Animation Short – Official Selection – September 2021
Wander | United States | 2021 | 07’
Director: LeAnn Schmitt
Writer: Jacob Arnao
Producer: Talissa Wright
Cast: Ragen Levan
Synopsis: After wandering away from his mother at a Filipino wet market, Chris, an imaginative young boy, must find his way back to safety while evading a monstrous figure that stalks the alleyways.
Timmy’s Monster | United States | 2021 | 06’
Director: Agnes Ho
Producer: Ellie Powell
Synopsis: The film follows the journey of a boy named Timmy who is born the strongest and tallest out of his siblings. Immediately recognizing his own strength above the rest, Timmy expects his monster companion to share his same qualities: tallest and mightiest. To his disbelief, he ends up with the tiniest monster possible. With this test against his ego, Timmy must learn to embrace this weakness.
Live | United Kingdom | 2021 | 05’
Director: Meg Dupont
Synopsis: A biographical 2D animation following the realisation of a missed opportunity to make a connection with a relative after attending their funeral digitally during the pandemic.
Tomorrow, an animated film about climate change | Bangladesh | 2021 | 26’
Director: Mohammad Shihab Uddin
Writers: Ahmed Khan Hirok, Nasimul Hasan
Producers: Kazi Zahin Hasan, Kazi Zeeshan Hasan
Cast: Fraser MacLean, Trina Ahmed, Ben Swimmer, Devin Leigh
Synopsis: (The film was originally released on Dec 21, 2019, in Bangla. We re-released it as an international version in English on May 17, 2021. This version is available online) Ratul, a young boy in Bangladesh, is magically shown two very different visions of the future. In the first scenario, Bangladesh has been inundated by rising sea levels, causing great suffering; in the second scenario, fossil fuels have been replaced by renewable energy, and Bangladesh is prosperous. The purpose of this film is to teach children about fossil fuels and climate change.
The Coral Reef Chronicles | United States | 2019 | 05’
Director: Zhuo Yin He
Writer: Zhuo Yin He
Producer: Zhuo Yin He
Cast: Zhuo Yin He
Synopsis: The Coral Reef Chronicles》Is Stop motion animation. Story of a diving girl ’s adventure. She is an ocean lover, while she is diving, she meets a strange multi-eyed shark. When the shark makes strange noises, and gray notes flow from its mouth.She feels curious, and decides to go inside the shark to explore.
Coffee & Sugar | United States | 2021 | 08’
Director: Andy Volk
Producers: Andy Volk, Aaron Bear
Cast: Carol Volk
Synopsis: In conversation with her grandson, 93-year-old Carol goes on a vibrantly animated journey as she reflects on her unbelievable marriage of 62 years. Combining a fantastic mixture of hand-drawn and stop-motion techniques, “Coffee & Sugar” explores the memories of love that transcend time and all conventions.
Children Short – Official Selection – September 2021
ZAWAL | Germany | 2020 | 09’
Director: Mujtaba Saeed
Writer: Mujtaba Saeed
Producers: Gilda Weller, Nora Helou
Cast: Paolo Al Shahhaf, Diana Kadah, Katharina Walther
Synopsis: Eight year-old Adam confronts a mutated world, when he breaks out of the designated quarantine area for refugees.
The Living Sea | Hong Kong | 2021 | 15’
Director: Ema Poposka
Writer: Ema Poposka
Producer: Kids4Kids Powered by Youth Forum Hong Kong
Synopsis: Logline: 12-year-old scuba diver Ema sets on a quest to find out why corals around the globe are dying but somehow in Hong Kong they are more resilient. Synopsis: We are the only planet with oceans, and they are indispensable for our survival. However, many people are unaware of the importance of ocean creatures and how to protect them. This is because they don’t really see them every day. Sea creatures are just lunch or dinner or an ingredient in cosmetics. Young scuba diver Ema Poposka believes if people could see the beauty of the ocean and of the corals, they will change their minds about sea protection. This inspired her to join Action for a Cause to produce a documentary film about Hong Kong corals. Ema’s aim with the documentary film made by kids is to raise awareness about the uniqueness of Hong Kong corals, the need to start taking care of corals, and how we can do this in our everyday life.
This documentary was made by a crew of 12-15 year old students.
Documentary Short – Official Selection – September 2021
The Sky Pulled Over Our Eyes | Russian Federation | 2021 | 17’
Director: Alexey Sizov
Producer: Marina Shangina
Synopsis: Anton’s Right Here is the name of a charity supporting people with autism, founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2013. Improbable as it may sound, it has an eponymous orchestra comprised of people with autism spectrum disorders. They play music at the intersection of jazz, rock, and electronics – often called spiritual free jazz. The orchestra’s performances fall onto the audience like a wave. It rings, rattles, makes noise, fills everything around with energy. Our film is an attempt to put music on pause and look at how it is born. To observe the musicians themselves – aflutter with excitement, beautiful. To see what friendship, emotions, and silence sound like. Music is present everywhere. First filling the hall and then breaking out into the street, into the city, towards people …
Verdemar | Chile | 2021 | 30’
Director: Alejandro Arístides Valdeavellano Ramaciotti
Writer: Alejandro Arístides Valdeavellano Ramaciotti
Producers: Alejandro Arístides Valdeavellano Ramaciotti, Pedro Lijerón Vargas
Cast: Olga Ana Sofía del Carmen Gálvez Vidal, Patricia Angélica Ramaciotti Gálvez, Alejandro Arístides Valdeavellano Ramaciotti
Synopsis: Olga is Patricia’s mother and Alejandro’s grandmother. Her grandson invites her to fulfill a dream she has postponed: to be a radio announcer. The background of this attempt is that the relationship between Olga and Patricia improves on a daily basis.
Bookartbookshop | United States | 2021 | 11’
Director: David Tames
Cast: Tanya Peixoto, Chiara Ambrosio, Natalie D’Arbeloff
Synopsis: A visit to a unique shop in Shoreditch, London offering artists’ books and serving as a center for individual and institutional collectors, artists, publishers, and the curious. In this video, we meet Chiara Ambrosio, an artist working at the shop; Tanya Peixoto, the founder; and Natalie D’Arbeloff, a book artist exhibiting her work.
Healing Noise | Australia | 2021 | 21’
Director: Andrew Hartwig
Writers: Andrew Hartwig, Daniel Preindl, Chris Preindl
Producers: Andrew Hartwig, Daniel Preindl, Chris Preindl
Cast: Annisa Maharani, Sabrina Eka Felisiana
Synopsis: Annisa and Sabrina are two friends who make music together in Samarinda, a coal-mining city on the Indonesian island of Kalimantan. Sarana, their band, began by playing small, spontaneous shows in Samarinda in 2015 and has since taken them all over their home country and abroad. Healing Noise invites the audience to explore the unique culture of their city, the challenges of making art on the margins of their region’s culture industry, and the thing that forms the basis of everything they do: their friendship and their shared love of creativity.
We Are All Going to Die Macedonia | The former Republic of Yugoslav | 2020 | 25’
Director: Sashko Potter Micevski
Writer: Sashko Potter Micevski
Producer: Ilija Tiricovski
Synopsis: The prolonged economic uncertainty forced even the local funeral service workers to explore various shortcuts to get more work for their parlors, which sometimes includes maintaining dubious connections with the local hospital staff. Zoki, one of the funeral parlour workers in Shtip (mid-size town in Macedonia), a charming and positive family man, is faced with many challenges while getting work for his company. But, the increased disloyal and dishonest competition started breaking Zoki’s spirit and have left him wondering if money is everything in life, after all?
Positive Rides | The race within | Germany | 2021 | 11’
Directors: Constantin Gross, Lukas Steinbrecher
Synopsis: 10 years after winning races, former professional road-biker Dominik Roels realises that the biggest challenge is to confront the pressure created by his own aspirations. On a road bike adventure with his sister, he evaluates what really matters when he steps on a bike. Because the biggest challenge is always inside your head.
KO’SH – “The Herd” | Kazakhstan | 2021 | 21’
Director: Alsu Serikbek-Daukeyeva
Writer: Alsu Serikbek-Daukeyeva
Producer: Alsu Serikbek-Daukeyeva
Cast: Mustafa Serikbek, Daniyar Daukey
Synopsis: The story of a father and son sustaining a perishing tradition as they take a herd of Karabair horses on an annual pasture migration.
Zenerù | Italy | 2021 | 30’
Director: Andrea Grasselli
Writers: Andrea Grasselli, Giorgio Affanni
Producers: Andrea Grasselli, Graziano Chiscuzzu
Synopsis: The poetic relationship, between the ancient ritual of Zenerù and the life of the hermit shepherd Flaminio, makes us reflect on the border between domestic and wild, between known and unknown. At the end of the winter, Flaminio, a resistant shepherd, prepares materially and spiritually for the arrival of the spring through daily rituals, using the tools he built for himself: he moves and sows the ground, shears the sheep and makes a woolen suit for the new season. The communities of the valley chase the winter away with cowbells and bonfires through the ritual of Scasada dol Zenerù, which is inserted into the story of the shepherd’s life as a dreamlike element that draws on an ancestral memory. Flaminio’s sensitivity, strongly connected to Nature, allows him to perceive when it is time to call the community to act, starting the ritual.
I saw a man in a tree looking at me | Switzerland | 2020 | 12’
Director: Aline d’Auria
Writer: Aline d’Auria
Producers: Frédéric Gonseth Productions, Turnus Film AG, Cinédokké Sagl
Cast: Renata Bader
Synopsis: In a reality where old people’s homes and hospitals are closed, an elderly sick lady and her director daughter meet, giving the time another dimension.
A House in Time unlocked | United Kingdom | 2021 | 08’
Director: Tim Mountain
Writer: Laura Kinnear
Producer: Catherine Mountain
Cast: Laura Kinnear
Synopsis: This house made history. The Birthplace of the Composer Gustav Holst. He was the most famous person to have lived within these walls and the most renowned to have been born in Cheltenham. A story is told of a Victorian House, unlocked along with its many inhabitants. We begin in the 1940’s and follow a journey to the 1970’s, when the house was pressed in time as the Holst Victorian House Museum. The Music Soundtrack was composed for the film by English Composer Tim Mountain, with an extract from Gustav Holst’s New Years Chorus.
Experimental Short – Official Selection – September 2021
Rasa | Italy | 2021 | 18’
Director: Alexander Faganel
Writer: Alexander Faganel
Producer: Alexander Faganel
Cast: Alexander Faganel
Synopsis: The capacity of suggestion of works of art plays a crucial role in Sanskrit poetics, where we talk about rasa, the emotional component of the experience of a work of art. The protagonist is trapped between the real world and an imaginary universe, where he would like to set his film and redeem himself from the past.
C A M A R A T A | United States | 2021 | 06’
Director: Benjamin Henretig
Writer: Hannah camarata
Producer: Hannah camarata
Cast: Hannah camarata
Synopsis: Through flame, ash, dance and music the work examines the process of how we mold our trauma, lineage and truth; When accountability must be forged in the fire, what is found in our embers.
WHERE THE GRASS GROWS THAT HIDES YOU | Peru | 2020 | 14’
Director: PATRICIA BUENO RISSO
Writer: PATRICIA BUENO RISSO
Producer: PATRICIA BUENO RISSO
Cast: MARICARMEN BUSTAMANTE, OLGA JARA, GLADYZ BONIFAZ, ANTONIETTA SOLEDAD CACERES, JULIA CARRILLO, DEMETRIO CABANILLA, PATRICIA BUENO RISSO
Synopsis: Five elderly women enroll in different strange and surreal situations. They go through domestic environments wrapped in an almost sinister, horror atmosphere. Expressing in a latent way, cultural oppressions and social impositions. As well as the submission to the atavistic patriarchal system, the repression of female sexuality, loneliness, and the isolation within a familiar, claustrophobic and dark enclosure. Just like in the theater (life itself, the representation of the interior) when curtains are opened in two, forming a subtle Peruvian flag, we are confronted with hidden situations that mask deeper realities. With this type of staging, I would like to open possibilities of going beyond appearances, establishing almost a friendship with the strange, with the hidden. In order to become familiar with that imprint of the unconscious: what comes out despite what one wants to hide and repress. Perhaps by recreating them we can reveal some meaning to the nonsense. LINK: https: https://vimeo.com/584279308 contraseña: DCLHQTE2021
Seedtime | United States | 2020 | 13’
Director: Connie Zheng
Producer: Connie Zheng
Cast: Sharon Shao
Synopsis: Shot in early 2020, Seedtime follows a small community of seed-searchers through overgrown gardens, stone fortresses, underground bunkers and other symbolic spaces of survival amidst adverse environmental conditions and an ongoing pandemic as they attempt to dream into being seeds rumored to possess transformative properties. Using a dream-like, associative logic and drawing upon improvised movement and dialogue, this short experimental film inhabits a frame of seed-time — a time of burrowing, staying buried, and waiting for germination.
Growing up is as dangerous as leaving a razor blade unsupervised | Ecuador | 04’
Director: Manuela Vásquez Guayasamín
Writer: Manuela Vásquez Guayasamín
Cast: Sami Méndez
Synopsis: “Growing up is as dangerous as leaving a razor blade unsupervised” is an experimental short-film that delves into the pains of growing up ugly according to our society’s absurd beauty standards.
Fashion Short – Official Selection – September 2021
Knit-A-Morphosis | Italy | 05’
Director: Arianna Genghini
Cast: Cielo Fiordi
Synopsis: “Knit-a-morphosis” is an experimental corto and fashion film presenting a fashion performance in which the model wears 5 knitwear outfits and transforms them from the structure thanks to strings to pull. The transformation creates completely different shapes on the garments within a real metamorphosis. Indeed, Metamorphosis is the concept at the core of both the knitwear collection designed by Rosalba Fucci, and this video I directed. Both the collection and the film drew inspiration from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the preface of which is narrated in the VoiceOver throughout the film. The former narrates the irreversibile metamorphosis and the self emancipation process of the girl wearing clothes, which creates new spaces, through re-shaping, in response to the body asking for more consciousness in the relationship with them selves. The latter connects the garments’ metamorphosis of the performance to the moth metamorphosis from the cocoon to the animal and shows the conceptual and aesthetic similitudes that can be found between the clothing and the natural element. The biological change of the body is showed through the garments’ change and it’s linked to the natural change of a moth’s body. This film was commissioned by Rosalba Fucci for Royal College of Art graduation collection, and it was sponsored by Royal College itself alongside Loro Piana, and other names of the textile and knitwear industry.
Lost in echo | China | 2021 | 01’
Director: Ruiyao Li
Producer: Yechen Gao, Ruiyao Li
Synopsis: A city woman wearing Lost in Echo was fallen into a time-space trip while commuting. The traffic in this city reverberates around the whole planet. She explored the mystery of this planet and experienced the weightlessness of this planet.
Mini Short – Official Selection – Septembrie 2021
Dracuvan | Ireland | 2021 | 03’
Director: Joseph Orr
Writer: Joseph Orr
Producer: Joseph Orr
Cast: Sinéad Doyle, Joseph Orr
Synopsis: In 21st century Dublin, Dracula decides to adapt his bloodthirsty ways into a modern day business venture – a mobile blood donor clinic called Dracuvan.
CARY – Still dreaming | Germany | 2021 | 02’
Direcctor: Constantin Gross, Lukas Steinbrecher
Synopsis: What drives you? CARY tackles his fears… and dreams big. In the end, we all need a beat that drives us, that matches with the rhythm of our lives.
PAGE TURNER | Germany | 2021 | 03’
Director: Christian Grüner
Producer: Christian Grüner
Cast: : Angelo Volpini, Christian Kirschstein
Angelo Volpini turns music score pages for pianists. His job is not to attract attention. When the applause sounds after the concert, he disappears behind the stage without anyone noticing. His name does not appear in any program booklet.
DARIA | Armenia | 2021 | 04’
Director: Argam Vaagnovich Gevorgyan
Writer: Argam Vaagnovich Gevorgyan
Producer : Nikita Shestakov
Cast: Elizaveta Stikhina, Lilia Khabarova, Nikita Konstantinov
Synopsis: The short film “DARIA” in vertical format under composition Chilly Holiday (Simon Zaitsev, he also played as a conductor in the film). If it is possible to watch this movie via your phone, please do it. thanks! In this short film, I decided to tell the story of a perfectionist in the role of 16-year-old towhead Daria. Obsession with ambition, the desire for unconditional perfection in all, this is the main vice of Daria. The action takes place in the 19th century. Daria is engaged in: photography, painting, chess and singing in the choir. In all these areas, she strives to become the number one. Daria has a younger sister who is the antagonist -the complete opposite. The sister’s goal in life is to enjoy life. She copes with this task well, until the tragic moment that makes Daria think about the present, not about the results in the future. A person who is intoxicated and tempted by desire becomes perfect, sometimes thinks about the lost time for ordinary life moments: how to go on a first date, go for a walk with friends, etc… The heroine of Daria all her life looked with envy at the possibilities of her sister, at carefree freedom and openness to the world, but her mind was clouded by thoughts of a great career as an artist, singer, chess player and photographer. The composition consists of walking on a tightrope. Such music cannot come from the heart of a calm person. There is a sense of balance in it, which the main character tries to keep, but goes to the extreme and Daria’s heartbeat converges with the melody of this composition. This film is a mirror, a girl in the 19th century suffers from a modern disease surrounding us – perfectionism.
Bobbing for Apples | United States | 2021 | 03’
Director: John August Stapp
Writer: John August Stapp
Producer: John August Stapp
Cast: Noah Rothman, Bennet Sommer
Synopsis: BOBBING FOR APPLES examines the current, traditional education system’s ineffectiveness through an expressionistic perspective.
The demon inside | China | 2021 | 01’
Director: Ruiyao Li
Writer: Ruiyao Li
Producer: Yechen Gao
Synopsis: The film is essentially a young girl’s inner figure, focusing on her inner anxiety about her appearance. The girl dances with inner anxiety devil, trying to get along with her inner anxiety about her appearance.
Mobile Phone Short – Official Selection – September 2021
Ignore. Don’t | Russian Federation | 2021 | 03’
Director: Alyona Styrikovich
Synopsis: Social manifest on the topic of ignorance.
Reedbed | Paraguay | 2020 | 06’
Director: Sebastian Arguello
Writers: Sebastian Arguello, Nicolas Nagy
Producers: Jesus Bellassai, Maximiliano Bellassai, Noelia Romero
Cast: Thiago
Synopsis: José, a peasant boy, loses his ball in a strange thicket in front of his house. An unusual encounter will make us think that sometimes danger is found where we least imagine it.
Music Video – Official Selection – September 2021
Once Again | Sweden | 2021 | 04’
Director: Viktor David Samuel Jonsson
Producer: Peter Andersson
Cast: Jeanett Espedal
Synopsis: A constant flash between the life in the water on a sunny day, to the party at night, filled with no regrets.
1000 Brazils of Truth | Canada | 2021 | 04’
Directors: Sheena Rossiter , Sandro Silva
Writers: Sheena Rossiter , Sandro Silva
Producers: Sheena Rossiter , Sandro Silva
Cast: Sandro Silva, Sheena Rossiter
Synopsis: São Paulo is a megacity full of paradoxes. It’s a place to lose yourself, but where you can find yourself too. It is beauty in concrete and chaos. “1000 Brazils of Truth” is an original song that’s an ode to Latin America’s largest city and the people who call it home.
Stevan – Hope It’s Not | Australia | 2021 | 04’
Director: Ben Develin
Producers: Ben Develin, Benjamin Ling
Cast: Stevan
Synopsis: ‘Hope It’s Not’ is about “finding the right person at the wrong (or an unexpected time). And adjusting to the feeling of not being ready for love, to acknowledge your true feelings despite being conflicted.
Time | United States | 2020 | 03’
Director: Dimitar Drew
Writers: Dimitar Drew, Michael Bilinski
Producer: Michael Bilinski
Synopsis: Time is the music video for the debut single by The Rust Belt a music project formed in the Fall of 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown. The character in the video finds an outlet through the music as band did creating it.
The Big Apple Grind | United States | 2021 | 05’
Director: Bruno Taniguchi
Writer: Bruno Taniguchi
Producer: George Kostopoulos
Synopsis: A mystery writer is laboring over his new crime novel involving a cop, the cop’s wife and the wife’s jazz musician lover. Set to swing music, it doesn’t end happily.
David Lindmer // Omen | United Kingdom | 2021 | 05’
Director: DRUST
Producer: Barney Gee
Cast: Alex Draper
Synopsis: The starting point for the Omen video was to explore the theme of ‘doomed relationships’ and witness the nuanced moments where things take a wrong turn. So we meet Rueben, a troubled kid and ex-psychiatric patient who falls for his doctor. She should know better than to act on her feelings, but doesn’t and leads him on an adventure into the unknown. Sex, drugs, first love and finally heartache, when he realises that she’s having a relationship with a colleague. And that’s where we pick up the story, as Ruben sets off to find them in a club and confront them both with the truth. This journey from the club doors to the stand off on the dance floor, is the framework which all his memories hang off. From their first glances across the canteen until the end, standing alone in the rain. Extra Notes: Bringing emotion to the forefront of the viewers’ experience was key to the storytelling and a big part of the reason why the track was so great to work on. David was a fantastic artist to engage with because of his openness to the collaborative effort of the whole piece. Early on we decided that the images shouldn’t feel like they’d just been tacked onto the track, but that there should be a reciprocal process, where the pictures enhance the music and vice versa. The feeling of both being fully bedded together was of primary importance to us.
Sunshades | Switzerland | 2021 | 05’
Director: Linus von Stumberg
Writer: Linus von Stumberg
Producer: Dominic Curseri
Cast: Rino Hosennen, Yves Hellstern
Synopsis: A robbery of a mini-supermarket by a young couple in need of money takes a catastrophical turn.
Path on Earth | Malaysia | 2021 | 04’
Directors: JAYA EASWAR RAGAVAN, AL AJAI
Synopsis: A music video that portrays nature as the only source that keeps humanity alive on this Earth.
Yellow and Blue | Spain | 2021 | 04’
Director: Judit Carceller Bosch
Synopsis: Roger remembers his last relationship in a nostalgyc way but with serenity. The story shows Roger’s feelings through two split worlds, the yellow and the blue one.
SUPER SAILOR | France | 2020 | 07’
Director: BRUNO DELOUZILLIERE
Writer: BRUNO DELOUZILLIERE
Producer: BRUNO DELOUZILLIERE
Synopsis: SUPER SAILOR is an animated music video from the album “Cosmic Expectations” by French artist DENSK. Ironic and poetic, it explores the depths of consumerism through an epic underwater odyssey.
Narrative Short – Official Selection – September 2021
On my way | France | 2020 | 15’
Director: Bertrand Basset
Writer: Bertrand Basset
Producer: Amélie Quéret (Respiro Productions)
Cast: Christian Bouillette, Capucine Lespinas
Synopsis: Granny died today. After years of marriage, Hubert is alone for the first time, tired and diminished. This toilet roll is always too far. Léonie his grand daughter comes in order to help him. Oppressed by the adults fussing around the best idea is maybe this old good whiskey bottle.
The Manila Lover | Norway | 2019 | 27’
Director: Johanna Pyykkö
Writer: Johanna Pyykkö
Producer: Nina M. Barbosa Blad, Lotte Sandbu
Cast: Øyvind Brandtzæg, Angeli Bayani
Synopsis: During a trip to the Philippines, middle-aged, Norwegian Lars meets Abigail – the Filipina he wants to share his life with, but does she share his plans?
A world free of crisis | France | 2020 | 27’
Director: Ted Hardy-Carnac
Writer: Ted Hardy-Carnac
Producer: La Belle Affaire (Jérôme Blesson)
Synopsis: Emilie is struggling in life. After numerous unsuccessful interviews, the lively but clumsy 30 year-old finds herself under a great deal of social pressure and fears to lose her home. Naturally she has high hopes when she is called in for a new interview, but in this future society that plays by slightly different rules, nothing goes as planned…
TONE | United States | 2021 | 34’
Director: Dan Winters
Writer: Dan Winters
Producer: David Rafailovich
Cast: Walton Goggins, Antonio Bond, Meredith Placko, Oren Porterfield
Synopsis: Two broken souls living in a crumbling future society struggle to move on from their scarred pasts.
500 Eskimo| Russian Federation | 2021 | 09’
Director: Daria Karpova
Writer: Daria Karpova
Producers: Elizaveta Matrosova, Yakov Dubrovsky, Julia Fruktenbein, Anna Malina
Cast: Dmitry Zakharov, Alexey Kolubkov
Synopsis: Once upon a time a wizard comes to vizit Andrey and brings everything the character dreamt of when he was 6 years old: 500 ice creams and a dog. But here is a thing, Andrey is already 35. He has a family, a mortgage, a boring job and a daughter who is about to start her primary school year.
The Wound | Islamic Republic of Iran | 2020 | 12’
Director: Sahar Nourmonavar
Writer: Sahar Nourmonavar
Producer: Sahar Nourmonavar
Cast: Ali Abpak, Sheyda Gorji, Omid Eskandar, Hasan Salmani, Hossein Ghourchian
Synopsis: A 9-year-old girl menstruates after the earthquake and loses her family while she knows nothing about it, and she thinks she has been wounded.
The Bright Fire | China | 2021 | 16’
Director: Zoe Zou
Writer: Zoe Zou
Producer: Jing Wang
Cast: Yunjia Xing, Yuanqi Han
Synopsis: Two young cousins find a wonderland outside of their unstable families, without knowing the friendship they have will eventually comes to an end.
The Student | Greece | 2021 | 09’
Director: Vasileios Kalamakis
Writer: Vasileios Kalamakis
Producers: Vasileios Kalamakis, Thanos Tsavlis
Cast: Yorgos Pyrpassopoulos, Yorgos Makris, Dimitris Kapetanakos, Stratis Dalagiorgos
Synopsis: In November 1973, there was a 3 days demonstration against the Greek Dictatorship. It all ended when the military involved by braking down the gate of the Polytechnic University of Athens. We follow the final minutes of the crew of the armored tank that broke in the University, ending the uprising against the regime.
From Khovrino | Russian Federation | 2020 | 08’
Director: Daria Elena Dashunina
Writer: Daria Elena Dashunina
Producer: Elizaveta Stishova
Cast: Igor Yatsko, Agnia Tsvetkova
Synopsis: At night in Moscow a little girl Dana is rushing home through dark alleyways. She’s being chased by a suspicious-looking man. When he finally catches up with her, it turns out he wants to make a gift for a girl, about which she had dreamed of for many years. But their meeting prepares surprises. The thriller develops into a social drama and both become victims.
White Rose & The Trumpet | Viet Nam | 2021 | 05’
Director: Hung Do
Writer: Hung Do
Producer: Nam Nguyen
Cast: Manh Duc Nguyen, Ha Thanh Mai
Synopsis: “𝑆𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 70𝑠, 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙, 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑟 𝐸𝑎𝑠𝑡” 🎺
The Party | Hong Kong | 2021 | 21’
Director: Jenny.D
Writer: Jenny.D
Producer: Lorik chen
Synopsis: A lonely girl, Lin was trying to find her way in the world, a social outcast looking for friendship happens upon a classmates pool party. As the party rumbles on, things take a bloody turn. Just how far will Lin go in order to fit in?
Couch Guy | Sweden | 2021 | 15’
Diretor: Miriam Linnea Kaukosalo
Writer: Finn Devin Deivert
Producer: Finn Devin Deivert
Synopsis: Sara finds an old couch and brings it home but she gets more than she bargained for.
Escalation | Italy | 2021 | 15’
Director: Christian Bachini
Writer: Christian Bachini
Producer: Christian Bachini
Cast: Christian Bachini, Lucy Chun Yan, Giulia Serafini, Charles P. Cooper, Derek Blakely
Synopsis: In the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Chris, a paranoid and self-centered man, is happily avoiding all human contact, preferring to escape from reality in whatever’s on TV. When a friend reaches out to him to confront him about his past promises, Chris has to decide what kind of person he is inside, or it may just eat him…alive.
Ohnmacht | Switzerland | 2021 | 15’
Director: Timon Gabriel Meyer
Writer: Timon Gabriel Meyer
Producer: Micha Meyer
Cast: Christian Jankovski, Nelly Giymesi
Synopsis: Kurt, husband and father of a newborn child, is in the middle of a difficult phase in his marriage. Anna-Lea, Kurt’s wife, is overwhelmed with her role as a mother and is barely able to take care of the household as well, which is why Kurt has to take care of domestic matters in addition to his job. Despite these additional burdens in his daily life, he tries to maintain stability at work and his married life. However, the weight on his shoulders and the lack of support from his wife are getting to him more and more. Can he withstand the pressure?
Distance | Russian Federation | 2021 | 20’
Director: Kristina Luninskaia
Writer: Kristina Luninskaia
Producer: Kristina Luninskaia
Synopsis: Three years of their marriage. Romance turned to everyday life, they got used to each other. Boring, always the same, took it by granted. each of them is fighting in its own way. or just pretending. Until HE decides to take control into his own hands.
FISH TO THE LAKE | United Kingdom | 2021 | 10’
Director: Youngdae Lee
Writer: Youngdae Lee
Producer: Youngdae Lee
Cast: Rita Ramalho, Artur Ramalho, Gonçalo Soares
Synopsis: Rita (25) has to live her life in a foreign country after she is unable to be with her father Carlos’s death. Through a phone call with her brother back in Portugal, she listens to the funeral mass for her father, and finds a fish a wrapped inside a shopping bag. Rita heads to the lake with a dead fish in her arms, but despite her will to save it, the fish doesn’t come back to life…
The Sea Between | France | 2021 | 13’
Director: Wilmarc Val
Writer: Wilmarc Val
Producer: Benjamin Altur-Ortiz
Cast: Bernard Pinet
Synopsis: A yachtsman sails aboard his sailboat. In the open sea, he saves a mysterious migrant from drowning. From then on, strange things happened.
Burn on Arrival | United Kingdom | 19’
Director: Owen Gower
Writer: Owen Gower
Producers: Sinead Kirwan, Mark Lacey
Cast: James Harkness, Kate Dickie, John Stahl
Synopsis: Christmas, 1995. As Scotland reels from a devastating loss of industry, a man is trapped in an escalating nightmare. Forced to follow a series of bizarre and deadly instructions contained in red envelopes, he is soon stranded in the snowy wastes of the Scottish Highlands – his fate bound to a stranger he finds caught in the same brutal game.
Embers | United Kingdom | 2021 | 20’
Director: Tom Ganley
Writer: Tom Ganley
Producer: Tom Ganley
Cast: Olivia Dowd, Jay Mailer, David Fielder
Synopsis: Alice sits alone at a restaurant, waiting for her date to arrive…
No/Low Budget – Official Selection – September 2021
The Dead Can Talk | Iraq | 2021 | 10’
Director: Osame Anwer
Writer: Osame Anwer
Producer: Osame Anwer
Cast: Rowal Navgundi, Adil Abdulrahman, Ferset
Synopsis: After 30 years of silence, Hasso’s son is making every effort to find an eyewitness that verify his father as a formal revolutionary (Peshmarge).
Karnîka | Islamic Republic of Iran | 2021 | 13’
Director: Meryem Semedî
Writer: Meryem Semedî
Producer: Meryem Semedî
Cast: Mahrokh Rafiezadeh, Mosayeb Golshanzadeh
Every sip you take | Germany | 2021 | 04’
Director: Selina Sondermann
Cast: Spyros Markopoulos, Rebecca Nmyr
Synopsis: An S-Bahn cleaner develops a strange fascination with the coffee cups he finds on his local train
Need Glue! | Russian Federation | 2021 | 15’
Director: Alex Plishkov
Writer: Alex Plishkov
Producer: Alex Plishkov
Cast: Nazim Mollaev, Pavel Fedorovsky
Synopsis: In a devastated world where madness and cruelty reign, the lonely prepper gets some glue to fix his guitar and find the long-awaited peace through music. He doesn’t yet know that he thereby attracted an uninvited guest to the shelter.
Two | United States | 2020 | 10’
Director: Lindsey Pelucacci
Writer: Lindsey Pelucacci
Producers: Lindsey Pelucacci, James Worthington
Cast: Emma Harvey, Mary Liz Adams
Synopsis: When Tristan seeks middle-of-the-night solace from her exhausted girlfriend, conflict ensues. Can the two reconcile their relationship, and resolve their anxiety, before sunrise?
Don’t Look Back | United Kingdom | 2021 | 11’
Director: Nathan J. Allan
Writer: Nathan J. Allan
Producer: Oliver Duffy
Cast: Zoe Frances, Marcus Dickerson, Sheila Jones
Synopsis: Polly is trapped by OCD, rooted to the spot until it releases her. Even more horrifying is the Tall Man lurking in the shadows. Polly is no longer home alone. It soon becomes clear just how connected to the past her battle with the Tall Man is. In this emotional horror drama, she must face up to trauma and heart wrenching emotions, in order to be set free…
Dragon’s chair | Brazil | 2021 | 10’
Director: Gabriel S. Mendes
Writer: Gabriel S. Mendes
Producer: Ariel Lebensztajn
Cast: Stephanie Degreas, Fernando Possani, Joca Sanches, Daniel Sapiência
Synopsis: São Paulo, 1971. During the military dictatorship, Yara and Luiz are arrested for the murder of a businessman close to the regime. In the basement of the Department of Social and Political Order (DOPS), questioning runs differently. Inspired in true stories.
Arroz Con Pollo | United States | 2021 | 07’
Director: Michelle Colón
Writer: Michelle Colón
Producers: Rachel Whittle, Michelle Colón
Cast: Marco Baez, Michelle Colón
Synopsis: For Lena and Tony, life is like an arroz con pollo; it takes a combination of everything in the pantry, patience and a whole lotta love.
Growing up is as dangerous as leaving a razor blade unsupervised | Ecuador | 04’
Director: Manuela Vásquez Guayasamín
Writer: Manuela Vásquez Guayasamín
Cast: Sami Méndez
Synopsis: “Growing up is as dangerous as leaving a razor blade unsupervised” is an experimental short-film that delves into the pains of growing up ugly according to our society’s absurd beauty standards.
A Quark’s Looking Glass | United Kingdom | 2021 | 15’
Director: Adam Loxley
Writer: Adam Loxley
Producer: Chris Reading
Cast: Laurie Ogden, Adam Loxley
Synopsis: A complicated teenager stumbles into a forgotten hollow and encounters a strange hermit with truth growing on his shoulders who offers enigmatic insight and an otherworldly therapy session.
Series (Web/TV) – Official Selection – September 2021
LEIA | France | 2021 | 06’
Director: Cassam Chenaï Khourban
Writers: Cassam Chenaï Khourban, Stanislas Grassian
Producers: Stanislas Grassian, Cassam Chenaï Khourban
Cast: Stanislas Grassian, Mahamadou Diop, Claire Courture, Marie Coulonjou, Rolland Bruit
Serie of 14 episodes (about 6 minutes each). Following the lockdown, Fred, a 40-year-old computer engineer, burned out. It’s LEIA program, an artificial intelligence life coach, that helps people get out of depression. While taking care of himself, he will try to sell his invention online.
Diana Episode 1 : The Awakening | Australia | 2021 | 06’
Director: Peter Koevari
Writers: Peter Koevari, Cloeanne Spencer
Producer: Peter Koevari
Cast: Ruby Lott, Erin Bradley, Megan Hintz
Synopsis: Diana, a young woman who receives an unexpected ability, must avoid capture and survive a nemesis intent on her destruction.
Short Comedy – Official Selection – September 2021
Vane | Russian Federation | 2021 | 19’
Director: Anton Filipenko
Writer: Anton Filipenko
Producer: Pavel Fuks
Cast: Ekaterina Shumakova, Aino Sirje, Saana Koivisto, Jaakko Kiljunen, Ilya Savin, Anton Filipenko, Arseniy Kolos
Synopsis: Three unknown couples meet in a country house in Finland. For what ?
LEAVE TO REMAIN | United Kingdom | 2021 | 11’
Director: Rémy Bazerque
Writer: Rémy Bazerque
Producer: Tibo Travers
Cast: Bamshad Abedi-Amin, Camille Coduri, Paul Chan, Tom Bonington
Synopsis: Things get wild at the ‘VISA and immigration services’ when Karim, a young Iranian father living in the UK is mistakenly threatened with deportation.
Short Drama – Official Selection – September 2021
The Wound | Islamic Republic of Iran | 2020 | 12’
Director: Sahar Nourmonavar
Writer: Sahar Nourmonavar
Producer: Sahar Nourmonavar
Cast: Ali Abpak, Sheyda Gorji, Omid Eskandar, Hasan Salmani, Hossein Ghourchian
Synopsis: A 9-year-old girl menstruates after the earthquake and loses her family while she knows nothing about it, and she thinks she has been wounded.
Peľe | Islamic Republic of Iran | 2020 | 13’
Director: Shorsh Wekili
Writer: Shorsh Wekili
Producer: Shorsh Wekili
Cast: Shorsh Wekili, Tofigh Amani, Mobin Ghaderi, Hosien Ghorchian, Fereydun Ansari, Shorsh Wekili, Shoresh Wekili
Synopsis: An ex-soldier working in a movie theater battles a blood-red stain that appears onscreen every time a war film plays. The more he fights the stain, the bigger it gets until it drips onto the floor and leaves a puddle. Unable to remove the stain, the man must face his unresolved trauma about his life in the military.
Are the kids alright? | Turkey | 2021 | 06’
Director: MEHMET KIRAL
Writer: MEHMET KIRAL
Producer: CAN SABAN
Cast: TUANA MELİS ALMACI, PELİN DÜLGER, DERİN ÖZTÜRK, EGEMEN MUSTAFA ALMACI, DENİZ AYAZ, ALİHAN İNCE
Number 10 | France | 2020 | 14’
Director: Florence Bamba
Writer: Florence Bamba
Producer: Les Toiles du Cosmos
Synopsis: AWA is a young french girl originally from Senegal. She’s a law student who practices soccer regularly with her neighbor friends. But her passion is not at everyone’s taste.
Shakira | France | 2020 | 25’
Director: Noémie Merlant
Writer: Noémie Merlant
Producers: Anais Bertrand / Insolence Productions, Pascaline Saillant / Insolence Productions
Synopsis: While trying to save her family from a return to the street, Shakira, a young gypsie woman, meets Marius, a member of a robber gang…
Brussels-Beirut | Belgium | 2020 | 27’
Director: Thibaut Wohlfahrt, Samir Youssef
Writer: Thibaut Wohlfahrt, Samir Youssef
Producers: Frakas Productions, Offshore
Synopsis: After living in Europe for several years, Ziad returns to visit his family in his North Lebanon hometown at the Syrian border. When he arrives, the tension is palpable. Ziad tries to reconnect with his family despite a threat eating away at the inhabitants.
The Tourist | Russian Federation | 2021 | 11’
Director: Zurab Dzhidzhilava
Writers: Zurab Dzhidzhilava, Yulia Pogrebnyak
Synopsis: A chance meeting of a crook and an investigator in a Ferris wheel can change their lives.
JERKYFLOW | France | 23’
Director: Adnane Rami
Writer: Adnane Rami
Producer: ESRA PARIS
Cast: SALIM KEDDOUH
Synopsis: In a Parisian suburb, Riad, a young stutterer of 17, is attracted by a rap contest. Confronted on the one hand with the difficulties linked to his speech problems, and on the other hand with the derogatory and humiliating remarks of his older brother, Riad decides to enter the contest.
Embers | United Kingdom | 2021 | 20’
Director: Tom Ganley
Writer: Tom Ganley
Producer: Tom Ganley
Cast: Olivia Dowd, Jay Mailer, David Fielder
Synopsis: Alice sits alone at a restaurant, waiting for her date to arrive…
Short Fantasy/Sci-Fi– Official Selection – September 2021
TONE | United States | 2021 | 34’
Director: Dan Winters
Writer: Dan Winters
Producer: David Rafailovich
Cast: Walton Goggins, Antonio Bond, Meredith Placko, Oren Porterfield
Synopsis: Two broken souls living in a crumbling future society struggle to move on from their scarred pasts.
NONSENSE | Russian Federation | 2021 | 19’
Director: Zhdan Tikhonov
Writer: Zhdan Tikhonov
Producer: Zhdan Tikhonov
Synopsis: Ivan Alekseevich, a high-ranking official, dies and finds himself in the house of his childhood, in the atmosphere where he began his life and meets there a strange character resembling an angel. Together they try to look at the life of the protagonist from a different angle and evaluate his actions. Any judgments that do not coincide with our ideas and beliefs, no matter who these judgments come from what we call delirium, therefore nothing will force a person to change their principles, even the strangest signs coming from outside.
Kairos, Qualitative Time | Spain | 2021 | 17’
Director: Carlos Scasso
Writer: Carlos Scasso
Producer: Carlos Scasso
Cast: Edgar Córcoles, German Scasso
Synopsis: To curtail the spread of revolts against the System, the “Kairós Programme” has been activated. Isacaar, one of the insurgents, will find himself faced with the chance of preserving something more important than his ideals.
Vodi | United States | 2021 | 30’
Director: Nath Milburn
Writer: Nath Milburn, Luke Baker
Producer: Nath Milburn, Luke Baker
Cast: Chase Mullins, Renee Gagner, Alicia Blasingame, Brett Lawrence, Chad Higgs, Drew Arnett, Rudolph Whitcomb, Monika Vidakovic, Nina Nikolic, Jesse James Dean
Synopsis: An up-and-coming cartoonist returns to his family home to seek his fortune in Hollywood, where he’s plagued by strange visions and revelations of his family’s bizarre history with a forgotten cartoon character that could be his ticket to success… or complete destruction.
A Quark’s Looking Glass | United Kingdom | 2021 | 15’
Diector: Adam Loxley
Writer: Adam Loxley
Producer: Chris Reading
Cast: Laurie Ogden, Adam Loxley
Synopsis: A complicated teenager stumbles into a forgotten hollow and encounters a strange hermit with truth growing on his shoulders who offers enigmatic insight and an otherworldly therapy session.
The Sea Between | France | 2021 | 13’
Director: Wilmarc Val
Writer: Wilmarc Val
Producer: Benjamin Altur-Ortiz
Cast: Bernard Pinet
Synopsis: A yachtsman sails aboard his sailboat. In the open sea, he saves a mysterious migrant from drowning. From then on, strange things happened.
Embers | United Kingdom | 2021 | 20’
Director: Tom Ganley
Writer: Tom Ganley
Producer: Tom Ganley
Cast: Olivia Dowd, Jay Mailer, David Fielder
Synopsis: Alice sits alone at a restaurant, waiting for her date to arrive…
TONE | United States | 2021 | 34’
Director: Dan Winters
Writer: Dan Winters
Producer: David Rafailovich
Cast: Walton Goggins, Antonio Bond, Meredith Placko, Oren Porterfield
Synopsis: Two broken souls living in a crumbling future society struggle to move on from their scarred pasts.
Short Romance – Official Selection – September 2021
Youth will not sleep | France | 2020 | 29’
Director: Perrine Lamy-Quique
Writer: Perrine Lamy-Quique
Producer: Lost Klondike
Cast: Jules Benveniste, Lucy Ryan, Jeanne Posé, Erwan Vinesse, Douglas Grauwels, Soheyl Sari Aslani, Roméo Bernard, Antoine Saliou, Laly Denis, Lisa Jaquet
Synopsis: It is one of those nights when everything can change. When you don’t know anymore if time goes forward or backward like a broken record. It is a bunch of teenagers in waiting, stuck in a mountain boarding school, seeking a welcoming face. It is Judith who, above all, wants Dagan back.
Coffee & Sugar | United States | 2021 | 08’
Director: Andy Volk
Producers: Andy Volk, Aaron Bear
Cast: Carol Volk
Synopsis: In conversation with her grandson, 93-year-old Carol goes on a vibrantly animated journey as she reflects on her unbelievable marriage of 62 years. Combining a fantastic mixture of hand-drawn and stop-motion techniques, “Coffee & Sugar” explores the memories of love that transcend time and all conventions.
Short Thriller/Mystery – Official Selection – September 2021
Why do you hate your brother? | Portugal | 2020 | 25’
Directors: Pedro Martins, Inês Marques
Writers: Pedro Martins, Andreia Albernaz
Producer: Maurício Valente Ribeiro
Cast: Carla Chambel, Welket Bungué, Carmen Santos
Synopsis: A portuguese twisted version of “Snow White” presents Clara, a mature woman, born in a colonial family, who has been forced to the role of caregiver due to her mother’s dementia. She grows in despair and resentment by her brother Victor, as he has been trying to sell out their mother’s most precious relic, a mysterious wooden figurine they brought from Mozambique…
Causa Sui | France | 2021 | 22’
Director: Quentin Richard
Writer: Quentin Richard
Producer: Bertrand Jeandel
Cast: Olivia Vanpoperynghe, Denis Hubleur
Synopsis: At the heart of the Vosges massif, a young girl and her father live in a farm far from everything. One day, all the sheeps form their herd are mysteriously killed. Struggling to cop with the tragedy, the father falls into paranoïa.
Burn on Arrival | United Kingdom | 19’
Director: Owen Gower
Writer: Owen Gower
Producers: Sinead Kirwan, Mark Lacey
Cast: James Harkness, Kate Dickie, John Stahl
Synopsis: Christmas, 1995. As Scotland reels from a devastating loss of industry, a man is trapped in an escalating nightmare. Forced to follow a series of bizarre and deadly instructions contained in red envelopes, he is soon stranded in the snowy wastes of the Scottish Highlands – his fate bound to a stranger he finds caught in the same brutal game.
Student Short – Official Selection – September 2021
Home Video | Czech Republic | 2020 | 17’
Director: Tomáš Richtr
Writer: Tomáš Richtr
Producer: Markéta Plšková
Cast: Veronika Špačková, David Bosh, Irena Vacková
Synopsis: Mark and Kristyna’s ordinary evening is turned upside down when Kristyna finds a hidden camera in the apartment. Before she can find out why the camera is there, Mark’s mother arrives and things get even more complicated. A student film shot in one take, entirely on old analogue camcorders.
Two Cacti | Mexico | 20’
Director: Angélica Romanini
Writer: Angélica Romanini
Producer: Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, A.C.
Cast: Ana Clara Kastañón K., Raúl Briones
Synopsis: Intimate’s journey of Sofia and Mateo, a young couple who travels to decide if they will remain together or not, burdened by differences. In the middle of a desert and a cacti sea the presence of nature appeals, little by little, to the capacity of any living form or being to regenerate and carry on…
When alone | Israel | 2021 | 05’
Director: Paz Bernstein
Writer: Paz Bernstein
Producer: Paz Bernstein
Synopsis: We get a chance to dive into one’s soul, as we take a peek at a woman touching herself. The feminine power explodes, changing all of the surroundings, painting the town with the magic of woman sexuality.
Sonya | Israel | 2020 | 26’
Director: Shira Sznaider
Writer: Shira Sznaider
Producer: Eviatar Moncaz
Cast: Meital Ner
Synopsis: Michaela Weiss travels to Poland after her grandmother’s death in search of her family history. When she arrives in the small town where her grandmother survived the holocaust she discovers that she looks just like Sonya, a local Polish girl who has been missing for the last two years.
Un Silencio Prolongado | Mexico | 2020 | 15’
Director: Pau Verdalet
Writer: Pau Verdalet, Ian Br. Morales
Producers: Paypa Productions, Toonymania LLC, Red Crew Films, Uno Ochenta y Cinco, Global Premier Frozen Berries
Cast: Ana Carolina Grajales, Pablo Azar, Sofia Azar
Synopsis: A young couple will be forced to face their own reality upon the birth of their first daughter, and in the process to awaken the ghosts that had been asleep in their own subconsciousness, to the point of even questioning where the fine line between life or death lies.
Dracudate | Canada | 2021 | 05’
Director: Rhael McGregor
Synopsis: Lilith the Vampire is going on a date with a girl she likes and wants to impress but runs into a monster hunter that is ruining her night. Lilith risks being revealed as a monster and ruining the night she planned out, can she save the date?
Fools Gold | Poland | 2021 | 16’
Director: Shailesh singh
Writer: Shailesh singh
Producer: National film school in lodz
Cast: Michal surosz, damian kret, izabella dudziak
Synopsis: In the year is 2020, a blue crystal falls to the earth and kills a homeless man. The crystal is discovered by two friends Milosz and tomek, small time thieves. They take the rock thinking this mysterious rock could bring an end to their poor life. However, they find themselves in a web of police investigation and accusations, only to realise that the situation is not as simple as it seem
Brickfilm | United States | 2021 | 09’
Director: Josh Gorman
Writer: Josh Gorman
Producer: Josh Gorman
Cast: Ethan Child, Jess Meyer, Kieran Tuomey, Michael Grant, Alayna Theunissen, Jordan Cassel
Synopsis: A stop-motion animator battles his LEGO® mini-figure puppets as they rebel against his auteurist direction.
A Unicorn in Tel Aviv | Israel | 2019 | 20’
Director: Zohar Ballas
Writer: Zohar Ballas
Producer: Zohar Ballas
Cast: Aviv Terner, Itamar Cohen, Noa Menashe, Ben Izadi
Synopsis: A witty Tel Aviv comedy. Alonna, 28, tries to find herself in the big city despite her insistence to live offline. On the brink of giving up, the city unfolds its love and affection.
Whose bullet? | Russian Federation | 2021 | 13’
Director: Philipp Octanovich
Writers: Philipp Octanovich, Ivan Borodin
Producer: Anton Khromov
Cast: Ivan Borodin, Anton Khromov, Vladimir Petrov, Olesya Zabolotskaya
Synopsis: An intelligent middle-aged man gets lost in his own thoughts, doubts and conjectures, goes crazy and finds himself in the hands of cynical medical workers who bring him creepy and strange visions in which he argues with death, endlessly plays Russian roulette with a mysterious criminal youth and rushes around the basement, meeting its inhabitants.
Ring Me When You’re Ready | Australia | 2021 | 10’
Director: Tung Bach
Writer: Tung Bach
Producer: Tung Bach
Cast: Tung Bach, Trang Nguyen, Quan Nguyen, Otis Jean-Louis
Synopsis: As a young Vietnamese filmmaker in Australia pens a script about a missed opportunity, he is reminded of an opportunity he, too, has missed. Meanwhile, back in his home country, a fated meeting breaks the heart of a girl he knows. The 7711km between Melbourne and Hanoi is stretched further by a phone call that never happened.
Teach Me | United Kingdom | 08’
Director: Anna Cottrill
Producer: Anna Boronea
Synopsis: Children at Uk schools with individual special educational needs (SEN) make up 14.9% of the student population (a figure that is predicted to rise). So it raises questions to why the education system isn’t adapting to meet these needs? And, how does it feel to be one of these kids stuck in an institution which isn’t accommodating you? Teach Me as a documentary sets out to understand these experiences in the present moment from children who are at the age when school makes up a large portion of their daily experiences. The documentary interviews four children all ages 12 and 13 and each of them with individual and overlapping SEN. Using childlike paper cut-outs and school supplies to form a stylish stop motion that transports you into the world/mind of Dan, Lydia, Martha and Annie.
The Promise | China | 2021 | 12’
Director: Kate Shao
Writer: Kate Shao
Producer: Bing Shao
Cast: Kate Shao, Yongcheng Shao
Synopsis: This is a story that takes place against the background of the epidemic. It tells a story about an appointment between a granddaughter and her grandfather that was delayed by the promise.
Perennial | United States | 2021 | 04’
Directors: Grace Shao, Shailee Sankhala
Writers: Grace Shao, Shailee Sankhala
Producers: Grace Shao, Shailee Sankhala, Noah Lee
Synopsis: In Perennial, Laurie and Mary Ellen Park tell the story of how they saved their plant nursery during the 2020 Bond Wildfire and how the power of family held them together. The Parks run Plantenders Nursery, located in Silverado, California.
One Elevator Apart | Bulgaria | 2021 | 28’
Director: Chris Zahariev
Writers: Pavla Kotova, Chris Zahariev
Producers: Stanislav Semerdjiev, Chris Zahariev, Dessy Tenekedjieva
Cast: Yoan Popov, Aleksandar Grigorov, Yordanka Kuzmanova, Pavel Poppandov, Georgi Karkelanov, Lili Geleva
Synopsis: Yuli and Pavel are failing police students in the big city. Liliya, their rich and imperious landlord is the first person, who take them seriously by forcing them to start a secret investigation. Her winning lottery ticket is missing and the suspects are all of the neighbors. When the boys start investigating they find that a bigger theft is in the making. Suddenly they receive another offer.
The demon inside | China | 2021 | 01’
Director: Ruiyao Li
Writer: Ruiyao Li
Producer: Yechen Gao
Synopsis: The film is essentially a young girl’s inner figure, focusing on her inner anxiety about her appearance. The girl dances with inner anxiety devil, trying to get along with her inner anxiety about her appearance.
Rules for backpacking | United Kingdom | 2021 | 05’
Director: Alex Peter Joy
Writer: Alex peter Joy
Producer: Alex peter Joy
Cast: Willow Krum, Charlotte Kinnaird, Arril Johnson
Synopsis: A series of short vignettes animated in a hybrid style. Cass & Amahle, Two unlikely travel buddies, create a series of bizarre rules as they backpack around Southeast Asia together.
15 Minutes | Germany | 2021 | 07’
Director: Philip Schafferhans
Writer: Philip Schafferhans
Producers: Philip Schafferhans, Alexander Haschek
Cast: Yunus Uguz
Synopsis: After getting his last chance to miraculously fullfill a 45-minute delivery in under 15 minutes, a man is forced to do whatever is possible to not be dropped.
