Two-Time Oscar Winner and ‘Atonement’ Writer Christopher Hampton to Lead Tallinn Film Fest Jury

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) on Wednesday unveiled a five-member jury for its 30th edition’s official competition. Two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Christopher Hampton will lead the jury, joined by Lebanese producer Myriam Sassine, U.S. cinematographer and visual effects specialist David Stump, French producer Julie Billy and Estonian actress Tiina Tauraite.

Hampton won Academy Awards for best adapted screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons and The Father. His other film credits include Atonement, The Quiet American and A Dangerous Method, while his work for the stage includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Sunset Boulevard. He has also written and directed three feature films: Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina.

Sassine’s credits include Costa Brava, Lebanon, 1982, Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano and Diaries From Lebanon. In 2016, she co-founded the Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, dedicated to genre cinema in the Arab region.

Stump is known for his work on Breaking Bad, The Morning Show, Quantum of Solace and the first two X-Men films. His honors include an Emmy Award and an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

Billy is a Paris-based producer who founded June Films in 2020 after working with such filmmakers as Jonas Carpignano, Nadav Lapid and Yorgos Lanthimos. Her recent productions include Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, which premiered in competition at Cannes in 2025 and won the Queer Palm and best actress award, and Emma Benestan’s Animale.

Tauraite has appeared in such films as Autumn Ball, The Temptation of St. Tony, The Spy and the Poet and 8 Views of Lake Biwa.

The 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will take place Nov. 6-22. It will open with Viesturs Kairišs’ Ulya, a co-production between Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania that world-premiered in the Un Certain Regard program of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.