The short film programme SHORT RIGA will see its opening on October 22 with a celebration of six national premieres of Latvian productions, among which there will be works by the recognised authors Lizete Upīte, Žanete Skarule and Nils Skapāns, as well as three student shorts. The special screening will host Q&A sessions with the filmmakers.

“On this evening six works of different genre, temper and message will see their premieres, all united by the fact that these are all auteur works” Anna Zača, curator of SHORT RIGA emphasises.

Lizete Upīte will participate with a Latvian-French co-production Riga’s Lilac, whereas Žanete Skarule – with a poetry film Fable (developed as a part of the project Motionpoems), in which the main heroine is portrayed by the charming actress Emma Bobrova Lourié. The result of an unprecedented creative collaboration will be seen in the VFS Films produced puppet animation short All My Friends Are Dead. Its creator is the debutant Anna Zača, but the film’s second director and animator is the Latvian animation heavyweight Nils Skapāns.

This screening will also premiere three student works: Tīna Zariņa’s short film Eastern-European Spiderwoman, an animated short Night Shift by the Art Academy of Latvia graduate Linda Stūre and to conclude – her coursemate’s Kerija Arne’s witty animated short work Dramatic Ending.

This year is going to be special for the festival’s SHORT RIGA section, because its competition programme has provided RIGA IFF a qualifying status for the exclusive European Film Academy Awards – next to prominent film festivals like the Berlinale, Venice Film Festival and Karlovy Vary.