Vilnius Shorts Film Festival presents renewed selection committee

News 2023-05-12

Vilnius Short Film Festival, the biggest and most important festival dedicated to short films in Lithuania, unveils a renewed selection committee and preselection team, ready to curate exceptional festival programme. The 17th edition of the festival will take place on 17–23 January 2024. 

The National and International Competition selection and programming committee was joined by a new member – film researcher, film critic Mantė Valiūnaitė. She will be working together with two remaining Vilnius ISFF programmers: Ieva Šukytė and Andrius Blaževičius.

Mantė Valiūnaitė is currently studying PhD at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her research is focused on hybrid cinema. Mante was an Artistic Director at Vilnius International Film Festival “Kino pavasaris.” She has worked as a programmer at International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival “Inconvenient Films”. Mante curated various projects in NGO “Meno avilys”. In addition, she regularly writes to magazine “Kinas”.

Ieva Šukytė is a festival programmer for Vilnius International Shorts Film Festival and a film critic. She regularly writes for Lithuanian National Radio and Television Broadcaster (LRT) and is a member of the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI. She’s been on the critic’s jury for Berlinale, Venice and Oberhausen film festivals.

Andrius Blaževičius studied Culture history and anthropology at Vilnius University. After a while, Andrius switched for Film directing studies at Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy where he graduated with a masters degree in 2011. His final short film TEN REASONS (2011) won 2 Lithuanian Film Academy awards. Blaževičius’ debut feature film THE SAINT (2016) premiered at Warsaw FF and Busan FF, won 6 Lithuanian Film Awards and became one of the most appreciated Lithuanian independent films at the national box office with 47K admissions in total. His sophomore film RUNNER (2021) premiered at Karlovy Vary FF with the main actress Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė being awarded as a Shooting Star by European Film Promotion. RUNNER received two Lithuanian Film Academy awards – for the main and the supporting actresses. Andrius occasionally serves as a jury member at international film festivals, moreover, he is being invited as a reader at Lithuanian Film Centre. Blaževičius has also been a member of selection committee at Vilnius ISFF since 2010.

This year, International Competition preselection team consists of film festivals’ organizer, director and scriptwriter Benita Paplauskaitė, scriptwriter Rokas Jonas, joined by three new members – filmmakers Arnas Balčiūnas, Lukas Kacinauskas, and film and music video director Indrė Juškutė.

Open call to submit short films to the International Competition is open until 15 July (a submission fee – 5 Eur). International Competition is open to professional short films from every country, of all production techniques and genres (fiction, documentary, animation, experimental or hybrid) from low to high budgets. Films must have been completed after 1 January 2022 and no longer than 30 min. Submissions can only be made via the www.shortfilmdepot.com platform.