The Pärnu International Documentary Film Festival, founded in 1987, is the oldest film festival in Estonia. The initiators of the festival was the writer and president of the Republic of Estonia Lennart Meri and documentary film maker Mark Soosaar.
The aim of the festival in general is to support cultural survival of peoples. Only documentary films and videos of high value and quality, recording human activities in social, historical or ecological context are accepted for competition screenings.
The festival is held during July, every year. The Pärnu Film Festival is only festival in the world where all country may act as a jury. Seven films on a selected theme are broadcast during the festival by the public channel, Estonian TV, and after the televoting of the audience, the Estonian People's Award is delivered to the author of documentary beloved by Estonian people.
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
• Grand Prize of the festival for the best artistic achievement
• The best scientific audiovisual recording of rituals
• The best film on survival of indigenous peoples
• The best art film
• The best children documentary
• The best short documentary
NATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
• The best Estonian documentary
TV-COMPETITION in Estonian Television
• The Estonian People's Award (according to the TV-voting)
During the festival a selected program of six outstanding documentaries will be broadcast on Estonian TV and during the last night the TV-audience will be voting for the best film to be awarded with the ESTONIAN PEOPLE'S AWARD.
The jury has the option to grant a Special Jury Awards.