The new year brings new festivals and opportunities for Polish short films. This month, Polish films will
screen at eight foreign film festivals.

At the end of January starts yet another, 36th edition of the short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand. This year, the debut film by the cinematographer Kacper Lisowski – “Father’s Day” – qualified for the main competition. This is the first foreign screening for the film produced by Munk Studio, working within the frames of Polish Filmmakers Association. The second Polish feature will be marked by the animation “Ziegenort” by Tomasz Popakul, which will take part in the experimental competitive section LABO. Polish films are selected to be part of this prestigious festival every year. In 2011, the Grand Prix went to “A Piece of Summer” – Polish documentary by Marta Minorowicz. This year’s winners will be announced on 8th February.

Screening of the Polish-Chilean short fiction “La Isla” in the competition of the prestigious festival in Rotterdam will be the biggest highlight of the month. The film is directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz – the laureate of European Film Award for her “Hanoi-Warsaw” (2009) – together with Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor. Polish-Chilean short will be one of 24 films that will will compete for one of three Canon Tiger Awards. Competitive screenings will take place between 23rd and 27th January. In addition to the regular competition awards, one of the films selected to the competition will get the nomination for the European Film Award. It is also worth mentioning that the film by Małgorzata Rżanek “Danse macabre” will be screened as a part of "Kids on the floor" non-competitive section.

The audience of the Kustendorf Film & Music Festival will watch as many as three Polish films. The Serbian festival, founded and chaired by Emir Kusturica, for the seventh time takes place in a village built by Kusturica for the film “Life Is A Miracle” in 2000. The following films were selected for the competition: "Our Bad Winter" by Grzegorz Zariczny, "Arena" by Martin Rath and “The Easter Crumble” by Julia Kolberger. Two years ago, the Brown Egg went to Polish film “Glasgow” by Piotr Subbotko. This year’s winners will be announced on 23rd January.

January is also the month of long-expected premieres. On 17th January, 25th edition of film festival in Trieste starts, where the graduation short film by Piotr Litwin “Flora and fauna” will have its debut. Also, the aforementioned “Danse Macabre” by Małgorzata Rżanek – that represented Poland in the competitive section Cinefondation at Cannes – will compete in the same festival but as a part of animation competition along with “On/off” by Piotr Ludwik and “Bear me” produced as a Polish – German coproductoon. Another debut of the month will be the participation of “Killing Auntie” by Mateusz Głowacki in the Premiers Plans in French Angers. Although a graduation short by Głowacki has already been shown in the non-competitive section at the Busan festival, the screening in Angers is its first competition. Głowacki will present “Killing Auntie” in student film competition. It is the only Polish film on this list.

The award-winning documentary "The Whistle" is included in the programme of the 11th edition of London Short Film Festival, which began on 10th January. Animated "Paperbox" by Zbigniew Czapla was selected to the programme of 27th edition of the Stuttgarter Filmwinter Festival, which will take place from 16 to 19 January. A week earlier, at the Indian Pune IFF, “Miruna” by Piotr Sułkowski will compete for the Best Short Film award in the international competition.

A full list of festival screenings in January can be found here

You can read more about documentary festival screenings here

On the picture above: a still from "Flora and fauna" directed by Piotr Litwin

JANUARY 2014