There is no doubt that times are changing in the short film sector. For years, the festival world was unthinkable without the German short film base Reelport, for example, but the Aug&Ohr Agency and, before that, the American Withoutabox were also unavoidable for years. Of course, we also receive excellent works from returning partners outside the agencies that have been on the rise in recent years.

In the middle of the entry period, for example, we read an entry from the Italian agency that also hosted last year’s “Branka” festival that they had 7 films in the 30 the best short films of 2021, so we were delighted when they sent us some of these films. The Lithuanian “Techno, Mama” was screened in Venice, as was “4AM”, a short film about the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Then in March, several of them were screened in Tampere, although there, according to reports, a certain Hungary Focus was the focus of attention. Since the beginning, no BuSho Film Festival is without HMS films, and this year is no different, with “Under water” and “The Clown Wars”, but fortunately FABW has been coming for years and has always brought some prizes home, along with surprise Unicum and „túrórudi”. In the same way, collections from the Visegrad partners have fortunately come automatically year after year, so we never miss the latest Slovakian or Czech masterpieces, and from Poland we are dazzled by several institutions. We should also mention the Spanish and French entries, which often come in an essential package, and, the Australian trilogy “Spider/Bear/Shark”, with its interesting concept, or “The Right Words”, which were also on the official programme at Sundance, Toronto and the recent Cannes, for example, have won the hearts of the preselectors.

Fortunately, despite the somewhat tense conditions in higher education lately, order seems to be restored and Hungarians continue to compete with internationalism. Among the animators, we will see works by Réka Bucsi, Máté Horesnyi and Géza M. Tóth, but there will also be Hungarian entries in the fiction and experimental categories.

Of course, we cannot and do not want to go into all the selected films, we are waiting for the screening copies first and will send our usual detailed introduction before the festival.