We are thrilled to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the talented filmmakers chosen to showcase their work at our event. Your creativity and dedication have set a remarkable standard, and we can't wait to present your incredible films to our audience.
Directed by: Nathan Glendinning
Country: United Kingdom
Inside Byker Wall, Dani looks for her missing football and absent Father. What she finds is a dark family secret that will change everything.
Directed by: Daniel John
Country: United Kingdom, United States
Reframing the Houdini myth, an African American magician and escape artist claims the name of Harry Houdini and builds a legacy of his own.
This intimate first-person account documentary unfolds through three key escapes, including to a defiant leap of faith off a Miami bridge in 1987.
This film includes firsthand accounts of racism, and references to suicide and dangerous stunts, including a public bridge jump. Viewer discretion is advised.
Directed by: David Dulev
Country: North Macedonia
Teacher that's teaching kids to smile in a post a dystopic school.
Directed by: Martin Ponferrada
Country: Australia
Manny, a young Peruvian immigrant with a passion for construction, faces a poignant clash of dreams and expectations when his mother laments at his calloused, dirt-streaked hands, urging him towards the clean-cut world of corporate life.
Directed by: Art Davis
Country: Germany
Blick Ohne Worte is a short film about, family, loyalty, and betrayal. At its center is a man whose trust is broken by a close family member. Caught between intimacy and suspicion, the film explores how betrayal within the family can lead to irreversible consequences.
Directed by: Mahmoud AboBaker
Country: United States
Directed by: yu heng liu
Country: China
Ever since childhood, a sea of his very own had lived in Xiao He’s dreams. He ached to set eyes on the real ocean, yet fate never granted him the chance. So he’d haunt the bar night after night, spinning tales of the life he’d only ever imagined to every stranger who’d listen. One evening, a driver crossed paths with him there. At first, he’d merely regarded Xiao He as a trivial diversion, but little by little, he caught sight of his own lost and adrift self in him—and sank into a profound reverie.
Directed by: Clara Desmond
Country: United States
Somis, CA 1953 - Gwen and Bea are best friends. When Gwen's father The Farmer brings his girlfriend The Actress to visit their rural town, the girls are enamored. Bea dreams of following her footsteps and going to Hollywood. Gwen loves her for a different reason.
Directed by: Marius Conrotto
Country: Spain
A girl who works in a museum tries to convince another co-worker that two visitors are flirting. And how does she know? Scientific studies say that there are six signs that show one person's attraction to another.
Directed by: Peter Andrew Coutavas
Country: United States
A widow who is given the chance to reunite with her husband using AI, must decide whether to hold onto his memory or let it go.
Directed by: Crody Zhang
Country: Japan
Kanna appears to be the ideal housewife—admired by all.
Beautiful, gentle, and living a carefully ordered life.
One day, she invites a group of old friends to her home for a small gathering.
There is only one rule—
the gathering must end before her husband returns.
As time slowly runs out, the lighthearted atmosphere begins to fracture.
Exchanged glances and unspoken silences hint at something left unsaid.
What fills the house is not celebration, but something long concealed.
Within this seemingly warm domestic space, what secrets are shared between her friends and her husband?
And what, exactly, is Kanna trying to protect—or afraid to face?
Directed by: Katie Lambert
Country: United Kingdom
FIRST LOVE IS HARD.
I hate Helen. I hate the way her fat ass jiggles when she’s excited. I hate the way she looks at the boys with gooey sex eyes. I hate her wet spitty mouth. She is a slag and I hate her.
“I hate Helen” is a snapshot of teenage life, a short film about the tidal wave of gay lust some girls feel in school and letting those feelings just wash over you. But our protagonist Priya isn’t going without a fight. She hates Helen, and she hates the way she is feeling.
Directed by: Nikki Simon
Country: United Kingdom
A toe-curling interview based on a real life event.
Directed by: Alex Hughes
Country: United Kingdom
In a race against time, Arthur has one last chance to seek redemption and save his son when a virus begins to spread.
Directed by: Subhaan Khan, Owais Raja
Country: United Kingdom
A raw coming-of-age short about a young boxer fighting for identity, purpose, and the courage to rise after being setback — both inside and outside the ring.
Directed by: Ula Zawadzka
Country: Poland
When a wife befriends her husband's lover to save her marriage... This film is dedicated to all women who were once cheated on. You can choose your ending.
Directed by: Richy Thrower
Country: United Kingdom
The Last Letter is a powerful short film exploring the emotional struggles of veterans adjusting to civilian life. Through intimate storytelling, it shines a light on PTSD, isolation, and the search for connection, offering a raw and authentic glimpse into a world often left unseen
Directed by: Alex Naghavi
Country: United States
Gentle is an award-winning poetic meditation on the quiet, interwoven experience of being a daughter, a sister, and a mother. Told through fragments of memory and soft disconnection, the film traces one woman’s emotional response to her sister’s stillbirth—where grief reopens the fragile threshold between girlhood and womanhood.
Directed by: Oli flinn
Country: United Kingdom
Due to his family struggling financially and his mother’s recent cancer, Sebastian feels a weight of responsibility to contribute financially to his family's current situation so he enquires support from his best friend Gabriel who is part of a drug gang where he suggests Seb takes a loan of money from the gang to help support his family. In spite of that, Seb learns that the gang is untrustworthy and even Gabriel is a threat.
Directed by: Salvatore Frisina
Country: Italy
In a dystopian future, children must decide when and how to die before they turn ten. A young girl discovers she has to make her choice on the very last possible day.
Directed by: Olesya Smolkova
Country: Russian Federation
Vera, a mother of many children, goes with her husband and three children to a friend's country house and tries to "relax" there
