October

A Short Film by Lars Ostenfeld. Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale, this Danish film tells the story of a Christmas tree from a most unusual angle - through the 'voice' of the tree itself. The tree has big ambitions, doing everything it can to grow so tall that it reaches the sky. Featuring extraordinary photography, the film follows the adventures of its life from sapling to maturity, culminating in a triumphal Christmas Day. Along the way, viewers experience the natural - and human - world from a strangely moving perspective.

A contest is being held in Cremona for the best violin, with Giannina's hand in marriage as the prize. Filippo is secretly in love with her, but is also ashamed of being a cripple, so he switches his superior violin with that of another apprentice, Sandro, whom Giannina loves.

The short drama film follows the daily life of the Juan and Jorge, two brothers living on the streets of Mexico City. It won an Academy Award in 2001 for Best Live Action Short Film.

Phyllis is a moving and atmospheric portrait of a ‘psychic’ vampire, a woman obsessed with synthetic Nollywood dramas, that lives alone in Lagos, Nigeria. The central idea of this short experimental film is the practise and significance of wig-wearing in Nollywood film; a practise the director has invested with deeper psychological as well as science-fiction layers. Underpinning this central idea however is a critique of the unforgiving treatment of single women in Nollywood and Nigeria. The film is an example of what the director, Zina Saro-Wiwa, has termed “alt-Nollywood”, a genre that plays with and reworks certain narrative, stylistic and visual conventions of Nollywood. Phyllis explores the gothic possibilities of the Nollywood aesthetic creating a new kind of low-budget atmospheric film that is very much of Nollywood and yet subverts the genre. Using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood.

In the Second World War, probably in a concentration camp somewhere, Gary Sinise is a soldier who conducts Jews everyday to some place where only clothes come back, under the eyes of an young prisoner boy (Elijah Wood). This witness disturbs the soldier, driving the story to a tragic and sad end and a new beginning.

A young woman, stressed by her busy and continually crowded New York City existence spontaneously retreats to a solitary lake deep in the Adirondacks.

In 1932, Michel Simon plays in "Boudu sauvé des eaux" under the direction of Jean Renoir. Three years later, he was again invited to don the clothes of the famous tramp on the sets of Boulogne.

A filmmaker comes back to his grandparents' house to make them a video-portrait. That's what cinema is about, isn't it?

The film is about five men who meet up at their old hang-out spot after finishing their first semester of college.

A nurse is taking care of an elderly dying woman on a small island near the Torshavn. An old repressed memory of the island resurfaces to haunt the nurse and, as the elderly lady's health deteriorates, so does the sanity of the nurse.

A Cambodian immigrant plays chess in the heart of New York .....

Sudanese filmmaker Ibrahim Shaddad provides a dramatic and powerful account of the trials and tribulations of a Sudanese villager in a large alien city. Shot entirely without dialogue, the film's innovative use of sound helps tell the story of a shepherd who leaves his wife and herd to settle in a nearby town. Since its premiere at the Alexandria Film Festival, Human Being (إنسان / Insan) has been shown in a number of festivals in the Middle East and Europe. This film is a prime example of experimental Arab cinema.

Inspired by the 1928 experimental film by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich, The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra, this amateur short is the story of a man who spends his entire life under the thumb of anonymous bureaucrats. The titular seal adorns everything in life, from birth to death, in a criticism of bureaucracy and power over the individual, in a film that makes stylistic references to silent cinema.

"Do what you want because everything will be legal".

A short film focusing on bawdy talk and Italian-American stereotypes of African-Americans.

A young English banker has a curious encounter with a young homeless woman.

The story of Shmilu, a Hasidic Jew in crisis, torn between his community and the romantic possibilities of trendy East London.

A group of friends come to Gary's flat after a hard night's clubbing, take more drugs and chill out until the next morning.

The extended Steyer family lives together in a cottage in the mountains. The younger Steyer's wife Ludmilla wants money, and doesn't care if she must ruin the lives of the Steyer family to get it.

Trapped and mistreated by her oppressive captor, Layla longs to escape and enjoy the freedom of the outside world. Will the mysterious woman in red offer Layla everything she wants?