A total of five different programs featuring 20 short films will be screened as part of the festival's Estonian focus. They include a selection of the best Estonian short films curated by PÖFF (Black Nights Film Festival), student films from the Baltic Film, Media and Arts Institute (BFM) and a special program curated by Nukufilm Studio.

In the year when the 100th anniversary of his birth is celebrated. a retrospective of movies by Heino Pars will also be screened at the festival.

"Despite his outward modesty, Heino Pars was a filmmaker with a very broad creative mind. The very fact that he invented the genre of popular animation with his stories of the cinematographer Kõps is an achievement in itself," said Peep Pedmanson, an animation expert at the Estonian Film Institute.

The festival's international competition program includes Anna Hints' and Tushar Prakash's "Sannapäiv" ("Sauna Day"), which was also screened during Critics' Week at Cannes last year.

In the documentary competition, Tartu 2024's "Wild South" collection includes "The House", directed by Carl Olsson. Kaspar Jancis' "The Dog" ("Koer") which recently premiered at Animafest Zagreb in Croatia, has been selected for the special erotic short films program at Mecal Pro.

The Mecal Pro Festival was established in 1997 and receives more than 5,000 submissions every year, from which it presents a diverse selection of short films.

The 2025 Mecal Pro animation and short film festival takes place in Barcelona from June 26 to July 6.

More information about Mecal Pro 2025 is available here.

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