NOVEMBER AT SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

November, as every year, marks a peak of autumnal season. This month, Polish films will be presented at over 40 international film festivals. Ahead of us, there are over 70 screenings.

 This month, the scene is definitely dominated by short fiction films. In November Spanish festivals proved particularly welcoming for Polish films. Let us start off with “The Hamster” by Bartek Ignaciuk that will be representing Poland during the La Cabina festival in Valencia, while “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul will be competing for the laurels of one of Europe's oldest festivals - Gijón Film Festival, which this year will be held for the 51st time. The only Polish film in the competition of the 43rd Alcalá de Henares Film Festival (ALCINE), which starts today, will be a documentary “Rogalik” by Paweł Ziemilski. Three Polish films will be shown at the Zinebi International Festival (“Rondo”, “Ex animo” and “The Whistle”), Filmets- Badalona Film Festival (“Lost Senses”, “Paperbox”, “Watermelon”) and also at the festival and animation market 3D Wire in Segovia ("Darling”, “Ab ovo”, “Beach”).

Two etudes made by students of Radio and Television Faculty University of Silesia in Katowice – “All Souls’ Day” by Aleksandra Terpińska and “Our Bad Winter” by Grzegorz Zariczny were invited to participate in the screening of French Sequence Short Film Festival, which will begin on November 22nd. It is worth mentioning that this month etudes by students of Radio and Television Faculty will wander up to the distant Island. In the Northern Wave Festival competition four films will be screened - “To war we go” by Krzysztof Kasior, “Boo!” by Kordian Kądziela, “Echo” by Marcin Filipowicz and already mentioned “All Souls’ Day” by Aleksandra Terpińska. Festival will be held between 15th to 17th November.

For the first time, Martin Rath’s most recent film “Arena” is making its debut at the Irish Cork Film Festival. Rath – the student of The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School is the author of last year’s most popular short film documentary – “Written in Ink”. In the meantime in English Leeds International Film Festival another student film - “The Mother” by Łukasz Ostalski will compete for the awards among other most celebrated short films.

Four films were qualified to the competition of 25th Istanbul Short Film Festival. One will get the chance of watching four films in total - animated “Rondo” (A. Kordas) and “The Railway Watchman” (P. Szczepanowicz) as well as two fiction films – “All Souls’ Day” (A. Terpińska) and “Watermelon” (T. Kotetishvili). We will find out who the laureates are on November 27th during the closing ceremony. The latter among the mentioned films – “Watermelon” -  will also be shown at the Brest European Short Film Festival, which this year will be held for the 28th time. Meanwhile, on the same dates - between 12 and 17 November 28th Berlin interfilm festival will be held. This year three films – “Danse macabre”, “Lost senses” and ”Darling” – will be competing for the title of the Best Animated Film of the international competition. This year, four Polish films were invited to enter a competition of Sleepwalkers International FF held  at the same dates. Those, apart from the already mentioned “Arena” by Martin Rath were also “Rogalik” by Paweł Ziemilski, “Watermelon” by Tato Kotetishvili and “The Whistle” by Grzegorz Zariczny. The festival ends on November 22nd.

Also in Poland, during Camerimage in Bydgoszcz one will watch Polish films taking part in the International Students Etudes Competition. On the competing films’ list are “Magma” by Paweł Maślona, “Killing Auntie” by Mateusz Głowacki (both of them produced by the Radio and Television Faculty University of Silesia in Katowice) and also “Such a Landscape” by Jagoda Szelc - student of The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź.

Unsurpassed leader of the animations films’ ranking remains “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul. This month, the film received an invitation to 12 film festivals, i.a. : to Winterthur Festival, Bratislava IFF and Canadian GIRAF festival. Other Polish animations are not doing bad either. This month, Polish animation films can be found  in the catalogs of the festivals taking place in i.a. Mexico, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Germany. In the competition of 37th edition of the Potuguese Cinanima festival four animations made in Poland will participate - already mentioned “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul, “Baths” by Tomek Ducki, “Toto” by Zbigniew Czapla and also “Ex Animo” by Wojciech Wojtkowski. The last two will also screen at Mexican Cutout festival along with “Shape” by Kijek/ Adamski and “On/Off” by Piotr Ludwik. At the Estonian Animated Dreams festival two films will be competing for the Best Animation award - “The Railway Watchmen” by Piotr Szczepanowicz and already mentioned “Lost senses”, whereas at the Klik! Festival in Amsterdam beside Marcin Wasilewski’s film one will get the chance of watching well-known “Toto” and “Ziegenort”.

The full list of November festivals can be found in the “at festivals” tab

Above a still from "Such a landscape" by Jagoda Szelc

All information about upcoming screenings of Polish documentary films can be found here