The Annual Rennes International Fantastic Short Film Festival, Court Métrange started in France at the end of September. Its competition featured Airborne by Andrzej Jobczyk and Fury by Julia Siuda. At the same time, the StopTrik International Film Festival had Toothless by Andrea Guizar. The start of the month brought screenings of 19:91 by Emilia Śniegoska at DenkmalKunst – KunstDenkmal and Judges Under Pressure by Kacper Lisowski at Week of Justice in Estonia. In the coming days, the audience of the Primanima World Festival of First Animations in Hungary will get to see Katarzyna Warzecha’s We Have One Heart, while Paweł Łoziński’s The Balcony Movie will be shown at Urbanize! Festival in Austria.
The Linz International Short Film Festival starts in early October. It’s lineup includes Crumbs of Life by Katarzyna Miechowicz, Mother’s Day by Patryk Kaflowski Prince in a Pastry Shop by Katarzyna Agopsowicz, My Fat Arse and I by Yelyzaveta Pysmak, and Papa by Maria Yakimovich. The French War on Screen – Festival International de Cinéma takes place in a similar timeframe. Andrzej Jobczyk’s film will be there to compete for more awards. Airborne will enjoy several more screenings this month, including at the Animatou Geneva Animation Film Festival in Switzerland, the Kaohsiung Film Festival in Thailand, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Japan, and the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival in Spain, where viewers will also have the opportunity to see Damian Kocur’s Beyond Is the Day and Julia Siuda’s Fury.
The first week of October also marks the launch of the DocLisboa International Film Festival, where Aleksandra Folczak’s Waiting Room is going to have its world premiere (we wrote about it here) – and this isn’t the only Polish presence at this famous festival. Non-competitive sections will feature Light Years by Monika Proba and The Pawnshop by Łukasz Kowalski. The CinEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival starts in Luxembourg one day after the Portugese festival. Backstage by Ada Smyk has made it into its competition.
The latter title will also be screened before the juries of Balkanima – European Animated Film Festival in Serbia, the Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival in Brazil, the Lausanne Underground Film Music Festival in Switzerland, the Short Film Festival SPASM in Canada, and the audience of the Uppsala Short Film Festival. In addition to Fury, Andrea Guizar’s Toothless will also visit the Swedish festival.
As many as eight Polish animated shorts will be presented before the audience of the 10th Primanima World Festival of First Animations. Hierophany by Maria Nitek, Joanna Dudek’s Ashes, Tomasz Ducki’s Plantarium, and Yelyzaveta Pysmak’s film My Fat Arse and I have all been invited to participate in its competition. Non-competitive segments will feature Your Own Bullshit by Daria Kopiec, Crumbs of Life by Katarzyna Miechowicz, We Have One Heart by Katarzyna Warzecha, and Anastazja Naumenko’s We Hope You Won’t Need to Come Back.
It will also be a good month for Kacper Lisowski’s documentary. Following the screening in Estonia, the film is going to visit Lithuania and its Inconvenient Films International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival and shortly afterwards the Human Rights Film Festival in Berlin. Then it will go to the Bergen International Film Festival in Norway and Screening in Cinema Lumière in Bruges in Belgium.
In Romania, during the Astra Film Festival, viewers and judges will get to watch Only The Wind by by Zofia Kowalewska and The Pawnshop by Łukasz Kowalski. The latter will also be presented at the International Festival of Documentary and Animated Film DOK Leipzig. The program of this extremely important festival also includes several other Polish films. We’ve covered it here.
The EUNIC Film Festival 2022 will be held in the first half of the month. One of the films organisers have picked is Paweł Łoziński’s The Balcony Movie. The documentary will also be presented at the CiakPolska Film Festival.
Stagnant by Konrad Kultys will enjoy three international screenings this month. The film will be present in the competitions of the Bolton International Film Festival, Aaretaler Kurzfilmtage, and the Gáldar International Film Festival. Headprickles by Katarzyna Miechowicz will have two screenings. The animated film will have an opportunity to win an award at Animest – Bucharest International Animation Film Festival. The program of this Romanian event also features Andrea Guizar’s film. The latest film by Miechowicz will also be present at the International Festival of Documentary and Animated Film DOK Leipzig. The program of this German event includes plenty of Polish productions. You can read more about it here.
As usual, quite a lot of Polish shorts can also be found in the program of the Warsaw Film Festival. The audience will get to see, among others, A Dead Marriage by Michał Toczek, Alice and the Frog by Olga Bołądź, Victoria by Karolina Porcari, Prince in a Pastry Shop by Katarzyna Agopsowicz, or This Will Not Be a Festival Film by Julii Orlik. You can find more titles here.
In addition to the festival in Warsaw and DOK Leipzig’s competition, the animated film by Julia Orlik will also be screened at the CinEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg. The Pigeon International Film Festival in Iceland will screen both Katarzyna Warzecha’s animated documentary and Prince in a Pastry Shop. In turn, Misaligned by Marta Magnuska and Hierophany by Maria Nitek are visiting Latvia for its Riga International Film Festival.
The Way by Wojtek Kozakiewicz will be competing for awards at the International Festival of Mountain Films Paprad in Slovakia. We Have One Heart is also up for more awards. Katarzyna Warzecha’s animated documentary has found itself in the competitive section of Iceland’s The Pigeon International Film Festival.
Polish documentaries will also be screened in warmer countries, for example at the DocsMX International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City. Its competition will feature The Soil by Zuzanna Solakiewicz and Balcony Concert by Diana and Krzysztof Kadłubowscy. In Australia, The Hamlet Syndrome by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski will be shown at the Adelaide International Film Festival. In addition to the aforementioned screening as well as the one in Leipzig, the film is also going to be screened at the Cambridge Film Festival.
The Polish capital is also hosting international competitions that feature Polish documentaries. Chernobyl: Men of Steel by Amadeusz Kocan, Volodymyr Tykha’s Polish-Ukrainian Ukrainian Volunteer’s Day, and Katarzyna Trzaska’s Learning to Fly will all be competing for the title of best documentary feature. In turn, the documentary short competition features Uncle Vakho’s Dream by Joanna Roj and Everything’s Fine, Potatoes In Line by Piotr Jasiński. Fans of Polish films can also expect a whole segment dedicated to the best Polish films of the past season.
In the second half of October, The Soil by Zuzanna Solakiewicz will be shown at WOMEX 2022 Film Programme, while Anna Konik’s Silence Heard Loud will be screened at the Social Justice Film Festival.