Known as a tech-savvy country where Skype was invented, Estonia is making a new leap forward by unleashing the Baltics’ first ever hub where creatives, tech pros and entrepreneurs can unite to lift the regional audiovisual sector to new levels.
The Ida Hub film and multimedia centre is being built in Eastern Estonia’s Ida-Viru county, near the Russian border. It combines state-of -the-art studios due to open in 2026 and skills development. Closely associated with the project is the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The $18.2 million Ida Hub complex, funded by the E.U.’s Just Transition Fund, will house a soundstage of 21,500 square feet, a smaller multifunction studio, post-production and creative industry spaces. Spearheading the venture are three partners: Ida Viru Investment Agency (IVIA), in charge of the whole complex, the Ida-Viru Business Centre (IVEK) which runs Estonia’s first regional Viru Film Fund and incubates future film industry talents; and Tehnopol, the largest science and business park in the Baltics, which houses a film tech startup accelerator.
Backed by the government and the E.U., the project was driven by the need to rebuild the economic structure of the region which used to be a mining industrial centre until its decline in the 1990s. As explained by IVIA’s Teet Kuusmik, one of the priorities was “to find new ways to attract the younger generation; this is when we got the idea to invest in film and multimedia infrastructure, and to create a magnet for new talent.” For him the goal is both to attract international productions and young local talents, while “providing creative people with opportunities for self-realization in the film industry.”
Teaming up with Tehnopol, “one of the region’s most successful IT incubators and startup accelerators” was a major step, he says, as well as securing support from IVEK.
At the Ida Hub, Tehnopol runs the ‘Film and Multimedia Accelerator’ for startups working notably in multimedia, virtual, augmented reality and AI.
Program manager Olga Kurdovskaja says 11 startups so far have signed up, including teams integrating AI into content creation, working on virtual location scouting, and developing modular studio infrastructure. One of the active participants is VisioTag which is “developing a tool that helps media professionals and influencers accelerate video tagging and streamline post-production workflow.”
Ida Hub Studio
Credit: IVIA
Also present is the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s Creative Industry Hub startup and its dual AI solutions: SUSI AI and its recommendations and event navigation tool for festival visitors and professionals, and Creative Gate, a platform connecting the Estonian creative industry with the international community.
At the Marché du Film Cannes Next showcase, Tehnopol will be looking for new networking and business opportunities for themselves and their startups.
Meanwhile Ida Hub’s second major training gig, the Film Industry Incubation program, run by IVEK, is described by coordinator Britta Merirand, as a “hands-on training initiative for professionals and entrepreneurs eager to enter the industry. The match-making program focuses on “essential behind-the scenes-roles, from logistics to catering, photography and coordination.”
Marge Liiske, head of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, underlines the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF) ’s contribution to transforming the Ida-Viru region from a declining industrial area into an innovative film and multimedia hub. “Alongside running KinoFF – the easternmost satellite of the Black Nights Film Festival – and enriching the region’s cultural scene for years, PÖFF launched its hands-on training program in Ida-Viru in 2022 to help locals with no prior film experience gain the skills needed to work on film sets.
With the second round rolling out in 2024–2025, these new talents will hopefully form a strong pool of crew members for the international film studio complex, set to open in 2026. Together, these long-term efforts are helping to turn Ida-Viru into Estonia’s second major audiovisual hub,” she says.