Aurélien Douay, Aaron Kubczak, Elodie Naneix, Loona Van-Poucke
6 min | 2019 | France
A young man finds his lost twin sister through a Torii gate, the frontier between the living and the sacred worlds.
MOTHER AND MILK
BEST SHORT ANIMATION
Ami Lindholm
10 min | 2019 | Finland | US Premiere
What happens when a baby is born? Mother and Milk describes the mental process of becoming a parent - imagined as a catastrophe film. When the baby is born the new mother has to give up the life she knew. A flood of breast milk covers everything - her home, work, friends, relationship and a good night’s sleep. Only after realizing she is a part of the eternal chain of generations, Mother is able to accept the situation and start living her new life in the family. The film’s humor is sharp but warm, and the disaster turns into a newly found acceptance of the change.
INSTINCT
Arthur Allender, Mathieu Antoine, Léna Belmonte, Cyrielle Guillermin, Victor Kirsch, Elliot Thomasson
5 min | 2019 | France
In a dense and icy forest, Piotr, a young hunter, finds himself violently paralyzed by a bear trap. While he is slowly freezing to death, the prey he was hunting approaches...
FALAFEL SUNDAYS
Fahim Arif and Pracheta Ahana
2 min | 2020 | Bangladesh
The connection of food to a time, a person, perhaps a server…nostalgic moments stung together creating our past.
MAÏJA
Arthur Nollet, Maxime Faraud, Mégane Hirth, Emma Versini, Julien Chen, Pauline Charpentier
8 min | 2019 | France
In the Nordic Islands, Maïja, a little girl, waits for the return of her father, away at sea. But the weather is worsening and her father is not coming back.
SYNCHRONICITY
Michelle Brand
4 min | 2018 | UK | MA Premiere
People come; people go - Yet everyone is moving in the same direction. We all are sharing something that we are unaware of, creating one big picture.
INGLITROMPET - ANGEL'S TRUMPET
Martinus Klemet
3 min | 2019 | Estonia | MA Premiere
Inspiration for the film came to the director from the plant Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia). One of its many breeds can be pollinated solely by a very long billed hummingbird, reaching the core of the blossom and drinking the nectar. This film is an homage to the millions of years of evolution to develop such cooperation between bird and plant
GAUTAMA
Aymeric Vaux
3 min | 2019 | France
A young teen and his old handler meditate in a temple. The young monk is disturbed by a fly.
DEUX OISEAUX
Antoine Robert
12 min | 2019 | France
Jean spends his holidays at his grandparents’ farm. Not in tune with nature, he partakes in candid yet cruel games with animals, birds and insects but before the holiday is over, he has developed bonds.
FLORIGAMI
Iva Ćirić
6 min | 2019 | Croatia
A lonely white flower grows surrounded by other plants and every day it struggles to survive.
OUT OF RANGE
Yijia Cao, Lana Choukroune, Cécile Guillard
5 min | 2019 | France
Sue, a lawyer living her life in the fast lane, needs to go to the most important meeting of her career. On the way, a car breakdown forces her into the forest. During her wandering, she will find her true self.
OPALE
Marion Aknin, Basile Delille, Vincent Leclerc, Iliès Machou, Léopold Prengère
5 min | 2019 | France
Claire just arrived in an alternate version of Paris flooded by the Seine river. She will search to find her beloved experiencing a journey of wonders and dangers.
LUX CLARA
Vukasin Zivaljevic
9 min | 2019 | Serbia
An experimental take on Plato's famous allegory of the cave. Through novel, uncommon and innovative techniques, this short, attempts to answer the questions of liberty and its possibility in today's society, self-awareness, and the relationship between individuals and the masses.
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Alison Snowden and David Fine
14 min | 2019 | Canada
Dealing with what comes naturally isn’t easy, especially for animals. Five animals meet regularly to discuss their inner angst in a group therapy session led by Dr. Clement, a canine psychotherapist.
TERMINUS
Camille Henry
3 min | 2019 | France
A ticket inspector is overwhelmed by his working conditions and dreams about leaving it for something new. But daydreaming always comes to an end because of his work.
JUST MARRIED
Aliénor Bouteloup de Villiers, Marianna Crosetti, Claire Ducluzeau, Donghee Kim, Daphné Peltier, Minh-Thu Pham
7 min | 2019 | France | US Premiere
A young girl who is about to get married is kidnapped by her teddy bear in front of the church. Together, they will live a dreamy adventure.
ANTON
Zaza Urushadze
102 min | Georgia / Ukraine | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
One of the most anticipated foreign films of 2019 from award-winning director Zaza Urushadze, ANTON, explores a little-know period of Russian history shaped by political, ethnic and religious division. Revolution and revenge, fear and hope, love and hate all converge in a small Ukrainian village in 1919, played out through the friendship between two young boys, Anton and Jacob. Nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe
Official Selections: Toronto Film Festival and Jerusalem Film Festival
SCREENING WITH
ACTIVIZED
Eric Stange
38 min | US | 2019
Stories of seven ordinary Americans who, for the first time in their lives, have left their comfort zones and become involved in gun violence prevention, voting rights and immigrants’ rights. Interweaving their personal stories against the backdrop of the causes they fight for, we experience their motivations, successes and failures, their sacrifices, and victories. Above all, we celebrate these inspiring, courageous citizens for embracing one of the most basic of American traditions – dissent.
HOLY BOOM
Maria Lafi
99 min | Greece | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
A film about faith, not in the religious sense, but in the sense of a deep human faith in survival… in an era when immigration and its different manifestations are featured at the center of international media, often in the form of tragic incidents, but also through ways it affects everyday life and the political scene.
With multiple storylines, taking place in a multicultural area of Athens during orthodox Easter, the lives of four strangers, who live in the same neighborhood, change dramatically when, on Palm Sunday, the neighborhood’s postbox is blasted just for laughs by Filipino teenager Ige. Documents of vital importance to all of them have been destroyed and the consequences are relentless.
Awards: Grand Prix at Festival Int’l du Film de Fès, Morocco; Best Int’l Feature at Festival de Cine de Zaragoza, Spain; Best Balkan Film at Tirana Int’l FF, Albania; Best Screenplay and Best Actress at Aswan International Women Film Festival, Egypt; Best Film at II Festival de Cine Chipriota y Griego, Barcelona, Spain; Best Director at Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, LA, USA; Best Director and Best Actress at Calella Film Festival, Spain; Best Director at Islantilla Cinefórum Film Festival, Spain; Audience Award at Festival Int’l de Cine de Quito, Ecuador; Audience Award at Festival Int’l de Cine de Calzada de Calatrava, Spain
SCREENING WITH
RECLAIMING THE NEGATIVE
Mike Beech
13 min | UK/South Korea | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
This film looks at a North Korean defector's extraordinary and harrowing escape from her country of birth and the artistic process of a large format photographer who captures a series of stunning portraits of North Korean defectors living in Seoul, South Korea. The film takes a more intimate look at the human side of the highly political subject matter.
Awards: Winner of London Indie Film Awards; Winner of LA Cinematography Awards, Gold Winner of Queen Pal, CA; Silver Winner of Latitude Film Awards; Finalist at Southport Film Festival, N.C.; Official Selection of Rome Independent Prisma Awards, Italy.
PILÁTUS - PILATE
Linda Dombrovszky
74 min | Hungary | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
Anna, an elderly, village woman, is widowed. Her daughter, a big city doctor, believes that the best thing would be to take her mother in. But the relationship between Anna, torn from her environment, and Iza, living her city life, doesn’t work out; Anna is slowly withering and life has lost its purpose.
Official Selections of: Milan Int’l FF; Findecoin Independent Int’l Short FF; Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela; Santa Cruz Int’l FF, Argentina; South East European FF, LA, US; Indy FF, Indianapolis, IN, US
SCREENING WITH
EVERYBODY SHUT UP by George O'Reilly
13 min | UK | 2019
In an era where transparent communication is everything, it is seemingly becoming less and less regarded as our most essential component to human life. Uncovering the importance of social interaction, CBE Psychologist Cary Cooper and Linguist Bencie Woll explain the implications of a lack of interaction, and the current climate for such matters, looking into why London's "Tube Chat" Badge went so horribly wrong and exposing potential realities that threaten generations to come, drawing a strong correlation between Brexit and Donald Trump with the closed and unfriendly attitude we are experiencing in our daily lives.
Official Selections of: Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Arkansas, US; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, England
OPEN DOOR
Florenc Papas
78 min | Albania | 2019 | US Premiere
The film takes place in present day Albania, a fast-developing country that attempts to navigate a delicate balance between traditional values and modernity. The story follows two sisters, Rudina and Elma, who are unable to visit their traditional father owing to the fact that the younger of the two, Elma, is pregnant and unmarried. Despite having grown apart, the sisters find that the strong link that once united them is still present and together, they will help each other face the circumstances.
SCREENING WITH
DAUGHTER
Daria Kashcheeva
15 min | Czech Republic | 2019 | US Premiere
Should you hide your pain, close yourself to your inner world that is full of longing for your father’s love and its displays? Or should you seek to understand and forgive before there is no chance?