SET I – REALITY

In a gray, rainy city lives a monkey, trapped in the hell of procrastination. Every attempt at creative work ends in an escape into its own imagination, into a world full of colors and adventures, and each return to reality becomes increasingly overwhelming and gray. The monkey must confront itself in order to find a space to live between the worlds.

Marcjanna Urbańska is a director of animated films, a book illustrator, and also a creator of music covers and posters. In her work, the artist explores various emotional states and the mechanisms connected with them, balancing on the border between dream and reality. Her films have been presented at international festivals including DOK Leipzig, the Kyoto Student Film Festival, and the Seville European Film Festival, as well as in Polish cinemas, including at the Animator Festival and Etiuda & Anima. She works as an animator on numerous projects. She is a graduate of the Animation and Special Effects program at the Łódź Film School. She is passionate about comics and fantasy literature, which is reflected in her work.

Two boxers stand face to face in the ring and begin to talk, using the language of fists. Through juicy punches, rhymes, and retorts, they discover shared interests. 

Wiktoria Konopczyk – born May 30, 2000, in Rzeszów. A second-year student of Film and Television Production and Photography, specializing in animated film production and special effects, at the Cinematography and Television Production Department of the National Film School in Łódź. A graduate of Design at the Łódź University of Technology. Organizer of stop-motion animation workshops. A member of the Stowarzyszenie Mozaika in Łódź, which connects and supports young artists. Participant in exchanges within the Erasmus+ program. 

Two hundred years after his death, Chopin appears in Warsaw. At the Philharmonic, he listens to a concert of his own compositions. The music brings back memories of lost love, artistic successes, and death in exile…

Wojciech Wojtkowski – born in 1956. He graduated from the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1976. Since 1982 he has worked in animated film production as an animator, director, set designer, screenwriter, and creator of layouts and storyboards. He has co-created many films, commercials, opening sequences, and television ads. He is also involved in press illustration.

A forgotten Polish neighborhood drowns in the haze of coal mine smoke. A young man shaves his head, dons a tracksuit, and faces his brother's shadow and the weight of his past. 

Jakub Krzyszpin, born August 1, 2001, in Bytom, Poland. A director and student of the Animated Films and Special Effects Department at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. He creates short film forms in which the visual layer is based on a trembling, expressive line. His creations, brought to life through expressive drawings, have been screened at international festivals including Annecy, Krakow Film Festival, Tirana IFF, Animafest Zagreb and Drama ISFF.

Charlie, a young man with a comically long nose, is invited to a television interview hosted by a mysterious reporter. Innocent questions quickly become increasingly intrusive, forcing him to confront fears and painful experiences connected with his lack of self-acceptance. As the conversation continues, the boundary between reality and fiction begins to blur dangerously, and the atmosphere in the studio grows thicker with every passing minute. When Charlie receives an offer that promises a radical solution to his problems, he must decide whether to run away from himself or finally face the truth. 

Miłosz Nawrotek (born March 4, 2003, in Szczecin) – director and animator, a graduate of Film Studies at the Academy of Art in Szczecin. Director and screenwriter of ˮThe Interview.ˮ He creates clay and drawn animations and is also involved in sculpture and puppetry, including the design and production of theatrical puppets. In his work, he combines film with visual arts and an original visual style, creating experimental animation techniques and exploring visual narratives and surreal worlds. 

A grandma explains to her granddaughter how to get through life.

Aleksandra Kubisa, born in 1998 in Bielsko-Biała, completed a bachelor’s degree in Film Production Organization at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School. She has worked as a production manager on numerous student films at the film schools in Katowice and Łódź. She also gained experience creating set design and costumes at the Polish Theatre in Bielsko-Biała. She worked, among others, on the film “Krokodyl” directed by Dawid Bodzak, “Metamorfozy” directed by Magdalena Kuśmierczyk, “Chatka,” the graduation project of cinematographer Bartosz Toboła, “Martwe Małżeństwo” directed by Michał Toczek, and the stage productions “Wyspa Kaliny” directed by Agata Puszcz and “Leticia i Lubczyk” directed by Paweł Aigner. She is currently studying Animation and Special Effects at the Łódź Film School.

The animated documentary presents testimonies of young people who share their personal stories about the challenges related to mental health. Their interwoven voices create a complete and honest portrait of a generation in crisis and of a healthcare system that is unable to fully support them.

An animated film director and illustrator from Wrocław. She graduated in Animation and Special Effects from the Łódź Film School. Her student films have been screened at festivals in Poland and abroad. Together with Szymon Ruczyński, she received the main award for the short film “Puszcza: Dyptyk” at the 19th Neisse Film Festival and the Festival du Cinéma Nature & Environnement. Alongside activism, art has become for her a platform to express her fears, views, and values; therefore, she has taken part in animated protests concerning women’s rights, a free Belarus, the humanitarian crisis on the Polish–Belarusian border, and support for Ukraine.

  An eccentric, philosophical tale in which the boundary between absurdity and existential reflections blurs in an unexpected way. The narrator, contemplating her sister’s unusually small hands, considers alternative versions of her existence – for example, as a pigeon.  

Anna Woltańska is a student of the Animated Film and Special Effects at The Polish National Film School in Łódź. Animator, screenwriter, and director. She likes bats – both the real ones and those shot in 1985. 

An aspiring dog-headed influencer enters a cutest pet contest, but goes one step too far in her quest for fame. Through this short film, I ask: how does the human obsession with beauty translate into our attitudes toward animals? What are we capable of when we uncritically accept rapidly changing trends? 

Rozalia Kaleta – a student at Film School in Lodz. A director and an animator of short films. 

A workaholic Wind translator that reads from leaves and branches, embarks on an adventure to find the lost Wind and start working once again. 

Irina (Ira) Karapetyan is a filmmaker, animator and background artist making short animated films (“Why not mushrooms?”, “Underneath the Mountaintop”). Currently a student at Lodz Film School.