FEST – New Directors, New Films Festival has been held since 2004 in Espinho, Portugal. It’s a film festival and a training event at the same time. The organisers set themselves the goal of promoting films made by emerging directors from around the world.
The special award Silver Lynx Animation went to a Polish animated film. Toothless is an animated, narrative film essay. It was created using drawings from old anatomy textbooks, illustrations featured in esoteric magazines, and audio tracks taken from online videos available in the public domain. Moving from the individual to the collective unconscious, it tells the story of the existential journey undertaken by a toothless heroine in pyjamas.
In turn, Headfish was noticed by the jury of NEXXT – Academic Competition. Jakub Prysak’s film takes place in a gloomy milking parlour filled with sounds of Bach concertos from crackling loudspeakers – this is the everyday life of Eryk, a cow milker at the Milky Paradise cooperative. Eryk is a young man who abandoned his career as a photographer and moved to an industrial town, away from his family and friends. There, he met Marissa, a prostitute from a second-rate night club. They became friends. They both want to find their place in the world.
Both films were created at the Łódź Film School.
A list of all winners can be found here.