Competitive sections
DANG WO WANG XIANG NI DE SHI HOU / WILL YOU LOOK AT ME
SHULI HUANG – 2022 / CHINA
DANG WO WANG XIANG NI DE SHI HOU / WILL YOU LOOK AT ME
SHULI HUANG – 2022 / CHINA
As a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search for himself, a long due conversation with his mother dives the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love.
EL PERRO DE UN TORERO / A BULLFIGHTER’S DOG
SANDRA ROMERO – 2022 / SPAIN
EL PERRO DE UN TORERO / A BULLFIGHTER’S DOG
SANDRA ROMERO – 2022 / SPAIN
In the abandoned bullring of Ecija (a village in Andalusia, Spain) Jesus, an eleven-year-old boy, plays football. He and his friends spend the afternoon inventing new ways to pass the time. But that afternoon is going to be different: he is going to kill a man. Left behind by his mates, Jesús starts to abandon his childhood to enter an adult world that he is not yet ready to understand.
SNOW IN SEPTEMBER
LKHAGVADULAM PUREV-OCHIR – 2022 / MONGOLIA, FRANCE
SNOW IN SEPTEMBER
LKHAGVADULAM PUREV-OCHIR – 2022 / MONGOLIA, FRANCE
Davka is a teenager who lives in the decaying Soviet buildings in Ulaanbaatar. With his classmate, Anuka, they talk about manga and tease each other about sex. When Davka encounters an older woman, his ideas about intimacy and his view of relationships are forced to change.
LUZ NOCTURNA / NIGHT LIGHT
KIM TORRES – 2022 / COSTA RICA
LUZ NOCTURNA / NIGHT LIGHT
KIM TORRES – 2022 / COSTA RICA
A tale about solitude portrayed from the intimacy of three siblings who are about to receive one of the harshest news of their lives. In the midst of it all the forest accompanies them, but also haunts them.
MA MÈRE ET MOI / MY MOTHER AND ME
EMMA BRANDERHORST – 2023 / NETHERLANDS
MA MÈRE ET MOI / MY MOTHER AND ME
EMMA BRANDERHORST – 2023 / NETHERLANDS
Kees, 17 years old, wants to break free from her mother Lois and decides to take a language course in France. During their ‘last’ trip together Lois struggles with their changing relationship, while Kees can’t wait to start her own adventure.
AQUERONTE
MANUEL MUÑOZ RIVAS – 2023 / SPAIN
AQUERONTE
MANUEL MUÑOZ RIVAS – 2023 / SPAIN
On board a ferry, a series of passengers cross a river from one riverbank to the other. Some of the travelers wrap themselves in silence and observe the unfamiliar fellow travelers or contemplate the scenery. Some others chat, perhaps to liven up the voyage and speed up time. The journey on the waters seems to expand, the destination shore is postponed, the magnitude of space is blurred. Motion itself is perhaps the only certainty.
THE FLYING SAILOR
AMANDA FORBIS AND WENDY TILBY – 2022 / CANADA
THE FLYING SAILOR
AMANDA FORBIS AND WENDY TILBY – 2022 / CANADA
Two ships collide in a harbour, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward. With ears ringing, blood pulsing and guts heaving, he soars high above the mayhem and towards the great unknown. A bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy, “The Flying Sailor” is an exhilarating contemplation of the wonder and fragility of existence.
DAPHNE
TONIA MISHIALI – 2022 / CYPRUS, GREECE
DAPHNE
TONIA MISHIALI – 2022 / CYPRUS, GREECE
Divorcee Daphne lives with her 10-year-old socially awkward son, who has hardly any communication with her. She works from home due to the pandemic restrictive measures, so she has no other physical interaction. She signs up on a dating app and switches from one sexual partner to the next, but does not seem to be satisfied at least not with what she thought she needed; until she finds a wounded dog in the street. How far would she go to feel affection once again?
45TH PARALLEL
LAWRENCE ABU HAMDAN – 2022 / UNITED KINGDOM
45TH PARALLEL
LAWRENCE ABU HAMDAN – 2022 / UNITED KINGDOM
A monologue is performed in a building that inhabits the thickness of a borderline, telling stories of permeable borders and impermeable laws, reflecting on how free movement, free knowledge and free space are under threat.
AIRHOSTESS-737
THANASIS NEOFOTISTOS – 2022 / GREECE
AIRHOSTESS-737
THANASIS NEOFOTISTOS – 2022 / GREECE
Vanina, a 39 y.o, flying attendant, works on a domestic flight on a Boeing-737. She complains for her recently attached braces, in a late attempt for a perfect smile. What she really has to do is to confront her, since forever, absent mother, whose body is in the cargo area of that plane.
ULISES
FÉLIX BRIXEL – 2022 / SPAIN
ULISES
FÉLIX BRIXEL – 2022 / SPAIN
Ulises, a man who suffers from a psychomotor disorder, is cared for by his brother. One day he leaves the house and tries to bury himself. The brother, powerless, no longer knows what to do to take care of him.
SWEATSHOP GIRL
SELMA CERVANTES – 2022 / MÉXICO
SWEATSHOP GIRL
SELMA CERVANTES – 2022 / MÉXICO
Inés works as a seamstress in a sweatshop where pregnancy tests are periodically administered. When she becomes pregnant, she is sure that her condition will get her fired. She does everything she can to keep it a secret.
MAGMA
LUCA MEISTERS – 2023 / NETHERLANDS
MAGMA
LUCA MEISTERS – 2023 / NETHERLANDS
The world of the introverted but fiery Esra has been turned upside down. Her father has become disabled after a recent motorcycle accident and as a result, they had to move to a new place. Struggling with his limitations, Esra’s father isn’t the man she once knew. At her new school, she tells a lie that results in a lot of positive attention, but of which she is unable to oversee the consequences. The pain, anger, and shame that boil inside of her will inevitably find their way to the surface.
YMPYRÄN NELIÖIMISESTÄ / SQUARE THE CIRCLE
HANNA HOVITIE – 2023 / FINLAND
YMPYRÄN NELIÖIMISESTÄ / SQUARE THE CIRCLE
HANNA HOVITIE – 2023 / FINLAND
Square the Circle is a little circular film about one person’s round trip out to the (un)known universe and into themselves, in search of a sense of belonging. To “square the circle” is an attempt to do the impossible: look into infinity, accept the perpetual passing of time, survive a long dark winter in the Northern Hemisphere or find one’s own place when you don’t quite fit in. To be a circle in a world of squares.
ENDLESS SEA
SAM SHAINBERG – 2022 / USA
ENDLESS SEA
SAM SHAINBERG – 2022 / USA
Carol, 70, begins a normal day only to find out that her heart medication has doubled in price. Afraid, but not without hope, she sets out to find a solution. She goes to work, tries to borrow from family and friends, even attempts a desperate appeal to the Social Security Administration, only too in the end be forced into a desperate act of revolution.
INVINCIBLE
VINCENT RENÉ-LORTIE – 2022 / CANADA
INVINCIBLE
VINCENT RENÉ-LORTIE – 2022 / CANADA
Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a esperate quest for freedom.
RUOVESI
ANDREA ZAPATA-GIRAU – 2023 / SPAIN
RUOVESI
ANDREA ZAPATA-GIRAU – 2023 / SPAIN
Cecilia, a survivor of the Chilean military repression, combines, from her exile in Finland, internal and political struggle, geographical and family disintegration. At her side, her granddaughter Aava, offering her a new place from which to relieve, for a moment, the burden of her persistent and fragmented re-telling. Based on the life of Silvia Eliana Aedo, who plays Cecilia.
CIVIC
DWAYNE LEBLANC – 2022 / USA
CIVIC
DWAYNE LEBLANC – 2022 / USA
CIVIC is a short film that follows Booker on his first trip back home to South Central, L.A. after several years of self-imposed exile. Without any clear motive, or even a warning, Booker returns to the place that holds his origins and the people who shaped him. Framed almost exclusively inside of his car, CIVIC tracks Booker’s fleeting and fragmented encounters around his old streets.
ANANSI
AUDE N’GUESSAN FORGET – 2022 / FRANCE
ANANSI
AUDE N’GUESSAN FORGET – 2022 / FRANCE
Eden, an afro hairdresser, tries to overcome her recurrent stomach aches by taking it upon herself. Not heard by the medical profession, she tries to take care of herself. When her pains catch up with her, her daily life becomes unbearable.
ALICIA FAI COUSAS / ALICIA DOES STUFF
ÁNGEL SANTOS – 2023 / SPAIN
ALICIA FAI COUSAS / ALICIA DOES STUFF
ÁNGEL SANTOS – 2023 / SPAIN
Alicia has developed a fixation. She has convinced herself that she is boring. Or maybe she’s bored. Maybe everything’s boring. We follow her and her obsession as she gets ready for a casting, figures out whether she should take a course or not or maybe go to a party.
WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME
MO HARAWE – 2022 / GERMANY, AUSTRIA, SOMALIA
WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME
MO HARAWE – 2022 / GERMANY, AUSTRIA, SOMALIA
Somalia. A policewoman sits in her parked car. After a while, she gets out, puts on her service cap, and enters the prison. There, decisive hours have dawned for young Farah. Organizational machinery starts up around him. Farah is examined by a doctor, instructed by the bailiff, and looked after by an imam. Farah is waiting for his parents to visit.
“How are you?” is the question everyone asks him that day. Each time, “Good” is his concise answer. Only when the policewoman takes Farah out of town the next morning does the unspeakable become a painful reality.
ICE MERCHANTS
JOÃO GONZALEZ – 2022 / PORTUGAL, FRANCE, USA
ICE MERCHANTS
JOÃO GONZALEZ – 2022 / PORTUGAL, FRANCE, USA
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.
DAS ANDERE ENDE DER STRAßE / THE OTHER END OF THE STREET
KÁLMÁN NAGY – 2022 / HUNGARY, AUSTRIA
DAS ANDERE ENDE DER STRAßE / THE OTHER END OF THE STREET
KÁLMÁN NAGY – 2022 / HUNGARY, AUSTRIA
When 9-year-old Ábel is attacked by his classmate Bence at school, his father decides to visit Bence’s parents to put an end to the constant harassment. However, the conversation does not go as hoped and confronts father and son with a moral dilemma.
ARQUITECTURA EMOCIONAL 1959 / EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE 1959
LEÓN SIMINIANI – 2022 / SPAIN
ARQUITECTURA EMOCIONAL 1959 / EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE 1959
LEÓN SIMINIANI – 2022 / SPAIN
Here is the love story of Sebas and Andrea, first-time university students, in the 1958-1959 academic year. Here is how social class and ideology become insurmountable obstacles? Here is the architecture marking, unnoticed, the dotted line that ends up dictating their emotion.
NEST
HLYNUR PÁLMASON – 2022 / ICELAND, DENMARK
NEST
HLYNUR PÁLMASON – 2022 / ICELAND, DENMARK
A story of siblings building a tree house together over the course of a year. We experience the beauty and brutality of the seasons, as we follow them through their struggles and moments of joy.
SANDWICH CAT
DAVID FIDALGO – 2022 / SPAIN
SANDWICH CAT
DAVID FIDALGO – 2022 / SPAIN
David lives alone with his kitty, Sandwich Cat. It seemed like an ordinary day, but an unexpected visit will lead him to a crucial reflection to humanity.
STRANGE BEASTS
DARCY PRENDERGAST – 2022 / AUSTRALIA
STRANGE BEASTS
DARCY PRENDERGAST – 2022 / AUSTRALIA
Strange Beasts is a look at the meteoric rise and fall of the Bacchus Marsh Lion Safari, as told through the eyes of Ron Prendergast; a then 18 year old big cat keeper. From its initial boom, to its protracted closure, the park remains shrouded in mystery and folklore. Until now.
TENDER
SAMM HODGES – 2022 / USA
TENDER
SAMM HODGES – 2022 / USA
An exploration of the generational trap of male violence within the context of rural American poverty. When JD can’t find his wallet, he feels disrespected. He’s scared of being disrespected. When he’s scared, he gets terrifying. He turns his rage on his girlfriend and her teenage son. The cycle continues. Damon faces an impossible choice.
