SELECTION COMMITTEE EXPLANATION / COMPETITION PROGRAM – NATIONAL SELECTION

Short documentaries stood out this year in the prolific national production regarding the number of entries but not in terms of formal innovation. On the other hand, the variety of topics contributed to the number of selected films, and indeed, apart from several documentaries already celebrated worldwide, the films created within documentary film workshops and schools stand out.

The short film is also represented by a larger number of titles, dominated by film academies, especially by debutant directors with themes that often reflect on the lives of teenagers, and several films stand out for their expression and stylistic approach.

As for short animated films, the traditional Festival's program selection is on the verge more classic and modern hybrid animation amalgamated with other film genres.

The experimental film was the latest included in the program of the Martovski Festival since 1985, and it seems that to this day, the auteurs of the submitted films don't have a clear idea of what this film form actually is. Several striking films by notable auteurs stand out in the selection, with a primarily minimalistic approach.

The feature-length documentary film, a form in significant expansion worldwide, finds its notable place here as well, through the selection of several large productions by renowned auteurs, the treatment of substantial historical or important phenomena for the history of film. There are also notable films by debutants or authors who have previously worked in other professions and areas of documentary film production.

SELECTION COMMITTEE EXPLANATION / COMPETITION PROGRAM – INERNATIONAL SELECTION

The competition program - international selection includes all types and genres of short films: from fiction, that is, from classic feature film to documentary and animated, to experimental, and includes hybrid variants of visual art that aesthetically and formally elude these categories. We tried to choose interesting and innovative approaches that are surprising, and that open up space for reflection - both thematically and in terms of aesthetics or pictorial policies. It was vital for us to include differences in perspectives in all these contexts, including (still often neglected in general programs) the issue of different approaches in the context of gender perspectives or in terms of geopolitics. The program offers a diverse cross-section of female, male, queer perspectives from the West and the East, from the region or the Global South, including indigenous positions.

The selection follows what is offered and reflects, formally and aesthetically, and proportionally, the entries. The largest number are fictional short stories in the classic feature film form (almost half). All entries are characterized by individual approaches and bear the characteristic artistic signature of the auteurs, often reacting to today's topics: from climate change and its impact on life and the environment to questioning power structures and global capitalism, including artistic interventions in public space, but also the topic of political captivity, i.e., the consequence of deprivation of personal freedoms. A couple of films deal with intimate issues, privacy and the questioning of human relationships, both in a relationship, in the family, or in general. Some poetically or playfully approach the theme of the past, some specifically thematize the traumatic consequences of wars and social structures, some of which have a particularly catastrophic impact on women. On the other hand, some entries have unique, idiosyncratic aesthetic approaches.