POLISH SHORT STAGES AT THE SEPTEMBER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS
Comparing September to the months that preceded it, it can be concluded that the festival industry is slowly recovering. The coming month is full of festival screenings of Polish short films, and the most important countries at that time will be Portugal, Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Croatia and Greece.
The first week of September will be marked by the Portuguese FEST - New Directors, New Films, during which seven Polish films will be shown. As many as six of them - three animations and three features - will appear in the festival's main competition. These will be "Story" by Jola Bańskowska, "Acid Rain" by Tomek Popakul, "Such A Beautiful Town" by Marta Koch, "Bitten" by Helena Oborska, "Attachment" by Kasia Babicz and "Home Sweet Home" by Agata Puszcz. The Portuguese festival will also include a special screening of "Ricochets" by Jakub Radej.
Portugal will not be the only direction in which Polish short films will go in the first week of September. At the international festival in Italian Salento, "Red" by Karina Węgiełek and "Synchronization" by Anna Kasińska will be shown, "The Little Soul" Rupik and "Acid Rain" Popakul were included in the competition of the French L'etrange Festival, and at the Zlin Film Festival in the Czech Republic for awards "Norma" by Agata Mianowska and "Thicket" by Adrianna Matwiejczuk will compete. In the same week, Piotr Sułkowski's "Play" will be screened at two festivals - the German Bastalavista International Genre Film Festival and the British White Deer International Film Festival.
One of the most important events for Polish short films in September will be the International Short Film Festival in Lviv, the competition of which included "Story" by Bańkowska, and in the side sections "Setteling The Score" by Zuzanna Grajcewicz, "Such A Beautiful Town" Koch, "Loved ones" by Zofia Kowalewska and "Squaring The Circle" by Karolina Specht. Polish short films turned out to be exceptionally also among the selectors of the Dresden short film festival, whose audience will have the opportunity to see "Portrait of Suzanne" by Izabela Plucińska, "III" by Marta Pajek, "Tango Of Longing" by Marta Szymańska, "Journey To The Magical Waterfall" by Bogna Kowalczyk, "A World That Flew on the Back of the Head ” by Wojciech Hoffman and “Squaring The Circle” by Specht.
At the same time, there will also be Leiden Shorts in the Netherlands, in the competition of which Rupik’s "The Little Soul" was included, and the 2020 DC Shorts Film Festival in the United States, during which "Dog Days" by Zuzanna Grajcewicz and the Bulgarian international festival In The Palace, which has Marta Szymańska's "Tango of Longing" in its program.
Polish short films will also find their audience in the Baltic countries in September. At BLON Animation and Games Festival in Lithuania, Piotr Milczarek's "Rain" and Tomek Popakul's "Acid Rain" will be shown. A very large number of Polish films were included in the Love & Anarchy program in Helsinki, where Natalia Durszewicz's "Ovule", Maria Ornaf's "Bitter Herb", Helena Oborska's "Bitten", Daniel Howlid's "Ballast", Popakul's "Acid Rain" and "Such A Beautiful Town” by Koch.
Heading towards the south of Europe, we can list more festivals where Polish short films will make their mark. In Austria, at the SLASH Film Festival, "Attachment" by Kasia Babicz will be shown, the program of the international festival in Tirana includes "Dog Days" Grajcewicz, and the competition of the Croatian festival Animafest includes "The Last Supper" by Piotr Dumała, "Marbles" by Natalia Spychała, "Portrait of a woman" by Natalia Durszewicz, "Portrait of Suzanne" by Izabela Plucińska and "The Little Soul" by Barbara Rupik. Finally, at the prestigious short film festival in the Greek Drama, "My Fat Arse and I" by Yelyzaveta Pysmak, "Portrait of Suzanne" by Plucińska, "Something" by Kasia Babicz and "Story" by Bańkowska, and on the other side of the Mediterranean, in the short film competition "Bitter Herb" by Maria Ornaf will be showcased in the student shorts competition.