NOVEMBER AT SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

 This month, the scene is def­i­nitely dom­i­nated by short fic­tion films. In No­vem­ber Span­ish fes­ti­vals proved par­tic­u­larly wel­com­ing for Pol­ish films. Let us start off with “The Ham­ster” by Bartek Ignaciuk that will be rep­re­sent­ing Poland dur­ing the La Cab­ina fes­ti­val in Va­len­cia, while “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul will be com­pet­ing for the lau­rels of one of Eu­rope’s old­est fes­ti­vals – Gijón Film Fes­ti­val, which this year will be held for the 51^st time. The only Pol­ish film in the com­pe­ti­tion of the 43^rd Alcalá de Henares Film Fes­ti­val (AL­CINE), which starts today, will be a doc­u­men­tary “Ro­ga­lik” by Paweł Ziemil­ski. Three Pol­ish films will be shown at the Zinebi In­ter­na­tional Fes­ti­val (“Rondo”, “Ex animo” and “The Whis­tle”), Filmets-​ Badalona Film Fes­ti­val (“Lost Senses”, “Pa­per­box”, “Wa­ter­melon”) and also at the fes­ti­val and an­i­ma­tion mar­ket 3D Wire in Segovia ("Dar­ling”, “Ab ovo”, “Beach”).

Two etudes made by stu­dents of Radio and Tele­vi­sion Fac­ulty Uni­ver­sity of Sile­sia in Ka­tow­ice – “All Souls’ Day” by Alek­san­dra Terpińska and “Our Bad Win­ter” by Grze­gorz Zariczny were in­vited to par­tic­i­pate in the screen­ing of French Se­quence Short Film Fes­ti­val, which will begin on No­vem­ber 22nd. It is worth men­tion­ing that this month etudes by stu­dents of Radio and Tele­vi­sion Fac­ulty will wan­der up to the dis­tant Is­land. In the North­ern Wave Fes­ti­val com­pe­ti­tion four films will be screened – “To war we go” by Krzysztof Ka­sior, “Boo!” by Ko­r­dian Kądziela, “Echo” by Marcin Fil­ipow­icz and al­ready men­tioned “All Souls’ Day” by Alek­san­dra Terpińska. Fes­ti­val will be held be­tween 15^th to 17th No­vem­ber.

For the first time, Mar­tin Rath’s most re­cent film “Arena” is mak­ing its debut at the Irish Cork Film Fes­ti­val. Rath – the stu­dent of The Pol­ish Na­tional Film, Tele­vi­sion and The­atre School is the au­thor of last year’s most pop­u­lar short film doc­u­men­tary – “Writ­ten in Ink”. In the mean­time in Eng­lish Leeds In­ter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val an­other stu­dent film – “The Mother” by Łukasz Os­tal­ski will com­pete for the awards among other most cel­e­brated short films.

Four films were qual­i­fied to the com­pe­ti­tion of 25^th Is­tan­bul Short Film Fes­ti­val. One will get the chance of watch­ing four films in total – an­i­mated “Rondo” (A. Ko­r­das) and “The Rail­way Watch­man” (P. Szczepanow­icz) as well as two fic­tion films – “All Souls’ Day” (A. Terpińska) and “Wa­ter­melon” (T. Kotetishvili). We will find out who the lau­re­ates are on No­vem­ber 27th dur­ing the clos­ing cer­e­mony. The lat­ter among the men­tioned films – “Wa­ter­melon” –  will also be shown at the Brest Eu­ro­pean Short Film Fes­ti­val, which this year will be held for the 28^th time. Mean­while, on the same dates – be­tween 12 and 17 No­vem­ber 28^th Berlin in­ter­film fes­ti­val will be held. This year three films – “Danse macabre”, “Lost senses” and ”Dar­ling” – will be com­pet­ing for the title of the Best An­i­mated Film of the in­ter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion. This year, four Pol­ish films were in­vited to enter a com­pe­ti­tion of Sleep­walk­ers In­ter­na­tional FF held  at the same dates. Those, apart from the al­ready men­tioned “Arena” by Mar­tin Rath were also “Ro­ga­lik” by Paweł Ziemil­ski, “Wa­ter­melon” by Tato Kotetishvili and “The Whis­tle” by Grze­gorz Zariczny. The fes­ti­val ends on No­vem­ber 22nd.

Also in Poland, dur­ing Camer­im­age in By­d­goszcz one will watch Pol­ish films tak­ing part in the In­ter­na­tional Stu­dents Etudes Com­pe­ti­tion. On the com­pet­ing films’ list are “Magma” by Paweł Maślona, “Killing Aun­tie” by Ma­teusz Głowacki (both of them pro­duced by the Radio and Tele­vi­sion Fac­ulty Uni­ver­sity of Sile­sia in Ka­tow­ice) and also “Such a Land­scape” by Jagoda Szelc – stu­dent of The Pol­ish Na­tional Film, Tele­vi­sion and The­atre School in Łódź.

Un­sur­passed leader of the an­i­ma­tions films’ rank­ing re­mains “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul. This month, the film re­ceived an in­vi­ta­tion to 12 film fes­ti­vals, i.a. : to Win­terthur Fes­ti­val, Bratislava IFF and Cana­dian GIRAF fes­ti­val. Other Pol­ish an­i­ma­tions are not doing bad ei­ther. This month, Pol­ish an­i­ma­tion films can be found  in the cat­a­logs of the fes­ti­vals tak­ing place in i.a. Mex­ico, Hol­land, Por­tu­gal, Italy and Ger­many. In the com­pe­ti­tion of 37^th edi­tion of the Po­tuguese Cinan­ima fes­ti­val four an­i­ma­tions made in Poland will par­tic­i­pate – al­ready men­tioned “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul, “Baths” by Tomek Ducki, “Toto” by Zbig­niew Czapla and also “Ex Animo” by Wo­j­ciech Wo­jtkowski. The last two will also screen at Mex­i­can Cutout fes­ti­val along with “Shape” by Kijek/ Adamski and “On/Off” by Piotr Lud­wik. At the Es­ton­ian An­i­mated Dreams fes­ti­val two films will be com­pet­ing for the Best An­i­ma­tion award – “The Rail­way Watch­men” by Piotr Szczepanow­icz and al­ready men­tioned “Lost senses”, whereas at the Klik! Fes­ti­val in Am­s­ter­dam be­side Marcin Wasilewski’s film one will get the chance of watch­ing well-​known “Toto” and “Ziegenort”.

The full list of No­vem­ber fes­ti­vals can be found in the “at fes­ti­vals” tab

Above a still from "Such a landscape" by Jagoda Szelc

All in­for­ma­tion about up­com­ing screen­ings of Pol­ish doc­u­men­tary films can be found here