
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
NRIn a marathon running, a criminal hides among the runners, after blowing up a statue in the central square.
Marathon
2006
NRA story of a mother and her son and a race against a tortoise where you always lose.
The Tortoise and the Hare
2020
NRDocumentary about the work of the Estonian cartoonist and animation director Priit Pärn
Priit Pärn in Tallinn
2013
Behind the camera
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
—
5.7What 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
5.7What 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
7.5Watchmaker 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
7.5Watchmaker 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
NRAda 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
NRAda 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
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
NRA 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
NRStop motion characters stumble and fumble their way through a clearing in the woods.
Breakfast on the Grass
2011
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
NRStories 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
NRThe 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
10.0A 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
10.0A 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
NRAn immense dissappointment. Instead of a puppy for her birthday she got a father…
Empty Space
2016
NRAn immense dissappointment. Instead of a puppy for her birthday she got a father…
Empty Space
2016
NRThe 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
NRAn 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
NRAn 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
8.0For 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
"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
NRThe 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
A short film that deals with the relationship between love and food.
Elu maitse
2006
