This month will be intense from the very start. On October 1st TOFUZI Festival begun in Georgia. Two Polish animations were invited to the competition: “The Other” by Marta Magnuska and “You Are Overreacting” by Karina Paciorkowska. Magnuska’s animation will be also shown at Telluride Horrow Festival in the United States, whereas the film made by Paciorkowska will compete for awards also at Bit Bang Animation, Videogames and Digital Art Festival in Argentina.
On October 2nd in Serbia the audience of BALKANIMA Festival will have a chance to see “III” by Marta Pajek and “Squaring the Circle” by Karolina Specht. Two days later Slovenian StopTrik Festival will host competition screenings of five Polish animations: “REM” by Artur Hanaj, “Connoiseur” by Daria Godyń, “Dialogues” by Monika Kuczyniecka, “How the Black Hole Begins” by Karolina Gołębiewska and “Stone” by Marcin Ożóg. Animation “Warszawa” by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi will also be shown at the festival. At the exactly same time two other festival will take place: International Festival of Sexual Diversity Cine Movilh in Chile, where “Pussy” by Renata Gąsiorowska will be presented in the competition, and Central and Eastern European Film Festival CinEast in Luxemburg. At the latter two Polish animations will compete for awards “III” by Marta Pajek and “Bless You!” by Paulina Ziółkowska.
Marta Pajek’s animation will set this month a new record when it comes to the number of festivals that it will be shown at. Apart from Luxemburg and Georgia “III” will take part in competitions at Korean Bucheon International Animation, Swedish Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Brazilian Festival Curta Cinema, Norwegian Fredrikstad Animation and others. Pajek’s film will also be presented at KLIK Amsterdam Animation, where in the competition we can find three other Polish animations: “Colaholic” by Marcin Podolec, “Room” by Michał Socha and “Guest” by Aleksander Józefczak , while “To Thy Heart” by Ewa Borysewicz will be screened there in a special section. The film by Podolec will be also show, together with “Three Women on a Bench” by Karolina Borgiasz, in the competition of a Swiss festival Animatou.
Apart from Dutch KLIK a strong competition representation of Polish films will be present at the Hungarian festival Alexandre Trauner Art and at the 11th Banjaluki Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The former festival invited to the competition seven Polish animations: “The Gentle Giant” by Marcin Podolec, “XOXO – Hugs and Kisses” by Wiola Sowa,“Black Volga” by Marta Wiktorowicz, “Debut” by Katarzyna Kijek, “Carrot Field” by Kacper Zamarło and the previous part of Marta Pajek’s trilogy “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II”. What is more, “Traces of Ephemeral” by Agnieszka Waszczeniuk will be presented in one of the sections.
At this year’s Banjaluka the audience will be able to see 10 Polish animations. Five of them will be in the competition (“A New Day” by Katarzyna Pieróg, “Bless You!” by Paulina Ziółkowska, “Colaholic” by Marcin Podolec, “REM” by Artur Hanaj and “Squaring the Circle” by Karolina Specht) and the other five outside of the competition (“Ant Gets Married” by Michał Poniedzielski, “Bernard” by Anna Oparkowska, “Fish Shop” by Maria Kulpa, “III” by Marta Pajek and “The Other” by Marta Magnuska). Before Banjaluka some of the films will be presented to Polish audience at the Warsaw Film Festival.
In the capital city of Poland the audience will be able to see in the competition Julia Orlik’s animation “My Strange Elder Brother”, and during the special screenings the already awarded productions including “The Other” by Marta Magnuska, “Bless You!” by Pauliny Ziółkowska, “Squaring the Circle” by Karolina Specht, “III” by Marta Pajek and “Colaholic” by Marcin Podolec.
Just before the Warsaw Film Festival, on October 11th, the Swedish REX Animation Film Festival will begin. Three Polish animations were invited to the competition “Chainlets” by Alicja Błaszczyńska, “Beside Oneself” by Karolina Specht and “Pussy” by Renata Gąsiorowska. Gąsiorowska’s animation has a chance to win awards at four other festivals: SPASM Short Film Festival in Canada, Festival Revija Studenstkog Filma in Croatia, Paris International Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival in France and at Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan. The last festival will host the special screenings of the Polish animation classics. The audience will see: “Conflicts” by Daniel Szczechura and “Square” by Zbigniew Rybczyński. At the beginning of the month another Taiwanese festival will take place. 25th Women Make Waves will present in its competition a film by Bogna Kowalczyk “Vanilla//Whip”.
On the same day as Swedish REX Animation one more Taiwanese festival will take place – Taichung International Animation Festival. Paulina Ziółkowska’s animation “Bless You!” will have there yet another chance to win. This successful animation will be presented to the audience at Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival in the Emirates and Milano Design Film Festival in Italy. A little bit later Ziółkowska’s film will be shown to the audience and the jury at the Spanish Valladolid International Film Festival. In the competition there we can also find the latest film by Martka Pajek. “III”, as well as “The Other” by Marta Magnuska, will finish the October festival season with the competition screenings at Denver Film Festival.
The end of the month will also bring the 38th edition of the festival in Cambridge. Three Polish animation will compete at the British festival: “Room” by Michał Socha, “The Other” by Marta Magnuska and “Oh God!“ by Betina Bożek, which was also shown this year at BFI in London. Just before the last day of October DOK Leipzig will begin. In the best animation competition the audience of the German festival will find three new Polish productions: “The Notebook” by Aleksandra Rylewicz, “You Are Overreacting” by Karina Paciorkowska and “Eatself” by Edyta Adamczak. The last film will also represent Poland in the competition of the ANIMAGE festival in Brazil.
The full list of the festival screenings is available here.