Filmmakers and scriptwriters from all three Baltic countries are being encouraged to apply for the BALTIC SHORTS RESIDENCY, the third edition of which will take place in Lithuania from 1-20 June 2021. Deadline for application is April 18, 2021.
Now established as an important event on the Baltic film calendar, the Baltic Shorts Residency is an intensive short film script workshop over a three week period that takes place in the Klaipeda region of Lithuania between 1-20 June 2021. The workshop invites three selected participants (one from each Baltic country) to engage in an intense writing process while receiving professional consultation from Wim Vanacker, creative advisor and script consultant. This consultation is currently slated to consist of a three day intensive script workshop at the residency location and 2-3 online sessions.
After the programme each participant will be committed to apply with their project to the Baltic Pitching Forum held in Vilnius in October.
Last year’s participants included Jaanika Arum (Estonia) whose fiction project Skin Of Manadarin would go on to be a winner at the 2020 Baltic Pitching Forum and was subsequently pitched at Euro Connection at the 2021 edition of Clermont-Ferrand. Director and scriptwriter Raitis Abele (Latvia) would also go on to pitch his animation Tool at the Baltic Pitching Forum after attending the 2020 residency. The trio of participants in 2020 included Jorūnė Greičiūtė (Lithuania) who took part in the Baltic Shorts Residency with her project The Trip.
The residency will take place in the Kintai Arts artspace, an artistic initiative in a rural location which provides a forum for all artistic branches and interdisciplinary work, encouraging encounters with contemporary art forms outside of urban cultural centers. It is situated in a rural environment on the coast of the Curonian Lagoon near the peninsula of Curonian Spit and Vente Cape.
With the on-going pandemic and attendant travel issues, this call for the Baltic Shorts Residency goes out with the anticipation that the situation will be improved by June and all will be able to attend the residency in person. We will consistently update everyone on the situation as and when new information becomes available. Currently we would currently encourage all interested parties to apply.
Rimantė Daugėlaitė, the head of Lithuanian Shorts, the organiser of the Baltic Shorts Residency said:
“After only a couple of years in existence, the Baltic Shorts Residency is already beginning to become an important film industry event within the region as it provides invaluable and unique opportunities for directors and scriptwriters to work on and hone their projects in an intensive and creatively stimulating atmosphere. We look forward to the newest selection of participants and are excited to see what brilliant work comes out of it.”
Eligible applicants must be film directors and scriptwriters from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who have finished at least one short film project and are developing a new project which is fiction, animation or a hybrid of the two. The project must be in early script development stage, up to 30 minutes long and aimed at an international audience.
The Baltic Shorts Residency is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture in partnership with Kintai Arts, Estonian Short Film Center ShortEst, PÖFF Shorts, Riga International Film Festival, Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS.
The application deadline is 18th April 2021 and an application form can be found here. Residency Regulations are available here.