February 11, 2025, 11:45
The 19th Pragueshorts Film Festival, which runs from 26 February to 2 March at Prague’s Světozor, Bio Oko, Ponrepo, and Kino Pilotů cinemas, has officially released its complete program. The festival, organized under the banner of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, will officially open on Wednesday 26 February at the Bio Oko with a block of films titled Relax, It’s Not Real, featuring shorts by directors Coralie Fargeat (nominated for an Oscar for The Substance) and Alice Rohrwacher, among others.
The International Competition presents a genre- and geographically diverse selection of 26 films from 23 countries, including Oscar nominees and films that were a hit at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. Another competition section, LABO, consists of eight experimental films defined by a desire for exploration. And the third competition section is the National Competition, where audiences can see 15 outstanding examples of domestic filmmaking.
As in the past, this year’s festival will feature the popular Brutal Relax Show, an evening of horror and frighteningly funny and disturbing films moderated by Jan Špaček, plus weekend screenings for kids and their parents. Also on the program are a special section titled Hot Topic: My Body exploring the topics of self-acceptance, identity, and the body; a section titled We Love Barry Keoghan, which will delight fans of this talented actor; and a tribute to the NEOZOON art collective. From 2 to 23 March, the festival continues online on KVIFF.TV, where you can catch selected films from the program.
International Competition presents 26 films from 23 countries
Of some 1,200 submitted films representing 23 countries, the festival’s programmers have chosen 26 live-action, animated, and documentary films for the International Competition. These films will be shown in a total of five blocks that offer audiences a unique opportunity to familiarize themselves with contemporary trends in short film production. “This year’s International Competition is truly diverse. I am glad that we can present works from places such as Panama or Haiti whose cinematic creations are rarely seen by Czech audiences. Naturally, the line-up also includes greatly anticipated films that have already been shown at some of the world’s leading festivals, where they have collected numerous prestigious international awards,” says Pragueshorts organizer Radka Weiserová. One such film is the Palm d’or-winning Oscar nominee The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, which recalls a tragic event from the Yugoslav war. Vying for the Academy Award for Best Short Animated Film is the delicate puppet animation Beautiful Men. The suspenseful Spanish drama Masterpiece won at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and coming to Pragueshorts after earning a Golden Bear at the Berlinale is the free-spirited Argentine film An Odd Turn. The international jury will award one main prize, which comes with a financial reward of 3,000 euros; the jury will also name two Special Mentions.
Barry Keoghan and the festival’s opening ceremony featuring films by Coralie Fargeat and Alice Rohrwacher
On Wednesday 26 February, the opening program of this year’s Pragueshorts at Bio Oko presents five films that experiment with reality. Like her recent horror hit The Substance, director Coralie Fargeat’s Reality+ tackles the theme of a society obsessed with physical beauty. It does so by imagining a world in which people can use a brain chip to easily transform into a sexy version of themselves. Young Jay escapes from the reality of everyday life into a dreamlike fantasy in An Urban Allegory. Based on Plato’s famous allegory of the cave, it is a joint project by renowned Italian director Alice Rohrwacher and French street artist JR. Audiences can also look forward to I’m Not a Robot, the story of a woman who must contend with a new reality after a series of failed Captcha tests. Besides receiving an Oscar nomination, the film has earned more than 60 festival awards.
This year’s Pragueshorts has also dedicated a special section to actor Barry Keoghan, the 32-year-old Dublin native who, thanks to roles in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Dunkirk, and The Banshees of Inisherin, has rapidly acquired a reputation as a highly talented actor of his generation. The four short films from 2013–2016 that we have included in “We Love Barry Keoghan” show the beginnings of his career providing a look back at British and Irish cinema of the last decade.
Complete press materials, including a press release presenting the National Competition program
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
