Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is a unique event combining a feature film festival with the sub-festivals of animated films, student films and children/youth films. The festival aims to present Estonian audiences a comprehensive selection of world cinema in all its diversity with the emphasis on European films, providing a friendly atmosphere for interaction between the audience, Estonian filmmakers and their colleagues from abroad.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival consists of the main programme, four sub-festivals and a film and co-production market:

Black Nights Film Festival main programme (27 November - 6 December) - International competition programme EurAsia and Tridens Baltic feature film competition. Informative side programmes include fiction and documentary features from previous 2 years, retrospective of a filmmaker, genre or studio, and focus on a country.

Student and Short Film Festival Sleepwalkers (12 - 15 November) - International competition of student films from previous 2 years - fiction, documentary or animation films; national competition of Estonian short films. Special programme of the first works of renown film-makers, selection of a film school and selection of a film festival. Film school.

Animation Film Festival Animated Dreams (18 - 22 November) - Competition of short animations from previous 2 years. Additional non-competitive programmes include a retrospective of a filmmaker and focus on a country.

Children and Youth Film Festival Just Film (21 - 28 November) - Competition of children's films and youth films. Non-competitive special programmes.

Nokia Mobile Phone Film Festival MOFF (1 September - 4 December) - Competition of short films made with mobile phones.

During the festival also Baltic Event film and co-production market (29 November - 2 December) takes place, which screens the newest feature films from the Baltic countries along with a co-production market open for projects from the Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) will launch a new regional cinema and audiovisual market Black Market Industry Screenings.  A pilot will take place this autumn from 30th of November to 3rd of December 2009 with up to 48 industry screenings mainly focusing on the new films from the neighbouring regions and smaller film industry countries: Central and Eastern European countries, Nordic countries, Russia and countries like Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan, Tadjikistan. The traditional Baltic Event screenings, now organised in cooperation with Black Market Industry Screenings, will show the newest features from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.