After being cancelled in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic and related restrictions, the 4th edition of the Prague Film Awards returns to the Czech capital’s Kino Aero this weekend for a special edition that presents short films from emerging filmmakers across the world.

Over the course of two nights January 27-28, Prague Film Awards will present 35 short films in six screening blocks. All films will be screened in their native language with English subtitles.

“It feels amazing to be back in the cinemas after two challenging years,” Prague Film Awards’ Apostolia Katsiandridou notes in a press release. “We want to make this year’s festival a celebration of independent filmmaking and the art of cinema-going.”

This year’s edition of the Prague Film Awards includes animated shorts, music videos, documentaries, and fiction films competing for awards. Filmmakers from 25 different countries will be represented at this year’s festival.

Live-action shorts screening at the festival include Dieorama (pictured at top), a documentary from Kevin Staake about a criminal investigator who creates blood-spattered miniatures in her free time; Israeli filmmaker Dana Gelman’s Backwards, which explores the refugee crisis over a span of a single night, and Austrian filmmaker Albert Meisl’s comedy Wings of the Spirit.

Animated films competing at this year’s Prague Film Awards include Leszek Mozga’s stop-motion animated thriller Roadkill; Nina Bisyarina’s The Best Grandfather in the World, which explores themes of homosexuality and acceptance; and Echo, an animated short from director Sergio Kotsovoulos that has already been awarded at film festivals across the world.

Prague Film Awards was established in 2018 by HF Productions, which runs 24 independent film festivals across 13 countries. Their mission is to “steer independent cinema with fresh artistic takes in the foreground and collaborative moments [and to] celebrate culturally diverse films in geographically inspiring locations.”

Films screening at this year’s festival are competing for awards in categories including Best Short Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Music Video, Best Animated Film, Best Director, Best Student Film, and Best Student Documentary.

This year’s Prague Film Awards will take place on January 27 and 28 at Kino Aero from 5:30 p.m. on both nights, screening films in three blocks of about 90 minutes each with a short break in-between. An awards ceremony and networking event will close out the festival on Saturday evening.

Nightly tickets run 150 crowns, and include entry to all three blocks of films. A complete schedule and more information can be found at the Prague Film Awards website. Follow Prague Film Awards on Facebook and Instagram for additional updates.

Lead photo: Kevin Staake’s Dieorama

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