The 20th anniversary edition of Pragueshorts begins! Who will decide the winners?

The 20th anniversary edition of the Pragueshorts Film Festival kicks off today. From Wednesday, February 25 to Sunday, March 1, audiences at Prague cinemas Světozor, Bio Oko, Ponrepo and Kino Pilotů can enjoy the very best short films from the Czech Republic and around the world. The core of the programme traditionally consists of three sections: National, International and LABO, dedicated to experimental cinema.

The festival will culminate on Saturday with the Long Night with Short Films (Feb 28, 6:00 pm, Bio Oko), where the winners of the International Competition and the Audience Award will be announced. The evening will feature more than 15 short films, including this year’s winning titles. All awarded films — including the winners of the National and LABO competitions — will then be screened on Sunday, March 1 at 5:00 pm at Kino Světozor.

The full programme and advance ticket sales can be found here.

And who will decide which films take home awards at this year’s Pragueshorts? The International Competition jury includes actress and three-time Czech Lion nominee Elizaveta Maximová, film and media theorist Kateřina Svatoňová, and British director Charlie Shackleton, whose feature film Zodiac Killer Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

The National Competition will be judged by three international film professionals: Polish dramaturg and festival organiser Konrad Głąbek; French producer Guillaume Dreyfus, whose short films have screened at Cannes, Locarno and Sundance; and Finnish producer Sari Volanen, a board member of the Tampere Film Festival.

The winner of the experimental LABO section will be selected by poet and writer Marek Torčík, visual artist Václav Jirásek, and musician Pavla Bastlová, who performs under the name Tokyo Drift.

More information about this year’s juries can be found here.