New Year, New Me

The son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from his army service in Vietnam and wants to lead his own life, but family tradition, intrigues and powerplays involving his older brother dictate otherwise, and he finds himself being slowly drawn back into that world.

After the disappearance of a friend, a lost boy and his bear navigates a mystical forest where they comes face to face with their own fears and trauma.

A troubled young Latina photographer and Asian American juvenile delinquent yearn to escape their farm town in Santa Ynez Valley, CA, but the psychological, cultural, and at times mystical obstacles threaten to hold them forever.

Set against the gritty, vibrant backdrop of Berlin, BERLIN LOOP tells the story of Fatma’s rapid entanglement with the city’s bike-theft mafia. Her meteoric rise to becoming the gang’s chief lock-picker brings initial success but quickly devolves into a perilous trap controlled by the gang’s ruthless leader. Fatma’s only escape lies in a mysterious portal she discovers in an abandoned countryside house, which sends her back in time to the pivotal moment before her first theft. Caught in an unrelenting time loop, Fatma refines her strategies, inspired by the Art of War, to dismantle the gang and reclaim her freedom.

Teenage problems intertwine during the occupation of a high school in Rome. Silvio—much like his peers desperate to lose his virginity—wants to make his move on the girl he likes, despite her being already his friend's girlfriend and not knowing that her best friend harbors feelings for him—while clashing also with his parents, onetime Sixties radicals who look down on the kids' aimless political commitment.

Rong Chen would like to keep her place in the recorder group, Shao Yu wants to give up playing. She asks him for tips, and by practicing together, they not only improve their skills, but also learn something much more important from each other.

Quebec writer François Agira, despite only writing one novel, achieved almost legendary status. Living off his royalties, he indulged in a hedonistic lifestyle. However, as he approached his sixties, the novelist began to face challenges with impotence and financial difficulties. Returning to his two sons, Paul and Patrick, Agira found himself in a stark contrast. Paul, a laid-back individual, followed in his father’s footsteps and was working on his first novel. In contrast, Patrick, a rigid senior executive at a pharmaceutical company, embodied the opposite. Agira moved into the dilapidated family home with Paul and his girlfriend, Sylvie, a waitress. Despite continuing to party, his life took a dramatic turn when he discovered he had cancer.

Two best friends attend the funeral of a Hebrew school classmate who died by suicide and accidentally damage their friendship beyond repair.

For 17 years, from the age of about six or seven, Kathy Chu keeps a diary. It's a complete fiction, denying disappointments (when her older sister doesn't want to spend time with her, Kathy invents and records a happy encounter) and rejections (she's teased for being Asian, but she writes about what fun she had with friends). Her hopes to be a writer compound the irony of her journal's disconnection. In college and after graduation, one of her closest friends is Kirby, who is also Asian. She denies any romantic attraction, and when they do become lovers, it's her diary that brings a crisis to their relationship and to her identify. Kathy falls back to earth.

It's new year's eve, and a man takes a taxi to go to the birthday party of the girl of her dreams in Jakarta.

Zorro and his family live in a messy, run down apartment. Zorro's father is dead and his mother is an alcoholic but, despite their situation, they share a strong bond. Zorro's best friend, Kevin, lives with his family in one of the more expensive family homes in the area. Although they are financially well off, the father is a violent man who takes his frustrations out on Kevin, his mother and younger sister. Through Kevin's and Zorro's courage and strong friendship they are able to overcome almost anything.

Set in the 1960s, junior high schooler Dean strikes up a friendship with the vibrant yet reckless Roy, in an effort to escape his mother’s controlling grasp. But when the boys’ friendship threatens Dean’s budding romance with Beth and his own well-being, Dean must find his own voice, or risk following Roy down an increasingly dangerous path.

Wide meadows, romping in the woods and building cabins. Leo (12) spends the autumn holidays with big sister Noémie and cousin Emil on Grandma Marlies' farm. However when Leo is surprised by what Grandma Marlies calls big news, Leo faces an identity crisis. "I am Leo" immerses itself into the emotional world of a child who is on the way to discover their gender identity. A film about expectations that overwhelm, about thoughts that restrict and about the courage to find yourself.

Declan Holmes is graduating college, a hard enough time as it is, and heading out into the real world. The loss he experiences is like nothing he has ever known before. 'Potential Inertia' is the story of his journey through a very difficult time, and the relationships that can either build you up or tear you apart.

After School

In a small two-room apartment in a backyard in Vesterbro, Copenhagen, 14-year-old Ester lives with her father, mother, and older brother Carl. It is a typical working-class neighborhood of the time, and the apartment lacks any modern conveniences. Coal must be fetched from a dark basement where homeless people have sought shelter and lodging for the night. Ester is a dreamer. She wants to be a writer and secretly writes poetry. She often loses track of time and place when her thoughts wander.

New year's eve at "The Islands" condos. An aging countess's party is crashed by the soccer team from her gigolo's town. While dressing for a dinner party, the wealthy Guilia discovers her husband's affair with her best friend and vows revenge. Next door, a family prepares their vintage Dodge for a drive through the streets. A call girl ties up a lawyer while, unbeknownst to him, three men await the right moment to break into his office. Across the hall, a woman downs pills in a lonely suicide attempt. Two young men hide out in a bedroom smoking dope; one of them has some dynamite. As midnight approaches, each group draws closer to grotesque tragedy.

After the death of her parents, a young woman assumes primary guardianship of her special needs brother. But as she attempts to balance her new life with her brother and her own blossoming romance, it becomes painfully clear that life will only make room for one.

Bahman, Mahtab, Ramin and Donya Mehdipour are enjoying a perfect summer in a small Finnish town. Their routines are fractured by a negative decision on their application for asylum by the Finnish Immigration Service. But life must go on and the 13-year-old Ramin is about to enter an entirely new school, junior high. The Mehdipours use their last chance to appeal but continue their everyday lives, fuelled by their exceptionally positive outlook and attitude.

Roberto must choose between desire and love when two women he is involved with celebrate their birthdays on the same night.