International Competition 5

Content warnings for this screenings
Theme warning: domestic violence, animal cruelty

Films in this screening:

Richard Roger Reeves:

Intersextion

Canada, 2022. 4 minutes.

two abstract energies fall in love, unite as one then disappear into a vanishing point.
Both sound and picture handmade onto 35mm film,

This film expresses a symbiotic interplay between two cosmic energies contrasting the intersection of reality and self expression.
A film without words.
no musical instruments or camera used.
Abstract visual music film.

Vasco Sá, David Doutel:

Garrano

Portugal, 2022. 14 minutes.

A Garrano horse is forced to pull a heavy load under a blazing sun. Young boy Joel discovers a man who is about to set a forest on fire.

XU YUAN:

Sewing Love

Japan, 2023. 8 minutes.

The expression of emotional desire called love. Everyone is an individual whose spirit and soul cannot be bound. The emotion between people leads to good and bad results, happiness or misery. In the river of natural life, it is the stream injected halfway and the water vapor evaporated halfway. Two very strong individuals, whether they are right or not, whether they need to be morally criticized, whether they need to be examined by us, in the end, death, rebirth, corruption are all part of the river.

Nienke Deutz:

The Miracle

Belgium, 2022. 15 minutes.

40-year old Irma goes on a vacation to an all-inclusive resort. Soon after her arrival she realizes the place is meant for young families. Irma has to find her own place in this holiday paradise

Matías Bárquez:

Mask
(Máscara)

Chile, 2023. 3 minutes.

We observed and copied in order to go unnoticed. The difficulty of being ourselves made us create a mask, but the weight of it caused us enormous wear and tear. It is not fair to live masked. Being autistic means accepting and knowing your needs. To not live apart, anymore. Mask is a visual representation of my own experience of growing up and feeling different and my attempt to go unnoticed.

Lucie Grannec:

FURRIE

France, 2022. 8 minutes.

A dolphin in free relationship with fifteen inflatable animals, a fox crazy in love with a cereal mascot, a band of animals adept at firearms… Different portraits, existing, of members of the Furry community, lovers and enthusiasts of anthropomorphic animals.

Dániel Bárány:

Supper
(Vacsora)

Hungary, 2022. 15 minutes.

During a dysfunctional family dinner, oppressed family members battle their oppressors. The battle for domination leads to a monstrous outcome.

Honor Price:

ZUMAN

United Kingdom, 2022. 10 minutes.

Star attraction of a human zoo, Steve is caged and kept away from his own humankind. Longing for more in life, Steve dreams of finding a companion.

Content warnings for this screenings
Theme warning: domestic violence, animal cruelty

International Competition 4

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: domestic violence
Scene warning: violence, murder, self mutilation, graphic sex

Films in this screening:

Joachim Hérissé:

Skinned
(Écorchée)

France, 2022. 15 minutes.

In an old building, lost in the middle of the swamp, live two strange women, Siamese twins by one leg. At night, the Flayed has terrifying nightmares in which she sees her sister’s flesh covering her own body…

Milly Yencken:

The Eastern Rain

Estonia, 2023. 9 minutes.

If the rain were to fall indoors, but never out doors …where do we begin to look for shelter?

Ita Romero:

Carlos Montaña

Argentina, 2022. 8 minutes.

Years of dictatorship in Argentina. Carlos Montaña is detected by the repressive forces while working in a sugar mill in Tucuman. To survive he must escape and get lost in the woods, on the way he will go through difficult decisions.

Vitor Hugo Rocha:

Troada

Portugal, 2022. 3 minutes.

The cycle of Springtime, Summer, Autumn and Winter is suddenly interrupted by the storm and psycadelia.

Katarzyna KIJEK, Przemysław ADAMSKI:

Slow Light

Poland, 2022. 11 minutes.

A boy who was born blind, suddenly at the age of seven sees a light. A medical examination reveals that his eyes are so dense that it takes seven years for the light to reach the retina and hence for the image to reach his consciousness.

The consequence of the eye defect translates into the mental immaturity of the man, lack of understanding of the present and belated reflections on long-gone facts. The man is never mature enough for his age and constantly lingers on the past.
Film made in original technique representing the tactile reality of the present and 2D animation showing the past.

Júlia Lantos:

Oliver the Giant
(Olivér, az óriás)

Hungary, 2023. 8 minutes.

Oliver, the giant lives on a little planet. In his perception, the whole world is his playground, where he can do what he wants. While he is living his trivial life, the little humans become preoccupied with another matter of greatest importance: building a sun clock so they can connect with the universe. This fully disturbs Oliver’s life. Starting with the growling sound of the universe, the appearance of a big shadow, he recognize his own pettiness, feels doomed, and throws himself into space.

Maria Zilli, Sara Priorelli:

Sweet Dreams

Hungary, 2023. 5 minutes.

Sweet dreams is a black comedy set in a remote motel, where a housekeeper is stuck in her monotonous work life. Sick of the repetitive humiliations by the employees and the motel guests, the woman eventually loses control and the feeling of revenge overcomes her.

Matea Kovač:

Y

Croatia, 2023. 6 minutes.

An empty paper depicts a struggle between artistic composition and decomposition as the voice of the narrator-protagonist reminisces about her tumultuous relationship with a former girlfriend.

Flóra Anna BUDA:

27

France, 2023. 11 minutes.

Alice is 27 years old today. Even though she is suffocating a bit, she still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life. After a psychedelic party on a factory roof, she has a serious drunken bike accident. Will this give her the courage to become an adult?

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: domestic violence
Scene warning: violence, murder, self mutilation, graphic sex

International Competition 3

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: death

Films in this screening:

Christoph Büttner:

In his Mercy
(In seiner Gnade)

Germany, 2022. 12 minutes.

One evening a prison director announces to a convict being executed next day. As by a miracle later at night the cell door opens. Being exhausted by endless interrogations the convict drags on through dark prison corridors. On his odyssey to gain freedom he is tossed back and forth by various mental states: his fear of being discovered, his hope for salvation and moments of sheer madness.

Isabel Santos:

SWIM!

United States, 2022. 5 minutes.

In a typical day at swim practice our protagonist is bombarded by the whistling of her eccentric coach, the burden of God’s watchful eye, the majesty of the older swimmers, and naughty recordings on her teammate’s cellphone. Not to mention the horror of getting her period. Crushes, tampons, and granola bars are the only things getting her through. All the while, our protagonist comes to understand herself and her body.

Armelle Mercat-Junot:

Wild Housemates
(Colocation sauvage)

France, 2023. 15 minutes.

A joyful goat decides to build a cabin in the jungle. But the construction process results in sharing it with dangerous roommates. Luckily she succeeds in building a friendship. However, it comes at a heavy price.

Adela Križovenská:

Doubt

Czech Republic, 2023. 6 minutes.

Doubt is a short animated essay, which through voices of four different authors from various fields of art, the film describes all stages of creative process. The combination of every animation technique imaginable, from 3D to animation on a carpet tufting, can only be matched with an equally important rich soundscape and original music.

Camila Dron:

Next time I'll join you
(La próxima te acompaño)

Argentina, 2023. 1 minutes.

Next time I’ll join you is the result of the combination of various animation techniques and supports, both physical and digital. The process begins by converting computerized images of a person’s interior into blueprints. This work seeks to play and expand the notion of the representations that technology offers us about the interior of our own body.

Aline Quertain:

Wild Tale
(Conte sauvage)

Belgium, 2023. 16 minutes.

In the middle of a boreal forest, a lonely feline meets a small bird. These two beings that nature opposes surprise and attract each other. A relationship of friendship tinged with suspicion arises between them.

Songkai Zhou:

Unnamed Road

United Kingdom, 2022. 8 minutes.

The film Unnamed Road takes the road and fate as its theme, and divides the chapters with earth, water, fire and wind. The road is the road under each person’s feet. The road is always in the process of becoming, changing and unfolding. The road has not yet reached the end, so it is called unnamed. In the film, the four elements of earth, water, fire and wind express the various encounters of individual life in the world. At the same time, these four things are also in the context of the contemporary digital age, forcing human beings to search for the connection between themselves and nature.

João Gonzalez:

Ice Merchants

Portugal, 2022. 14 minutes.

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: death

International Competition 2

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning:
LGBTQ+ persecution

Scene warning: bodily fluids and decomposition, animal cruelty

Films in this screening:

Levi STOOPS:

Drijf

Belgium, 2023. 15 minutes.

Jeremy and Aurora are lost at sea. In the vast openness of the ocean they are cooped up together on a small tree bark. As they fail to understand each other’s desires and boundaries, the fight for their survival and the survival of their relationship becomes a bloody mess. Will our castaways be able to grow while trying to make it back to shore, or will they lose a piece of themselves along the way?

Wang & Söderström:

Rehousing Technosphere

Denmark, 2022. 6 minutes.

This animated film takes place on Earth in a distant future. It offers glimpses into how life forms adapt to a new planetary ecology. Playing with the tone of a nature documentary, this film takes us into a soft desert-like world. Species exploit a degrading layer of the planet’s crust by digging, foraging, and designing new homes. What is toxic for one species is a perfect habitat for another. Among the remnants of the Anthropocene, life moves.

Vivien Hárshegyi:

Above the clouds
(Felhők felett)

Hungary, 2022. 13 minutes.

A young girl suddenly finds herself in love again. When she comes to realize this, she has to run away. A vortex takes her down to her past, where she has the opportunity to free her heart if she reinterpret the hell of her first love experience.

WANG Junjie:

The Nighthawk Is Not a Hawk

China, 2023. 8 minutes.

The Nighthawk is an ugly bird. So ugly that everyone thinks he stole the name and the Hawk demands that he relinquish it. The Nighthawk cannot accept this, but he also realizes that he’s not much different from the Hawk.

Anna Kanaicheva:

Anticipation of inevitable

Russian Federation, 2022. 3 minutes.

Five abstract short stories in the technique of oil painting, which are based on a personal interpretation of various psychological states: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

Vlad Ilicevici, Radu C Pop:

Suruaika

Romania, 2022. 9 minutes.

Kipu is a luxury chauffeur in a dark city, where the streets are full of cars and black cats. After he accidentally runs over the entire family of a little cat called Suruaika, Kipu adopts her and does all he can to keep her safe. As Kipu’s love for Suruaika grows, so does her body, and the streets become more and more crowded with black cats, new victims for countless little tragedies.

Atsushi Wada:

Ikimono-san: Turtle

Japan, 2023. 2 minutes.

With the help of his dog, a boy tries to become a turtle.

Mona keil:

Juice

Germany, 2022. 5 minutes.

Meaty creatures must learn to share their juicy world with the pesky little bugs, before they run dry.

Tom Prezman and Tzor Edery:

Maurice’s Bar

France, 2023. 15 minutes.

In 1942, on a train to nowhere, a former drag queen remembers a night from her past in one of Paris’ first queer bars. Remnants of customer gossip recall this mythic bar and its mysterious Jewish-Algerian owner.

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning:
LGBTQ+ persecution

Scene warning: bodily fluids and decomposition, animal cruelty

International Competition 1

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: death 
Scene warning: animal cruelty

Films in this screening:

Clémence BOUCHEREAU:

La saison pourpre

France, 2023. 9 minutes.

On the edge of a mangrove, a group of girls lives to the rhythm of the climate and the wild geese around them. They see each other live and grow up at different ages. As time passes, tensions arise and rivalries develop.

Nadia Goldman:

Wormwood-25

Russian Federation, 2023. 17 minutes.

Natasha is 30 years old. Her life is boring, she has a husband and a lover, and Natasha’s problem is that she got stuck in a lift when she was very little… and she still can’t get out of the darkness.

Anne Mirjam Kraav:

Tinaboatsadawu

Estonia, 2022. 8 minutes.

A dream or a reality of a young girl?

Yiyang Sun:

Frozen Frog

China, 2023. 3 minutes.

Because of the lack of common language a frog choose to be silence.

Zénó Mira:

Fox Tossing

Hungary, 2023. 8 minutes.

A garden party is held in the park of the baroque castle: the landscape is idyllic, the company is cozy, the food is aristocratic, and everything is traditional and refined. At the same time, in the other part of the garden, cages rattle, ropes rustle, and foxes whine. From the initial idyll, the film slowly moves to another level of pleasure, and a cruel game of fox throwing” begins, which becomes increasingly bloody and inhumane.

Laura Gonçalves:

The Garbage Man

Portugal, 2022. 12 minutes.

On a hot August afternoon, the family gathered at the table remembers uncle Botão: the Colonial War, emigration to France, where he lived and worked thirty years as a garbage man. Memories of each are crossed to tell the story of a man who lived a hard life through humor and fantasy, like when he returned to Belmonte, in a van full of trash, turned into a real treasure.

Misha Felix:

Sunny Side Up

United States, 2022. 3 minutes.

A girl has an irrational trauma with an egg.

Tobias Rud:

The TOBOS

Denmark, 2023. 14 minutes.

Something is wrong with Bean-TOBO’s insides.

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: death 
Scene warning: animal cruelty