Event category: International competition

La Voix de Sirènes

Imagined Connections

International Competition 3

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

Content warning: The screening includes sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää seksuaalista sisältöä.

Films in this screening:

Yanqi Liang:

Bergamot
(佛手)

China, 2023. 7 minutes.

“Bergamot”, also translated as “Buddha’s hand”, explores the binary mother-daughter relationship as it shifts as it grows. Buddha’s hand and hand are similar but different, opposites but compatible, referring to the mother-daughter relationship, resembling but refusing to resemble, contradicting but adhering to each other, separating but connecting.

Ryo Orikasa:

Miserable Miracle

France, 2023. 8 minutes.

Inspired by the poems and drawings of Henri Michaux about his experience with Mescaline, Miserable Miracle explores the limits of language and perception, creating connections between sound, meaning, shapes and movement.

Tan Lui Chan:

Keep Out

Hong Kong, 2024. 8 minutes.

Individuals live in tiny, isolated rooms away from the hazards of the outside world. They make a living through live video streaming, connecting with others in the virtual realm. Yet, on one fateful day, a chubby boy stumbles upon an unexpected secret.

Alexey Evstigneev:

Father's Letters

France, 2024. 12 minutes.

In 1934, Professor Vangengheim is condemned to the Gulag on the Solovki. As he pretends to be on a grand voyage of exploration, he crafts imaginative tales in letters to his daughter Eleonora, shielding her from the truth of his sentencing as a “traitor to the motherland”.

Cheyenne Goudswaard:

I Am Here
(Ik Ben Hier)

Netherlands, 2023. 5 minutes.

The fear of oblivion can be overwhelming, but it can also be a driving force. Ik Ben Hier / I Am Here explores the need to imprint ourselves onto the world and build a legacy.

Veljko Popovic, Milivoj Popovic:

Zarko, You Will Spoil the Child!
(Zarko, razmazit ces dite!)

Croatia, 2024. 14 minutes.

The film recounts the memories of a childhood in Split in the 1980s. These are stories retold after Sunday lunch when everyone is in a good mood, stories filled with emotions we can easily relate to. But above all, the film is a moving tribute to the love of a grandpa and grandma who did their best to keep their granddaughter smiling.

La Voix de Sirènes

Gianluigi Toccafondo:

La Voix des Sirènes

Italy, 2023. 20 minutes.

In the heart of the seabed, between rocks and corals primitive seaweed ripples, cradled by the muffled sound of roiling currents. Up there, on the surface of the water, something extraordinary has just appeared: a voice. So soft and seductive that it’s unlike anything we’ve heard before.

Maria Zilli:

Giovanna and the big peacock

Italy, 2023. 3 minutes.

Giovanna Is a warrior. She Is wandering on her horse in a colorful gummy world in search of a mysterious creature, until…a rhythmic sound shakes her. All of a sudden Giovanna wakes up in the greyness of the real world

International Competition 3

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

Content warning: The screening includes sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää seksuaalista sisältöä.

Twisted Impact

International Competition 1

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

Content warning: The screening includes horror elements.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää kauhuelementtejä.

Films in this screening:

Mario Radev:

[S]

United Kingdom, 2024. 12 minutes.

[S] is an artwork that exposes the lifespan of infinity. The film delves into an immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.

Zarja Menart:

Three Birds
(Tri ticice)

Slovenia, 2024. 18 minutes.

A wise birdwoman sends three birds to guide a girl into the dark unknown landscapes of her inner world.

Catherine Buffat, Jean-Luc Greco:

A Very Twisted Tale
(Un conte très tordu)

France, 2024. 14 minutes.

Every evening, Brindone, a teenager, goes to bed before the end of the TV programs. Every evening, instead of going to bed discreetly, his big brother Musclor turns on the light in their shared bedroom to annoy him. Every evening the same routine. Brindone can’t take it anymore.

Shuxin Yan WANG:

Macro Micro

Hong Kong, 2024. 1 minutes.

Macro Micro is a short film that explores the micro and macro aspects of Hong Kong city. The film brings to light the melody of the surroundings that we often overlook. It invites us to re-examine the environment we live in and enjoy the sound and visuals of the city.

Mansi Maheshwari:

BUNNYHOOD

United Kingdom, 2024. 9 minutes.

Bobby loves her mum. She trusts her. Their relationship is UNBREAKABLE. Or so she thinks. When she is surprised by a last minute trip to the hospital, an innocent check-up soon turns into a twisted lie. As she tries to escape this deranged nightmare, she realises that there is only one person to blame for all this … mum.

Yingdan Lai:

Fish

United States, 2024. 7 minutes.

A love-hate relationship between a girl and her pet fish which leads to regret.

Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki:

Zima

Poland, 2023. 26 minutes.

It grows slowly as an icicle, but one day it drops and crashes. Anka loves cats. And Jesus. In a winter silence the lagoon freezes and the unspoken resurfaces like crack on ice. Mosaic portrait of a small fisherman’s village where human to human, human to animal, animal to animal interdepend on a delicate balance of warm tender care and cold emotional cruelty. An eerie story of loneliness and community narrated with magical realism.

International Competition 1

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

Content warning: The screening includes horror elements.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää kauhuelementtejä.

Lost & Found

International Competition 2

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

Content warning: The screening includes horror elements, nudity, bloody violence and sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää kauhuelementtejä, alastomuutta, veristä väkivaltaa ja seksuaalista sisältöä.

Films in this screening:

Nicolas KEPPENS:

Beautiful Men

Belgium, 2023. 19 minutes.

Three balding brothers travel to Istanbul to get a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair.

Ada Napiorkowski:

Swifts

Estonia, 2024. 5 minutes.

Like each year, the swifts are coming back to their homes in the sleeping districts. This time they don’t find any humans. The space is filled with spirits.

Ziyin Wang:

Ice Rink
(溜冰场)

China, 2024. 10 minutes.

The story revolves around me as the protagonist, reminiscing about past memories while sitting alone under a tree in front of the ice rink late at night. Feeling uncertain about the future and confused by past memories, I contemplate. A chance encounter with a stranger leads to a conversation where we share stories about feelings of security and loneliness during growth. Through this exchange, I realized that everyone experiences confusion and loneliness at times and that mutual support can provide warmth and encouragement. In parallel, there’s a subplot involving the stranger’s high school classmate, the “Chemistry Class Representative,” who ran away from school due to unnoticed psychological struggles. Here, I employ the metaphor of the ‘elephant in the room.’ Feeling lonely and helpless, with no sense of belonging, he chose to run away. Throughout the film, the Chemistry Class Representative is on the run, searching for a place where he can feel safe and warm. In the second chapter, “Big Animals,” he transforms into a small elephant in the darkness and finds the rest of the herd. They communicate with each other, providing warmth and solace to one another. I believe adolescence’s confusion doesn’t have quick fixes. Yet, sharing feelings with understanding friends helps us navigate and move forward. Emotions are universal, but life sometimes dulls our empathy, hindering understanding. I hope everyone’s inner struggles can be noticed by themselves and understood by others. As dawn breaks, I gather myself and move forward toward the skating rink, embracing a new beginning.

Luciana Martinez:

FIA

Argentina, 2024. 6 minutes.

A strange animal survives a fire and walks through a burned forest desperately searching for its home. Its nest is in ashes. In the midst of its pain, it discovers moisture in its tears, and embarks on a sensory search for something living to feed.

Alice SAEY:

Flatastic

France, 2024. 17 minutes.

Pushed to their limit, the Manta Rays rise up against Man to take control of the Earth; it is the dawning of a new Flat era.

Nikki Schuster:

subotopic

Austria, 2023. 7 minutes.

“subotopic” is the immediate perception of fantastic and convoluted existences, visualized through movement and light. Existing parallel worlds under water are made visible and new utopias are created. The gaze dives below the water surface downwards through a bizarre growth of images. In macroscopic single-frame animation, various plant formations and arthropods pass by the viewer until we are immersed once again in a surface of light. Water spaces and light surfaces alternate, above and below, inside and outside dissolve. A dive into a mystical underwater world where reality and utopia meet.

Alexey Sukhov:

The Mole
(Крот)

Russian Federation, 2023. 14 minutes.

Victor, at the request of his wife, goes for a pipe cleaning liquid “The Mole”. On the way, he reflects and philosophizes, but a sudden incident leads him to a memory loss. Thus, a series of events is launched in which the hero is forced to try on different essences of the word Mole.

International Competition 2

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

Content warning: The screening includes horror elements, nudity, bloody violence and sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää kauhuelementtejä, alastomuutta, veristä väkivaltaa ja seksuaalista sisältöä.

Mysterious Visions

International Competition 4

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

Content warning: The screening includes nudity and sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää alastomuutta ja seksuaalista sisältöä.

Films in this screening:

Elie CHAPUIS:

Canard

Switzerland, 2023. 9 minutes.

Vladimir and Olga raise ducks on a small isolated farm in the countryside. They hope for a child, but this expectation soon turns into a nightmare.

Niles Atallah:

Vitanuova

Chile, 2023. 14 minutes.

In a fable made by hyper-mechanisms of the future, a message in an algorithmic bottle relives a story of extinction from the past to a clay humanoid in the present.

Pablo Ballarín:

A border guard and his dog

Spain, 2023. 3 minutes.

A visit to the border between Belarus and Poland

Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves:

Percebes

France, 2024. 11 minutes.

With the sea and the urban Algarve as a background, we follow a complete cycle of the life of a special shellfish called PERCEBES, goose barnacle. From their formation, to the dish, in this journey, we cross different contexts that allow us to better understand this region and those who live there.

Çağıl Harmandar:

Vision

Japan, 2023. 7 minutes.

Eyes are magical spheres that make up dreams and retain memories. In our eyes, the visions of the within and of the beyond overlap. New worlds come to be when our gazes meet.

Eleni Aerts:

Red Meat

Belgium, 2024. 6 minutes.

A visualization of pain and discomfort.

Florence Miailhe:

Papillon (Butterfly)

France, 2024. 15 minutes.

In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface. From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water. Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic. This story will be that of his last swim. It will take us from the source to the river – from the waters of childhood pools to those of swimming pools – from a North African country to the shores of the Mediterranean – from Olympic stadiums to water retention basins – from concentration camp to the dream beaches of Reunion.

Nina GANTZ:

Wander to Wonder

Belgium, 2023. 14 minutes.

Mary, Billybud and Fumbleton are three miniature, human actors who perform in an eighties kids TV series called “Wander to Wonder”. After the creator of the series has died, they are left alone in the studio. With their slowly decaying costumes and growing hunger, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans.

International Competition 4

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

Content warning: The screening includes nudity and sexual content.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää alastomuutta ja seksuaalista sisältöä.

All or Nothing

International Competition 5

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

Content warning: The screening includes flashing lights and nudity.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää välkkyviä valoja ja seksuaalista sisältöä.

Films in this screening:

Luca Tóth:

Vegan Mayo

Hungary, 2024. 5 minutes.

She is all that: A super empath, a justice warrior and your favourite confidence queen… but then again maybe just a sausage.

Rachel GUTGARTS:

Via Dolorosa

France, 2023. 11 minutes.

Between drug addiction, first discoveries of sexuality and a permanent state of war, the filmmaker searches for her lost youth by wandering the streets of Jerusalem.

Max Hattler:

O/S

Germany, 2023. 5 minutes.

Taking inspiration from 20th-century avant-garde experiments in graphical sound generation, the entire image in O/S functions as an optical soundtrack. Abstract motion becomes sound. What you hear is exactly what you see.

Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp:

Matta and Matto

Switzerland, 2023. 10 minutes.

In a dystopian world where touch is forbidden, Matta and Matto offer refuge to the lonely at Hotel Vaip. In the deceptive labyrinth of mind bending rooms at their transient hotel, deepest desires are fulfilled and surpassed, but this comes at a price.

Bianca Scali:

it's just a whole

Germany, 2023. 11 minutes.

“She knew this day would come and the choice she’d have to make. But as it finally comes, Maya cannot wrap her head around it. A mole – it’s so small, so insignificant, just a mark… How can it be so hard to part from it? Can Maya ever feel whole again when a bit of her is taken away?”

José Prats:

Adiós

United Kingdom, 2024. 9 minutes.

Pedro, 72, is trying to deal with the imminent departure of his son moving away from home. Alex, 38, has landed a job as a nurse all the way in England and knows that moving will be hard for his father. As they go on one last hunt, which is filled with repressed words and feelings, they discover that their dog Canela has swallowed fox poison. Alex and Pedro both deal with this tragedy with opposing views. Will this disaster help them to bond and finally connect over the deep sadness Pedro feels?

Monsieur Pimpant:

The Choolers: Fish and Meat
(The Choolers: Viandes & Poissons)

Belgium, 2023. 13 minutes.

“Viandes et Poisson” pulls you into the world of experimental hip-hop group Choolers Division, whose members are artists-in-residence at the art brut center La S in Belgium. From a humorous crescendo of energy, they create a new song, setting intuition and emotion to a beat, giving a glimpse into a cacophony of deep friendship and unbridled creativity in a world that often seeks to ignore them.

Stephen Vuillemin:

A kind of Testament
(Un genre de testament)

France, 2023. 16 minutes.

A young woman comes across animations on the Internet that have clearly been created from her private selfies. An unknown female with the same name confesses to identity theft. But death is quicker than the answer to the question: “Why?”

International Competition 5

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

Content warning: The screening includes flashing lights and nudity.

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

Sisältövaroitus: Näytös sisältää välkkyviä valoja ja seksuaalista sisältöä.