Pomegranate

When a young boy tries to write the perfect song, the tip of his pencil breaks and frees a Genie who will only grant him one wish

For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Two young women try to adapt to a new city: nostalgia, loneliness, friendship and family are mixed throughout the emotional process of both characters. A reflection on the sense of belonging and the experience of being a foreigner.

A short documentary on how people view art and its value in today's society.

Violette lives in an apartment with her boyfriend. A tension has long driven them apart, the dialogue seems worn-out. While she is in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Violette is called out by a strange silhouette which looks right at her through the drain (of the sink): a living finger, which has taken up residence in the pipes. The finger seems to show itself only when Violette is alone. Her boyfriend, who seems now to hold nothing more than contempt for her, is no source of support. Refusing to tolerate the strange creature's intrusion, she is going to make every effort to put an end to this psychosis. But are things more real than we might think?

Manly Feelings is a short film by Chris Blom, about the difficulty that many men face while experiencing, expressing, and sharing the difficult emotion of sadness. The film lingers in this place of difficulty through interviews with men, supported by metaphorical imagery.

Fall Apart

Scottish animators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson star in and co-direct this inventive documentary. Albeit framed as a film for Will’s mother, we too are invited to witness how Will deals with the grief of his mother’s cancer. The duo work on their animations and face the frustrations of trying to make this documentary. Whilst alone, Will turns to DOM, the animated cat that lives on his laptop screen.

Exclusively created with period engravings, this animated feature explores the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the ensuing Paris Commune revolution in 1871.

When Loo Lay Yen suffers a stroke, the lives of her husband and three boys are changed forever. Shot by her eldest son, Tai Binquan, the film features family albums alongside raw documentary footage. where are you now is both a loving tribute to Loo and a piercing inquiry into care, dignity and the ethics of representing end-of-life experiences.

Gavin built a giant volcano sculpture that's now in his dad's shed. Gavin seeks his dad's understanding but he's uninterested in modern art and refuses to participate in the documentary.

"A young filmmaker studying at the Alexandria Higher Institute of Cinema (AHIC) struggles with an internal conflict; torn between his deep loyalty to his hometown of Alexandria and his burning desire to immerse himself in the vibrant film scene of Cairo, the bustling capital. He discusses the matter with a fellow AHIC student, where they share their thoughts and questions about the meaning of success and their personal aspirations. This shared exploration becomes a search for a guiding light, a clue that reveals whether their chosen paths will lead them to their desired futures.

Archival footage, animation and music are used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

Locked out of the school art room, a creative non-binary teen named Frog grapples with anxiety as they seek a new place to eat lunch. Imagination blurs with reality in this hybrid work of live action and animation about finding a place to belong.

Brogue follows a passionate gym-bro as he puts his heart and soul into the biggest weightlifting competition of his career.

Apoptosis tells the story of the last living human in the world, after a lethal virus devastates all of humanity; it will accompany both her grief over losing her partner and her inner paranoia about possibly not being completely alone.

A lone Commuter trapped in a speeding MRT train has to push against the force of the speed and escape before it crashes into the LAST STOP.

Human action is often influenced by the desire for knowledge. This desire is in itself a positive impulse and could be said to be the basis of all progress. Let's move this statement to the ground of scientific research at CERN, and see if it applies here - and then test the common experience that human stupidity permeates every social stratum and, in the case of the elites, is a potential threat.