2ANNAS ISFF 2024

Decaying Time

The river of historical time merges different understandings of time's relativity and reality, fluidity and fragmentation, existence and non-existence, into a unified misunderstanding questioning the definition, the characterisation and the pure existence of time. This process is based on the enigmatic relationship between man and time. Time is the vector of human life, but also of death. For this reason, time is greatly feared: it reminds us of the inevitable fatality. Yet, it is completely independent from man.

We cannot feel or grasp the time itself, we only see its consequences. However, art, especially the art of cinema, has the ability to restrain, accelerate, drag, stop and delay time. Man can dig his own river of time.

Through the selected batch of short films the team of the magazine “Tvērums” aims to take you deeper and deeper into time, exploring its mundanity, slowness and the inevitability of death, equally accentuating the limitless human capacity to change time: to change it through art and to change the course of history quite literally. The programme is a mix of cinema classics and acclaimed contemporary shorts both locally and internationally. By operating with different visual languages (sometimes through jokes, sometimes through tears) these films invite us to reflect on the relationship between man and time, simultaneously encouraging us to realise that time is in our own hands. It's time to play with it!

/The team of the philosophical magazine “Tvērums”, the curators of the programme/

2ANNAS is coming to you. Yet, we kindly urge you to come and see us. During the opening event, there will be an opportunity to meet the jury, to greet the festival team and the curators, as well as to find out more about the festival and its programme.

As this year's festival theme is “Mind”, which describes the unlimited human capacity to express oneself creatively, simultaneously resolving important conflicts and discovering new horizons in one's consciousness, the opening performance will also invite us to explore the limitless horizons of our minds.

The new media artist and lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia Ieva Vīksne & 2ANNAS invite you to the opening performance of the festival „Mind-surplus”. The dancers present - Madara Anna Baltiņa un Ņikita Paskars.
 

A meditative foreword to the event:

The mind was constantly rushing ahead of time.

It might occasionally become immersed in a particular thought or feeling and repeatedly focus on this, unable to move on.

An experimental montage between the real and the apparent. 

Cerebral ridges feel like fields plough by impressions.

Come to meditate, open your mind and give a head start to the 2ANNAS festival. After the opening event, we invite you to continue the evening at Kaņepes Kultūras Centrs, where, starting from 21:30, DJ KAN will "warm up" the dance floor.

KAN is a DJ and promoter of multicultural organic-electronic music in Latvia – he has co-organized Komēta festival, Pachamama Beats audiovisual parties and other events. He has been regularly playing vibrant and diverse DJ sets since 2015 at various public and private events.

KAN takes a cross-genre approach to weaving his cross-continental musical stories behind the decks which, depending on the situation, can be both uplifting and dark: from no downtempo un organic house to indie dance and dark disco.

Music un socials: https://linktr.ee/kan.lv

Bar open from 11am
Dj from 9.30pm

Entrance free

What is queer cinema? A mirror for community members to see themselves in, a socio-politically charged audiovisual manifesto, or the same cinematic language but with an "unconventional" twist?

During the discussion, queer film curators, professionals and audiences from the Baltic States, Ukraine and Colombia will come together to explore the place of queer cinema in the overall audiovisual landscape and to discuss queer cinema as an independent, artistically valuable category. 

The panellists:

- Heinrich Sepp, Curator of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia);

- Bohdan Zhuk, The director of Sunny Bunny Film Festival (Ukraine);

- Miguel Ángel Fajardo, film director, screenwriter and critic (Colombia).

The discussion will be held in English.

The Psychedelic Mind

Youth movements of the 1960s and 70s are marked by an increased interest in psychedelic substances and
other methods attempting to expand one's consciousness. Among them – meditation and psychedelic
films. Avant-garde filmmakers sought to enhance the perception of reality by experimenting with audiovisuality and new possibilities in cinema.

Six colourful, surprising, and witty shorts unveil the endless possibilities of the human mind. Our
cinematic journey begins with Scott Bartlett's 1968 film OffOn, continuing with the portrayal of human
perception in contemporary art-house cinema.

/Astra Zoldnere, the curator of the programme/

Nightlife has long been a refuge for the LGBT+ community – behind closed doors it is possible to assert your individuality and identity, it is a space where you can take off your daily stress, masks and fears to celebrate your existence together. This is the night when Paris will burn, the party monster will come to life, neon will be the hottest color and Skapis club will become a gallery of stars, paying homage to the classics of queer cinema throughout the evening.

This year, the short film festival 2ANNAS into "Skapis" celebrates not only its 28th birthday, but also dedicated the newest section of the festival, "Pure Queer", created by curator Julien Nuhum Coulibaly and dedicated to queer short cinematographers. Before the party, we invite you to visit the "Queer Voices in Eastern Europe" program of the "Pure Queer" section, which will be accompanied by a discussion about the value of this direction of cinema in a wider cultural context.

Doors at 21:00
Free entry 21:00-22:00
Tickets are available on the day of the event at the entrance - 10 EUR (cash and card).

By presenting any ticket from the "2ANNAS ISFF" screenings or an entrance wristband from the Latvian Balroom scene event "it's all about beauty", 50% discount on the entrance ticket to the bar Skapis.

Have you ever wanted to be on a film jury? To take on the responsibility of watching the programme, comparing and evaluating the films? Or maybe you know a child who is a big 'film buff' and would like to be part of the film judging? 2ANNAS ISFF, now in its 7th year, offers children and young people the opportunity to get involved and become jurors and main evaluators of films by visiting the Children and Youth Competition programme at Forum Cinemas, as well as online. 
The themes presented in the films of the 2ANNAS Children and Youth Programme can then be discussed and analysed in social studies lessons, education lessons and other activities, and of course, spark conversations among peers.

Participants of the children and youth short film competition "MIND" are invited to the award ceremony at the Forum Cinemas. The winners of this year's competition will be announced and awarded.
The announcement of the results will also be broadcast live on the TJN ''Annas 2'' Facebook page.

For the fourth year, the Film Studio of the Technical Creativity House "Annas 2" and the Riga International Short Film Festival "2 ANNAS" invited children and young people aged 10-25 to participate in the short film competition. The theme of this year's competition is "MIND". Since the dawn of humankind, the human mind, its immense potential, depths of subconsciousness and creativity have inspired scientists, philosophers, artists and researchers. Could artificial intelligence destroy the mind's capacity for creativity? How can cinema reflect what lies in the deepest levels of our subconscious?

Participants had the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a form that interested them - animation, fiction, documentary, experimental editing, interviews, event coverage, etc. The aim of the competition is to encourage children and young people to develop creative projects and to justify their choice of means of expression for the representation of the theme "MIND" in the language of cinema. To encourage children and young people's self-development and creativity in the field of cinema.

Have you ever wanted to be on a film jury? To take on the responsibility of watching the programme, comparing and evaluating the films? Or maybe you know a child who is a big 'film buff' and would like to be part of the film judging? 2ANNAS ISFF, now in its 7th year, offers children and young people the opportunity to get involved and become jurors and main evaluators of films by visiting the Children and Youth Competition programme at Forum Cinemas, as well as online. 
The themes presented in the films of the 2ANNAS Children and Youth Programme can then be discussed and analysed in social studies lessons, education lessons and other activities, and of course, spark conversations among peers.

Join us, see more and let the rhythms of the music take you. We will leave behind our everyday worries, immerse ourselves in the sounds that weave us together, and teleport our minds far away from the rush of everyday life.

Free of charge.

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in film production has made it a significant topic of discussion within the global film community. To encourage festival-goers to actively participate and explore the extent of human involvement in the creative process of AI, as well as to investigate whether AI inhibits or promotes creativity, the new media artist Jurģis Peters has created an interactive installation "AI Odyssey." Every festival attendee will have the opportunity to create their own short film script in collaboration with AI.

The art installation will be unveiled to the public on Monday, April 8, at 18.00 and will be available to all visitors of the Kaņepes Kultūras centrs until the end of the festival. 

For more information, click here.

If you know you know. The prominent Latvian music journalist and DJ Uldis Rudaks has prepared some vinyles.

Dive into an intriguing investigation with Czech film theorist and professor Tereza Hadravová as she unravels the concepts from Susanne K. Langer's essay "A Note on the Film" and examines the significance of dreams and symbols in visual storytelling.

Hadravová aims to explore Langer’s ideas regarding the nature of dreaming, examining whether and how our dreams have evolved over the past sixty years since her essay was written, and if these changes parallel the transformations witnessed in cinema. Additionally, she also aims to investigate the audience's own perspectives on the relationship between films and dreams, including their experience with film-like dreams and dream-like films.

The lecture will be conducted in English, and admission is free of charge for anyone interested.

For more information, click here.

Together with film industry professionals we will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the filmmaking process. We will discuss whether AI is democratising the film industry, examine its potential as well as its limitations for practical implementation within this field, and address the ethical aspects associated with the integration of AI in the creative sphere.

The discussion will be moderated by screenwriter and producer Nira Bozkurt (Germany). The participants will include: 

• Alina Manolache (Romania), film director;
• Pablo Nuñez Palma (Netherlands), artist;
• Niels Putman (Belgium), film critic and the chief editor of the online short film magazines Kortfilm.be and Talking Shorts;
• Antanas Skučas (Lithuania), film director and animator.

The discussion will be held in English, and admission is free of charge for anyone interested.

For more information, click here.

2ANNAS invites you to a lecture „Laughing Through the Tears: Exploring Humor as a Coping Mechanism”. The lecturer – Lolita Tomsone, the director of Žanis Lipke Memorial in Riga and a publicist.

The unifying theme of the lecture - humour in cinema as one of the coping mechanisms in times of social crisis.  Let us explore how and in what ways the peculiar humour of contemporary cinema crosses genre boundaries and changes the perception of entrenched traumas. Does this approach prepare us for a hopeful or hopeless future?

How does artificial intelligence (AI) interpret the main theme of the festival - MIND? We wanted to test the limits of AI's capabilities by asking it to curate a selection of the most interesting European short films of the last decade. We invite you to evaluate how artificial intelligence has tackled the given task and whether it has developed preferences in film.

The screening will feature films in English, and admission is free of charge for anyone interested (16+ only). 

For more information, click here.

Don't miss the opportunity to find out the winners of 2ANNAS 2024. Celebrate together with the film directors and the festival team. See you there!

To share valuable resources and information on how to navigate the short film industry we are happy to invite Gabrielė Cegialyte of Lithuanian short film agency Lithuanian Shorts, who will explain more about Baltic Pitching Forum and Baltic Shorts Residency, Tara Karajica, representative of PÖFF Shorts and Lauma Kaudzite, coordinator of RIGA IFF SHORT RIGA Test Screenings to give us insights of the Baltic short film industry and its talent development activities. Lelda Ozola, representative of Creative Europe MEDIA Desk Latvia, will give us a further look into the European short film industry and its opportunities.

The presentation will be held in both Latvian and English. Admission to the event is free of charge for anyone interested.

For more information, click here.

Ukraine. Displaced

The full-scale war has resulted in the displacement of over 6 million Ukrainian citizens globally. In addition, almost 5 million have been displaced internally inside Ukraine, thus making it the largest displacement crisis since World War II.

The films of this program delve into the emotional landscapes of those forced to flee the ravages of war, capturing the essence of starting anew against one's will, and the challenges of adapting to a new reality while preserving one's roots.

/Olga Gusiatynska, Sasha Prokopenko (Kyiv International Short Film Festival), the curators of the program/

What has the international jury decided? Watch the best short films of 2024 in one compact screening.

We like it short!

In this discussion we will investigate how the films we consumed in childhood shaped our identity and consider how the themes and perspectives touched on in these films can be viewed in the context of modern society. Furthermore, we will unravel the reasons behind the enduring dominance of nineties nostalgia and explore whether a collective memory was forged during this era.

The discussion will be held in Latvian, however, you are welcome to join us afterwards for the "Tape Art 90s" disco with DJ Roberts Gobziņš starting at 21.30 at Kaņepes Kultūras centrs.

Admission to the event is free of charge for anyone interested. 

For more information, click here.

No need to be shy. Just come. The Latvian musician and DJ Roberts Gobziņš is a party tour de force.