Every year Leeds Film Festival screens a very rich section devoted entirely to short films. The Short Film City programme was composed of the British, International and World Animation competitions as well as French shorts panorama screening and the International Competition, presented over six screenings that was inspired and named after Louis le Prince, the Frenchborn film pioneer who made the first ever moving images in Leeds in 1889. The winner of this year’s competition was French “My Sweetheart” by Daniel Metge while one of the two special mentions went to “Frozen stories” produced by Polish National Film School in Łodź and coproduced by EasyBusyProductions.
On delivering the verdict the jury noted the following: “Frozen Stories” stood out to the jury by engaging us with characters that are lovably absurd, yet emotionally familiar, whilst managing to remain believable by embodying exaggerated versions of genuine human traits. The characters’ deadpan delivery captures the disengagement that this younger generation is accused of, but by embracing it and making it their own they conjure a thoroughly sweet and touching relationship.
This is the fifth Special Mention presented to “Frozen stories” abroad. So far the film was appreciated by the juries in Lisbon, Clermont-Ferrand, Dutch Nijmegen and Kosovian Prizren.
The 26th edition of the Leeds Film Festival was held between 1st and 18th November.
The complete list of awarded films can be checked at the official Leeds Film Festival’s website