SHORT FILM SEASON IN AUTUMN

Thirty one days, thirty six international festivals and thirty three films. That, in short, is what the festival schedule for October looks like. We may well hope for more awards and special mentions for Polish short films.

Halfway into the month, the 54th edition of Brno International Short Film Festival is to begin in Brno, Czech Republic. This year, the festival's programmers took a special fancy to Polish cinema. In two weeks, seven films will set to battle for the festival's Grand Prix – including 'Watermelon' (Tato Kotetishvili), 'Miruna' (Piotr Sułkowski), 'The Mystery of the Malakka Mountain' (Jakub Wroński). It is worth mentioning that the last year's Grand Prix went to a Polish film, 'Frozen Stories' by Grzegorz Jaroszuk. We will get to know this year's winners on October 19th. On the same day in Kiev, the 43th edition of Ukraine's MOLODIST festival, which features the latest full length and short films by debutants on annual basis. Four titles from Poland entered this edition's competitive section – 'The Mother' by Łukasz Ostalski, 'Ziegenort' by Tomasz Popakul, 'The 128. Rat' by Jakub Pączek and 'The Whistle' by Grzegorz Zariczny. In a thematic programme devoted to memory, part of the festival's out-of-competition section, the audience will see Zbigniew Czapla's 'Paperbox'. Meanwhile, Łukasz Ostalski's 'The Mother' sees an ongoing popularity with festival programmers. Apart from competing at the MOLODIST festival in Kiev, it will also be presented at 2Annas in Latvia, Vilnius Shorts in Lithuania and Duhok in Turkey.

The latest film by Mateusz Głowacki, 'Killing Auntie' is noteworthy as well. This feature film was invited to participate in the out-of-competition section at Busan International Film Festival, one of the world's top film events. 'Killing Auntie' had its debut during the 53th Krakow Film Festival in May, and in Busan it will be delivered to the international audience for the first time. Two films by graduates of Radio and Television Faculty at the University of Silesia – Paweł Maślona's 'Magma' and Grzegorz Zariczny's 'Our Bad Winter’ – qualified for the 12th edition of the ISFVF in China's Beijing. Operated by the Beijing Film Academy, the festival presents the best student films every year. Its previous edition featured 'Without Snow' by Magnus von Horn.

A fairly large group of Polish films will be delivered to audiences at CinEast festival in Luxemburg, starting next week on October 9th. Most interesting feature length films, documentaries and short films coming from Central and Eastern Europe will be competing at the festival for the sixth time. As many as six films from Poland were accepted to the short film section including "Survey about women" by Mateusz Głowacki and "Easter Crumble" by Julia Kolberger. The best production will be chosen and awarded by the audience. Additionally, a special programme for the festival was prepared by the film school of Lodz, celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. 'Then and Today' features 13 films by Andrzej Wajda, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Jan Komasa and others. The festival closes on October 17th.

Early Autumn is a bustling festival season for animated films as well. A total of 12 festivals meant strictly for animations will present works by Polish filmmakers in October. Among the most frequently shown films, Tomasz Popakul's 'Ziegenort' is continuously ranked first – it received as many as 10 invitations to festivals held this month, including those in Chicago, Rennes and Nicosia. 'Toto' by Zbigniew Czapla ranks second on the list, with eight invitations to Tofuzi, Animatou, or Brazil's Mumia to list just a few. Some other important events of the month include Balkan festivals Balkanima (October 1-5) and Banialuka (October 26-28) – featuring, among other films, 'On/off' (P. Ludwik), 'Steven and the Beatle' (P. L. Hoang Ngoc) or 'The Suitcase' (J. Łechtański). Tomorrow anim'est festival starts in Bucharest, Romania, where Polish films enjoy a strong representation every year. This time, four films will contend for prizes – 'Ab ovo' by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi, 'Rondo' by Artur Kordas, 'Lost senses' by Marcin Wasilewski and 'The Railway Watchman' by Piotr Szczepanowicz. At the turn of October and November the London International Animation Festival will be held, with Polish competitors including 'Ab ovo' (A. Kwiatkowska-Naqvi), 'The Mystery of the Malakka Mountain' (J. Wroński), 'Ziegenort' (T. Popakul) and 'Toto' (Z. Czapla). The results will be known on November 3. In October, Polish animations also made their way to Argentina, where audiences at Anima festival in Cordoba will watch 'On/off', 'Ziegenort' and 'Katachi' (Kijek, Adamski).

The full list of upcoming festival screenings is available in the 'at festivals' tab

To read more about October's dovumentary festivals, visit