Pragueshorts marks 20th edition with over 100 films from around the world
The 20th edition of Pragueshorts Film Festival gets underway in the Czech capital on Wednesday. Until March 1, cinemas including Světozor, Bio Oko, Ponrepo and Kino Pilotů will screen more than a hundred short films from around the world, alongside competitions and special themed sections. I spoke with festival organiser Radka Weisserová about some of the highlights of this year’s program.
"To mention specific highlights is never easy, you know. I could start with the national competitions. There is a national premiere of a film called Orla. The film premiered in Rotterdam, which is a big thing for a short fiction film, because the Czech short film field is quite big and strong in animation, but for fiction films it’s not so common for them to be selected for such a festival.
"So this is a kind of fairy tale — a very modern fairy tale — and it’s very fresh and very original, so that’s definitely one of the highlights.
"Personally, I’m especially looking forward to a program outside the competition called Digital Prophecies, a retrospective of an Italian director, producer, mentor, and distributor named Andrea Gatopoulos. Ever since he started his filmmaking career, he has been working on the border between reality and fiction, and he uses generative AI and gaming engines.
"He’s going to be here to present his films and he will also give a masterclass open to everyone, so it’s a highlight for us because he’s one of the most promising young European authors."
The opening night will look back at the festival’s history and will feature seven films from past editions. How did you select these?
"Well, the first step was a pre-selection of about 50 films. I went through those 50 films, and then I realized that some of them I really love, but they don’t necessarily feel the same today as they did 15 or 20 years ago. So part of the films were then given to our younger dramaturgists, and they went through the selection again.
"In the end, we were considering only 12 films, and from those we were able to get 10 or 11. Seven of them will be part of the opening program. Together with the rest of the films, they will also be available online on KVIFF TV after the festival ends.
"We will start with a film from the very first edition of the Prague Short Film Festival back in 2005. It’s Ivan Zachariáš’s film called Mulit, which many people may remember because it was a huge hit back then."
As this is the festival’s 20th anniversary, will there be anything new or different in the program?
"For this edition we haven’t introduced anything completely new. However, we are continuing with a program that we launched last year called Hot Topic. It’s not only a screening — it’s also accompanied by a discussion with several guests connected to the theme.
"Last year the topic was My Body. This year the program is called Match Me If You Can, and we will explore what dating looks like today, both online and offline. So we’ll see how it goes."
Looking back at the two decades of the festival’s history, how has it evolved over the years?
"Well, there has been a big change, mainly on the local level. Twenty years ago there was no financial support from the government or from the cinematographic fund specifically for short films. In the last decade things have improved a lot, because short film filmmakers can now apply for funding.
"I also think the audience’s perspective has changed a bit. The younger people are, the more interested they seem to be in the short format. So I think this is quite a good era for short films."
"It’s harder to say whether it’s a good thing that visiting cinemas to watch feature-length films has become less popular, but for us at the moment it actually helps. And even with the rise of streaming, many short films are now available online, which also creates a good environment for short film production."
