SHORT FILM FESTIVALS IN MARCH

After a lazy beginning of the year, spring marks a busy time. In March, Polish short films will be shown at 25 film festivals, among others, in the USA, Hong Kong, Finland and Spain. 43 festival screenings are in store for us.

March summary opens with the participation of Polish short films in the competitions of prestigious festivals. At the turn of March and April, "Toto" and "Baths" will be screened at the 38th edition of the Hong Kong Film Festival. The festival in Hong Kong is one of the largest film events taking place in Asia. The programme of the festival includes feature-length films, short films and documentary films. Three animated films were selected  to the competition of the prestigious American Ann Arbor IFF - "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla, "To Thy Heart" by Ewa Borysewicz and "FFF1" by Marcin Giżycki. Ann Arbor is the world’s largest and the most important festival showing experimental cinema that will be held for the 52nd time at the end of March. Another important festival, in which Polish films will take part, is Tampere FF in Finland. The festival, that last year brought Łukasz Ostalski the Audience Award for his diploma film "The Mother", will present three Polish films this year. Short fiction film "The Boys" by Paweł Orwat will celebrate its international premiere at the Finnish festival. In the same competition, the viewers will also watch the animated "Moonshine" by Michał Poniedzielski and "Ziegenort" by Tomek Popakul. The verdict of the jury will be announced on 9th March.

This month, student films are also doing quite well. Three films by students of the Faculty of Radio and Television of the University of Silesia - "Lesson" by Damian Kocur, "Rollercoaster" by Marek Marlikowski and "Volcano" by Michał Wawrzecki - will take part in the competition of the 4th edition of the Dutch student Film Festival Flicks. Last year, during the very same festival the award for the Best Film went also to the student of the Faculty of Radio and Television, Olga Kałagate for her film "Wolf's clothing". On Friday, this year's edition of the student film festival Watersprite starts in Cambridge. "All Souls' Day" by Aleksandra Terpińska is nominated for three awards. The film by the student of the Faculty of Radio and Television is nominated for the Best Director, the Best Photography and the Best Short Film. The results will be announced this Sunday. In the meantime the film by the student of Lodz Film School, Piotr Sułkowski, entitled "Miruna" went to the sections at two Romanian festivals - Anonimul and ClujShorts.

Four Polish films qualified for the competition of the 16th edition of MECAL festival. "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska, "The Mystery of the Malakka Mountain" by Jakub Wroński, "Camp" by Tomasz Jeziorski as well as "Mother" by Łukasz Ostalski will compete for awards in Spain. The winners of this year's edition will be announced on 30th March. Another four films were selected for the competition of the Slovak festival FEBIOFEST, which annually presents the most interesting films made by the filmmakers from the countries belonging to the Visegrád Group. This year, the short film competition is held for the second time. Last year, the Best Short Film award went to Grzegorz Zariczny for his documentary film "The Whistle". This year, the animated films "Ab ovo" by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi, "Ziegenort" by Tomasz Popakul, "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla and the feature film "The Easter Crumble" by Julia Kolberger stand a chance to win awards.  At the turn of March and April the 19th edition of Vilnius IFF festival takes place. In the competition programme, five Polish films will compete for awards, namely, "Our Curse" by Tomasz Śliwiński, "Brother Dog" by Maria Zbąska, "Arena" by Martin Rath, "The big leap" by Kristoffer Rus and "Flora and Fauna" by Piotr Litwin. In the accompanying screenings, one can watch "Killing Auntie" by Mateusz Głowacki and "The Easter Crumble" by Julia Kolberger. Both films have a chance to get the audience award.

Animated film "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska is the most popular film in March. This German-Polish coproduction has already found its way to the programmes of fifteen international festivals, and in March it will be shown at five festivals, among others, at the Tricky Women festival in Austria, short film festival in Regensburg, and Holland Animation Film Festival (HAAF).

This month, there are many animated film screenings in store for us. At the beginning of the month, "What happens when children don't eat soup" by Paweł Prewencki will be shown at Chilemonos festivals in Chile. Another student film "Ab ovo" by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi will compete for awards at two festivals - Portuguese Monstra festival and French Roanne, where the jury will also watch the film "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska in the same competition. At the end of the month, "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla will be shown at the Spanish festival Lanzarote while "Lost Senses" by Marcin Wasilewski is scheduled to screen in the competitive section of the French festival Aubagne.

The complete list of March festival screenings can be found in "at festivals" tab

At the top: still from "The Boys" by Paweł Orwat