13th Short Waves Festival is behind us. For the 7 days of June, audiences in Poznań and on the internet could experience impressions associated with short films together! Within cinemas and open-air locations in Poznań and via festival online platform – over 8.000 audience members have took part in Short Waves 2021!
73 events, 20 locations, close to 300 films and over 8.000 audience members in Poznań & ONLINE. Despite the ongoing pandemic, Poznań has been visited by 50 international guests such as Danish director Stefan Kruse Jorgensen – this year’s recipient of International Competition’s I Award, festival director of Cyprus International Short Film Festival – Ioakim Mylonas, programer of Locarno Film Festival – Enrico Vannucci, programer of Barbican London – Suzy Gillet and other representatives of film industry from Austria, Netherlands, Portugal or Germany among others.
Between June 14-20, 2021 Poznań, as the capital of the Greater Poland region has became the capital of short cinema as well. Spectrum of this year’s program selections has been exceptionally broad and far-reaching. Festival viewers especially favored late night sets in unobvious screening locations, like Comedy Shorts in Collegium Da Vinci’s patio or Horror Shorts on the premises of an abandoned swimming pool, while the first event sold out entirely was Kinky Shorts, how naughty! It was not surprising though that one of the most popular program highlight was Random Home Cinema – secret garden screenings were organized in 4 specially selected open-air spots in town i.e. thanks to the courtesy of Poznan’s allotment gardens of Poznań, Łazęga Poznań Association or in the courtyards of Wilda city area. The high turnout was also present throughout competition screenings, where audience could vote for their favorite shorts whom we have discovered during SWF Award Ceremony – 12 finalists in 5 categories: International Competition, Polish Competition, Polish Experimental Film Competition, Dances with Camera, Urban View – in amount of 48 000 PLN. Full list of the awarded films & filmmakers is available on the festival website: https://shortwaves.pl/en/2021-awards/. Additionally, a cumulation of full-year work on the festival itself was reflected in online activities and the final days of This Is Short platform, created as a unique online festival experience, providing 1 access to online programs of 4 international short film festivals – Go Short (Netherlands), International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany), Vienna Shorts (Austria), Short Waves (Poland) providing hundreds of films hand-picked by the programers of the four events. This Is Short was active for 3 months (1.04-30.06) and concentrated thousands of viewers from more than 50 countries all over the World!
But Short Waves Festivals in numbers mean so much more than dry statistics and analysis. It’s also a couple of very significant keywords: people, city, cinema, cooperation. Thanks to its audience and team members, Short Waves has the ongoing motivation to develop and the support of its host City of Poznań and commitment of partners give the will and courage to constantly evolve and keep the progress up. Love for cinema and short films provides the ultimate power to creating a unique film event across divides, a platform designed for exchange of thoughts, experiences and impressions associated with short cinematography. Festival’s organizer, Ad Arte Foundation is already planning its 14th edition. But in the meantime, before we announce dates of Short Waves Festival 2022 – time for Short Waves on Tour – travelling competition of Polish short films by Short Waves Festival! It’s a special set of films from this year’s Festival’s Polish Competition selection. Starting from July 12, in the several Polish cities, every member of the audience will become a part of the collective jury and will be able to vote on their favorite short film in their local cinema. The title which receives the most votes will win the financial prize of 7000 PLN! More details soon!