This programme presents, for your enjoyment, the best animated shorts from the Baltic-Nordic countries. Outstanding works from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania will be competing for the Best Animated Short Award, decided by an international jury. (2020)
Skirmanta Jakaitė, Simon Österhof , Gints Zilbalodis
"Cat Days" directed by Jon Frickey
2018 / Germany / 7 min 20 s
A fishmonger, hard on his luck, decides to change his fate and win over his beloved by becoming the best pastry chef the world has ever seen. However, his pursuit of perfection carries him further away from his goals.
Directed by Moritz Biene Screenwriter: Moritz Biene Producer: Moritz Biene Company: Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf
2019 / Poland / 26 min 16 s / PG-18
Somewhere in the Eastern Europe. Young runs away from her depressing hometown. Her early enthusiasm about the hitch-hike falls when she finds herself in the city outskirts in the middle of the night. At the bridge she meets a figure balancing unsafely on the guardrail. That’s how she meets Skinny – a kind of unstable weirdo. Skinny lives in a camping van, which he uses to run his not-so-legal job errands.
Directed by Tomek Popakul Screenwriter: Tomek Popakul Producers: Grzegorz Waclawek, Piotr Szczepanowicz Company: Animoom
2019 / Sweden / 8 min 25 s
Two animals trying to entertain at an animal park get humiliated and decide to run away in search of freedom. At the same time a mysterious shadow haunts the countryside and a national symbol becomes an idol of worship. A short film about national identity, freedom, climate and dancing animals.
Directed by Erik Svetoft Screenwriter: Erik Svetoft Producer: Erik Svetoft Company: ---
2018 / Germany / 11 min 9 s
Jiro feels sick. His father takes him to see the doctor. She diagnoses a harmless condition. But it shakes the boy's identity.
Directed by Jon Frickey Screenwriter: Jon Frickey Producer: Jon Frickey Company: ---
2019 / Estonia / 11 min 38 s / PG-18
An old Cosmonaut lives the same kind of life now in his flat in a concrete panel apartment building as he did in his youth in a space station. As before, he still carries out heroic missions and misses his close relatives, who he left behind on his home planet. His close relatives see the situation altogether differently. Is this old man capable of coming to grips with the norms that apply in society?
Directed by Kaspar Jancis Screenwriter: Kaspar Jancis Producer: Kalev Tamm Company: Eesti Joonisfilm
2019 / Estonia / 4 min 46 s
An elderly couple is addicted to a psychedelic face cream.
Directed by Noam Sussman Screenwriter: Noam Sussman Producer: Mari Kivi Company: Estonian Academy of Arts
2019 / Norway / 10 min 54 s / PG-18
A sami man ends up in greedy and decadent claws as he tries to save both his reindeer herd and the woman he desires. An awful fable about fatal passion.
Directed by Robin Jensen Screenwriter: Robin Jensen Producers: Lise Fearnley, Tonje Skar Reiersen Company: Mikrofilm AS
2018 / Germany / 9 min 54 s / PG-18
A dirty lake bursts its banks and begins to flood the town. At last there´s a good reason to keep the son at home. But in isolation, nightmarish associations start to mix with reality. And whilst outside the world sinks peacefully under water, a domestic apocalypse rages inside.
Directed by Malte Stein Screenwriter: Malte Stein Producers: Malte Stein Company: ---
2019 / Lithuania / 2 min 3 s
It’s a film about a grandmother patiently waiting for a visit.
Directed by Vykintas Labanauskas, Dominyka Adomaitytė Screenwriters: Vykintas Labanauskas, Dominyka Adomaitytė Producer: Vykintas Labanauskas Company: Glass Elephants Creative Studio
2019 / Poland / 5 min 0 s
"The Rain" is a simple animated film on collective consciousness. It talks about how no accountability for our actions pushes us to thoughtlessly follow the crowd, which may lead to a tragedy. The film also depicts a struggle of an individual with collective hypnosis and its consequences for both the individual and the crowd.
Directed by Piotr Milczarek Screenwriter: Piotr Milczarek Producers: Piotr Furmankiewicz, Mateusz Michalak Company: Fumi Studio
2019 / Latvia, France / 13 min 59 s
In Riga’s public transport you can call the police, if someone smells bad and disturbs your ride. But would you call? Lizete, an amateur interviewer, tries to figure out - do we have the right to stink.
Directed by Lizete Upīte Screenwriter: Lizete Upīte Producers: Richard Van Den Boom, Sabine Andersone Company: Papy3D Productions, Atom Arts
2020 / Lithuania / 16 min 08 s
Frigid winter in a war-devastated, present-day city. Several years have passed since the destruction, and the city is slowly rebuilding. A thirty year-old guy is living as a squatter in an apartment with a group of strangers. He struggles to survive and also to find a little more comfort in this rough setting. One night he nearly burns the flat down, hoping for a warmer sleep. His roommates start hating him, so the guy has to find another shelter.
Directed by Robertas Nevecka Screenwriter: Robertas Nevecka Producer: Giedrė Burokaitė Company: Meno avilys
2019 / Finland / 6 min 2 s
Still Lives is an experimental stop motion animation starring traditional figurines from folk art from various times and places. Accompanied by a soundtrack of narrators facing the pressures of modern life, these characters explore the theme of busy stillness from different points of view in seven separate scenes.
Directed by Elli Vuorinen Screenwriter: Elli Vuorinen Producer: Terhi Väänänen Company: Pyjama Films
2019 / Estonia / 18 min 0 s / PG-18
After losing a well paid engineering job, Toomas, a young hot wolf, gets cornered into working as a gigolo to support his family. He is keeping it as a secret from his pregnant wife Viivi. Viivi also has a secret: she is attending a female empowerment seminar involving male slaves. When Toomas gets a role in a sexploitation movie, it becomes harder to keep his new profession a secret.
Directed by Chintis Lundgren Screenwriters: Chintis Lundgren, Draško Ivezić Producers: Chintis Lundgren, Draško Ivezić, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron Company: Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio, Adriatic Animation, Miyu Productions
2019 / Estonia, Lithuania, Mexico / 8 min 35 s
Scenes of the dance of life and death in the lush tropical nature as it is lived day by day, year by year, by the magical creatures that inhabit the wilderness of our dreams.
Directed by Anu-Laura Tuttelberg Screenwriter: Anu-Laura Tuttelberg Producers: Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, Andres Mänd, Daniel Irabien Peniche, Agnė Adomėnė Company: Moon Birds Studios OÜ, Nukufilm Studio, Estudio Carabás, Art Shot