About the festival
Within the International and Baltic film program of the festival, 2ANNAS delivers fresh-out-of-the -oven films for the evaluation of a professional jury and the unrelenting subjectivity of a viewer’s eye. The best European short films of 2011 will be screened as a part of the European Film Academy (EFA) award-nominated film collection. The film collections of EFA have been showcased in more than 10 European short-film festivals so far, each of them selecting a new nominee for the prestigious EFA award. 2ANNAS has now become the first film festival in the Baltics to host the European Film Academy film-tour “Short Matters!”, therefore offering a surprisingly versatile contribution to the European cinema in short-film format to be viewed in local cinemas.
It is within the tradition of 2ANNAS to not only exhibit the latest films, but also to devote a lot of attention to a creative exploration of the industry, offering thematic workshops, lectures and discussions on the achievements of the field, current trends and future possibilities. In the focal point of this year’s retrospection is the cinema of the 20th century sixties – the time period of avant-garde renaissance on both sides of the ocean, and a time when art (including cinema) becomes a witness to the zeitgeist and the consciousness of society.
The lecture by Christopher Hales, interactive-cinema practitioner, educator and researcher, focuses on those innovations in the technology of filmmaking that have presented an opportunity for the viewer to not only watch a film, but also to participate and take on responsibility for the direction of plot and the outcome. This lecture forms an invaluable addition to the central event of this year’s festival – the screening of the world’s first interactive film, “Kinoautomat”(1967), a propaganda film for democratic cinema, by the Czech director Radúz Činčera. Within the context of current technological possibilities of filmmaking and film-viewing, this unique Soviet-time “wonder” can be considered as an authentic exemplary source for the search of a new cinema-language of the `60s.
2ANNAS has captured the cinematic avant-garde of the `60s on the other side of the ocean with the camera of Jonas Mekas, a filmmaker of Lithuanian descent. In front of his camera the streets of New York become a scenery for performances and happenings, the deliberate idleness becomes a unique form of protest against the inequities of the era, and the conversations about the mundane and the subjective take on the new form of a manifesto for a new language of art and a new perception of the world. The films of Jonas Mekas capture the icons of mass culture of the time – Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dali, but his films are not merely documentations from the past archives, quite the contrary – they are authentic and finely-crafted works of avant-garde art, and the subtle aesthetics of his films are still admired by many world-famous directors.
Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS will take place from May 28th to June 3rd, screening the first films on May 26th at Tabakas Fabrika as a part of the Miera Street Festival, and on May 27th screening the award-winners of last year’s festival at the movie theatre Ksuns. During the week of the festival 2ANNAS will be screening the films at The Splendid Palace, Forum Cinemas and Ksuns, as well as being loud and proud on the streets of Riga and ever-present on the cosy premises of the friends of the festival.
Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS is an independent festival of film and audiovisual arts, held annually in Riga, Latvia, and is dedicated to seeking out and presenting innovative modes of visual communication. Born in the 1990s, the festival has grown into an international film event which offers films by professional filmmakers, winners of international festivals, students and graduates of film schools from all over the world. 2ANNAS is a platform which, in addition to the traditional means of filmmaking promotes new forms of content and expression. Our main objective is promote the works of professional filmmakers outside of and as an alternative the mainstream cinema products, both locally and internationally. We especially want to see the development of the Baltic films and their trends within the context of the world, to advertise them by creating appropriate environment for developing new ideas and cooperation projects.
Every year 2ANNAS offers a range of short film collections – International and Baltic Competition programmes, guest programmes, retrospectives, and others, presenting films of all genres - fiction, animation, documentary, experimental film / video art, etc. In our programmes we seek for the innovative, experimental, unseen or long-forgotten in the film world. No idea or event can last without an inner drive or a wish to express something. Therefore when selecting films for 2ANNAS competition programmes we search for works with an individual and unique signature, creativity, aesthetic and technical performance corresponding to the artistic idea. The festival hosts lectures and photo exhibitions, as well as theater and music performances, “out-of-box events”, and other activities within the rich city environment and the vibrant multi-talented 2ANNAS atmosphere.The festival invites special guests – young film directors, VJs and DJs, lecturers, jury members and collaboration partners – from a number of different countries. 2ANNAS draws large crowds of visitors, most of which are young filmmakers, artists, and students from the Baltic and European countries.
2ANNAS exists in a context in which short film is not merely a step to the first feature, but can be viewed as an authentic work of art.