Competition

Shorts Competition

This year, we present a selection of 28 short films from sixteen countries on five continents. Divided into seven thematic blocks, these shorts explore the forces that shape our reality. From personal identity, family dynamics and past experiences to systems of power, resistance and justice.

All short films compete for an award and a cash prize of € 1.500. 

Nominations

L’mina

Jerada is a mining town in Morocco where coal extraction, although officially halted in 2001, continues informally to this day. L’mina recreates the current work in informal mining pits using a set design created in collaboration with the town’s residents, who perform in their own roles.

Skin on Skin

An industrial slaughterhouse somewhere in Germany. Jakob is a security guard, while Boris from Bosnia does the slaughtering. Amid the cold and the violence, a silent bond develops between the two, as does an unspoken longing for freedom.

Vultures

In the volatile moments after a car crash, before the authorities arrive, a hot-headed yet desperate tow truck driver fiercely protects his tow. But the situation quickly spirals out of his control.

Jury

Credits: Lisa Vlasenko

Jana Riemann

Jana Riemann is a German-Ukrainian film programmer and curator with an academic background in film studies. She is part of the Berlinale Shorts selection committee, Head of the Short Film section at the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin, and a preselector for Docudays UA and the Kyiv International Short Film Festival.
Credits: Jess Gormley

Jess Gormley

Jess Gormley has worked in fiction and non-fiction films as a producer and executive producer for 15 years. She has worked at the Guardian since 2014; specialising in journalistic documentaries for TV, cinema and online, with projects screening at the Houses of Parliament, US Congress and the UN, as well as key international film festivals. Projects of note include Oscar winner 'Colette' (2021) and BAFTA winner 'The Black Cop' (2022)
Credits: Eeva Kriek

Luuk Bouwman

Luuk Bouwman is a filmmaker and musician from the Netherlands. He studied at the St. Joost Academy of Art in Breda and graduated with a sci-fi documentary about the computer art of Remko Scha, professor in artificial intelligence and a film about the criminal history of his birth-town Oss. He has made eight feature documentaries to date, five of which had theatrical releases (It Is True But Not Here, All Against All, Gerlach, The Propagandist, The Desert of the Real). His documentaries are driven by extensive research and long-term engagement with his subjects, revealing processes and mechanisms.