The festival, returning to Klaipėda for not the first time, promises a particularly rich program this year – on July 23-25, in the Švyturys Brewery Square, viewers will see animated films “BFF. Lessons After Lessons” and “Dominykas the Horse’s Journey to the Stars”, the student work “Vortex”, short films “Concrete Children” and “Lost/Found Worlds”, as well as feature-length films “The Guest”, “When You Don’t Expect It”, “Sand in Your Hair” and “Chinese Sea”. All these films were nominated or awarded at the national film awards “Silver Crane 2026” this year.
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As always, one of the festival hosts – actress Sandra Daukšaitė-Petrulėnė – will interact with the audience and host the evening program. On July 23, event guests will also have the opportunity to meet director and actress Augustė Geriakaitė. Her short film “Close Contact” was on the list of nominees this year, and the director herself debuted as an actress in “The Guest”, which was chosen as the Best Film of the Year.
This year, the “Silver Crane Nights” festival will become part of the Sea Festival and will symbolically open a program full of events, dedicated to cinema this year.
“The theme of the Sea Festival, “Like in the Movies. Your Most Beautiful Summer Shot,” which will roll into Klaipėda on July 24-26, will be visible and felt throughout the city. Klaipėda will become like a huge open-air film set – with director’s chairs, cinema installations, live film sets, a theater street, dancing fountains, cinema spaces for families, and even the opportunity to contribute to the creation of a real film. The flight of the Silver Cranes, which has become a long-standing tradition, will beautifully and meaningfully integrate into the Sea Festival program,” says Dalia Želvytė-Mockuvienė, communication coordinator of VšĮ “Klaipėdos šventės”.
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The directors of the screened films are delighted that the “Silver Crane Nights” initiative presents Lithuanian cinema throughout Lithuania. Among the films in the festival program is director Linas Žiūra’s film “Vortex”, nominated in the Best Student Work of the Year category, which tells an intriguing and unexpected story of three people.
“Vortex” is received very differently by the audience, but the most common comment is an uncomfortable yet engaging emotion. It’s interesting that viewers understand this film, especially its ending, very differently – to some, it seems like a happy story, to others, it’s a tragedy. I really like the different reactions – when creating the film, I wanted it to have no boundaries, to remain open to interpretation, and to create an experience. I invite viewers to empathize, to immerse themselves in the film’s atmosphere, not to look for what should be in the plot, but simply to experience the film,” says director Linas Žiūra.
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