DECEMBER SHORT FILM FESTIVALS
This month Polish short films – documentaries, fiction films and animations – will screen 35 times at 17 festivals abroad. Even though the end of the year approaches, Polish films still stand chances of being awarded.
The beginning of the month proved very favourable. First week of December brought a bunch of awards for films produced in Poland. Three awards went to filmmakers whose films participated in the French Tous Courts Festival. Grand Prix of the festival was handed over to Jędrzej Bączyk’s “Coyote”, Special Mention was given to Jakub Pączek’s “The 128th Rat” while the Special Mention for the Best Actor was presented to Marek Kossakowski who played the leading part in “Killing auntie” by Mateusz Głowacki. Another French festival – Poitiers Film Festival - reached its end last weekend. Among the winners of the 37th edition stood Paweł Maślona and his graduation film “Magma” that received the “Discovery of the French Critics” award.
Another French festival - the Parisian festival Signes de Nuit – has included three Polish short fiction films in this year’s programme – “The Boys” by Paweł Orwat, “Brotherdog” by Maria Zbąska and “Summer of love” by Marcin Filipowicz. The festival will end on December 15th.
The most popular short of December – “Arena” by Martin Rath produced by the Polish National Film School in Łódź will screen three times this month – in Belgian Leuven, American Anchorage and Russian Yekaterinburg. The programm of the latter – the Kinoproba Student Film Festival - will feature also two other Polish films – “Exhale” by Maciej Wiktor and a documentary “Where I can’t be found” by Arjun Talwar. Also films by the students of Gdynia Film School will enjoy some popularity abroad. “The Mother” by Łukasz Ostalski will screen at the Aguilar de Campoo Festival in Spain and Santa Fe Antioquia in Colombia, while “Real honey” was included in the programme of Bogoshorts in Columbia that ended on December 9th.
A stunning number of Polish short fiction films will screen this month at the Short Film Festival in Dhaka. Ten films have received the invitation to screen in Bangladesh among them: “Owl” by Marta Karwowska, “When the lights of dawn arise” by Mateusz Głowacki or “The 128th Rat” by Jakub Pączek. The festival will end on December 11th.
More on the December festivals for short documentaries can be found at polishdocs website while the list of festival screenings for animated films can be found at polishanimations website.