Outdoor cinema still trails summer theatre in popularity

Outdoor cinema has not yet attracted audiences as large as summer theatre, Tiit Tuumalu, an organiser of the Tartuff love film festival, told ERR’s Radio 2 programme “R2 Päev”. He said screen size is crucial to the outdoor cinema experience.

August marks the peak season for outdoor cinema in Estonia, with free Tartuff screenings and travelling night cinemas bringing films to audiences as the evenings grow darker.

“As always, the PÖFF team does not have a summer. We cannot rest,” Tuumalu said. “People watch films throughout the summer. Summer is our busiest time because we are putting together the PÖFF programme.”

He said the team watches five or six feature films a day, with each film lasting about two hours. “After that, you want nothing more than to go to the beach,” he said.

Tartuff uses a 128-square-metre screen. Tuumalu said Estonia does not have a screen of that size, so it must be rented from Latvia. Years ago, the festival used an even larger, 200-square-metre screen in Town Hall Square in Tartu.

“If the screen is very small, it is no longer as good to watch from the back row in Town Hall Square,” Tuumalu said.

For comparison, he said the outdoor cinema screen at the Locarno Film Festival measures 368 square metres. An outdoor film festival in Dresden uses a 440-square-metre screen, which is broadly larger than a basketball court. Its organisers say it is the largest screen in Europe and possibly the largest outdoor screen in the world.

Ideally, Tuumalu said, outdoor cinema should allow viewers to see what is happening on the screen rather than what is happening around it.

Although outdoor cinema may appear inexpensive, it is costly to organise, he said. Film distribution and licensing fees are high, particularly for classic films, while unpredictable weather makes the business risky. Outdoor cinema season in Estonia usually begins at the end of July.

Summer theatre has long been a phenomenon in Estonia, with tickets often bought a year in advance. Outdoor cinema, however, has not yet reached the same level of popularity, Tuumalu said.

The Tartuff love film festival takes place in Tartu from August 8 to 15, and all screenings are free.