Shorts Competition

Lera has been living in Berlin for almost a year since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. One day she decides to go back to Kyiv. On her way, she finds out that her family is not in Kyiv and will arrive only the next day. She meets her friend Kyrylo, with whom she spends the day. This short film is part of the program...

Pilar, a young mother in Bogotá, receives an internship opportunity in the USA and the news comes as a big surprise to her husband, Alejandro, who is tied down to his responsibilities in Bogotá. Set in 1992, as Colombia faces an era of drug violence, car bombs, and daily power outages, Pilar and Alejandro must deal w...

First spotted in the Netherlands in 1985, now present in our country by the billions: the American crayfish. An enormous infestation with far-reaching consequences for other flora and fauna, and ultimately also for the safety of our dykes. This stop-motion animated documentary about this exotic species not only address...

One morning, the police defines a security perimeter on the edge of a lake, in front of the family house where Louison came for the holidays. Weapons from the Second World War have been detected by divers. Louison’s grandmother could be complicit... This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Wind of Resista...

Following a violent incident, Eissa, a 17-year-old undocumented migrant in Egypt, strives to beat the clock to save his loved ones whatever it takes. This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Political Bodies. 

Leipzig, 1989. Margarethe, a young punk who opposes the East German regime, is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She tries to run away to join a punk singer she is in love with. Although the regime's days may be numbered, Stasi informants are more present than ever. This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Wi...

Two women lie together in bed. As the wind bashes against the window, one recalls a past date to the cinema. The narrated scene cannot be conveyed through images. Layers of found and original footage are superimposed to fill in some of the cracks, the deletions, the limits of representation. A love song that would neve...

A single piece of jewellery holds the story of generations. Director Ruth and her mother go back to Ethiopia and explore her mother’s story as a survivor of the Red Terror genocide. Ruth was barely a teenager when her mother passed down her Medallion, etched with a golden portrait of Nefertiti. A symbol of beauty...

The democratization of the media in Brazil through the history of Radio Muda, the longest-running free radio station that challenged the system to defend freedom of expression. A first-person narrative, the film is based on archive material from the director himself, who was an activist and programme maker for Radio Mu...

When Iranian actress and director Pegah Ahangarani (1984) was growing up, she thought every soldier she saw on television might have been her father. During her earliest years he was fighting at the front, and a portrait of Khomeini hung in a prominent place in the house. But one day the image of the Ayatollah disappea...

Old Super 8 films show domestic happiness, the West German economic miracle, an idyllic home, grandmother Rose as a young woman at the centre. They do not show the violence in Rose’s marriage. Or do they? This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Facing the Past. 

The earth shakes. The air shimmers. The singsong of heavy metal lulls us beguilingly into perpetual slumber. Well sheltered, under white shrouds, a rushing river swells. Does the cold rolling tide wash away the sticky sweet sand of sleep? The smoke in the distance transfigures the eyesight. A reflection on our being, a...

How does a tomato change our sense of time? At the border between science-fiction and documentary, Sleepless Birds tracks the rise of artificially-lit, industrial greenhouses in the French region of Bretagne. The film presents the environmental impact of grow lights on biodiversity, as well as on our rhythm and percept...

An adaptation of Sarah Teasdale's poem "There Will Come Soft Rains." A subjective artistic vision of the end of the Anthropocene. It depicts a journey across our planet, starting with microscopic close-ups, continuing with shots of wildlife and slowly approaching civilization. Then we see that our world is gone with th...

For almost half a century, Don Ritchie would approach people contemplating suicide at the edge of a cliff, just 100 feet from his home. Teacups explores Don’s (voiced by Hugo Weaving) surreal interactions with hundreds of suicidal individuals and his journey to reconcile the suicide of his best friend.  This...

Rim is a Tunisian interpreter working in France on asylum procedures. Every day, she translates the stories of exiled men and women, whose voices raise questions about her own history.  This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Wind of Resistance, curated together with Go Short - International Short Film Fe...

As Sridhar prepares for his coming-of-age celebration, his grandfather tells him a shocking story about his family. As he pushes for the truth, his mother is caught in a dilemma between wanting to protect him and wanting to be honest.  This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Facing the Past.