Baltic Screen Industries Continue to Surge Despite Global Turmoil, Uncertainty
variety.comChristopher 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.
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.
That trend doesn’t seem to be slowing. After a record-breaking 2022 for the Lithuanian industry, Kestutis Drazdauskas, chairman of the board of the Independent Producers Assn.
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