Press release 21 Jan. 2020

The 15th Prague Short Film Festival starts this Wednesdaywith a Czech film from the International Competition

The 15th annual Prague Short Film Festival, which is organized by the team behind the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, will take place from 22 to 26 January 2020 at Prague’s Světozor, Pilotů, and Oko cinemas. This year’s International Competition features five thematic blocks of films from a variety of genres and with unusual subjects. The selection includes brand-new films alongside works that have already won numerous festival awards. Also competing is an entry from the Czech Republic, which will vie for the main prize along with shorts from twenty other countries around the world.

This year’s competition for live-action films with a running time of 30 minutes or less consists of 25 films, and the winner will take home not just the main prize but also a financial reward in the amount of 2,000 euros. “Short film production has become incredibly professionalized in the 15 years of our existence, during which time we have become a ‘category A’ festival to which a large number of filmmakers submit their works all on their own, which makes us immensely happy. As a result, we can offer audiences the chance to see the rich diversity of subjects and styles in contemporary international cinema. Besides films from the United States, Finland, France, the Philippines, and Malaysia, there are also entrants from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” says Karel Spěšný, programming director for the Prague Short Film Festival. The Czech film Don’t Be a Pussy by director Jakub Jirásek, who is currently completing is study of directing at FAMU, tells the story of two friends who decide to shoot a YouTube video in order to break through into the world of online influencers.

PHOTO: Don’t Be a Pussy

This year’s National Competition consists of two programming blocks, In the Wilderness and In the Imagination, showing premiere screenings (with the filmmakers’ participation) of nine Czech films. The international jury will present one award for Best Film (which includes a 2,000-euro financial award) and one Honorable Mention. And you don’t have to visit the cinema to vote in the Audience Award: This year, viewers can also vote online via mall.tv. Audiences can choose their favorite at www.pragueshorts.mall.tv, where the films will be available for free during the festival week (20 to 25 January).

The jury for the International Competition consists of Jana Vlčková, editor of documentary and feature films and recipient of two Czech Lions; curator Diana Mereoiu, who among other things is a member of the programming team at Vienna Shorts, a qualifying festival for the Oscars, the European Film Awards, and the British BAFTA Awards; and Icelandic director Katrín Ólafsdóttir. Joining the jury for the National Competition are Belgrade-based director and screenwriter Stefan Arsenijević, whose short films have earned him more than thirty national and international awards, including the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, European Film Awards, and an Oscar nomination; Estonian journalist Tristan Priimägi; and Slovak producer Ľubica Orechovská.

The opening program at Bio Oko (Wednesday 22 January at 8pm) will present a selection of the most interesting films from the various program sections. Another new addition this year is the VR cinema at the National Library of Technology. From 23 to 25 January in the library’s lobby, viewers can look forward to free screenings of this new cinematic experience offering a variety of virtual reality film projects. The section From Sea to Sea presents seven of the best Canadian shorts of the past 15 years, including the multi-award-winning dark comedy Next Floor by Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049), cult director Guy Maddin’s Accidence, and most successful Canadian short in recent years, Jeremy Comte’s Fauve. In Ashes to Ashes, audiences can look forward to films that discuss death and the afterlife with a sense of openness, playfulness, and humor. You’ll learn about the posthumous life of an astronaut or how to organize your own funeral while you’re still alive . Meanwhile, Extraordinary Person presents five films written and directed by women, and if you’re into skateboarding, check out the shorts films in Frontside/Backside, where among other things you can see a film by the legendary director of skate videos, music videos, and original cinema, Spike Jonze. Also on the program are the popular and traditional Brutal Relax Show, which is full of midnight movies and extremely incorrect humor, and LABO, where you will find films that are less interested in narrative than in providing a visual experience or pushing the bounds of the cinematic medium. And as in the past, the festival has not forgotten about our youngest viewers and their parents. Children aged 3 to 6 and their parents can look forward to Pragueshorts for Kids at 2:30pm on Saturday 25 January 2020 at the Bio Oko and at 3pm on the following day (26 January 2020) at the Aero.

The 15th Prague Short Film Festival takes place from 22 to 26 January 2020 at the Světozor, Pilotů, Oko, and Aero cinemas and at the National Library of Technology. Tickets may be purchased at the participating cinemas prior to the start of the festival. Admission to the VR Cinema is free.

Print-quality photographs for the various sections, as well as festival visuals, are available for download at: http://pragueshorts.com/cs/media

More info at www.pragueshorts.com.

Media contact:

Zuzana Janáková, press@pragueshorts.com, +420 724 577 576

The 15th Prague Short Film Festival has been made possible thanks to support from the City of Prague and the State Film Fund. The partners of the 15th Prague Short Film Festival are DHL, Mall.TV, BMW CarTec Praha, Brainz Studios, Právo, Novinky.cz, Český rozhlas Radiožurnál, Plakátov, Radio Wave, Totalfilm.cz, CSFD.cz, FullMoon, Goout.cz, Informuji.cz, A2, and Expats.cz.