Vilnius Short Film Festival winners announced

News 2025-01-20

Sunday evening, Vilnius Short Film Festival held its awards ceremony where international jury announced the best films of the festival’s 18th edition. This year’s competition programmes featured 43 short films from over 30 countries, including 13 works by Lithuanian filmmakers. 

The international jury selected the best films of the International and National Competition and awarded one film with the festival’s Grand Prix which is an Oscar-Qalifying award. Additionally, one film from the National Competition received Special Jury Mention, and one Lithuanian film received a Special Mention from emerging film critics attending Short Critics programme.

The films were assessed by a competent jury with vast experience in the film industry: filmmaker Hilke Rönnfeldt from Germany, John Canciani, artistic director of the leading Swiss short film Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, and Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė, a Lithuanian    producer with 20 years of experience in cinema and television.

Vilnius Short Film Festival winners

The Grand Prix of Vilnius Short Film Festival went to Cross My Heart and Hope to Die (dir. Sam Manacsa), a story of a woman, who struggles as she remains unpaid at work and a love interest becomes a source of comfort through his constant phone calls. But a promise of hope may also lead to tragedy and sad love songs.

“The jury unanimously chose a film that masterfully combines social drama, thriller, and love story while addressing existential questions of our time. Through its minimalist yet powerful storytelling, the film delivers surprising twists that feel both authentic and believable. Each of the few locations is carefully selected and serves its purpose perfectly. The main setting is reimagined in every scene, transforming into a fresh and captivating version of its own universe”, said the jury presenting the top award. 

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.

The prize for the Best Film of the International Competition went to You Can’t Get What You Want But You Can Get Me (dir. Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh), a unique slideshow documenting two long-haired trans men falling madly in love. Over the course of one year, the artist couple Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh gathered photographs from real-life events such as their first kiss, meeting each other’s parents, long-distance thirst traps, a beach wedding, and top surgery and its subsequent recovery. 

“It’s an honest, intimate, and strikingly raw love story, told in a refreshingly unexpected way—rarely seen or anticipated on the big screen. It gripped us from the very first slide and made us fall in love with it instantly”, said the jury members presenting the award.

Adas Burkšaitis’ Left-Handed Pen was named the Best Film of the National Competition. It depicts a sunny summer day at a suburban school when a schoolteacher finds out that her son’s poorly written exam may jeopardise his dream of attending a prestigious university abroad. The film explores sacrifices a mother is willing to make to secure her child’s success, raising questions about ethics and the pressures of education.

“A playful opening develops into an arresting narrative which draws us immediately into the protagonist’s dilemma, and with a captivating cinematography and a pulsing score, continues to surprise us with unexpected twists and turns until the filmmaker and his team relieve us with a craftily knitted and fresh ending that opens up for bigger questions about generational ambitions”, said the jury.

One film from the National Competition was also given the jury’s Special Mention. It went to the animation The One Who Knows by Eglė Davidavičė, a story about an anxious teenager who is taken on an unexpected adventure during her swimming practice, through which she grows up and learns to see her body anew.

“Every element of this film is applied with a strong sense of the filmmaker’s unique vision. The filmmaker and her team confidently and skillfully send us on a beautiful swim through life, where we are steered through all shades of blue and the protagonist’s intimate journey of womanhood and self-acceptance,” said the jury members in the Awards Ceremony.

The Shorts Critics Special Mention went to Lithuanian documentary I Buy (dir. Martynas Norvaišas) from the National Competition.

Films awarded by the International Jury will be part of the Festival Winners programme, which will be screened in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, and Šiauliai on 20–21 January.

 

The 18th edition of the Vilnius Short Film Festival takes place on January 15–21 in Vilnius, Klaipėda, Kaunas, and Šiauliai cinemas, as well as on ŽMONĖS Cinema home cinema platform and LRT Epika.  Info, tickets and full programme at: www.filmshorts.lt

 

The festival is organized by Lithuanian short film agency Lithuanian Shorts. The festival is partially sponsored by: Lithuanian Film Centre, Creative Europe Media, Vilnius City Municipality. Institutional partners: Audiovisual Works Copyright Association AVAKA, Creative Europe Media desk in Lithuania, LATGA Association, Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, Institut français de Lituanie. Main media partner: LRT Epika.