MAY AT THE SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

May at the festivals bids fair. In this month, there is as many as 31 festival screenings at fifteen film festivals. Polish films will be present in the programmes of festivals held, among others, in the USA, Italy, Turkey or the Czech Republic.

As many as three films by the students of the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia qualified for the competition of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlin, the Czech Republic. The following films will compete for the laurels of the 53rd edition of the festival: "All Souls' Day" by Aleksandra Terpinska, "Echo" by Marcin Filipowicz and "The Cheater Day" by Bartosz Warwas. Another two films by the students of the Faculty or Radio and Television - "Errata" by Arek Biedrzycki and "Killing Auntie" by Mateusz Głowacki – were selected to the programme of the Italian River Film Festival held in Padua from 28 May and 9 June.

Another student film - this time, the fiction film "The Mother" by Łukasz Ostalski - the graduate of Gdynia Film School will compete for the awards of the 16th edition of the Israeli Student Film Festival. In the same competition, there is the film "The Heat" by Bartosz Kruhlik - the student of Lodz Film School. The award-winners of the festival will be announced on 7th June. Another film by the student of Lodz Film School - Tato Kotetishvili’s "Watermelon" was selected to the non-competitive screening at the Dutch Food Film Festival.

An important stop on the map of May festivals is marked by the Austrian VIS Vienna Independent Short Film Festival. In the programme of the event, there are three Polish films – a documentary "To Fly Or Not To Fly" by Aniela Gabryel and two animations - "Ziegenort" by Tomasz Popakul and "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla. 

Animation also does well this month. Three Polish films have been qualified to the competitive programme of the fifth edition of the Bulgarian animated film festival Golden Kuker. In the category of short animated film to 10 minutes, the following films will be shown: "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla and "Ex animo" by Wojciech Wojtkowski, whereas in the student competition the film "An Incredibly Elastic Man" by Karolina Specht will compete. Another two school animated films will be shown in the Czech Republic and in France - "Steven and the Beetle" by Piotr Loc Hoang Ngoca went to the Anifilm festival, and "Danse macabre" by Małgorzata Rżanek will be shown at the French fantastic film festival in Andelnans.

This month, many Polish short films will also appear at American film festivals. The films "Baths" by Tomek Ducki and "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska have been selected for the screenings within the frames of the New York Rooftop Films Summer Series. This is an outdoor festival, and the films selected for this year's edition of the cycle will be shown every weekend from May to August at the rooftops of the buildings in New York. Also in the USA, two Polish animated films - "Ab ovo" by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi and "Ziegenort" by Tomasz Popakul will be shown at the film festival in Seattle. In the programme of the New York Brooklyn Film Festival, one will easily track Polish films as three of them will take part in the international short film competition – fiction etude "Arena" by Martin Rath and animated “To Thy Heart” by Ewa Borysewicz and “Danse macabre” by Małgorzata Rżanek. After last year's success and award for "Ziegenort" by Tomasz Popakul, we can be sure that the audience in Brooklyn likes the Polish cinema. This week, at the independent film festival - Independent Filmmakers Showcase, which will be held successively in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, Marcin Giżycki will show his latest film "FFF1". Even though the festival has not ended yet, it has already been announced that the film by the Polish director will get the award for the Best Experimental Film.

The full list of screenings in May can be found in “at festivals" tab

You can read about the screenings of documentary films planned for this month here