect on how to act in threatening situations.
A record of 7,975 films were sent to the international competition, of which a total of 87 films were selected for the festival. One of the International Competition fims is NA ŻYWO by Mara Tamkovichabout two female journalists from independent Belarusian TVwho are broadcasting live from peaceful protests in Minsk. When the police start firing on the protesters, and the women are targeted by a drone, they are faced with a choice: continue the broadcast or take shelter? The film is inspired by true events.
The most prominent Special Programme themes of 2023 include Queerscenes, shining a light on queer history, Free Zone, exploring the use of public space, and Maghreb & France, with four screenings of recent short films from France as well as the Maghreb countries Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The programme also includes specially curated screenings for children and adolescents.
