Short and Student Films – Academy Award Nominees and Artificial Intelligence

This year’s selection of 36 short films is more varied than it used to be. Not only does it include films nominated for the Academy Award (The Flying Sailor and Ice Merchants), films by classics and renowned masters (such as Priit Tender and Debra Solomon) as well as up-and-coming talents (Nikita Diakur, Lucia Mrzljak), but this year it includes also films made in part by artificial intelligence. Anifilm visitors will (perhaps for the first time in their lives) have a chance to see a film cut into wood (Of Wood) and an atypical anidoc set inside a computer game (Hardly Working). Some competition films were made in Czech co-production. These include the atmospheric Middle Watch (John Stevenson, Aiesha Penwarden), psychological drama Scale (Joseph Pierce) and the remarkable puppet film Salvation Has No Name (Joseph Wallace). And as Anifilm is now an Oscar® qualifying festival, the winning short film will compete for the Academy Award next year. The students, whose films compete this year, cannot be denied vigour and courage to experiment. In addition to a traditionally big number of French entries, this year saw an increase in Hungarian submissions. Czech film schools are represented thanks to FAMU and films Dede is Dead (Philippe Kastner) and Rising Above (Natálie Durchánková). In total, visitors of Anifilm can look forward to 35 student films in the international competition.