Karolis Strautniekas Film Festival Poster
Every year, the historic Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival selects a new artist to create the poster for its next edition. For the 2026 event, Karolis Strautniekas was given the honour of creating the high-profile artwork.
Spirit of Adventure
At the 2025 event, Karolis was presented to festival attendees as the commissioned artist for the upcoming 48th edition. This visit gave Karolis a chance to explore the French city and get a taste of the festival in full swing. During his time in Clermont-Ferrand, Karolis was struck by how the entire city was transformed by the huge number of festival events and the influx of international visitors.
The dramatic change that the town underwent gave Karolis an idea for the poster artwork. Inspired by the gothic architecture of the city’s cathedral, which dominates the local skyline, Karolis conceived of the festival as a mighty ocean liner that transports the city’s guests on an imaginative journey via the creative art form of the short film.
“I arrived in Lyon and watched the crowds streaming towards the festival from there. The city of Clermont-Ferrand itself felt cosy, almost utopian – surrounded by mountains, full of heritage and culture. During the festival it transforms: from quiet, empty streets into huge crowds and long lines outside the cinemas. It’s wonderful to see the city live at a different rhythm, the whole city becoming the festival.” – Karolis Strautniekas
An Artwork’s Journey
Karolis’s idea of using the cathedral’s iconic towers as masts for billowing sails – a metaphor for the cinema screen – was met with a compositional challenge: the design would be used in a number of very different formats.
The artwork concept had to result in an illustration that was flexible enough to work on everything from small landscape-format lanyard passes to vast portrait-format pennants – and everything in between.
Karolis developed the concept with a vertical layout for the main posters, making sure that a strong compositional sense of movement propelled the dynamic design. Yet he also ensured that the image would not only work with a zoomed-out extended background for landscape formats but also that there was sufficient detail for cut outs. For example, the voyagers waving from the railings by the ship’s prow can be zoomed in for extreme panoramic formats, such as banners.
The festival team, experts at short films, produced an 8-minute video with Karolis. The result is a privileged view of the artist at work in his studio where Karolis gives precious insight into his working methods. You can watch his inspiring design evolve from idea to final artwork in the festival’s video.
2026 Festival
The 48th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival runs 30 to 7 February 2026. Karolis will be present to sign posters and the Festival’s online shop sells a range of products featuring Karolis’s evocative artwork.
“Like a ship lifting its anchor, the poster for this new edition invites us to embark together toward new cinematic horizons. Cinema, like a journey, brings together passengers from elsewhere, carrying stories and dreams to be shared. Through this image, a spirit of adventure, discovery, and encounters comes to life, reminding us that each screening is a voyage into the unknown.” – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival
See more artworks by Karolis
