The jubilee 20th edition of Pragueshorts announces its program for the National Competition

The Pragueshorts Film Festival, which this year is being held for the twentieth time under the auspices of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, has announced the films in its National Competition – fifteen examples of short domestic filmmaking spanning a wide range of styles and genres. Audiences can look forward to several Czech premieres, candidates for the Czech Lion awards, and films previously shown at international festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, and Annecy, among others. The twentieth anniversary Pragueshorts festival will take place from 25 February to 1 March at the Světozor, Bio Oko, Ponrepo, and Kino Pilotů cinemas in Prague, and from 1 to do 22 March online on the KVIFF.TV streaming platform.

The program features, among others, the poetic animated film Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe! by Andrea Szelesová, inspired by ancient mythology and Minoan frescoes, which will screen shortly after its Berlinale debut. From Rotterdam come two distinctive titles: Viera Čákányová’s ironic Greetings from Rhodos, capturing the image of an island ravaged by devastating fires, and Marie Lukáčová’s rap fairy tale Orla. The festival will also present the world premiere of Vojtěch Novotný’s thriller Empty Places, starring Petra Špalková and Ondřej Malý. Among the candidates for the Czech Lion Award are Terézia Halamová’s subtle character study Dog and Wolf, Vojtěch Konečný’s police drama First Patrol, and Philippe Kastner’s animated Wolfie.

The selection also includes more intimate and experimental works: Šimon Lovecký’s lyrical A Dream of Summer, the meditative documentary Amnion by Sarah Lomenová, and Nora Štrbová’s playful experiment What if We Run Out of Stones?. Returning to Pragueshorts, Tomáš Rampula presents his experimental short Snowblind, inspired by the literary work and dark tone of Edgar Allan Poe. Animation is further represented by the internationally acclaimed Better Man by Eliška Jirásková, Bára Anna Stejskalová’s musical melodrama 9 Million Colors, shown at Annecy, the pop-culture-humored The Beetroot by David Šourek and Jáchym Štulíř, and the surreal and unsettling Sleep Dreams.

The complete program of nearly one hundred short films will be published in early February. Besides the three competition sections – the National Competition, the International Competition, and the LABO section dedicated to experimental films – audiences can also look forward to the popular live moderated Brutal Relax Show, a special program for parents with children, and other thematic programs.

The three-member international jury will present an award for Best Czech Film, which comes with a financial reward of 2,000 euros from the competition’s partner, the Medicine fashion label. The jurors can also choose to present a Special Jury Mention. The director of the winning film will receive in-kind post-production services from Beep and PFX for his or her next project. Pragueshorts Film Festival is organized with the support of the State Audiovisual Fund and the City of Prague. The festival’s main partner is the ČEZ Group.