The first award-winner of this weekend was Karolina Specht, whose student animated film, “An Incredibly Elastic Man”, was noticed by the jury of the International Short Film Festival in Uppsala, Sweden. The film by Specht, shown in the international competition, was given the jury’s Honorary Award, who justified its decision in the following way: the award goes to an inventive animation which explores notions of space, human relations and the cinematic frame in a fresh and highly entertaining manner. Karolina Specht is a student of Lodz Film School, and her film, which enjoys great popularity abroad, has won 3 foreign awards so far.
The festival in Uppsala is one of the most important European festivals focusing exclusively on short films. This year, apart from the film by Karolina Specht, in the international competition the latest film by Wojciech Kasperski was shown: “Last House on the Road”. This year, the 33rd edition of the festival was held.
Another trophy, the audience award of the CinEast festival in Luxembourg, went to Tomek Ducki. The animated film by Ducki, “Baths”, is a story of two elderly swimmers who meet in city baths for their ritual training. So far, the film by Ducki has been given 12 awards and has been shown abroad at over 50 festivals. In the coming weeks, the film by Ducki will be shown, among others, at the festival in Leeds, Great Britain, ZINEBI in Spain, CUT OUT Fest in Mexico and in Brest, France. The film's producer is Warsaw Film Miniatures Studio and the British studio Peek and Boo. The CineEast festival is exclusively dedicated to films produced in Central and Eastern Europe. Every year, the festival programme includes the most interesting feature-length, documentary as well as short and animated films. This year’s, 7th edition of the festival took place from 9 to 26 October.
The promotion of “An Incredibly Elastic Man” and “Baths” abroad is supported by Krakow Film Foundation.
You can find the full list of the winners of the International Short Film Festival in Uppsala here, and you can read more about CinEast festival on its website.