Krakow, 31st March 2011 - There are 39 films competing in the International Short Film Competition at the 51st Krakow Film Festival, which is held from May 23rd to May 29th. The short film category is one of the festival's three competitions of equal rank, and its winner is awarded the Golden Dragon prize.

This year there are three hundred representatives of the documentary, fiction, and animation genre taking part in the oldest competition of Krakow Film Festival. The accepted films must have been no longer than thirty minutes. Although statistically the documentary film is the most frequent winner, this year the battle within the fiction film category will be particularly fierce. Daniel Mulloy, the winner of the Golden Dragon in 2007 whose shocking "Dad" divided the festival audience, is now back in the competition with his new film "Baby". There is also an American comedy with Anthony Hopkins. On the other side of the emotional pole is the Lithuanian depiction of the tragedy that took place in a small Austrian town, where a monster-father imprisoned his daughter and their five consecutively born children ("Our Father").

Paradoxically, Poland is represented by a Swede, outstanding Magnus von Horn ("Without Snow"), the two-time winner of our festival, who was last time awarded the Silver Hobby-Horse in 2009 for his "Echo"- adds Krzysztof Gierat, the Festival director. The fiction film category is complemented by the intriguing and entertaining films playing with the conventions of the genre cinema („Hasaki Ya Suda" and „Prunelle and Melodie").

The documentary section powerfully demonstrates the cultural diversity of the world. Although we have a very European slant this year, you will find a wealth of more exotic cinema at the competition. From Cuba we have the enigmatic "Raul's World", and from India "At the Stairs", which shows us the cremation grounds where widows who have escaped suttee - the ritual suicide after husband's death, are awaiting Moksha - liberation from the cycle of life and death. Two documentary films from Poland will have their world premiere in Krakow, along with "Without Snow" by von Horn. We will also show "Paparazzi" by Piotr Bernaś, an extravagant portrayal of celebrities' most hated profession, as well as "Decresendo" a cheerful story of a rest home by Marta Mironowicz who won of major prizes in Lipsk and Clermont-Ferrand for "A Piece of Summer".

While choosing films for the animated film section we have aimed at showing its adundant diversity - says Krzysztof Gierat - There will be short and amusing films from the Russian school of animation, and philosophical German films, along with Portuguese poetry and animated documentaries. A big favourite last year was "Millhaven" by Bartek Kulas which features a soundtrack by Nick Cave, but this year we are going ahead with "Stones", the animated Czech musical about love and crime!'

The results for national competition will be published on 1st April, the results for documentary competition could be found on the website www.krakowfilmfestival.pl


The list of films selected for the international short film competition


Documentary
1. „Bread for Bird", dir. Aleksandra Strelyanaya, Russia 26'
2. „Playground", dir. Susanna Helke, Finland 30'
3. „Out of Round - What is Behind?", dir. Jaro Vojtek, Slovakia 30'
4. „At the Stairs", dir. Rajesh S. Jala, India 30'
5. „Raul's World", dir. Jessica Rodríguez, Zoe Miranda, Cuba 20'
6. „Czech Post-War History", dir. Jaroslav Kratochvíl, Czech Republic 9'
7. „Photographer's Wife", dir. Philip Widmann, Karsten Krause, Germany 29'
8. „I'm Never Afraid!", dir. Willem Baptist, Netherlands 20'
9. „Stranger", dir. Christophe Hermans, Belgium, 12'
10. „I Will Forget This Day", dir. Alina Rudnitskaya, Russia 25'
11. „Night Falls on the Menagerie", dir. Nicolas Philibert, France 11'
12. „Paparazzi", dir. Piotr Bernaś, Poland 30'
13. „Decrescendo", dir. Marta Minorowicz, Poland 22'

Fiction
14. „Baby", dir. Daniel Mulloy, UK 25'
15. „1994", dir. Kaveh Tehrani, Norway 29'
16. „The Quartet", dir. Sarah Arnold, France 15'
17. „The Third Rule", dir. Aundre Johnson, USA 15'
18. „Our Father, dir. Marius Ivaskevicius, Lithuania 28'
19. „Prunelle and Melodie", dir. Simonet Mathieu, France 32'
20. „Hasaki Ya Suda, dir. Cédric Ido, France 24'
21. „Yuri Lennon's Landing on Ralpha 46", dir. Anthony Vouardoux, Germany / Switzerland 15'
22. „Battle for Britain", dir. Alex Helfrecht , UK 13'
23. „I", dir. Rafael Wolf, Switzerlanda 12'
24. „The Birthday Circle", dir. Philip Lepherd , UK 5'
25. „Casus Belli", dir. Yorgos Zois, Greece 11'
26. „Without Snow", dir. Magnus von Horn, Poland / Sweden 30'

Animation
27. „Journey To Cape Verde", dir. José Miguel Ribeiro, Portugal 17'
28. „Sticky Ends", dir. Osman Cerfon, France 6'
29. „1989. When I Was 5 Years Old", dir. Thor Ochsner, Denmark 10'
30. „One More Time!", dir. Ekaterina Ovchinnikova, Tatiana Okruzhnova, Alina Yakhyaeva, Nataliya Pavlycheva, Mariya Arkhipova, Russia 3'
31. „Stones", dir. Katarina Kerekesova, Slovakia 26'
32. „I Have Fear", dir. Mariola Brillowska and her students, Germany 15'
33. „Lowdown Empire", dir. Polina Grinberg, USA 13'
34. „Once Only", dir. Nuno Amorim, Portugalia 6'
35. „Swings and Milkshakes", dir. Fernando Mendes, Erick Ricco, Brasil 10'
36. „The Renter", dir. Jason Carpenter, USA 9'
37. „Sunday 2", dir. Jochen Kuhn, Germany 11'
38. „Women's Day Gift", dir. Mihail Dvorjankin, Russia 8'
39. „Talk to Him", dir. Agata Prętka, Poland 7'

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Anna E. Dziedzic
PR Manager, Rzecznik prasowy / Press spokesperson

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