Ülo Pikkov

Directing

Ülo Pikkov

Born 1976-06-15 · Tallinn, Harju County, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]

Ülo Pikkov (born June 15, 1976 in Tallinn) is an Estonian animator, film director and producer. In 1998 he graduated from Turku School of Art and Media. In 2005 he graduated from University of Tartu in law. In 2011 he began his doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He defended his doctorate in 2018 with his work "Anti-Animation, the Peculiarities of Eastern European Animated Film". Between 2007 and 2011, Pikkov was the chairman of the audiovisual arts endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. Until 2016, he was an associate professor in the animation department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has written and illustrated books, as well as published caricatures, editorial cartoons and illustrations in the press. Since 2006 he has worked in film production company

Acting credits

Behind the camera

No artwork available
NR

Margit has left her life, career and apartment in a big city and moved to a small island Hiiumaa to grow nettle. She believes there's a power in this plant that we don’t know how to fully use yet. Having researched the nettle and its qualities in various laboratories, she is sure that it’s possible to put Estonia on the world map with the plant that many consider to be just useless weed. But are only faith and enthusiasm enough to break through as an entrepreneur?

Fuel for Life

Body Memory poster
5.7

What can an old apple tree tell us? What mysteries are hidden in his roots, gnarled over time? Does he remember the serpent and the lost Paradise? Our body remembers more than we can expect and imagine. It remembers the sorrow and pain of our predecessors. It keeps alive the stories of our parents and grandparents as well as their ancestors. But how far back is it possible to go in your bodily memory? The stop-motion animation BODY MEMORY takes as its central concept the idea that our body remembers, not only individual experiences, but also the sorrow and pain of our predecessors. A powerful visualization of subconscious processes and the hidden horror of deportation. Inspired by historical events: the Soviet deportations from Estonia in the 1940s.

Body Memory

2011

Body Memory poster
5.7

What can an old apple tree tell us? What mysteries are hidden in his roots, gnarled over time? Does he remember the serpent and the lost Paradise? Our body remembers more than we can expect and imagine. It remembers the sorrow and pain of our predecessors. It keeps alive the stories of our parents and grandparents as well as their ancestors. But how far back is it possible to go in your bodily memory? The stop-motion animation BODY MEMORY takes as its central concept the idea that our body remembers, not only individual experiences, but also the sorrow and pain of our predecessors. A powerful visualization of subconscious processes and the hidden horror of deportation. Inspired by historical events: the Soviet deportations from Estonia in the 1940s.

Body Memory

2011

Tik-Tak poster
7.5

Watchmaker controls the time, but the mouse living in the watchmaker's workshop controls the clocks... This is a film about time and its ephemeral nature.

Tik-Tak

2014

Tik-Tak poster
7.5

Watchmaker controls the time, but the mouse living in the watchmaker's workshop controls the clocks... This is a film about time and its ephemeral nature.

Tik-Tak

2014

ADA + OTTO poster
NR

Ada the Crow dreams of getting married. At the same time, Otto the Architect is out for a walk in the city looking for a site to build a new skyscraper. Ada notices Otto and feels shivers running down her back…

ADA + OTTO

2013

ADA + OTTO poster
NR

Ada the Crow dreams of getting married. At the same time, Otto the Architect is out for a walk in the city looking for a site to build a new skyscraper. Ada notices Otto and feels shivers running down her back…

ADA + OTTO

2013

No artwork available
NR

Right alongside Jerusalem, in a Russian Orthodox Convent in the Mount of Olives, in the middle of the Arab quarter, lives the 82-year-old Estonian nun Mother Ksenya.

Flowers from the Mount of Olives

2013

Letting Go poster
NR

A layered, complex film channelling the elegant, brittle austerity that sits at the heart of what it can mean to be an orphan.

Letting Go

2018

Breakfast on the Grass poster
NR

Stop motion characters stumble and fumble their way through a clearing in the woods.

Breakfast on the Grass

2011

Roots poster
6.0

"Roots" tells six very personal stories - a first, big love, the loss of a child, ageing, infidelity, fragile relationships with close ones. Six different views on what our family and environment has left in us and what we leave behind.

Roots

2018

Wild South poster
NR

Stories about Tartu and Southern Estonia, capturing the tricks and mysteries about the arts of survival. Renowned filmmakers from Estonia and abroad bring us uniquely wild tales of people, communities, and the culture they live in. In these stories, we meet peculiar vehicles known as “karakat” from Peipsi, charming non-places of Tartu, the wild German woman living an off-grid life without water and electricity, mischievous goats and crazy village parties, the diverse Annelinn residents and nostalgic Petseri, slime mould and space exploration, and of course, the artists of survival from today and past.

Wild South

2024

Fly Mill poster
NR

The protagonist is a Miller living in a watermill. He bakes daily bread and raises ducklings whom he wishes one day to set free. But on the field next to his home, hunters go to shoot birds.

Fly Mill

2011

Bermuda poster
10.0

A dreamy love triangle between a mermaid, a sailor with a wooden leg and a flute-playing centaur, who live among the sand dunes of a desert landscape. Ülo’s debut hand-drawn film is full of charm and wit, in equal measures, and never fails to delight.

Bermuda

1998

Bermuda poster
10.0

A dreamy love triangle between a mermaid, a sailor with a wooden leg and a flute-playing centaur, who live among the sand dunes of a desert landscape. Ülo’s debut hand-drawn film is full of charm and wit, in equal measures, and never fails to delight.

Bermuda

1998

Empty Space poster
NR

An immense dissappointment. Instead of a puppy for her birthday she got a father…

Empty Space

2016

Empty Space poster
NR

An immense dissappointment. Instead of a puppy for her birthday she got a father…

Empty Space

2016

Escape poster
NR

The prospect isn't good: situation seems like jail, porridge bowl bottomless and time is running out. An unexpected discovery changes it all though.

Escape

2009

Till We Meet Again poster
NR

An animated documentary about an old lady who returns home after sixty years. The film is based on a true story and taking place on a remote island of the Baltic sea. All objects in the film are made of materials found on that island (Ruhnu).

Till We Meet Again

2021

Till We Meet Again poster
NR

An animated documentary about an old lady who returns home after sixty years. The film is based on a true story and taking place on a remote island of the Baltic sea. All objects in the film are made of materials found on that island (Ruhnu).

Till We Meet Again

2021

My Family and Other Clowns poster
8.0

For 25 years, world-famous Estonian clowns Haide and Toomas, better known as Piip and Tuut, have brought joy and laughter to children and families across the globe. But behind the face paint and curtain lies a different story. While entertaining thousands, their own children – Emma, Siim, and Anni – have been growing up at home without them. Eldest daughter Emma dreams of following in her parents' footsteps, but balancing her passion for theatre with caring for her autistic brother and younger sister has forced her to grow up fast. Meanwhile, Haide and Toomas grapple with guilt, exhaustion, and the toll of trying to give their all both on stage and at home.

My Family and Other Clowns

2025

No artwork available
5.5

"Dialogos" is an ironic comedy about modern society where everything is very hi-tech and computer-based. "Dialogos" is drawn and scratched directly on a filmprint.

Dialogos

2008

Small House poster
NR

The story of human error. Every time he goes to bed and turns off the light, he remembers something urgent: the toilet seat is not lowered, the Slippers are not parallel, the tap water is dripping… Unfortunately, the small house where all this happens is on the beach. How does it look at night from the sea? Yes, disaster is inevitable.

Small House

2008

No artwork available
NR

A short film that deals with the relationship between love and food.

Elu maitse

2006