The international competition of this year’s international short film and animation festival, PÖFF Shorts, comprises 104 titles, selected among a record-breaking 5,400 entries.

The selection will also include three Croatian animated titles.

The first thematic block (Shorts Animation Competition 1) will feature Lea Vidaković’s animated short titled The Family Portrait. The film, currently being shown at the 66th DOK Leipzig, had its world premiere at the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb, and was recently awarded with the top prize at the World Festival of Animated Film in the Bulgarian city of Varna. The Family Portrait was produced by Adriatic Animation, in co-production with French house Vivement Lundi! and Serbian company Biberche Productions. The film’s producer is Draško Ivezić, with co-producers Jean-François Le Corre and Nikolina Vučetić Zečević.

The fifth thematic block (Shorts Animation Competition 5) will screen Martina Meštrović’s short titled Her Dress for the Final. This animated short also had its world premiere at Animafest Zagreb, where it immediately won a jury Special Mention, followed by its international premiere at the prestigious festival in Annecy. So far, it has screened at a number of world festivals, the most recent being the Central and Eastern European Film Festival CinEast in Luxembourg, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Fantoche International Animation Film Festival in Baden and others, and is about to screen at a host of other international events (Cinemed, Manchester Animation Festival, Cinanima, etc.). The producer of the film is Igor Grubić (Kreativni sindikat).

The international children’s film competition (Shorts Kids Animation Competition 1) will present Ana Horvat’s Musical Socks. The film is an adaptation of the eponymous book written by Nina Vađić and illustrated by Ana Kadoić. The characters are voiced by Dražen Čuček, Jerko Marčić, Daria Knez Rukavina, Amanda Prenkaj and Janko Popović Volarić. Musical Socks had its debut before a domestic audience at the Motovun Film Festival, and screened abroad for the first time at the Anibar International Animation Festival in the city of Peja, Kosovo. Since then, it has appeared at a handful of festivals, including Nancy, France, with upcoming screenings in the US (Chicago), Beijing and Athens. The film’s producer is once again Igor Grubić (Kreativni sindikat).

PÖFF Shorts (7th – 15th November) is the largest short film and animation festival in the Baltics and an integral part of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (3rd – 19th November). The full programme of PÖFF Shorts and Black Nights will be announced in the coming weeks.

The winning titles in competition programmes at PÖFF Shorts directly qualify for the BAFTA nominations, awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the European Film Awards and the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards.