Event category: International competition

Zharko Ivanov:

The Long coming of the fire

North Macedonia, 2024. 5 minutes.

In The Long Coming of the Fire, a short animation inspired by the poem of the same name by the poet Atso Shopov, the director of the film confronts his father’s terminal illness and the transience of life. The film is mainly composed of animated MRI scans of the now late parent.

Pauline Carette:

Aquarium

Belgium, 2026. 6 minutes.

A man remains strangely unperturbed as a water leak progressively floods his house. 

Laurence Thérien:

Ball Face

United Kingdom, 2026. 5 minutes.

Life throws curveballs, whether you catch them or not. It’s how you react that determines whether you survive. Ball face follows a middle school girl who, terrified of sports, survives a chaotic ball game by accidentally bouncing a ball off her face, discovering an unconventional tactic that leads to victory. By the end of the game, she’s completely transformed.

Lilli Carré:

Evacuations

United States, 2025. 7 minutes.

Painted formless figures haunt recent photos of emptied-out public spaces. As cell-animated smear frames, they perform various repetitive acts in these settings, with movements expressing the helpless, frantic energy felt in our current moment. Earth and organs are emptied, situations are fled. The figures become displaced from their locations, as their environments dissolve and their printed record evaporates.

Lea Favre:

Hunting
(Qui part à la chasse)

Switzerland, 2025. 11 minutes.

Today, Lea is going in search of a subject for a documentary film. When she believes she’s finally caught her prey, the roles end up being reversed. The hunter becomes the hunted.

LeoLuna ROBERT-TOURNEUR:

My name is Lilith

Belgium, France, 2025. 14 minutes.

My name is Lilith. I am the first woman created alongside Adam. My encounter with Eve will shatter every stereotype that we’ve been trapped in.

Ilya Barrett:

TAUT

Germany, 2025. 6 minutes.

Stringo the Stunted Wellow doesn’t fit in with his flock. While they stay still when the wind blows, Stringo jerks and twitches. Life isn’t what it used to be, but he’s okay with that—his world is quiet and calm. One day, a scary, hand-shaped creature enters their grove. The others pretend to be dead, but Stringo’s movements get him noticed. The creature grabs him and drags him away. Stringo fights back and wins, but he’s changed. When he returns, his flock doesn’t recognize or accept him. With nowhere left to go, Stringo lets the wind carry him.

Maria Cristina Perez Gonzalez:

Once in a body
(Una vez en una cuerpa)

Colombia, United States, 2025. 10 minutes.

While dealing with a strange being that lives inside her, a woman seeks to reconcile with her sister over an incident from their adolescence. By exploring the experiences they share through their bodies, she manages to confront the nature of what inhabits her.

Sylwia SZKIŁĄDŹ:

Autokar

Belgium, France, 2025. 17 minutes.

In the 1990s, 8-year-old Agata leaves Poland for Belgium. Through her eyes, the reality of migration becomes an initiatory experience.

Radheya Jang:

Trading Cards

Australia, United Kingdom, 2026. 15 minutes.

An enigmatic man journeys back in time to find his younger self, seemingly to revisit the nostalgia of trading cards. An exploration of identity, mental health and the erosion of childhood innocence, Trading Cards is a dark fantasy animated film about the weight of living with Obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Florian Schönerstedt:

Invisible Walls
(Murs Invisibles)

France, 2025. 5 minutes.

This film is made from a stop motion sequence consisting solely of pieces of glass harvested on the shores of the Mediterranean. They were collected in a logic of ‘care’ for surveyed natural spaces. Symbol of the forces of nature that overwhelm us and slowly transform the artifacts we leave behind. The title is a direct reference to Marlene Haushofer’s book, Le mur invisible, which describes a feminine Robinsonnade.

Elizabeth Hobbs:

Daughters of the Late Colonel

United Kingdom, 2026. 9 minutes.

After the death of their ill-tempered and controlling father, two middle-aged sisters find themselves at a loss. An unexpected visitor sparks the courage in them to begin their lives anew. 

Henri Veermäe:

Uka-uka

Estonia, 2026. 12 minutes.

Battling boredom, a little boy gets trapped in the boot of a car. When he gets out, he’s no longer the same.

Abigél Dérczy:

Ř

Czechia, 2025. 3 minutes.

Since 2022, I have been visiting the Czech Republic regularly, simply because I really enjoy being here. Every time I talk to someone Czech, the conversation somehow often ends up in the same place: the letter Ř. People tell me how difficult it is to pronounce, some even spent years learning to say it properly.

Rachel Shiloach:

Me and You and Smoke

United Kingdom, 2025. 8 minutes.

A fire ignites, and a boy’s fantasies about a girl dissolve into a haunting reality he can’t escape.

Lola Degove:

Le bain des Sirenes

France, 2026. 15 minutes.

Every year, Rose and Lina, two sisters who aren’t particularly close, have to make the trip to Ostend in Belgium for the traditional New Year’s Day swim imposed by their mother. Problem: she is no longer there… she’s dead.

Between a wild boar, a disco lady, and knights, Rose and Lina try to get along.

Yini GUO:

Plankton α
(プランクトン α)

Japan, 2026. 4 minutes.

Within microscopic life, I see loneliness overlapping with a longing for something. There, a gentle waver seems to carry a hope to belong somewhere, or perhaps a wish to remain pure.

Areito Echevarria:

The Amazing Adam!

New Zealand, 2025. 9 minutes.

A young boy explores the darkest depths of his grumpy grandfather’s garage, where he’s confronted by the surreal memories of the man he thought he knew.

Conor Kehelly:

A PINT OF BITTER

Ireland, 2025. 9 minutes.

You are trying to enjoy a quiet pint in the pub but a patron and his son seemingly have a problem with your demeanour.

Ian Kelewae:

O' Bingo!

United States, 2025. 5 minutes.

An old lady walks her dog and a Magical plant finds canine camaraderie in midst of the chaos of human ownership.

Juan Camilo González:

Decay
(Decaer)

Colombia, 2025. 7 minutes.

I am grateful to the Chinese for the invention of gunpowder — it feels as if they made it for me.

Maria Karlovic:

Tourists

France, Slovakia, 2025. 15 minutes.

A routine work trip for married couple Hana and Kornel suddenly turns into an adventurous struggle for survival. In a remote forest, far from civilization, they are forced to face not only the wilderness, but also the fragile terrain of their long-term, stagnant relationship.

Sam KUWA:

So He Grabbed the Knife

Japan, 2026. 12 minutes.

The boy takes the knife his father once gave him. Did what followed make him a “man”?

Winston Hacking:

Action Bog

Canada, 2025. 1 minutes.

A feverish stasis collapses into infinite distraction, spinning on the axis of an algorithm. Each pulse, an uncertain tone, breathes electricity into a half-alive world. Time stretches like soft polymer; metamorphoses creep forward frame by frame, suspiciously slow, as if the film were watching me back.

Shunyuan Yao:

Taming Phenomena

Estonia, 2025. 10 minutes.

A short film that depicts a metamorphosis from “chicken” to “elephant”: animation enables metamorphosis precisely because it realizes a transformation from image to concept. This frame-based, time-driven movement not only constructs form, but also grants images a capacity for expansion that static objects lack. Just as chickens and elephants are not only natural creatures but also carry distinct cultural meanings in human society, Taming Phenomena presents an animated dialogue from chicken to elephant, through an exploration of cinematic and animation techniques and production methods.

Daiyu LI:

When The Mountains Shook

Japan, 2025. 2 minutes.

The world that appears calm on the surface is, in fact, quietly changing. One day, a man as unshakable as a mountain fell because of a toothache.

Theodor Ushev:

La vie avec un idiot

France, 2025. 18 minutes.

Accused by the authorities of not working hard enough, Vladimir’s punishment is to live with an idiot. He chooses him from an insane asylum, and his name is Vova. This idiot can only pronounce one syllable: ouh.

Alex Rey:

Poor Marciano
(Pobre Marciano)

Spain, 2025. 7 minutes.

The name you are given at birth can mark your destiny. Marciano knows a lot about that, who only wants a friend to sing with… But the universe always conspires to make your dreams come true.

Jelena Milunović:

Floating

Serbia, 2025. 7 minutes.

A daughter gradually realizes that her father is struggling with mental illness. Isolated and rejected by society, he lives alone in a dark apartment, drifting like a balloon. She tries to find a way to reconnect and bring him back to solid ground.

Yeonwoo Kim:

Fingerbang

South Korea, 2026. 15 minutes.

Rejected by everyone, a woman follows a mysterious finger into a surreal realm, where a tender yet unsettling touch slowly begins to twist her reality.

Diego Akel:

January Notes
(Notas de Janeiro)

Brazil, 2026. 4 minutes.

Some notes on a particular January.

Zsuzsanna Kreif:

Adgwa Ata

France, Hungary, 2026. 15 minutes.

Abducted into a jungle tribe’s brutal initiation, three adolescent girls enter a divine dimension—where taming their soul animals, giant snakes become the only path to adulthood.

Jack Wedge, Will Freudenheim:

Acid City

United States, 2026. 13 minutes.

A documentary film crew visits a flooded city in the middle of a great acidic ocean.

Tanja Nuijten:

Sensual

Germany, 2025. 4 minutes.

“Sensual” offers an unusual, subjective, and deeply intimate perspective on the feeling of physical closeness and tenderness. Using animal metaphors, the film takes us on a journey through the intimate emotions of the foreplay, unfolding into the gentle and loving touches of our partner.

Leo Cernic:

Cosmonauts

Italy, Slovenia, 2026. 14 minutes.

On an intergalactic cruise for singles, lonely souls chase a kiss, a caress, or just a glimpse of love among the stars.

Xie Li:

A Taste of Beer

China, 2025. 5 minutes.

A son came home and told his father that he had won the school football game, so his father wanted his son’s glory to be seen by everyone.

Živa Divjak:

Our Walls

Czech Republic, 2026. 7 minutes.

An animated documentary that, through an intimate conversation between a daughter and a mother, searches for understanding and explores family bonds. The film reveals the inner conflict between freedom and sacrifice. Gradually, walls that connect and confine us across generations emerge, shaping who we are to ourselves and to one another.

Kiana Naghshineh:

With Tapes and Toasts in the Car
(Im Auto Tapes und Butterbrot)

Germany, 2025. 14 minutes.

In the face of her body fading into stardust, Shari realizes what truly matters to her.

Karolina Chabier:

KOSMOGONIA

France, 2025. 15 minutes.

In an endless night, The Great One, a bison goddess, meets The Small One, a goat-like goddess. A friendship settles between them and with it a new world: the stars, the sun, the earth and living beings emerge. The animals leave the waters, grow, and a luxuriant forest appears. As the world evolves, the two goddesses are overtaken by their power of creation.

Quirijn Dees:

Symbionts

Switzerland, 2025. 9 minutes.

Symbionts traces an organic cycle of interaction within an unfamiliar ecosystem, revealing its radiant elegance as well as its unrelenting violence.

Daan Lucas:

Life of the Organoid

Netherlands, 2025. 4 minutes.

On a pale savanna plain lives the Organoid, a strange fleshy creature that eats, drinks, and sleeps. In the distance, a menacing figure approaches. When the Organoid notices, it flees, only to discover the figure is a fellow of its kind. In a mating ritual they merge into a pulsating tower that hurls new life into the world. A new Organoid rises, and the cycle begins again.

Anna MURIE:

SCREAM! IT'S GROWING!
(HURLE ! ÇA POUSSE !)

France, 2026. 3 minutes.

Social media lies to us. No, we can’t all become, overnight, an imposing muscle machine, sexy and topped with abundant hair. Well yes, we can, but at what cost ? A colorful and pop tour of the not-so-wonderful world of gym bros.

Niles Atallah:

Merrimundi

Chile, 2025. 21 minutes.

A twisted utopia unfolds, as singing cherubs melt to the sound of decay. Crafted by a sentient machine from the future, it unveils its own version of paradise.