BEAST 2023 OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Discover this year's Official Competition, composed of 37 films divided into 4 categories!
This year’s official competition features 37 short films from 22 countries. The selection is divided into 4 categories: EAST WAVE (fiction), EAST DOC (documentary), EXPERIMENTAL EAST (experimental) and the most recently created ANIMAEAST (animation).
This year’s jury is composed by Ewa Szabłowska, Francisco Moura Relvas, Ieva Norvilienė, Matevž Jerman, Ruben Sevivas and Xu Moru.
EAST WAVE
The EAST WAVE Competition for Short & Medium-Length Film, representing the new generation of young talents and exhibiting enthralling narratives, an ode to creative approach in storytelling. Through powerful, sometimes provocative, gazes, the selected works tackle topics and situations through a wide scope of types of the fiction genre. The program features eight recent films made in the Central & Eastern Europe context, with a highly curated line-up, aimed towards supporting young promising directors.
Mihail and Achim, directed by Theodor Ionita
Loose, directed by Paula Skelin
The Fall, directed by Egle Razumaite
Only The Devil Hates Water, directed by Lidija Mojsovska
Liberty, directed by Joanna Rozniak
Cherries, directed by Vytautas Katkus
I didn’t make it to love her, directed by Anna Fernandez De Paco
Horticulture, directed by Silva Ćapin
EAST DOC
Through the EAST DOC Competition for Short & Medium-Length Documentary, selected works stand as clear windows towards real stories and the tumultuous New East. The official selection presents compelling stories through carefully crafted titles with an exciting range of creativity and dedication in examining the subject. The EAST DOC program includes 9 titles inviting the viewer to discover through the eyes of young emerging filmmakers from the region.
1 kilo 3 euros, directed by Ani Mrelashvili
One Aloe, One Ficus, One Avocado and Six Dracaenas, directed by Marta Smerechynska
Budapest Silo, directed by Zsófia Paczolay
The Trip, directed by Rimantas Oičenka
The silence of the banana trees, directed by Eneos Çarka
Mother’s Milk, directed by Isaac Knights-Washbourn
A hand and a half, directed by Shaheen Ahmed
Ninja, directed by Maria Reinup
Ksenia, directed by Renāte Saulīte
EXPERIMENTAL EAST
The Competition for Short Experimental Film serves as a platform for works and filmmakers that are focused on narrative, conceptual and technical, and experimentation. The program presents the liberty of play in terms of aesthetics, technical limits, and semiotic boundaries while breaking the popular standard discourse. With 12 selected Central and Eastern European titles, experimentalEAST reflects on the freedom of responding to the need of exploring cinematic horizons and finding genuine ways to create audiovisual art.
While We Were Here, directed by Sunčica Fradelić
Revival of Tone, directed by Valeriia Lera Fesiuk
Kihnu Marathon, directed by Ivar Murd
I Want To Shatter The Greenhouse, directed by Teona Galgoțiu
Play/Repeat, directed by Carlos E. Lesmes
X, directed by Petr Grudov
Tiny Summer Trilogy, directed by Maryna Brodovska, Olga Chernykh, Dea Tcholokava
FLYING SHEEP, directed by Alexandra Gulea
To The Earthen Red, directed by Nika Pećarina
Horizons From West, directed by Danny Nedkova, Lorenz Zenleser
SOLILOQUIUM, directed by Karolina Monwid-Olechnowicz
To Whom The Birds Fly, directed by Ivan Petrović
ANIMAEAST
This year we have the debut of a brand-new program, the ANIMA EAST competition! For the very first time, the festival will be featuring an extraordinary selection of animation cinema from Central & Eastern Europe, recognizing animation as a powerful storytelling medium. This programme will showcase 8 short films, shining a spotlight on the rising stars and contemporary works of the animation industry.
Republika, directed by Antonia Begušić
Sasha, directed by Serghei Chiviriga
Beasts Among Us, directed by Natalia Durszewicz
Eeva, directed by Lucija Mrzljak, Morten Tšinakov
My Name Is Edgar And I Have A Cow, directed by Filip Diviak
Impossible Figures And Other Stories I, directed by Marta Pajek
How Pineapples Grow, directed by Nikolay Tsvetanov Todorov
ALEPH, directed by Slobodan Tomić
This year’s selection committee was composed by Ana Martins (researcher), Rita Marinho (curator), Bianca Stanea (researcher/ producer), Andrei Alecsandru Pantea (multidisciplinary visual artist), Miguel Lima (director), Cátia Rodrigues (film critic / programmer), Leander Merresar (director) and Marta Reis (curator / educator).
