2023

Cora

A woman compulsively accumulates black plastic baggs in her bedroom closet. What's in the bags?

Director: Mauricio De la Maza-Benignos

Writer: Mauricio De la Maza-Benignos
Project type: Feature
Runtime: 2 hours 50 seconds
Country of Origin: Mexico

Totem - Screenplay

An ex-911 operator, travels to his childhood home, and runs into trouble with the local tree poachers. He's rescued by a mysterious Native American man who lives off the land.

Writer: Heidi Morrell
Number of Pages: 117
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English

Smiley Face - Short Script

Kyle, a lost teenager, faces reality when he breaks into his dad's home, and finds himself conflicting his own consequential actions.

Writer: Lucas Reinke
Number of Pages: 15
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Language: English

The Interview from Hell

We all have experiences of crazy and weird people we work with but have you wondered who hired them, and whether they knew this person to be crazy or were just ignorant and wanted to fill the position?!

Eve has an interview with Tom for an IT support position. After going over his "impressive" resume, she asks where he sees himself in five years.
He describes a world of civilization's near collapse after the "near apocalypse" and his role in saving it.
Eve kicks Tom out of her office as he rattles off a series of techniques he would like to try in his new job.

We bring to you a new office comedy and we are sure for it to tickle some nerves. Please enjoy our COVID pandemic special!!!

Director: Frank A DeChirico

Writer: Michael Chabler
Project type: Experimental, Feature, Student, Short, Web / New Media, Other
Runtime: 5 minutes
Country of Origin: United States

REM - The waves of endless dreams- MKーC

In this world, unimaginable memories of war and violence continue to swallow our reality. This is a dream shared with others as a video poem. The rushing waves melt into the sky. A girl on a disk flies and opens the boundaries of an endless dream. Nightmares possess the events encountered by various girls. Eventually there will be signs of an end.

Director: Keiji Aiuchi

Writer: Keiji Aiuchi
Project type: Animation, Experimental
Runtime: 10 minutes 40 seconds
Country of Origin: Japan

Director Biography

Born in Hokkaido Japan. Graduation: Tokyo University of the Arts / Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting. Master's course completion: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The Open University of Japan (Master of Arts). Withdrawal from credits: The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences [Doctoral Program], Department of Transdisciplinary Cultural Sciences. Emeritus professor at Kyoto Seika University. Member of the Japanese Image arts Society. Member of the Society of Representation and Culture. Member of the Japan Animation Association. Artist. Film maker.

The Unexpected Gift

Ela's biggest and only secret is her son Jon. Jon was born eight years ago as an act of rape, and after eight years he feels like nobody's son for the first time. The one that Jon knew as a father turns into a stranger, and he feels guilty towards his mother because of all the difficulties that he unknowingly caused. This tragic moment will be a metamorphosis for the family as a whole and of all its members individually.
Fearing the condemnation of her loved ones and relatives, Ela kept the rape secret for eight years, a problem that is evident in all rape victims. With silence, the number of raped women is growing, and the statistics are increasing year by year.

Director: Merita Çegrani

Writer: Merita Çegrani
Project type: Short, Student
Runtime: 10 minutes 55 seconds
Country of Origin: Macedonia

Director Biography

Merita Çegrani is a young and creative artist passionate in the field of film and television. She was born in 1999 in Gostivar and grew up in Chegrane, a village in the municipality of Gostivar in North Macedonia, and still lives there. From an early age, she has shown a strong interest in audiovisual art, as her family had a television of their own. This love for the art of film and television inspired her to pursue a career in this field. Merita first went to primary school in the place where she is living, whereas the high school she finished in Gostivar. After that, she enrolled at the University of Tetova, at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, majoring in Film & TV Editing, where she successfully completed her studies. In this faculty, she showed exceptional dedication to what she did, demonstrating excellent skills in writing and producing audiovisual projects as a screenwriter, director and editor. As a student, Merita managed to successfully direct several artistic and documentary projects. She wrote many screenplays, was part of the writing of other screenplays and directed short films, short documentaries, commercials, music videos, and has also done the work of editing. She has also collaborated with other directors to edit their films. In addition to her work as a creator, Merita is also considered a valuable team member and a good collaborator. She is known for her dedication and seriousness in completing her projects. Merita's motto is "Art for Progress," reflecting its belief in the power of art to bring about positive change and progress in society. Merita is determined to achieve success in the field of film and television and to bring her contribution to the art industry.

Letter to Father

Letter to Father is an experimental film that brings the raw and sensitive story of a daughter who loses her father in a traumatic way and who sees the need to bury the past by telling him everything she didn't have time to say. This letter was the way that filmmaker Natália Pimentel found to externalize the pain of loss and to talk about one of the saddest and most important moments of her life, asking questions and putting into a poetic and sensitive way everything that crossed her.

Director: Natália da Rocha Pimentel

Writer: Natália da Rocha Pimentel
Project type: Documentary, Experimental, Short
Runtime: 12 minutes 49 seconds
Country of Origin: Brazil

Director Biography

Natalia Pimentel is a director and screenwriter graduated from the PUCRS film school. She acted in several award-winning short films, which circulated in national and international festivals. Her most recent work was as a screenwriter for the documentary Sinal de Alerta: Lory F, awarded Best Editing and Best Film at the Gramado Film Festival. She is currently working on the festival distribution of her latest film, Letter to Father.In 2022 she was present at the Marché Du Film, at the Cannes Film Festival, presenting her feature-length documentary project Bipolar Goddess. With writing as her main focus, she has been writing since she was a child. She believes in art as a form of resistance and an agent of change, and cinema is an essential element in her life.

GAYA

GAYA is an experimental short movie. Through three generations, three members of a family represent the cycle of Creation, Destruction, and Redemption ; acting to bring life in their environment. GAYA interrogated us about our apathy and individualism to focus on what’s greater than us, nature.

Director: Nathan Le Porcher

Writer: Nathan Le Porcher
Project type: Experimental, Music Video, Short
Runtime: 12 minutes
Country of Origin: Canada

Director Biography

Born and raised in the suburbs of Paris, Nathan began his cinematic journey at the University of Paris at the age of 18. At this time he left his home to discover Europe and went to meet artists from all over his native continent. At the end of his studies he decided to set sail and went to Africa and settled in Senegal where he stayed a year and met artists from Dakar and Guinea with whom he lived, shared and collaborated. Since 2023 he has decided to settle in Quebec where he continues to film and collaborate with the people who welcome him to their territories.

PHOBIA

In the early summer of 2015, a man, a woman, and a high school student in an elevator in an apartment. And the coughing sound in the mask in the middle of the subtle silence...
MERS, we were at war for 70 days. It was not a war against the virus, but a war between truth and lies, faith and disbelief. Even if the war against the virus ends, will the real war we have been through ever end?

Director: YooSang Han
Writer: YooSang Han
Project type: Student, Short
Runtime: 6 minutes 30 seconds
Country of Origin: Korea

Director Biography

1998 Born in Seoul, South Korea
2021~ Entering Chongqing University in China

Ballsed Up

When Spuds meets a mysterious girl in a nightclub, the last thing he expects is a troubling diagnosis...

Director: Teri Murkin
Writer: Teri Murkin
Project type: Short, Television
Runtime: 23 minutes 46 seconds
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Where Have U Been

Jenny is about to commit a heinous crime due to abuse of the mind, and neglect of the heart. Only through the good-natured acts of her closest friend, Lucy, and the most fortuitous acquaintance with the local town's dance mentor, Will Power, Jenny realizes at the last moment before committing the crime that her long-dead dad would have liked more for her than this. Jenny remembers that life is worth living regardless of the toxic narcissistic circumstances she's been thrown into.

Director: Liam Torres
Writer: Liam Torres
Project type: Short
Runtime: 15 minutes
Country of Origin: United States

Director Biography

I was born in Puerto Rico over five decades ago. Raised in a family of eight, with a middle-class status was an interesting experience. We didn't have a lot, but what we didn't have, we made up by educating ourselves well - in music, history, law, psychology, world economics and politics. We were also very fortunate, we had our mom and dad all the way through our old age.

If there is something to take away from my past experiences is that life is short, but one can make it what one wants to at any time during that short period one has on this world, and share the goods with all that wish to experience the goods, and even bad, too. Now that I am 50, I reckon, there is no turning back and there is still a lot more to come. Thus, engage and carry forward.

Love knows no boundaries, when it is given with humility and respect. This, I've learned, has been in my heart all of my life.

PENTACLUB (The Club of Five)

The year is 1968. Five teenage boys dream of running a movie theater in which they will not show pro-war films.
One summer afternoon Giò, Delfo, Max, Ricky and Paolo learn to become trusted friends, indispensable to one another.
A coming-of-age, adventure film about friendship, one with small but large rebellious acts that signal the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.
A group of friends, who met in the 1960s, was essential to the film’s production. Therefore, Pentaclub is a film about friendship, both on the screen and behind the scenes.

Director: Roberto Strazzarino
, Roberto Strazzarino,

Writer: Maria Pia Alibrandi

Project type: Short
Runtime: 25 minutes
Country of Origin: Italy

Director Biography

Roberto Strazzarino is 69 years old and was born in Italy. He is the son of parents who worked in the Italian film factory called “Ferrania” and has been a self-taught filmmaker since the times of 8mm.
His development as a filmmaker, which began in the darkness of 1960’s cinemas, was fundamental.
The proximity of the film factory sparked the desire to try his own hand at filmmaking and the use of the 8mm camera helped create familiarity with the medium.
His participation in “in camera editing” competitions has favoured the development of a strong sense of visual storytelling which allows, through careful planning and detailed storyboarding, to shoot each scene almost as it will be seen on the screen, without having to rely on heavy coverage and editing.
His passion for film has remained alive/present throughout his life, also thanks to his attendance at the Venice Film Festival as a correspondent for private radio stations and specialized magazines since 1979, the year of the festival’s relaunch with Carlo Lizzani.
Since his retirement he has dedicated himself full-time to his passion of filmmaking. He has attended film courses at the Sentieri Selvaggi School in Rome and at the Holden School in Turin. In 2019 he enrolled at New York University - Tisch School of the Arts where he took the course “Sight and Sound Filmmaking.”

Sara: the force of the sea

Sara is a judge very committed to the cases she hears in her office. After meeting David, a young artist, on the beach, she must make decisions about her work and her relationship with Lucas, her husband. Sara, through the force of the sea, wants to achieve spaces of freedom. The encounters with a Caribbean woman, Rosa, and an enigmatic man from the city, Virgilio, will be decisive in resolving her personal dilemmas and better understanding the meaning of justice in a society indifferent to the most marginalized people and with enormous inequality.

Director: Andrés Ricaurte, Martín Agudelo Ramírez
Writer: Martín Agudelo Ramírez
Project type: Feature
Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes
Country of Origin: Colombia

Director Biography

Andrés Ricaurte Múnera
He directed "SARA", the force of the sea (2023), a feature film in the distribution stage. Also "A way for Tomás" ("Un camino para Tomás"), a short film (2019); "A guardian before the mirror" ("Un guardián ante el espejo"), a short film made in 2018. These three projects were written by Martín Agudelo Ramírez and produced by Punto 8 Audiovisual. With these projects he has received important awards in different festivals worldwide. Ricaurte currently works as a director with more than 150 video clips for different artists of various musical genres since 2018. He has also participated in different film projects in each of the departments since 2012.

Martín Agudelo Ramírez
Lawyer from the Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana, Bachelor of Philosophy and Theologian from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and PhD from the University of Salamanca - Spain. Writer of two books: "The problem of the foundation of Human rights" and "Power: Its foundation and its limits from Human rights". Screenwriter and Director of three short films: "Triptych of a lost lady - 2017", "A guardian before the mirror - 2018" and "A Way for Tomás - 2019". Your first feature film is "Sara, the force of the sea -2023".

AI'S DIARY

An autobiographical and generational tale that uses an AI app ( a sort of time machine) to enable photographs to speak.
A dialogue with my past, present and future self that ask the big existential questions that run throught life.

A format of five episodes to answer the five Ws in search of the meaning or lack thereof, of life. Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going?

A divertissement to escape into our mind, because imagination is our only true super powe

Director: Alice Barrese
Writer: Alice Barrese
Project type: Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
Runtime: 14 minutes
Country of Origin: Italy

Director Biography

I'm Alice Barrese, freelance journalist and television writer.
I worked in the editorial offices of many programs for Italian television (Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai 5), for production houses and companies.
Over the years I have shot documentaries, TV series, reports, services on different topics: art, food, culture, design, portraits, news, society.

Cheer Together

Cheer Together is adapted from the documentary Lala Every You, which took eight years to shoot and won numerous awards at international film festivals.

The protagonist, Ivy, was once the captain of the school cheerleading team and worked as a flight attendant for 20 years after graduating. Unexpectedly, she was laid off due to her company’s bankruptcy and reorganization. Additionally, her father has had dementia for many years, which has strained her ability to maintain relationships. As her life unravels, a cheerleading video unexpectedly sparks a resurgence of energy in her. Determined to reclaim her spirit, Ivy reunites with her fellow alums and forms a team to participate in a competition. Thus begins a series of humorous, touching, inspiring, and transformative stories.

Director: Yen Lan Chu
Writer: Yen Lan Chu
Project type: Feature
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Country of Origin: Taiwan

Director Biography

The director of Cheer Together, Chu Yen-Lan / Ivy, was an airline crew for 21 years . For promoting her clips, Ivy back to school again as a student, and got her master degree from department of New Media and Mass Communication Management. Since 2011, Ivy got involved in the filmmaking, screenwriting, productions of short films and music videos. She also stepped into the publishing and distribution of popular song albums (Red Flower Orchestra/Real Happiness). 《La La Every You》is the first new attempt that she took 8 years to shoot a feature-length documentary and has been nominated and won awards at 11 international film festivals. The second work is《Cheer Together》which is her first feature film.

Il dito e la luna/The finger and the moon/ El dedo y la luna

Tommaso, a 28-year-old boy, lives in an old country house isolated from the world, with Bianca the seamstress mother, now a widow for many years.
Tommaso' aunt, Matilde, calls to announce her imminent visit.
While his mother goes out on errands, Tommaso takes the opportunity to give vent to his dream in an old fisherman's shack. His mother finds out and throws him out of the house.
Tommaso finds himself desperate to wander aimlessly. The next day the aunt arrives and with Bianca they go to the old fisherman's shack in the hope of finding him. Upon entering, the two women are stunned.
Aunt leaves not before having made to reflect the sister-in-law.
The boy returns home. Mother and son reconcile.
Tommaso is finally free.

Director: Rossella Bergo
Writer: Rossella Bergo
Project type: Short
Runtime: 19 minutes
Country of Origin: Italy

Director Biography

Rossella Bergo was born near Venice but she lived in Rome for twenty years. In spring 2015 she went back to her home where she wrote and directed her first short movie “Il Brindisi” (The Toast 2016) which was presented at the 73° Venice Film Festival and selected to several festivals. Her second short movie, finished in January 2018, is "Florindo e Carlotta - La vita segreta delle chiocciole" (Florindo and Carlotta - The secret life of snails) which is about disability. It has been selected in many festivals and won several National and International Awards. Her third short movie is "Il Circo dei Fellini" (The Fellini's Circus 2020) about the centenary of the Fellini's Birth. She made a spot "Palestra Attori" 2019 with Elio Germano for collecting Artisti 7607 Rome. Her last short movie is "Il dito e la luna" with Katia Ricciarelli as main character - 2023. She is an actress and some of the movies where she worked in are:
"Ballo a tre passi" directed by S. Mereu, International Critic Award in the 60° Venice Film Festival; "Veloce vita" directed by D. Munoz; "Beate" directed by S. Zarmandili; "Voci" directed by F. Giraldi; "Clown’in Kabul" directed by S. Moser presented in the 59° Venice Film Festival. Some fictions like "R.I.S. Delitti Imperfetti" directed by A. Sweet, main character in “Bella di notte”; "Dio vede e provvede" directed by E. Oldoini. She worked as clown in theatres, in street festivals, hospitals in Italy and other countries in the world as Afghanistan, India, Cambodia, Byelorussia, Argentina, Norway, Brazil sometimes with Hunter Patch Adams. She wrote some books: "La Clownessa il sorriso intimo della donna" Venexia Ed. and "Legge d’attrazione per donne" Bruno Ed., "Le Carte della Clownessa" pubblished by La Clownessa Associazione.

A Good Man

Life as Ethan knows it ends abruptly as the people he trusted and loved all turn against him. When everything is lost it would seem that the only thing left to lose is one’s mind, and to stay good in a world full of bad is a losing battle.

Director: Jesse Mattias Guttridge
Writer: Jesse Mattias Guttridge
Project type: Short
Runtime: 27 minutes 18 seconds
Country of Origin: France

Director Biography

Jesse Guttridge is a young Canadian filmmaker born in Vancouver, raised in France and currently living in Paris. Growing up in a family of artists, his father being a composer and he himself playing the cello since the age of four, he felt a certain connection to other art forms, especially cinema. Having taken an interest in acting at first, he now spends his time writing films and doing everything possible to make them on his own terms, directing, editing and acting in them with the help from his family and friends and other talented actors.

Guest

A lonely guest is waiting for his meal at a restaurant. He becomes impatient and makes a radical decision.

Director: Ruven Wegner
Writer: Felix Schalk
Project type: Short, Student
Runtime: 8 minutes 50 seconds
Country of Origin: Germany

Pocket Money

Rose leads a double life. At work she's a pick-pocketing burlesque dancer and at home she's the good daughter to a cop. She has it all under control, until Rose finds herself entangled with the city's most wanted criminal. The lies keep building and Rose can't tell if she enjoys drowning in them.

Writer: Teodora Pancheva
Project type: Screenplay
Number of Pages: 105
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

The Other Half

Ash conforms to wearing a moustache like everybody else, but he has to admit its fakeness to save Nadia from the town's adversity

Director: Alina Stefania Ilin
Writer: Olga Bogdan
Producer: Ben Bogdan-Hodgson
Project type: Short, Student
Runtime: 15 minutes
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Director Biography

Alina Ilin is a Romanian Film Director based in London (UK) holding a First Class Honour Film Degree.

She has a life-long passion for films and visual arts and aims to work collaboratively with the cast and crew, prioritising impactful visual compositions that serve the narrative of the film.

She is also the co-founder of ASB Productions and has over 10 years of experience as an actress.

The Cutting Room

A censor is given an impossible task - making a family-friendly cut of Psycho - and faces an ultimate question: what comes of censorship, and what will come of him?

Writer: Toby Smith
Project type: Screenplay, Short
Number of Pages: 3
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

You Are My Oxygen

A picture without words, filled with dance, representing Linda´s never-ending run. She tries to find her place in society, but she hits rock bottom. Linda must find her courage and realize that fear is not the answer. She must face and uncover what she‘s been running from this entire time.

Writer: Toby Smith
Project type: Screenplay
Number of Pages: 85
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Director Biography

Toby Smith is, to quote the late Jean-Luc Godard, "a film addict - absolutely crazy about cinema." He has an eclectic taste, from splatter-fests to Polish arthouse, and is always eager to explore new genres and storytelling possibilities. He has won several awards - and been nominated for numerous others - for his short scripts, and is hard at work on getting his "second first film" written, to quote Godard again.

Selfmotion

A picture without words, filled with dance, representing Linda´s never-ending run. She tries to find her place in society, but she hits rock bottom. Linda must find her courage and realize that fear is not the answer. She must face and uncover what she‘s been running from this entire time.

Director: Martin Bystriansky
Writers: Natálie Čuková, Silvia Goliašová, Martin Bystriansky
Project type: Experimental, Music Video, Short, Student
Runtime: 10 minutes
Country of Origin: Czech Republic

Director Biography

Martin Bystriansky is a second-year student of the follow-up master's degree in Directing and Screenwriting at FMK UTB in Zlín. He aims to create his work in search of new formalistic means, depicting social reflection. His latest film, Breaktime, is a clear presentation of the author's interest in genre film and its parallel connection with the contemporary image of the world.

SANG

SANG is a coming-of-age drama about a Chinese mother and daughter, Sang, who lives in Prague. Sang's life is strictly controlled by her mother. In order to meet the boy she adores, Sang fights against her mother and runs away from home. What will happen to Sang and her mother in this evening?

Director: Ruqing Li
Writer: Ruqing Li
Project type: Student, Short
Runtime: 16 minutes 30 seconds
Country of Origin: Czech Republic

Director Biography

Li Ruqing was born in 1995 in Cangzhou, Hebei Province. He graduated with a master's degree in Directing from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. His first short film, Peculiar Pig 2.0, was selected for the 33rd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2018. His second short film, My Cousin's Marriage, was selected for the 35th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2021. He is currently living in Shanghai and working on his debut feature film, Luxury Present.

BUBBLES

A forty-year-old woman named SOL, floats in a long-distance relationship bubble. She starts the day waiting for the wake-up call to accurately perform her morning ritual, which seems to be a video call with her longtime boyfriend FRED. He is so far away that the sunrise at Sol's window marks the sunset at his'. They both look weary and on the verge of frustration as they wait to see each other for Christmas— so the story goes, for some bizarre reason, for the two of them to meet requires the crack of Fred’s bubble, which never occurs.

Director: MERI DISHNICA
Writer: MERI DISHNICA
Project type: Short
Runtime: 15 minutes 32 seconds
Country of Origin: Italy

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Director Biography

Meri Dishnica is an Albanian director and screenwriter, with a background in psychology. Since 2019 she is engaged in search of new intersections between image and sound, movement and space on the way to visualize her ideas, until altogether they become a scene. Empowered by her experience as a former therapist who can grasp the abysses of the human mind, she has developed a unique artistic perception based on self-taught screenwriting skills. Her artworks which include video art, cinematic poems, and experimental films have gained recognition in several independent film festivals. In 2020 she pursue a career as a freelance writer and script reader. In 2023 she wrote and directed her first short film “BUBBLES”.