Vilnius Short Film Festival Announces Its 18th Edition International Competition
From Philippines, Kosovo, Ethiopia or South Korea to Haiti, Malaysia, Iran or Mexico – on 15–21 January, audiences of the 18th Vilnius Short Film Festival will have a chance to watch short films from all around the globe. This year’s International Competition is as vast and colourful as ever, with films from more than 30 countries within the six programmes. Films will be assessed by a jury of film industry experts from Germany, Switzerland, and Lithuania.
This year, Vilnius Short Film Festival has received a record number of submissions for the competitions. Selecting the films to be presented for the Lithuanian film goers posed quite a challenge yet the result is nothing short of spectacular. The International Competition consists of 30 films which are going to compete for the Best International Short Film Award and the festival’s main award – the Grand Prix. The winner of the Grand Prix will have an opportunity to further compete for an Oscar, since this year Vilnius Short Film Festival became the first Oscar-qualifying film event in Lithuania.
This year’s International Competition programmes will address such topics as love or passion, stories of densely populated cities and their inhabitants, travels and the unknown, quest for truth, fiery voices of women and the human dark side, resulting in a repertoire that promises to inspire, amaze, excite, as well as invite open debate.
Mantė Valiūnaitė, one of festival’s programmers, on the adult-only programme About Love: “The different kinds of love are revealed in all their beauty and complexity in this programme, designed not only for romantics but suitable for them as well. Through various means of expression, the filmmakers explore passion, longing, open relationships, and questions of identity with vibrant energy, reminding us that love is incredibly diverse.”
A robbery in the park, a mysterious safe in an old flat, objects falling from the sky, and healing mushrooms in envelopes on the backs of pigeons—these are just a few fragments scattered throughout densely populated cities, gathered in stories told aloud or in whispers. We won’t find them on news portals, but filmmakers invite us to explore these experiences, whether real or fictional, in the Urban Stories programme. It’s not so important; what matters is that they create colourful maps of our cities.
Whether going to the homeland in Algeria, rural Romania, or a spa hotel, the protagonists in the programme Destination Unknown are faced with uncertainty. Getting stuck in a circle or a customs office changes the destination in an unexpected way, reaffirming the old adage that we can’t always get what we want…
All the films in the programme Searching for Truth deal in one way or another with profound experiences or events that are currently unfolding that will inevitably go down in history. The protagonists are searching for the truth, however unpleasant or inconvenient it may be. Tense, relentless and sometimes funny, these films are bound to move, challenge and leave no one indifferent.
A mysterious pregnancy, fire in a desert and a women’s magazine in Iran: the Voices on Fire programme features four powerful female directors. “Fired by their desire to tell stories of entrenched customs in their countries, their urge to break them down, or simply break free and make their own decisions, however important or mundane they may be,” says Ieva Šukytė, member of the festival programming team.
The Dark Reflections programme is aptly named. It is about the dark side of humanity. We live in a time when wars, crises, or, say, technological advances so frightening to some, are right around the corner. All of this is reflected in the five films in this programme. “I believe that after watching Dark Reflections, viewers will look back at themselves and perhaps come out of the screening a little different,” says Andrius Blaževičius, member of the festival programming team.
This year, films for the competitions have been selected by the Lithuanian film researcher and curator Mantė Valiūnaitė, film director, scriptwriter and educator Andrius Blaževičius, and film critic, journalist Ieva Šukytė. Competition film selection assistants: filmmakers, educators Arnas Balčiūnas and Lukas Kacinauskas, screenwriters Kristina Abromaitytė and Rokas Jonas, and film director, critic, programmer Monika Navickaitė.
The jury: film industry experts from Germany, Switzerland and Lithuania
Like every year, an international jury will assess the competition and announce the winners, selecting the best films of the International and National Competitions, and awarding one film with the festival Grand Prix.
This year’s jury consists of German filmmaker Hilke Rönnfeldt, whose short film A Study of Empathy won the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival 2023 and was a candidate for the European Film Awards 2024; John Canciani, Artistic Director of Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, the leading Swiss short film festival; and Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė, Lithuanian producer with over 20 years of experience in film and television.
International Competition titles:
- Pigeons Are Dying, When the City Is on Fire, dir. Stavros Markoulakis, Greece, Netherlands
- Dreams Like Paper Boats, dir. Samuel Suffren, Haiti
- Shoes and Hooves, dir. Viktoria Traub, Hungary
- looking, she said I forget, dir. Naomi Pacifique, Netherlands, Switzerland
- You Can’t Get What You Want But You Can Get Me, dir. Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh, Netherlands, Finland
- Montsouris Park, dir. Guil Sela, France
- She Stays, dir. Marinthia Gutiérrez, Mexico
- The Eucalyptus, dir. Ignacio Ragone, Nicolás Suárez, Argentina
- Bad For a Moment, dir. Daniel Soares, Portugal
- Kawauso, dir. Akihito Izuhara, Japan
- Shrooms, dir. Jorge Jácome, Portugal
- The Miracle, dir. Nienke Deutz, Belgium, Netherlands, France
- After The Sun, dir. Rayane Mcirdi, France, Algeria
- Circle, dir. Joung Yumi, South Korea
- Remote, dir. Dana Rogoz, Romania
- On the Way, dir. Samir Karahoda, Kosovo
- La Selección de Chile, dir. Giulio Pacini, Italy
- Dancing in the Corner, dir. Jan Bujnowski, Poland
- The Medallion, dir. Ruth Hunduma, Ethiopia, UK
- The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, dir. Nebojša Slijepčević, Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia
- Unwanted Kinship, dir. Pavel Mozhar, Germany
- A Move, dir. Elahe Esmaili, UK, Iran
- Immaculata, dir. Kim Lêa Sakkal, Germany, France
- Ashen Sun, dir. Camille Monnier, France, Belgium
- Razeh-del, dir. Maryam Tafakory, Iran, UK, Italy
- Volcelest, dir. Éric Briche, France
- Cross My Heart and Hope To Die, dir. Sam Manacsa, Philippines
- WAShhh, dir. Mickey Lai, Malaysia, Ireland
- Grobbendonk, dir. Benjamin Sprengers, Belgium
- 512×512, dir. Arthur Chopin, France
The 18th Vilnius Short Film Festival will be taking place in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, and Šiauliai cinemas as well as VoD platforms ŽMONĖS Cinema and LRT Epika on 15–21 January.
More info and regularly updated programme at: www.filmshorts.lt
The festival is organised by the Lithuanian short film agency Lithuanian Shorts. The festival is partially sponsored by: Lithuanian Film Centre, Creative Europe Media, Vilnius City Municipality, Audiovisual works copyright association AVAKA. Main media partner: LRT Epika.