Films in this screening:

Anne Verbeure:

The Golden Donkey
(De Gouden Ezel)

Belgium, 2024. 15 minutes.

As the people of a medieval village celebrate the beginning of summer, the Royal Family experiences an identity crisis. The King thinks he’s made of glass, the Princess dreams of becoming the king, and the Prince is trapped in the body of a donkey.

Zuzanna Zofia Heller:

Hello, Headquarters
(Halo, Centrala)

Poland, 2025. 5 minutes.

“Hello, Headquarters,” a voice from the phone calls out to Mirek. But Mirek already feels lost—he just wants to report the disappearance of his wife, the Great Orange. At every step, he crashes into the brutality of office bureaucracy, and to make matters worse, rain is pouring outside.

Tamás Patrovits:

Where Blue Meets Red
(Ahol a kék találkozik a pirossal)

Hungary, 2024. 5 minutes.

The film consisting of several dozens of original risograph prints, is an under-the-camera, straight-ahead animation improvised to the rhythm of the scores of Hungarian Barabás Lőrinc jazz trumpeter and composer.

Eglė Davidavičė:

The One Who Knows

Lithuania, 2024. 12 minutes.

Anxious teenager Ūla is taken on an unexpected adventure during her swimming practice, through which she grows-up and learns to see her body anew.

Eddy Wu:

IMMATURE

Taiwan, 2024. 6 minutes.

IMMATURE is an animated documentary that explores the fluidity and complexity of gender identity through the lens of body imagery. The film delves into the evolving experiences of a transgender gay man, capturing the nuances of his self-exploration. By highlighting the beauty in the ongoing process of becoming, challenging societal norms and conventional gender frameworks. The film reflects the vulnerability, resilience, and strength involved in embracing one’s true self. It offers a fresh perspective on how gender identity and body image are intertwined, inviting viewers to rethink the relationship between body, identity and self-perception.

Jessica Poon:

Moving Mountains

Germany, 2024. 6 minutes.

Tiny people wander across an endless waterscape and move mountains.

Anastazja Naumenko:

Can you hear me?

Poland, 2025. 15 minutes.

Nastia, who has lived abroad for years, starts to teach her mom how to use Internet services. Different perceptions of technology become the starting point for exposing intergenerational conflicts and long-forgotten family threads. Can an intimacy regained via zoom be a turning point for the future relationship between two adults?

Ivan Khanzhin:

In the belly of a snake

Russian Federation, 2025. 8 minutes.

I fell into the belly of a snake, spent the night without a dream of coming back. If serpent chose to spit what’s left of me, then at the break of dawn what will I be?

International Competition 5

All films that have dialogue in a language other than English, are subtitled in English.

Content warning: Flashing Lights, Nudity, Mention of Child Abuse

Kaikki elokuvat, joissa puhutaan muuta kuin englantia, on tekstitetty englanniksi.

Sisältövaroitus: Vilkkuvia valoja, Alastomuutta, Maininta lapsiin kohdistuvasta pahoinpitelystä 

Films in this screening:

Samuel Patthey:

Voiceless
(Sans voix)

Switzerland, 2024. 15 minutes.

Dan is a young man who spends a lot of time in his flat. His routine is always accompanied by electronic music pumping through his headphones. But when he steps outside, he feels disconnected from the world around him and only finds solace in nightclubs. Techno music and drugs transport him to a world where he can be himself, where he feels free. One day, he catches the eye of a baby which will change his perception of the world around him.

Maida Srabovic:

Fačuk

Croatia, Slovenia, 2025. 13 minutes.

In a God-fearing village lying between two rivers, giving birth to a fachuk — an illegitimate child — is a mortal sin. Everyone in the village recoils from the young pregnant woman who is about to give birth at any moment. In this narrow-minded and harsh rural environment, fear grows inside her.

Lizzie Watts:

FRIED!

United Kingdom, 2025. 10 minutes.

As Dev drives home from a mysterious, ageing nuclear facility, he becomes stranded at an isolated emu farm run by old mystic lesbians. Suspicious of their intentions, Dev fears they will sacrifice him at the local stone circle.

Iulia Voitova:

Long Distance
(Longue Distance)

France, 2025. 9 minutes.

An astronaut prepares for a flight into space, and a diver descends into the depths. The further apart they are, the closer they are.

Ieva Lība Ratniece:

Wandering dot and the blank square page universe

Belgium, Latvia, 2024. 5 minutes.

An immersive visual poem about a journey within a blank page. Is a blank page ever really empty? Where does an artwork begin or end? Are you the one directing creative flow or is it leading you? One may feel a creative impulse, but confronting daunting emptiness as a point of departure is inevitable. The only thing left to do is to make the first step, first dot, line or movement and suddenly the page transforms into something completely else and the multitudes it contains take up life on its own.

Julie Černá:

Stone of Destiny

Czech Republic, 2025. 10 minutes.

Stone of Destiny explores the beauty of finding your path, even when it’s fraught with uncertainty.

Marta Reis Andrade:

Dog Alone
(Cão Sozinho)

France, Portugal, 2025. 13 minutes.

A dog was abandoned in its own home at the time when my grandfather began to experience his widowhood and I was returning from London, a place where I felt lonelier than ever.

Films in this screening:

Thomas Renoldner:

STAMPFER DREAMS

Austria, 2024. 11 minutes.

STAMPFER DREAMS is a homage to the scientist Simon von Stampfer, who presented his invention of the Stroboscopic Discs in Vienna in 1833. All characters and animated sequences in STAMPFER DREAMS are taken from / based on these “optical magic discs”. The film starts in the alpine region of Simon’s childhood and vaguely follows his biography. Three ‘dreams’ depict his imagination of the further evolution mankind might make, with a watermill as the starting point for an industrial revolution that will ultimately lead to our present.

Luma Flôres:

How A River Is Born
(Como Nasce Um Rio)

Brazil, 2025. 9 minutes.

Ayla wakes up in a mountainous landscape, surrounded only by vegetation and a river. Driven by curiosity and a desire to get to know the place, she goes on a journey of discovery and diving. As she discovers where she is, she also discovers herself.

Aline Höchli:

Caries
(Karies)

Switzerland, 2025. 10 minutes.

Eager to create a monumental work of art, a shaman remains blissfully unaware that she is painting her murals inside the mouth of a vain weather presenter.

Bingqing SHU, Maud LE BRAS, Jiaxin HUANG, Simin HE, Lina HAN, Loïck DU PLESSIS D’ARGENTRÉ, Sofiia CHUIKOVSKA:

The Shyness of Trees

, 2024. 9 minutes.

Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the French countryside. But her mother isn’t being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the plants, insects, and the old oak tree at the end of her garden…

Emmaclaire sardoni:

Where the Car Flew

Belgium, Italy, 2024. 8 minutes.

On a summer’s afternoon, a kid is involved in a car accident and lands at a lunch party, he tries to remember what happened.

Felice Ronzon:

Esca

France, 2024. 7 minutes.

On a rainy day, two schoolgirls from opposite boarding schools meet. Under the immobile gaze of two giant statues, they begin to lose track of time, as the rain seems never to stop…

Niko Radas:

Psychonauts
(Psihonauti)

Croatia, 2025. 8 minutes.

Leaving their human hosts, mental disorders take on anthropomorphic forms and find new refuges.

Esteban Azuela:

Aferrado

Mexico, 2024. 18 minutes.

In the violent streets of Mexico City, Joel leads a double life fixing car engines by day and getting his hands dirty by night. Now, he must repair the toughest machine of all: his own shattered existence.

Films in this screening:

Janneke SWINKELS, Tim FRIJSINGER:

Murmuration
(ZWERMEN)

Netherlands, 2025. 13 minutes.

An elderly man realises he’s suddenly turning into a bird.

Sasha Svirsky:

Dull Spots of Greenish Colours

Germany, 2024. 11 minutes.

War for our attention has suddenly become an actual war. Information technologies appear not just as mere means for somebody’s ends but as something having their agency, as one of the acting forces rendering possible a horrific event, which is very hard to accept and almost impossible to comprehend. We have no control over it and are doomed to scroll through the newsfeed.

Marvin Hauck:

States of Matter

Netherlands, 2024. 7 minutes.

States of Matter is an experimental strata-cut animation crafted entirely from wax and paper. Inspired by Oskar Fischinger’s 1920s wax experiments, the film is the outcome of the director’s explorations during his postgraduate studies. The film’s name is derived from the creative process of shaping solid sculptures out of liquid wax, only to be systematically broken down and reanimated again. The resulting highly magnified “macro animations” are complemented by a tactile soundscape highlighting the materials’ intricate details, textures, and movements.

Kerem Yoruk, Yasir Atis:

Sapan

Turkey, 2025. 6 minutes.

One ordinary summer day, a child living in the Anatolian countryside kills a bird with his slingshot and is drawn into a whirlwind of intense emotions as he feels deep remorse.

Clémence Taveau:

Little Saints
(Jugement dernier)

France, 2024. 4 minutes.

On a school trip to Italy, three school friends share a bedroom in a convent.

Evridiki Papaiakovou:

Poppy Flowers

Estonia, 2024. 4 minutes.

Remembering is a fluid affair. A daughter tries to reconcile with her mother through memories of their shared rituals, exposing the intricate aspects of their relationship. As the daughter matures, she begins to contemplate conventional notions of divinity. The blank frames of the 35mm strip regain their function as memorabilia in the process of engraving her past onto its surface.

Edmunds Jansons:

Freeride in C

Latvia, 2024. 10 minutes.

The white tranquility of mountains is disturbed by colorful winter sports enthusiasts who enjoy downhill skiing. The short film is an audiovisual experience, an abstract dance of freedom that reflects the joy and fragility of being.

Quirijn Dees:

Pubert Jimbob

Belgium, 2024. 16 minutes.

Pubert Jimbob, a young man, enters a strange reality after getting lured away from his home by an enigmatic figure, who throws him a lighter. Jimbob meets Nadine, a lump with a mouth, and helps her.

Films in this screening:

Fabienne WAGENAAR:

Sweeter is the night
(Plus douce est la nuit)

France, 2024. 18 minutes.

In the early 1960s, at a time of independence in West Africa, a young French officer is commissioned by the metropolis to find a missing missionary priest. An investigation amid mistrust and indifference, silence and prejudice, that takes the young officer far from the light of the shores, where day and night merge.

Chihiro Yamanaka:

Veils of Landscape
(霞始めてたなびく)

Japan, 2025. 5 minutes.

The east wind begins to blow, carrying warmth into the water. Landscapes merge without boundaries, and in time, the mountains drift into slumber.

Shui Yuan:

Not Satisfied, Redo
(不满意，重做)

China, 2025. 5 minutes.

The gaming streamer, records a new game review experience.

Áron Farkas:

Magic Gulyás

Germany, 2024. 9 minutes.

Two outsiders meet at the same place again and again to be alone together. Between the monotony of everyday life and the feeling of not truly belonging anywhere.

Sara Priorelli:

My Good Boy

Hungary, 2025. 6 minutes.

A day in a life of a woman who is busy taking care of her obese dog. Her lovely show of affection towards the animal is interrupted by the arrival of her partner, who, in need of the attention of the woman, affects the cozy atmosphere of the house.

Mattia Bioli:

Cubit

Italy, 2024. 15 minutes.

A worm was born from the smallest molecules in the world; now it embarks on an endless journey in search of a distant galaxy.

Pierre-Luc Granjon:

The Night Boots
(Les Bottes de la Nuit)

Not Specified, 2024. 12 minutes.

While his parents are welcoming friends, a child leaves home in the middle of the night and enters the undergrowth, wearing rubber boots. There, a strange beast, curious and solitary, will lead him into the heart of the forest to meet the nocturnal creatures that live there, and so as not to be alone again, will try to delay the child’s departure as long as possible.