Industry Program of the 20th Pragueshorts
Alongside short films, this year’s Pragueshorts will once again feature a programme for film professionals. A panel on international co-productions of short films will offer practical, creative, and strategic perspectives on cross-border collaboration. You can also look forward to a masterclass by filmmaker, producer, and educator Andrea Gatopoulos, exploring filmmaking as both a personal and production discipline.
More information can be found here
Free entry to all events
50 Shades of Co-production
Thursday February 26
11:00am
Goethe Institute
We invite you to an inspirational panel dedicated to short film co-production, offering insights from multiple perspectives - practical, creative, and strategic. Why pursue co-production and how does it work in practice? What challenges does it bring, and how can the experience benefit a producer’s future career? What does co-production mean for a director, and what qualities make a project suitable for international collaboration? And where can you find the right partners?
The discussion will connect the experiences of producers, filmmakers, and institutional representatives from different European environments and production models. The program will also feature a case study of the film Loynes, presented in the Pragueshorts Labo competition, introduced by producer Clyde Gates (Scum Pictures, Belgium) and director Dorian Jespers.
The discussion will feature Guillaume Dreyfus (Tripod, France), Maks Piłasiewicz (Animoon, Poland), Andrea Gatopoulos (Il Varco, Italy), Kamila Dohnalová (Truelovers, Czech Republic), and Sari Volanen (YLE, Finland); it will be moderated by short film curator and expert Jing Haase (Denmark).
Do It Yourself!
A hybrid masterclass by Andrea Gatopoulos
Friday February 27
11:00am
Kino Světozor – Third Hall
During his masterclass, Andrea Gatopoulos will present his approach to filmmaking as a combination of personal discipline, creativity, and practical production strategies. He will show participants how to develop their own creative identity while mastering the tools and methods needed to realize projects – from animation and live-action films to desktop documentaries, machinima, and AI-generated films. The program will include practical advice on financing, distribution, participation in workshops and residency programs, as well as inspiring examples of his projects, which combine innovative technologies with low-budget, DIY approaches.
Andrea Gatopoulos is a film producer, director, and distributor, a member of the European Film Academy, and a graduate of Berlinale Talents, Torino Film Lab, and Locarno Spring Academy. In 2024, he founded the publishing and production company Il Varco and is the founder of the Nouvelle Bug film residency and the distribution company Gargantua Film. His films have been shown at over 450 festivals worldwide, including Happy New Year, Jim! (2022) and The Eggregores’ Theory, the first AI-generated film presented at the Venice Film Festival.
Both of these films, along with other works by Gatopoulos, will be featured at Pragueshorts in a special program block titled Digital Prophecies. We highly recommend visiting this block before attending his masterclass.