European Short Film 2020

Short films allow for creative experiments and provocation and invite artists to play with cinematic styles – for many filmmakers the starting point of their career, others stay and explore the format's possibilities. It is important for the European Film Academy to support and promote young and talented newcomers and to celebrate this variety in European film culture.

The short film selection and nomination procedure is organised by the European Film Academy and EFA Productions in co-operation with a series of film festivals throughout Europe. At each of these festivals, an independent jury presents one of the European short films in competition with a candidacy in the short film category of the European Film Awards. Once the list of candidates is complete in September 2020, the participating festivals will nominate five short films from this list.

Afterwards, the more than 3,600 EFA Members – film professionals from all over Europe – will vote for the overall winner that will be presented at the 33rd European Film Awards Ceremony in Reykjavik.

How to submit …

To be considered for a candidacy, a short film has to screen in competition at any of the participating festivals (see list). Eligible are directors born in Europe or with a European passport* whose films were produced in 2019 or 2020, do not exceed a running time of 30 min. and match the genre regulations of the respective festival. At each of these, a jury selects a single candidacy for the award 'European Short Film 2020'.

* European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means both EU and non-EU, and shall include Israeli and Palestinian.

European Short Film Candidates 2020

Candidate of Black Nights Film Festival - PÖFF Shorts
12 K. MARX STREET
MARKSIS KUCHA 12
Georgia, fiction, 15 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Irine Jordania
PRODUCED BY Suliko Tsulukidze

Candidate of Sarajevo Film Festival
ALL CATS ARE GREY IN THE DARK
NACHTS SIND ALLE KATZEN GRAU
Switzerland, documentary, 19 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Lasse Linder
PRODUCED BY Edith Flückiger

Candidate of Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
COMMUNITY GARDENS
KOLEKTYVINIAI SODAI
Lithuania, fiction, 15 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Vytautas Katkus
PRODUCED BY Viktorija Seniut

Candidate of Drama International Short Film Festival
FAVOURITES
FAVORITEN
Austria/Germany, fiction, 18 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Martin Monk
PRODUCED BY Michaela Finis

Candidate of Valladolid International Film Festival
FLESH
CARNE
Spain/Brazil, animated documentary, 12 min
DIRECTED BY Camila Kater
WRITTEN BY Camila Kater & Ana Julia Carvalheiro
PRODUCED BY Chelo Loureiro & Livia Perez

Candidate of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg
GENIUS LOCI
France, animation, 16 min
DIRECTED BY Adrien Mérigeau
WRITTEN BY Adrien Mérigeau & Nicolas Pleskof
PRODUCED BY Amaury Ovise

Candidate of International Short Film Festival of Cyprus
IN BETWEEN
NË MES
Kosovo, documentary, 13 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Samir Karahoda
PRODUCED BY Eroll Bilibani

Candidate of Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
INVISIBLE HERO
INVISÍVEL HERÓI
Portugal/France, fiction, 27 min
DIRECTED BY Cristèle Alves Meira
WRITTEN BY Cristèle Alves Meira & Julien Barazer
PRODUCED BY Gaëlle Mareschi & Pedro Borges

Candidate of Berlin International Film Festival
IT WASN'T THE RIGHT MOUNTAIN, MOHAMMAD
France, animation, 29 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Mili Pecherer
PRODUCED BY Bertrand Scalabre

Candidate of Leuven International Short Film Festival
LAKE OF HAPPINESS
Belarus/Germany/Spain, fiction, 29 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Aliaksei Paluyan
PRODUCED BY Aliaksei Paluyan, Jörn Möllenkamp & Eduardo M. Escribano Solera

Candidate of Tampere Film Festival
MEMORABLE
MÉMORABLE
France, animation, 13 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Bruno Collet
PRODUCED BY Jean-François Le Corre & Mathieu Courtois

Candidate of Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival
NHA MILA
Portugal/Switzerland, fiction, 18 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Denise Fernandes
PRODUCED BY Luís Urbano & Sandro Aguilar

Candidate of OFF – Odense International Film Festival
NINA
НИНА
Bulgaria, fiction, 20 min
DIRECTED BY Hristo Simeonov
WRITTEN BY Konstantin Bojanov
PRODUCED BY Poli Angelova & Nikolay Todorov

Candidate of Uppsala Short Film Festival
PAST PERFECT
Portugal, fiction, 23 min
DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY Jorge Jácome
WRITTEN BY Jorge Jácome & Pedro Penim

Candidate of Locarno Film Festival
PEOPLE ON SATURDAY
MENSCHEN AM SAMSTAG
Switzerland, fiction, 10 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Jonas Ulrich
PRODUCED BY Nicole Boner

Candidate of International Film Festival Rotterdam
SUN DOG
Belgium/Russia, fiction, 20 min
WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY Dorian Jespers

Candidate of VIENNA SHORTS - International Short Film Festival
THE BEST CITY IS NO CITY AT ALL
DIE BESTE STADT IST KEINE STADT
Austria, documentary/essay, 15 min
WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY Christoph Schwarz

Candidate of Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen
THE BITE
A MORDIDA
Portugal/Brazil, fiction, 26 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Pedro Neves Marques
PRODUCED BY Catarina de Sousa & Pedro Neves Marques

Candidate of Krakow Film Festival
THE GOLDEN BUTTONS
ЗОЛОТЫЕ ПУГОВИЦЫ
Russia, documentary, 20 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Alex Evstigneev
PRODUCED BY Alex Kozmenko

Candidate of Venice Film Festival
THE SHIFT
Portugal/UK, fiction, 9 min
WRITTEN, DIRECTED BY Laura Carreira
PRODUCED BY Maeve McMahon & Mhairi Valentine

Candidate of Encounters Film Festival
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA
UK, animation, 24 min
DIRECTED BY Robin Shaw
WRITTEN BY Joanna Harrison
PRODUCED BY Ruth Fielding & Camilla Deakin

Candidate of Cork International Film Festival
THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THE BATHROOM
UK/USA, fiction, 13 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Edward Hancox
PRODUCED BY Maggie M. Bailey & Edward Hancox

Candidate of Motovun Film Festival
TO THE DUSTY SEA
À LA MER POUSSIÈRE
France, animation, 12 min
WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY Héloïse Ferlay

Candidate of Riga International Film Festival
UNCLE THOMAS, ACCOUNTING FOR THE DAYS
TIO TOMÁS, A CONTABILIDADE DOS DIAS
Portugal/Canada/France, animation, 1§ min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Regina Pessoa
PRODUCED BY Abi Feijó, Julie Roy & Reginald de Guillebon