Short competition – list of films

The list of qualified films in short competition.

The international short film competition is the core of the Krakow Film Festival, taking place continually since 1961.  This year we have received 2971 submissions (569 documentaries, 363 animations and 1832 feature films) from such countries as  Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, Columbia, Chile, Estonia, Hungary and more. The winners will have an easier way to the Oscars  and European Film Academy awards.

Short film competition is a mosaic of genres and styles, confrontation of cultures and traditions, but at the same time, universal themes, clear to people all around the world. It is also the most democratic competition at the Krakow festival; masters and their apprentices, experienced artists and students enter the lists. Many of them are developing under our very eyes. In love with Krakow, they return with their latest films, and, just like Sergei Loznitsa… they win. It is hard to resist the emotions present in the motionless, black and white frames, which this time follow the neglected streets of the former ghetto and the park paths in Riga, made on the Jewish cemetery ("The Old Jewish Cemetery").

Another winner of the Krakow festival is also Jay Rosenblatt, the master of the so-called found footage, that is, a kind of documentary film made of archival materials. His "A Long Way Home" is a three-minute long celluloid collage, recalling the last moments of Christ’s life and strengthened by the beautiful gospel song.

In the competition, there are traditional observational mode documentary films, such as Romanian-Ukrainian "Intersection", made during one day at the crossroads, and American "Hotel 22", which subversively documents the function of a certain bus line – different during the day, and different at night. At the same time, these films have the ambition to metaphorise the reality they present. If you remember "Talking Heads" and "Seven Women Of Different Ages" by Kieślowski, you can recall them in your memory thanks to two diverse films, which however refer to the method used by our classic director. In the film "Losers – A Film About Loss" we watch children who talk about what loss means for them in quite a poignant way, and in the picture "10" we follow ten men of different ages, who meditate about life.

For years, the probability of being accepted to the short feature film competition at the Krakow festival has been very low, as it is still the most popular section. Thirteen lucky people will present stories from various parts of the world, often very exotic and moving, such as "The Mountain" from Colombia about the last journey of son and father like the one from the song by Waglewscy, or "Granny" from Singapore, in which elderly, lonely woman takes a young fugitive from Burma under her roof.

There will be genre films with crime and suspense ("County State USA: Sweet Corn", "It’s not about…"), as well as the brutal genericness of the Far East ("The Free Man") or the story about the duty owed to deceased Muslim brother, epic as far as the film format is concerned ("Mother Earth").
Traditionally, the English take the lead in this competition. Last year’s winner of the Silver Dragon – "The Phone Call" – later won the Academy Award. Will one of the three English representatives at the current edition repeat this success? "Over" enters into the poetics of documentary to laconically relate authentic, dramatic events in the vicinity of the airport, "Crack" is an absurd story, told in the mockumentary style, of youth gangs’ struggle for domination at the market for … chestnuts, and "Fragments of May" is a poignant story about depression, inspired by the poems by Emily Dickinson. In the competition, there is also Russian war parable about deportation of Chechens in 1944 ("February") and animated feature film, mixing live-action set with impressively created reality, which aptly depicts the schizophrenia of the protagonist – a pianist ("Dissonance").

Information about animations in short film competition you can find already on our website (https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/news/511).

The list of films qualified for the short film competition (without Polish representation, which will be announced at a special conference in Warsaw on Monday, April 13)