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The best shorts from Latvia and all over the world in five different screenings on 22, 23, and 24 October will unite the audiences and the jury in the\u00a0Short Film Competition\u00a0<\/a>at Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF, 16\u201326 October). 30 carefully selected works will be screened in the presence of the filmmakers in the Large Hall of the festival\u2019s main venue, cinema Splendid Palace, and in the DELFI LUX auditorium of Forum Cinemas. Tickets to the screenings are available on the festival website,\u00a0rigaiff.lv<\/a>\u00a0or at Bi\u013ce\u0161u serviss sales points.<\/p>\n The selection committee \u2013 film curator and script consultant Chantal Lian (France) and film journalist Nanako Tsukidate (Japan) \u2013 and committee consultants \u2013 directors Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania) and Qiu Yang (China) \u2013 screened more than 2400 applications to select 30 works, multifaceted in their form, themes, and textures, as participants in the Short Film\u00a0International<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0National<\/a>\u00a0Competition. The films and this year\u2019s thematic concept are introduced by the French film critic and longtime RIGA IFF Short Film Competition curator L\u00e9o Soesanto:<\/p>\n \u201cWe choose our films carefully, so it was easy to make this logical leap: what if our films this year were about \u201ccare\u201d? We must remember, more than ever, that films connect us not only with the world but also with each other, and that it is natural they remind us to take care of others, of ourselves, and of our environment.<\/i><\/p>\n Hence, in the international competition: films on mental health, ecology, or war. And we also take care of our filmmakers, seeking to psychoanalyse them in the \u201cWhy do you film?\u201d programme. All in all, our big question in 2025 is the title of one of our screenings: \u201cAre you OK?\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n In the National Competition, it\u2019s a feast of animation, athletic single takes, folk music, surreal images, and weird rhythms: Latvian filmmakers are better than OK. They compete in invention, infusing a little more poetry than usual into their films \u2013 the best response to offer in these difficult times.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The section will open with the screening of the\u00a0RIGA IFF Short Film National Competition<\/a>. The 100-minute-long celebration of Latvian cinema will unite the film crews, festival guests, and audiences on 22 October at 18:30 in the cinema Splendid Palace Large Hall, followed by conversations with the filmmakers. By offering cinematic poetics as a reaction to chaos and the unavoidable drudgery of life, in six films from local filmmakers, the quotidien reality will be revealed from new points of view, in fresh colours, and unusual rhythms.<\/p>\n In the competition screening, the national premieres will be celebrated by four short films \u2013\u00a0Cave Man<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(dir. Mercedes Margoit, Imants Daksis),\u00a0The Observer<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(dir. Arnis Kalni\u0146\u0161),\u00a0Big Loop Small Loop<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(dir. \u017danete Skarule, Tomas Vengris), and\u00a0Cleanliness<\/a>\u00a0(dir. Andrejs Br\u012bvulis). The latter had its world premiere in the animation mecca, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. In the running for the competition main award and the SWH audience award will also be two short films nominated for the Latvian national film award Lielais Kristaps \u2013\u00a0Where Does the Sun Sleep at Night?<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(dir. Ildze Felsberga) and\u00a0Centre of The Spiral\u00a0<\/i><\/a>(dir. D\u0101vis Gauja).<\/p>\n\n