AWARDS
GRAND JURY
$750 Cash Prize
NARRATIVE | 2021 | 15 min. 00 sec.
COUNTRY | Lebanon, France
LANGUAGE | Arabic
PRODUCER | Coralie Dias
DIRECTOR | Dania Bdeir
WRITER | Dania Bdeir
CAST | Khansa
[Sundance Film Festival • IFFR Rotterdam • Clermont-Ferrand ISFF • SxSW Film Festival • European Premiere National Competition]
SYNOPSIS
A Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut volunteers to cover a shift on one of the most dangerous cranes, where he is able to find his freedom.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Dania Bdeir is a Lebanese-Canadian award-winning writer & director with an intense love/hate relationship with Lebanon which she finds to be her biggest heartache and sincerest inspiration.
Dania, currently a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, has a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut and an MFA in directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received a full scholarship in her third year.
Her pre-thesis film "Meshkal" (English title: Kaleidoscope), has traveled to film festivals in France, Morocco, Pakistan, Mexico, Czeck Republic, India and many more. It has won a few notable awards including Award of Excellence at the 2014 Canada International film festival and Golden Palm at the 2014 Mexico International Film Festival.
Her thesis film, “In White”, which received the Spike Lee Production Fund, had its world premiere at the renowned Clermont Ferrand film festival and went on to screen at the BFI London Film Festival, Uppsala International short film festival and more than 30 film festivals worldwide.
It has won a dozen awards including the International Grand Prize at the Rio de Janeiro International short film festival thus making it eligible for the 2019 Academy Awards in the short live-action category.
In 2019, Dania was selected as a Berlinale Talent and participated in its Short Film Station with her short film “Warsha.” "Warsha" is a co-production between Inter Spinas Films (France), GoGoGo Films (France) and Né à Beyrouth Films (Lebanon). The film has secured a pre-purchase broadcast deal with renowned European TV channel ARTE and as been supported by the CNC, the région Grand Est, the région Sud, the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence, the Sacem and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).
Dania is currently based in Dubai and is developing her first feature film “Pigeon Wars” which was selected for the 2018-2019 Torino Film Lab x DFI Hezaya Screenwriting lab. Pigeon Wars was also selected for the 2021 Cine Qua Non Storylines lab and the 2021 Nostos Screenwriting Retreat.
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ANIMATION
$200 Cash Prize
ANIMATION | 2022 | 14 min. 00 sec.
COUNTRY | Portugal
LANGUAGE | No Dialogue
PRODUCERS | Bruno Caetano, Michaël Proença
DIRECTOR | João Gonzalez
WRITER | João Gonzalez
[2023 Academy Awards OSCAR Nominee • Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes • Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film France • Guadalajara International Film Festival • Internacional Prize Rigo Mora - Best Animation Short Film Mexico • Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival • Motovun Film Festival • Melbourne International Film Festival • Imaginaria ]
SYNOPSIS
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.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
João Gonzalez (1996) is a Portuguese film director, animator, illustrator and a musician with classical training in piano. Recipient of a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he did a Masters at the Royal College Art (UK), after finishing his BA at ESMAD (PT). In these institutions he made 2 multi-award winning films, “Nestor” and “The Voyager.” In 2022 he became the first Portuguese animation filmmaker to be awarded at Festival de Cannes, winning the Jury Prize for Best Short film in competition at the Critics Week, with “Ice Merchants”. He has a big interest in combining his musical background with his practice in authorial animation, always taking the role of composer and sometimes instrumentalist in the films he directs, occasionally setting them to a live performance.
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RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | http://agencia.curtas.pt/films/show/534
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DOCUMENTARY
$200 Cash Prize
DOCUMENTARY | 2022 | 29 min. 00 sec.
COUNTRY | Netherlands
LANGUAGE | Dutch
PRODUCER | Richard Valk
DIRECTOR | Douwe Dijkstra
WRITERS | Douwe Dijkstra, Abdiwahab Ali
[Locarno Film Festival]
SYNOPSIS
How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Douwe Dijkstra (1984) is a filmmaker and visual artist from the Netherlands. He studied Illustration Design at the ArtEZ University of the Arts. His work is a mixture of video, animation and VFX, and can be described as both humorous and socially engaged. His projects range from short films and documentaries to video installations and theatre performances.
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EXPERIMENTAL
$200 Cash Prize
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EXPERIMENTAL | 2020 | 8 min. 00 sec.
COUNTRY | Austria, Hungary
LANGUAGE | German
PRODUCERS | Daniel Moshel, Eugen Klim
DIRECTOR | Daniel Moshel
WRITERS | Daniel Moshel, Eugen Klim
CAST | August Schram, Elfie Wunsch, Sira Topic, Thomas Weinhappel, Michael Schertenleib, Alessandro Bressanello, Selina Ströbele, Emem Augendopler
[Indy Film Fest Indianapolis • Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival • Worldfest Houston International Film Festival • Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival • Santa Fe Independent Film Festival • Nashville Film Festival • Winter Film Awards Independent Film Festival • Denver International Film Festival • North Carolina Film Awards • Beloit International Film Festival • Cucalorus Film Festival • Fargo Fantastic Film Festival • Loft Film Fest Tuczon • San Francisco Short Film Festival • Canted Angle Film Festival • San Francisco Indie Shorts • Santa Clarita International Film Festival • Vancouver International Film Festival • jellyFest • New York State International Film Festival • Southern Gothic • New Jersey Independent Film Festival • Fishnets and Film]
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SYNOPSIS
The third part of the internationally award-winning MeTube short film series. This time the intergalactic music nerds August and Elfi conquer the opera stage and orchestrate their final adventure in an opulent manner.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Daniel Moshel was born in Germany. Currently he lives as a writer/director in Vienna, Austria. "Login2Life" (2011) was his first feature length documentary. After the premiere on the German ZDF broadcast station, and a successful festival circuit. He is one of 4 directors creating the 2014 ZDF TV-show named "House of Love."
The project "MeTube" started as a homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers. It was the most successful short Daniel accomplished. Consequently the sequel MeTube 2 followed. Both MeTubes were screened on more than 600 festivals (including two nominations on Sundance 2013 & 2016), received more than 60 awards, and gathered over 4 Million web views. MeTube 3 just launched its career online and is going to be release to the festival circuit. Currently Daniel works with his Team of writers on features and tv shows.
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RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | http://www.metube.at
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NARRATIVE
$200 Cash Prize
The Bathtub
NARRATIVE | 2021 | 19 min. 15 sec.
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COUNTRY | Spain
LANGUAGE | Catalan
PRODUCER | Josep Pi
DIRECTOR | Sergi Marti Maltas
WRITER | Sergi Marti Maltas
CAST | Abel Folk, Paula Jornet
[36 Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Goya Awards Best Fiction Short Film Candidate • Bardolino Film Festival • Butoni Film Festival • GATFFEST Film Festival • International Amity Short Film Festival • Kingston International Film Festival • Love Your Shorts Film Festival • Palisade Film Festival • PuntoDiVista Film Festival • Riurau Film Festival • Sentiero Film Factory • Short Out • Skyline Benidorm Film Festival • Two Riversides Film and Art Festival • Visioni Corte International Short Film Festival]
SYNOPSIS
Ramon Riera is taking a well-deserved bath when his cell phone suddenly rings. On the other side of the line is Clara, a girl who insistently tries to sell him a life insurance.
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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Sergi Martí is a director and screenwriter. He studied at the ESCAC (School of Cinema and Audio visuals of Catalonia) graduating in the speciality of direction [Promotion 1997- 2001].
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RELATED LINKS
TWITTER | https://twitter.com/13teti13
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PUPPETRY
$200 Cash Prize
PUPPETRY | 2022 | 9 min. 07 sec.
COUNTRY | United States
LANGUAGE | No Dialogue
PRODUCERS | Linda Wingerter, Alex Griffin, Jessica Simon
DIRECTOR | Linda Wingerter
WRITER | Linda Wingerter
[Silence is Golden Film Festival • Puppet Shorts! Detroit Puppet Company • Bridges Festival]
SYNOPSIS
A quiet bus ride home from the city library turns into an aural nightmare for a book-reading commuter. With every stop the bus fills with people and sounds, becoming a chaotic cacophony joyful to everyone but her. Only when the bus finally reaches her seaside stop does she find escape, slipping back into the watery silence of her natural habitat where we discover she is not the average commuter. Misophonia's richly layered and textured world transcends the humble reused materials it’s made from. Filmed with live-performed puppetry on a multiplane stage, puppets made from pizza boxes elegantly move through breathtaking cityscapes of vintage papers and painted cellophane, immersed in an ever-building atmosphere of sound.
Misophonia is a 9-minute film by The Stringpullers Puppet Company, written and directed by Linda Wingerter, commissioned by Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams Film Series.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Linda Wingerter is an artist and third generation puppeteer performing, filming, teaching, and building puppets and kinetic art as The Stringpullers Puppet Company in Ithaca, New York. Her grandparent’s marionette troupe was her foundation in sculpting, mechanics, and visual storytelling. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and illustrated picture books before returning to puppetry as an apprentice with Puppetsweat of New Haven, Connecticut, performing shadow, table top, and dance-based puppetry around northeastern US. In 2011 she revived her family’s puppet company, The Stringpullers, with Luna's Sea which debuted in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History. She has taught puppetry arts at Yale School of Drama, Boston University, Cornell University, and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Linda began putting her work on film in 2019, and received a 2021 Micro-Commision from Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams film series to produce Misophonia, a shadow and paper puppet short film.
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RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | http://www.stringpullers.com/misophonia
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WOMAN TO WATCH
$200 Cash Prize
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Elvira Barboza
The Shadow of the Crows
Elvira Barboza is born in Buenos Aires in 1974 but her family is exiled in Madrid when she is 3 years old, during the Argentinian dictatorship. She studies film at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense and at Paris 8. Here she makes her first short film, «Lines», an experimental movie in 16mm. She starts working at Duboi, a postproduction company, in the special effects department («Amélie Poulain», «Jeanne d’Arc»…). Later on she starts working as an editor in French television. In 2004-2006 she attends an acting course run by Carlo Boso that focuses in Commedia dell'Arte, where the emphasis is placed in improvisation. Here she starts to act and participate in plays created collectively. She then decides to further explore the principles of improvisation, this time applying them to the following short films: «Red or white?», "Roseline," and «Making the first move».
In October 2021 she made "The shadow of the crows," a short film (fiction and animation) produced by Les 48 ° Rugissants.
NARRATIVE | 2022 | 29 min. 56 sec.
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COUNTRY | France
LANGUAGE | French, Spanish
PRODUCER | Adeline Le Dantec
DIRECTOR | Elvira Barboza
WRITER | Elvira Barboza
CAST | Alicia Debruyne, Soledad Romero, Rafael Bianciotto, Daniel Tabet
[Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay • Festival Internacional de Cine Político • Jeunesse Tout Courts • Festival des minorités de Douarnenez - Regards d'ici Douarnenez • Festival Internacional de Cinema de Cerdanya Puigcerdà • Fimucinema Santa Cruz de Tenerife • Filmets Badalona Film Festival • Festival européen du film court de Brest • Compétition Bretagne • Festival del Cinema Ibero-Latino Americano di Trieste • Festival Internacional de Cine por los Derechos Humanos de Bogotá • Colombia Festival Internacional de Cine Rengo • Festival Curta Cinema, Festival Internacional de Curtas do Rio de Janeiro • Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana • Corto Dorico Film Fest • FESCIMED, Festival Internacional de Cine por la Memoria Democrática Madrid December 14, 2022 Spain]
SYNOPSIS
1986, in a village in France. Natalia, of Argentinean origin, is 11 years old when she discovers strange scars on her father's body. From then on, the shadow of the past hangs over the daily life of the little girl, whose childish gaze questions exile and the adult world.
RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | https://www.mms-distribuciondecortometrajes.es/catalogo/lodc.asp
CINEMA CAROLINA
$200 Cash Prize
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NARRATIVE | 2022 | 15 min. 28 sec.
COUNTRY | United States
LANGUAGE | English
PRODUCER | Strawhouse Pictures
DIRECTOR | Anil Dhokai
WRITER | Anil Dhokai
CAST | Sarah Villalobos, Stephanie Lindsay, Dianne Paukstelis, Annette Saunders, Joyce Kernodle, Arthur Lightbody
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[Festival Premiere]
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SYNOPSIS
A granddaughter sorts through a hat collection left behind by her recently deceased grandmother. Upon trying them on, she discovers that the hats give her the ability to peer into her grandmother's memories.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Anil first started making short films in high school. He knew from then on, that's what he wanted to do with his life. From there he majored in Media Arts at the University of South Carolina. After graduating he started freelancing in the TV/Film industry. He worked various jobs as an editor and camera operator. While freelancing, he formed a production company with his friends called Strawhouse Pictures. Within the production company they make a handful of shorts every year and take them on the road to film festivals. They continually crank out new projects and love to connect with audiences.​
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RELATED LINKS
FACEBOOK | https://Facebook.com/strawhouse
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STUDENT FILM
$100 Cash Prize
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ANIMATION | 2022 | 6 min. 40 sec. ​
COUNTRY | France
LANGUAGE | No Dialogue
DIRECTORS | Marie Bordessoule, Adriana Bouissie, Nadine De Boer, Elisa Drique, Chloé Lauzu, Vincent Levrero, Solenne Moreu
[Animac • Independent Filmmakers Showcase]
SYNOPSIS
Living in the forest, little spider Temi dreams of catching the Moon. For that, she will do anything.
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RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | https://www.esma-3d.fr/en/films/swing-to-the-moon/
INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/swing.movie/
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TERRY ROUECHE
AUDIENCE CHOICE
$100 Cash Prize
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Rite
ANIMATION | 7 min. 43 sec.
COUNTRY | United States
LANGUAGE | English
DIRECTOR | Forest Rain
CAST | Aiste Vaiciunaite, Anthony Strangeweather
[Festival Premiere]
SYNOPSIS
Spearheading the search for sentient life on other worlds is the job of Odyssey 1, solo space pilot and explorer. His boots-on-the-ground mission takes him to a barren land inhabited by the ruins of an ancient civilization. As the night approaches, melodic tones illuminate the forsaken dunes, welcoming their guest with visions of a mysterious feminine presence, one whose existence is seemingly tied to the planet’s past. The line between dream and reality is blurred as Odyssey 1 is drawn into her caverns below the surface like a moth to a light. He soon discovers that he’s been selected to be part of something greater.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Forest got his start in A/V production fresh out of high school. In addition to being a short film animator and director, Forest has worn many hats in his career, ranging from live event producer, DJ, dance choreographer, video editor and motion graphics designer. Whether he's creating animation for award-winning documentary "Black Star" (audience choice award, Illuminate Film Festival), or producing a multimedia live dance performance, Forest is passionate about bringing audiences together for unforgettable experiences.
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RELATED LINKS
WEBSITE | https://www.magicvisual.pro/rite
INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/rite_film/
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AMY LYNN RECTOR
KIDS' CHOICE
Amateur Operatives
PUPPETRY | 2022 | 13 min. 53 sec.
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COUNTRY | United States
LANGUAGE | English
PRODUCER | Daniel Joseph Silverman
DIRECTOR | Daniel Joseph Silverman
WRITER | Daniel Joseph Silverman
CAST | Daniel Joseph Silverman, Jack Capellini
[Festival Premiere]
SYNOPSIS
A new neighbor moves into Tyler and Andy's neighborhood. However he looks quite similar to a known criminal on the loose. The duo then goes on to investigate themselves.
RELATED LINKS
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/c/DanJFilms
TWITTER | https://twitter.com/DanJFilms
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