Nearest to Heaven

The film captures the daily duality of three young Palestinian women in Tel Aviv, caught between hometown tradition and big city abandon, and the price they must pay for a lifestyle that seems obvious to many: the freedom to work, party, have sex, and choose.

When spirited young woman, Fanny Price is sent away to live on the great country estate of her rich cousins, she's meant to learn the ways of proper society. But while Fanny learns 'their' ways, she also enlightens them with a wit and sparkle all her own.

A young woman’s charming but overbearing father helps her move out of her wealthy older boyfriend’s apartment.

A down on their luck couple from South Georgia go on the run to get the money to repay a gambling debt, and decide to film their escapade, in hopes of selling their 'reality movie' to Hollywood for a quick buck. However, the danger becomes very real when their misguided foray into drug dealing does not go as planned, and they quickly find out they are in over their heads.

This is a passage between two faces, each the same, yet different. Bibicha’s face first appears in the dark, her eyes open and expression impassive, only her heavy breathing betraying the strain she feels. She will withstand the strain and take the vow of silence, retreating to her grandmother’s house for the 40 days to pass. The house and the landscape outside at least offer Bibicha certain sensory distractions: the taste of honey, the texture of a wall, an eye-catching bedspread, the view out over a sea of cloud, water fizzling on the stove. But it is not just her under strain, as her aunt’s frantic text messaging, her grandmother’s rueful acknowledgement of the stories of marital strife on the radio and her little cousin’s illegitimate status bear witness to. Four generations of women in the complete absence of men, yet all marked by their presence, the similarity of their fates blurring together different times and customs.

Soledad is a young woman who returns to her grandmother's house after years of having cut off communication with her family. She wants to connect with nature, her family's spiritual practices and her sister with whom she never developed a relationship. At the same time she is looking for a way to heal the duel of her mother's death years ago. Soledad will realize that the process is long and exhausting and will lead her to reconnect with the people around her and herself.

After being deported to Venezuela, one of the most dangerous countries in the world, Rosa and her daughter must find a way to escape to Colombia.

The episodically connected lives of four college friends unfold throughout the incipient martial law years, as they struggle to define their sexual and professional desires and how best to attain them.

In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality and the changing church.

Sissi and Victoria are sisters. Whereas the younger is slowly emerging from the world of childhood, the elder tries in vain to be a grown up. In the room they share, Sissi is preparing for her gymnastic competition and Victoria has boys coming and going.

Michal is 32 years old. She became religious 12 years ago, and only now is she getting married. A month before the wedding, while checking out the catering for the event, the groom has a change of heart and the wedding is called off. Michal feels she’s unable to go back to ordinary life, to the usual course of matchmaking. She feels this is the moment to change something very basic in her personality. A simple belief that God is good and sweet; that He wants to give and is only waiting for her to wish it. Michal goes on a month-long journey lasting up to the planned wedding day: “I have the venue, the dress, the apartment; God can easily come up with my groom.”

Opportunus

Pussy Have the Power is the song improvised by four girls in a recording studio. When an established music producer walks in, they face the choice of selling out their work to something that could lead to success, while they risk losing their own message

An evocative exploration of a mother/daughter relationship.

Cristi has just moved to an unknown country, far away from family and friends. At first, she is happy for the challenge. But soon she begins to question her place in this new world that seems to be a lost town, made of absences, distances, silence and indifference. '4242' is the story of a young female immigrant, a story of a teenager's anguish who is trying to redefine her identity after being forced to leave home.

Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko - the ugliest girl in the village. Her love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste - but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke goes in for fleeting romance - for example, with the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when he finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke's little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko's hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself. And this is just the first five minutes of Lisa Takeba's short-but-powerful feature debut. Just like in her previous short films, the director - who cut her teeth in the advertising world and as the writer of a video game - throws a lot of genres and techniques into the mix: from science fiction to gangster films, from hospital eroticism to animation. Hectic and absurd, but with its heart in the right place. © IFFR

Micro short film directed by Portuguese multi-award winning Sara Eustáquio, 16, starring Canadian young actress Jaimie Marchuk. Student project produced at New York Film Academy, in NYC.

'How do you know that Adam and Eve weren't black?...' An awkward comedy about first dates, race, and racism.

This is the story about the life and artistic views of a designer through an interview that’s replete with poetic dialogue.

The story follows the elephant keeper in the Beijing Zoo who maintains an aquarium of fish in her home (hence the two-animal title), and her lesbian lover, a fabric saleswoman in an outdoor market. Her relationship is tested, however, when her recently divorced mother returns to town in the hope of setting her daughter up in marriage. Further complicating matters is one of Xiaoqun's ex-lovers also returning to her life with the law in pursuit.