Baltic Shorts unveils the Baltic Shorts 2026 Collection — a curated programme of recent short films from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, presented at the SFC | Rendez-vous Industry Market Catalogue and VideoLibrary during Festival de Cannes.
Bringing together fiction, documentary, and animation, the selection offers an overview of contemporary Baltic filmmaking and introduces a new generation of filmmakers whose works are beginning their international festival journeys. Many of the selected films are currently seeking their international premieres.
Films in the collection
Estonia
Big Zeus — dir. Johannes Magnus Aule
Father Koit is a clergyman who has fallen prey to gambling, having lost all the decaying church’s funds and donations in an online casino. His saviour comes in the form of his daughter Maria, who wants her father to serve God again instead of slot machines.
Room Number — dir. Silvia Lorenzi
Room Number connects a group of random people through their desire of love, intimacy and approval. Elena and Alex are having an affair, Aivar dreams of becoming a woman and Jey Yin has moved to a foreign country with high expectations that reality is unable to meet.
Latvia
Thank You for Your Review — dir. Līva Polkmane & Marta Šleiere
A people-pleasing waiter sabotages his own evening trying to impress his boss; a self-conscious friend competes for attention at someone else’s birthday dinner; and two sisters turn a simple meal into a battlefield. Through quiet frustrations and misplaced priorities, the night unravels into an elegant mess of misunderstandings. No wonder this restaurant’s online reviews are so confusing.
Carbon-14 — dir. Anna Konovalova
Since nuclear weapons were tested in the atmosphere in the 1950s, every inhabitant of the planet carries a portion of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 within them – this is just one of many testimonies of how military processes leave their mark everywhere, not just where they can be seen by satellites. In this film, war is viewed not merely as a state of armed conflict, but rather as a broad set of actions, symbols, and phenomena whose impact extends across time and space, affecting even the most mundane parts of our lives.
Lithuania
Pacific Islands — dir. Adas Burkšaitis
A middle-aged woman arrives at a hotel where important events from her past took place. The visit takes an unexpected turn when she meets a young man. “Pacific Islands” explores our relationship with the past and the lingering feeling of nostalgia.
Neiplis, Florida — dir. Modesta Žemgulytė
In 1997, the author’s family illegally emigrates to Florida, to the town of Naples, in search of a better life. They settle in a small two-room apartment, celebrate their first Christmas, and soon the mother starts working as a housekeeper and takes on two full-time jobs. After three years of stress and overwork, the mother experiences her first episode of psychosis. The dream of a new life across the Atlantic becomes a turning point in her mental health. More than twenty years later, as she approaches the age her mother was when her illness began, the filmmaker hopes to find answers in archival material and in conversations with her mother today.
Conductor — dir. Antanas Skučas
Tomas lives in a musical city where everyone has their own melody. But he dreams of creating a piece that everyone will play together. When the city becomes one vast orchestra, Tomas is its sole conductor – dictating the rhythm of life for all.
The collection is exclusively accessible to SFC | Rendez-vous Industry professionals via the Market Catalogue and Cinando VideoLibrary.
Catalogue
https://catalogue-cinemadedemain.festival-cannes.com/films.aspx?idcollection=BALTIC+SHORTS+2026
VideoLibrary
https://cinandovl.com/sfcrendezvousindustry
The collection is organized by Baltic Shorts and supported by Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.
Baltic Shorts is the collective name for the film institutions and festivals from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that present and promote the best Baltic shorts for the international film community.
Learn more: https://balticshorts.eu/
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