Inviting the audiences to revel in a magnificent short film celebration in October, Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF, 17–27 October) announces the contestants of the international and national short film competitions. Tickets to the short film competitions’ screenings are available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

RIGA IFF short film competitions represent the most precise and bold mirror of the zeitgeist in the festival programme, offering to discover new points of view and dimensions of the cinema screen in a short and succinct form. The 34 works, filled with colours, impressions, genres, and textures, have been selected from over 2000 submissions, and, with the participation of their creators, will be screened in four Short Film International Competition screenings at Forum Cinemas, and a special Short Film National Competition screening at cinema Splendid Palace, Large Hall. 

The films will be judged and festival prizes, among them the candidacy for the prestigious European Short Film 2025 Award, will be awarded by a jury of film industry professionals – journalist and art critic Carmen Gray (New Zealand), Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle executive team Chief of Staff Florian Weghorn (Germany), and director Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czech Republic).

Upon introducing the competition participants, RIGA IFF short film competition curator and French film critic Léo Soesanto points out:

“We’re very happy to again celebrate short films and remind the audience that whatever the film length is, cinema is cinema. In the International competition, we wanted to once again show all that cinema allows – making a film with a video game, VHS tapes, sand, or any tool or location to re-enchant the world. But above all, a number of films with people trapped in melancholy, in the past, but trying to overcome it, to fight the current feeling that we live in a perpetual, everlasting present – a “future nostalgia”. Meanwhile, there is a lot of young energy in the national competition line-up. And that’s their main theme – what do we do with all these possibilities, as characters and filmmakers? This energy produces top-notch animation as usual and live-action films where the protagonists seem overwhelmed by what they can do, but always in a poetic way.”

RIGA IFF Short Film International Competition films, 25 brilliant shorts from all corners of the world, are divided into four lavish competition screenings – The Name of the Game, The Sensual World, Back to Where You’ve Never Been, Fight Your Future – which will allow to discover deeply personal dilemmas and character tenacity, to delight the senses with a plethora of impressions, and to set off on journeys through utopias. As part of the competition, RIGA IFF will screen 11 premieres of various scales, among them world premieres of short films Richard, Eva, I Wish You to Love Me, I Wish to Love You, Hasta La Futura, Flow of Being and 2023 SHORT RIGA Test Screenings winner Yummy.

Meanwhile, the multi-faceted RIGA IFF Short Film National Competition is composed of a wide spectrum of works from Latvian filmmakers. From animation to live action film and experiments of the analog medium, the competition films relentlessly embody the taste of poetic cinema, so close to the Latvian heart, and the stubborn spirit of perseverance. Noting the capacity of the short form, and the limitless ability to transform the worlds, the programme will include the most recent creations of seasoned directors as well as promising works from the film talents of the new generation.

The four Short Film International Competition screenings will take place on 24 and 25 October at Forum Cinemas. The Latvian short film selection, featuring film creators and Q&A’s, will take place on 23 October, 18:30, at cinema Splendid Palace, Large Hall. The film selections of both competitions will also be available online throughout Latvia. Tickets to all short film competitions’ screenings, and other announced RIGA IFF programme screenings are now available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

From 17 to 27 October, RIGA IFF will delight the senses of filmgoers with more than 100 screenings of bold and fresh filmmaker visions, selected from the world’s most prestigious film festival programmes, as well as from the kindred Baltic Sea region cinema. Until the full festival programme announcement on 17 September, RIGA IFF will continue to reveal other highly artistic works of this year’s programme – films awarded at Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other film festivals, as well as bold hidden gems of contemporary cinema. Follow festival updates on rigaiff.lv and festival social media accounts, as well as by subscribing to RIGA IFF newsletter.

RIGA IFF’s main partner is the media and technology company Tet. The festival is made possible with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, EU programme “Creative Europe – MEDIA”, Riga City Council, and the National Film Centre of Latvia.