2023/24

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”.