OCTOBER AT THE SHORT FILM FESTIVALS
Every year, Autumn is the peak of the festival season. This month, Polish short films will participate in the programmes of 49 foreign film festivals. There will be a record-breaking number of 157 festival screenings in October.
This month, animated films are in the lead again. As many as thirteen festivals on the October list are festivals which show only animated films. The largest number of Polish animated films this month will screen in the programme of Balkan film festivals - Banjaluka (23-28 October) and Balkanima (7-11 October), Hungarian debut film festival Primanima (28 October - 1 November), Mexican Cutout fest (13-16 October), Swiss Animatou (3-11 October) and Romanian anim’fest (3-12 October). This month, the 57th edition of the festival DOK.Leipzig takes place, one of the oldest and the most prestigious festivals showing animated films in the world. This year, four Polish films are invited to the competition - “To Thy Heart” by Ewa Borysewicz, “An Incredibly Elastic Man” by Karolina Specht, “Blue Room” by Tomasz Siwiński and “under_construction” - the latest film by Marcin Wojciechowski, that is to screen first time abroad. Popular festival films this month include “Hippos” by Piotr Dumała, “Lost Senses” by Marcin Wasilewski and “Darling” by Izabela Plucińska."Baths” by Tomek Ducki has been the leader in the animated film category for some months. In October, the film will be shown at 11 festivals, and at 9 out of them - in competition sections. The latest film by Ducki, the producer of which is Studio Miniatur Filmowych and Peek and Boo, has won 10 awards and special mentions and participated in over 40 festivals so far. Three other animations are doing well this month - “Ab ovo” by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi (eight festivals), “Ziegenort” by Tomasz Popakul (7 festivals), and “Ars moriendi” by Miłosz Margański (six festivals).
“The Mother” by Łukasz Ostalski is the leader in the fiction film category. This month, the film by the graduate of Gdynia Film School received five festival invitations, among others, to the festivals Sedicicorto in Italy and CentEast in Luxembourg. “Arena” by Martin Rath is in the second place - this month, it will be shown at three festivals abroad.
The month began with the premiere screening of the film “Molehill” by Joanna Zastróżna. The film, starring Eryk Lubos and Andrzej Chyra, is the first short film by Zastróżna, who has worked mainly as a photograper up till now. “Molehill” was shown in the non-competing section Wide Angle at the 19th edition of the Busan Film Festival. Four Polish fiction films are included in the programme of the 58th London Film Festival. “Shit Eaters” (A. Wojciechowska), “Such A Landscape” (J. Szelc), “Shame” (K.Fryc) and “Flora and Fauna” (P. Litwin) will compete for the awards of the international short film competition. Also, the 33rd edition of the Swedish festival in Uppsala is held in October. The programme of the festival, which will be held from 20 to 26 October, there are two Polish films - animated “An Incredibly Elastic Man” (K. Specht), and fiction “Last House on the Road” (W. Kasperski).
In the second half of the month, the festival BRNO 16 is held in the Czech Republic. In the competition section of the 55th edition of the festival, three Polish films will compete: “Ziegenort” (T. Popakul), “Flora and Fauna” (P. Litwin) and “The Mother” (Ł. Ostalski). It is worth mentioning that Polish director Grzegorz Jaroszuk, who won the Grand Prix of the Brno festival for his diploma film “Frozen Stories” two years ago, is a member of the festival jury. At the end of the month, the 40th edition of the FILMETS festival starts in Barcelona. In addition to the fiction film “Boys” (P. Orwat), also three animated films will compete for the awards: the aforementioned “Ziegenort” and “Ars moriendi” and “The Governance of Love” (A. Kaczmarek). The festival ends on 26 October. Seven Polish films went to the competition at the 9th edition of the Vilnius Short festival, among others, “Stranger” (P. Domalewski), “Volcano” (M. Wawrzecki) and “Beach” (P. Prewencki). In addition, the programme includes a screening of Polish films programmed by the organizers of the Żubroofka festival, during which the viewers of the Lithuanian festival will have a chance to watch, among others, "To Thy Heart" by Ewa Borysewicz and “All Souls’ Day” by Aleksandra Terpińska.
You can read more about October documentary film festivals here
The full list of all October screenings of short films is available under the tab "at festivals"