About festival

Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS 2024 will take place for the 28th time and as usual offers original, innovative, challenging, socially active short films and medium-length films to viewers. 2ANNAS exists in a context in which the short-film format is not only a step to the first full-scale work but also a deliberate, consistent choice resulting in high-quality art. Similarly, the festival is known as crazy parties in unaccustomed places, a free atmosphere, and creative manifestations, not only in the form of cinema.

2ANNAS offers four tender programs each year: the International Short Film Competition, the Baltic Short Film Competition, the International Small Film Contest, and the competition for films for children and young people. Also in 2024 the festival will take place on-site and online.

Since 2013, the festival has also developed thematic out-of-competition programs. Including 3-year cycles of focus programs aimed at encouraging public discussion on selected focus topics.

Every three years, the cycle of program topics is changed and its purpose is to stimulate discussion in society about the selected focus topics and the focus cycle of 2023 - 2025 has been chosen "Body and flesh" (2023), "Mind" (2024) and "Symbiosis" ( 2025).

In the theme of the 2024 festival "Mind", we will focus on the rational and irrational aspects of the world of the human mind. Let's look at both the achievements of science and also (allegedly) visions beyond the mind. The cinema format is grateful for visualizing the most hidden corners of consciousness. Planned programs:

"Out of your mind", where we will look at various mental health issues in a fresh and original way.

"Hallucinations" will be an experimental short film program based on image and symbol interpretations and analog techniques.

"Memory" will look into the concepts of both people's personal and collective memory, to a certain extent already warming up the theme of 2025 - "Symbiosis". "Time" is one of the most essential components of the magic of cinema, let's take a look at the manipulation of time and how the cinema format is able to combine physics, philosophy and the authors' personal experiences in one place.

Alongside the festival, “2ANNAS” also holds open discussions between film viewers and creators, participates in a variety of cultural events, such as “Positivus”, the international music festival “Laba Daba, talk festival LAMP, contemporary culture forum “White Night”, etc., and go on tour every year, showing the most vivid works in different places of Latvia from programs of previous years of the festival.