Short film competition – selected films

The list of this year’s candidates for the Golden Dragon award

45 titles representing three film genres: documentary, feature and animation will be competing for a Golden Dragon statue and 30k PLN in the International Short Film Competition of the 52nd KFF. The winners will have an easier way to the American and European Film Academy awards.

The submissions for the International Short Film Festival were films which length did not exceed 30 minutes. Our experience proves that normally the documentaries succeed at it, however this year, the feature section looks particularly promising.

This year’s edition of the feature competition is a special occasion to become familiar with the cinema of this genre, represented by outstanding and award-winning directors of the younger generation, however not only, as Denis Tanovic, the famous author of "No Man’s Land" will join the competitors. We will see an array of stars such as Gerard Depardieu, Michael Fassbender, Melissa Leo, Julia Louis Dreyfus and Liam Cunnigham on screen. In the auditorium we will see the authors of the screened films and winners of the most important international film awards, such as Oscar, Emma, BAFTA and the French Cesar.

The documentary part of the competition look equally as interesting and varied.

After last year’s competition where the winners included an animated documentary, a documentary animation and a feature film which pretended to be a document, at this edition we will also see films which do not stick to the tradition – says the festival director, Krzysztof Gierat. After the Berlin success we will see a documentary musical “The Man that Got Away”. The short documentary will take us to different parts of the world where unusual stories take place – states the festival director.

Fans of animated films will have the chance to see the latest films of the genre from the entire world, this time with a strong stress on the Estonian school, its subject and aesthetic variety.

The list of this year’s candidates for the Golden Dragon award:

Documentary:

1. 24 Buckets, 7 Mice, 18 Years, dir. Marius Iacob, Romania, 30’
2. Crossed Out, dir. Roberto Duarte, Sweden, 28’
3. Fathers And Sons, dir. Kaan Mujdeci, Turkey, 27’
4. Amateur Filmaker, dir. Volha Dashuk, Belarus, 26’
5. The Man that Got Away, dir. Trevor Anderson, Canada, 25’
6. Chronicle Of Oldrich S., dir. Rudolf Šmíd, Czech Republic,17’
7. Split, dir. Rodrigo T. Marques, Eduardo Consonni, Brasil, 17’
8. The Ambassador & Me, dir. Jan Czarlewski, Switzerland, 16’
9. We Die, dir. Josephine Links, Germany, 16’
10. Home Turf, dir. Ross Whitaker, Ireland, 14’
11. The Fisherman, dir. Tom Burke, Ireland, 13’
12. Odysseus’s Gambit, dir. Alex Lora, USA/Spain,12’
13. A Day on the Drina, dir. Ines Tanovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17’
14. Stars, dir. Adam Palenta, Poland, 8’

Fiction:

1. The Sea Is All I Know, dir. Jordan Bayne, USA, 29’
2. Sit, Roll Over, Play Dead, dir. Edgard F.Grima, France, 28’
3. Picture Paris, dir. Brad Hall, USA, 27’
4. Baggage, dir. Danis Tanovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 27’
5. Shoot the Moon, dir. Alexander Gaeta, USA, 27’
6. Tuba Atlantic, dir. Hallvar Witzo, Norway, 25’
7. Seven Years of Winter, dir. Marcus Schwenzel, Germany/Denmark, 22’
8. Beast, dir. Attila Till, Hungary, 20’
9. Curfew, dir. Shawn Christensen, USA, 19’
10. Winter Frog, dir. Slony Sow, France, 17’
11. This Is Not an Umbrella, dir. Zoe Wittock, USA/Belgium, 19’
12. The Factory, dir. Aly Muritiba, Brasil, 15’
13. Pitch Black Heist, dir. John Maclean, United Kingdom, 13’
14. Punched, dir. Michael Rittmannsberger, Austria, 11’
15. Kiss & Kill, dir. Alain Ross, France, 10’
16. A Porter From ‘Mewa’ Hotel, dir. Michał Janów, Poland, 27’

Animation:

1. The House, dir. David Buob, Germany, 7’
2. Not about Us, dir. Michael Frei, Estonia/Switzerland, 4’
3. Beluga, dir. Shin Hashimoto, Japan, 6’
4. Catherine the Great, dir. Anna Kuntsman, Israel, 5’
5. Moxie, dir. Stephen Irwin, United Kingdom, 6’
6. About Killing the Pig, dir. Simone Massi, Italy, 6’
7. Natasha, dir. Roman Klokchow, Belgium,14’
8. Animals for Animals, dir. Tatu Pohjavirta, Mark Ståhle, Finland, 10’
9. Body Memory, dir. Ülo Pikkov, Estonia, 9’
10. Viewpoint, dir. Hwangbo Sae-byul, South Korea, 9’
11. Villa Antropoff, dir. Vladimir Leschiov, Kaspar Jancis, Latvia/Estonia,13’
12. Where Dogs Die, dir. Svetlana Filippova, France,12’
13. Big House, dir. Kristjan Holm, Estonia, 10’
14. Fly Mill, dir. Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, Estonia, 7’
15. The Railway Watchman, dir. Piotr Szczepanowicz, Poland, 11’

Apart from the main award, the Golden Dragon, the Jury will also grant three prizes equal to the Silver Dragon for the best film director of a documentary, a feature and an animation.