OFFICIAL SELECTION - bluedanube

After a lesson about cosmic archaeologists and a water fight in the schoolyard, Elly steals Faye’s soul and Faye gives Elly a rare birthday present. But then, under a sky full of stars, a song from the past will remind the girls that nothing really lasts forever.

Thelyia Petraki, holds a BA in Filmmaking (CalArts USA), and an MA in Visual Anthropology (UCL UK). In her works, the boundaries between memory, dreams and reality tend to blur. Her films are a perpetual gaze to the human behavior in an attempt to understand human condition through the cinematic lens. Lately, she combines and experiments with various analogue formats, along with recycling found footage, creating this way a mosaic effect. She also tends to study the past in order to understand the future.

In the kitchen, everything is boiling, and so is Ernstl, but he has to keep functioning. After his secret lover dies, Ernstl is confronted by the widow, Lara, about their hidden affair. Despite the anger and pain they feel, Ernstl and Lara unexpectedly come together in a moment of physical closeness.

Vivian Bausch is currently studying directing and editing at the HFF Munich and at the same time completing her master's degree in directing at the Film Academy Vienna. Her creative approach is characterized by the integration of documentary methods into fictional films, while exploring the potential of melodrama and "stream of consciousness" elements. She has developed this perspective through intensive engagement with experimental cinema. In addition to her work in film, Bausch is also involved in video installations and live performances, which are presented at exhibitions in Europe and beyond. In 2024, she received the Carl Mayer Screenplay Award together with Fabian Rausch for SOLDAT.

Derya is pregnant, but she hasn’t had sex. In the height of a dry summer, signs of the supernatural and the divine emerge, questioning the true origin of her mysterious pregnancy.

Kim Lêa Sakkal is a writer, director and producer based in Germany. After growing up in Lebanon, Germany and Spain, she graduated from the Academy of Media Art in Cologne. Her works have been screened at festivals such as Filmfestival Max-Ophüls Prize, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen and IndieLisboa. She is currently developing her first feature „A Paradise Lost“ funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

Sunny summer day at a suburban school. A schoolteacher finds out that her son’s poorly written exam may jeopardise his dream of attending a prestigious university abroad. The film explores sacrifices a mother is willing to make to secure her child’s success, raising questions about ethics and the pressures of education.

Adas Burkšaitis is a film director living in Vilnius. While studying computer science, Adas became interested in cinema. In 2020, Adas enrolled in a master's degree in directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Since then, he has created short films that have been presented at Palm Springs, Vienna Shorts, Trouville Off-Courts, and other international and Lithuanian film festivals. Ado's final film, Mint, won the Best Feature Film award at the Encuentro Para Cinéfagos film festival in Venezuela, as well as the third prize at the International Izmir Short Film festival and the Best Actor award at the largest student film festival in the world, Watersprite Film Festival. His experience working in the sciences has broadened Ado's worldview and influences his work. Personal experiences not only inspire stories, but also dictate themes. In his films, he seeks to reflect on the impact of technology, the loss of illusions, and the subjectivity of our human experience.

A troubled young woman confronts her past at a rehabilitation centre. She finds solace in horse therapy but her growing intimacy with her therapist derails her progress and threatens her healing journey.

I began my studies in psychology at the Freie Universität in Berlin. In 2019, I was accepted into the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest to pursue an MA in film directing. During my second year there, I withdrew from the university to protest the undemocratic restructuring it was undergoing. I completed my degree in 2023 at FreeSZFE and the Filmakademie Wien. I have worked closely with Béla Tarr, serving as his assistant in his workshops. Currently, I’m developing my first feature film while working on Ruben Östlund’s upcoming feature as a casting associate. As a filmmaker, I strive to craft honest, uncompromising and impactful cinematic experiences.

How can two lost people help each other move on to the next stage of their lives, leaving their past behind? The film is about empathy, consideration for each other, and the immense power of small gestures - which can change both their own lives and the lives of others.

Fanni Potonyecz is a Hungarian director, actress, and emerging producer. She holds a master’s degree in film directing from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, an acting diploma from Kaposvár University, and a BA in cultural anthropology from the University of Miskolc. As a freelancer, she has worked on many film productions. She developed the documentary series The Murderers of Labancz Anna as a producer during the Ex Oriente international workshop from 2023 to 2024, and the project was selected among the top 10 projects at NEM Zagreb. From 2021 to 2023, she worked as a cultural manager at the Budapest International Documentary Film Festival, where she also coordinated the short film section. Her short film Next Stop, which she wrote and directed, was awarded production funding by the National Film Institute in 2023.

InruralYunnan,anine-year-old girl’s ordinarylife with hergrandparentsis shattered byan unspeakable incident.

Zhaoguang Luo is a Chinese writer-director. His short film A SILENT FAREWELL (2024) premiered in the Main Competition at the 18th FIRST International Film Festival and won Best Cinematography at the 30°N Short Film Week. Co-director Shuhan Liao graduated from Sichuan Normal University and is pursuing her MA at the Communication University of China. Their latest film, LILI (2025), is selected for the Short Films Competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

Daniela’s voice must be fully rested before she’s able to use it again. Given the adults' inability to handle the situation, her classmates see the perfect opportunity to silence her for good.

Aria Sánchez and Marina Meira are a creative duo that transforms their individual visions of the world into collective works. Uniting Cuban and Brazilian nationalities, they work together from developing universes and characters to directing and producing that brings them to the screens... The duo makes their directorial debut with the short film "Primera Enseñanza", a co-production between Cuba, Brazil, and Spain. The stories of the duo reflect the everyday grotesque in different universes and representations. A girl who loses her voice, a girl who promotes a last unforgettable New Year's Eve for her grandmother's fiancée, a woman who collects sounds, a boy who, upon seeing an ATM for the first time, thinks it's a money-making machine. Aria and Marina dedicate themselves to creating atmospheres that make us feel the absurd in seemingly ordinary worlds, an invitation to inhabit the questions we assume we know the answers to

Felix, a 9-year-old boy, is about to move. He spends his free time at a stable but has never dared to ride a horse. He admires Victoria, a twelve-year-old equestrian prodigy. However, Felix is troubled by intriguing events: he observes with concern his friend's gradual distance and notices a strange relationship between her and their coach.

Nathan Coen began his career studying architectural and art photography with his uncle. From that moment on, he knew that his career would be linked to some form of artistic expression. After choosing the audiovisual option in high school, Nathan went on to study imaging at ESRA Paris. He then began working as an assistant cameraman on films. Seeing his passion for filmmaking develop, Nathan prepared for the Ateliers du Cinéma de Beaune competition, where he had the opportunity to follow Claude Lelouch for three years, from the preparation to the screening of one of his films. It was during this training that he wrote the screenplay for the short film IN THE STABLES. As well as directing, Nathan has been working for several years in color grading at the HD-Systems digital laboratory, further nurturing his love of images.

Feeling invisible and adjusting to life alone, a father faces a disturbing physical unravelling when he discovers something growing inside him.

Matty Crawford is a BAFTA nominated British Filipino writer-director based in London. His films cross genre and burrow under your skin, blending unflinching emotion with bold visual storytelling. He is a Sundance Ignite Fellow and graduate of the National Film and Television School in the UK. His short films have gone to broadcast, whilst screening at festivals such as Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival and SXSW, whilst collecting a number of awards including the 'Midnight Shorts Jury Award' at SXSW and a BFI Future ‘New Talent Award’. He's represented for Film & TV by Nina Amini & Sophia Zhang at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in the UK.

Bombs fall down while a mother sings to her daughters. Nature shivers. Houses become empty. 9-year-old Emilia is about to learn that the war around her is not a game anymore.

Carmen Pedrero (Madrid, 1996) is a film director, screenwriter and poet. After graduating from ECAM, her thesis short film “Winds of Springtime” had its premiere in the Future Frames’ program at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and won the Danzante Award for Best Opera Prima at Huesca International Film Festival. During the last two years, Carmen was part of multiple artistic labs such as Novos Cinemas’, INPUT (S8), Málaga Talent, or Cannes’ Focus Script, where she had the opportunity to continue working on her projects. At the same time, Carmen took her first steps on poetry, winning in 2022 the Biennial Young Poetry Award of La Laguna’s Ateneo with her book “No one knows how a cat feels when it licks its paws”. Last summer, she filmed “The idea of an Island”, her last short film, supported by ICAA, Junta de Extremadura and WOS Fabrique. Carmen is currently living in Boston on a full scholarship, where she’s pursuing a master’s program focused on film pedagogy.

In a spa surrounded by mountains of salt, guests relax and sunbathe, while workers collect the glowing crystals under the sun. Children run off, escaping the watchful eyes of adults, and a woman drifts through this landscape in a haze, detached from reality. As night falls, the space transforms, shaped by the desires of those who pass through.

Studied film at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School. Her films have been shown at IndieLisboa, Curtas Vila do Conde, and the Cinemateca Portuguesa. Since 2016, she has worked as an editor, while also writing, producing, and directing her own projects. She is currently developing her first feature film, which she began during her master's at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, recently completing it as a fellow of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

When Kaali, a young autistic boy, discovers that his dog has been stolen, he goes on an intensive search for the thief through the town of Tasiilaq, East Greenland. During his search, Kaali is confronted with being different to his peers. He finds his dog, and wants to steal it back, but is the dog even stolen, and is it worth losing his only friend over a dog? Anngeerdardardor (The Thief) is the first ever short film to come out of East Greenland. It is based on real events and characters, and made in collaboration with the youth of Tasiilaq. Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken (b. 1987) is a writer/director born and raised in Tasiilaq, East Greenland. Now based in Copenhagen, Denmark, his work as a storyteller, on film or podcast, often takes him back to his adolescence in East Greenland. As a filmmaker, he seeks a high level of authenticity in his characters and their environment through an investigative approach and naturalistic style to follow.

After enduring many decades of embarrassment and discomfort, the artist finally admits to the negative impact that possessing the commonest name in the English-speaking world has had on his psyche. Peppered with disparate fragments of autobiography, ‘Being John Smith’ takes us on a confessional journey that reveals just how important a name can be.

John Smith has made over 60 film, video and installation works that have been shown in independent cinemas, museums, art galleries and on television around the world. Known for their formal ingenuity, subversive wit and oblique storytelling, his films blur the perceived boundaries between documentary, fiction, representation and abstraction, playfully exploring and exposing the language of cinema...

Rodica (40) and her children, Maria (14) and Patrick (18), are Romanian expats living in Belgium. Their lives center on finding each other’s coordinates in order to live a balanced family life. Through a gentle, minimalist approach, the camera is nearby the protagonists, when they are alone, when they are together, focusing on their attempts to communicate with each other, on their silences, on the weight of their bodies. Blue is a film about love, fear, anxiety, and the emotions that emerge at their intersection.

Ana Vijdea was born and raised in Buzău, Romania. She recently graduated from DocNomads, an itinerant master’s program in documentary film directing. Prior to that, she earned an MFA in Film from Syracuse University in New York, where she studied under the auspices of the Fulbright program, and a BA in Cinematography and Media from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania...

In a small, semi-utopian city, all the streets are named after poets. When war begins, new neighborhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees. Soon the citizens find themselves lost amid the memories of the forgotten poets.

Sara Rajaei is an Iranian-Dutch video artist and filmmaker based in The Netherlands. In her work, she studies the notion of time by reflecting on the absence of image, memory psychology, oral history, narrative techniques, and physical/psychological space. Her artistic oeuvre consists of short films and video installations, which remain in-between storytelling and imagery. After her graduation from the Royal Academy of Art The Hague in 2002, Rajaei attended a 2-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam. In 2009, she was shortlisted for the Prix de Rome. She is currently developing her first feature film with support of the funding scheme The Imagination (De Verbeelding) of Netherlands Film Fund.

The autobiography of Koki, an immortal parrot, loyal comrade of Marshal Tito, leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years.  Made over 4 years with Koki responding to previously unseen archives, this biopic relives the caged memories of this 68 year speaking bird, who had the honour of meeting Hollywood stars, and bloodthirsty dictators.

Born in Australia in 1981, the filmmaker and artist has been based in the Netherlands since 2012. His focus on film developed out of video installations and from writing and designing for literary publications. He often makes comedies which depict alienated characters struggling with language, truth, time and history. Animals and diverse experiences of language are a strong feature of his films.

When a local community member disappears, a boy faces an early memory, seeking comfort in the indigenous traditions, healing rituals, and guidance from his grandfather.

Angello was born in Bogotá, Colombia and studied filmmaking at ESCAC in Barcelona. He works as a filmmaker and cinematographer who actively balance narrative, documentary and commercial work. His short film DULCE (2018) released by NYT Op Docs was selected in Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, among other film festivals and won Best Documentary at Palm Springs Film Fest and Gran Prix at Tampere Film Festival. LAPÜ (2019) his first feature had its World Premiere at Sundance and the European Premiere at the Berlinale and won Best Cinematography at the Boston Film Festival...

Krystyna is 72 years old, but she has never known true love. In order to change something, she signs up with a matrimonial agency. Newcomming dates bring nothing than disappointments. Meeting elderly men let her realize, relationship may not be a lack in her life.

A graduate of psychology at the Jagiellonian University, directing in Gdynia Film School and the Wajda School. Her short films “We mnie" (2019) and "Gęś" (2021) won a number of awards at festivals. She is currently working on his feature debut, which received funding from the Polish Film Institute for project development.

Since the seventh century AD, Sado has been called the "island of exile". Unwelcomed people by the shogunate such as homeless, artists and politicians were exiled, some of them even put to forced labour in the mines. Their spirits, trapped in the depths of the earth, will never see the sky again.

Davide Palella graduates at NABA in 2019 with his first medium-length film, Sirio. In 2021, he receives a development grant at In Progress with his new project, Shura, mentored by Michelangelo Frammartino. Shura is then selected at the 2023-2024 Biennale College Cinema. Sonnenstube is realized during the 2022 Locarno Spring Academy and screened at more than 20 international film festivals. Sado is his latest work.

Emilia and Caterina write letters to each other revisiting their adolescent memories and earliest experiences at a boarding school in the 1950s. Did they choose the lives they truly wanted, or only those that they dared to imagine?

Giulia Cosentino BIO Giulia Cosentino is a film director, screenwriter and researcher, born in Catania, Sicily. She graduated in cinema and visual art attending Roma Tre University, Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, Nova in Lisbon and Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona...

Perla Sardella BIO Perla Sardella is editor and documentarist, born in Jesi in 1991. She graduated in Cinema and Multimedia Arts at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, in Milan. She works with still and moving images, and with different formats including linear audiovisual, photography and video installations...

In a quiet, timeworn Greek village nestled high in the mountains above an ancient volcano, a group of elderly villagers must move the remains of their ancestors to a mausoleum at the peak of the mountain of Prophet Elias… A docufiction film shot on 8mm, 16mm, and digital.

IRENE ZAHARIADIS (co-director, co-writer): Irene Zahariadis is a writer, filmmaker, and translator living in New York City. Born in Queens, New York, she moved to Nisyros, Greece at the age of two and began schooling in Athens a few years later....

KEVIN WALKER (co-director, co-writer): Kevin Walker is a filmmaker originally from Baltimore, MD, now working out of New York City. He is a co-founder of the filmmaking collective and production company COSMIC SALON. His short film, Roundabout, co-directed with NYC filmmaker Jack Auen, is currently being distributed by Varicoloured HFA...

A community of garden creatures all contribute to the flow of life, using water from a fountain. When a butterfly gets stuck in the fountain, they’re faced with an unfamiliar situation.

Suncana Brkulj (1997) earned her MA in animation from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Her student films have been selected for screenings at prestigious festivals in Annecy, Ottawa, Zagreb, Stuttgart, and elsewhere, winning several awards. After graduating, Suncana undertook a residency at Open Workshop in Viborg, where she made her first professional film, Butterfly. Filmography: Butterfly (2024), Stinky in the Dark Forest (2022, graduation film), The Tower (2020, student film), I'm Not Feeling Very Well (2019, student film), The Sensitive Prince (2018, student film)

Eleven-year-old Berci spends an afternoon alone with his dog, struggling with the emotions left behind after witnessing his parents' violent fight the day before. As his suppressed feelings surface, he releases his anger and aggression in tense and emotional interactions with his dog. These raw expressions eventually help Berci find relief and discover the quiet, transformative strength of forgiveness.

Péter Vácz is an award-winning animation director from Budapest, Hungary. His 2013 graduation short film Rabbit and Deer won over 125 festival awards worldwide. He has since directed music videos for James (All I’m Saying, Dear John), the live-action short Pillowface, and several animated poem adaptations. Beyond filmmaking, Péter teaches workshops globally. He is the artistic director of Illyés Animation Academy and since 2023 the president and founding member of the Hungarian Society of Animation Artists – AA1 advocating for the growth of the industry.

A person is in the flow. They make a decision and keep flowing until all becomes one.

Helen Unt (1987) is an Estonian animator and filmmaker. She graduated with a BFA in Printmaking from the Estonian Academy of Arts, where she also completed her MFA in Animation. Since then, she has taught the development and production of animated films to children, school teachers, and animation students. In 2016 her debut short animated film Out of Internal Worlds was finished at studio Eesti Joonisfilm. In The Flow of Being (2024), her most recent animated film, the story is told through changing techniques. Helen has recently developed an interest in woodworking and upcycling. She is currently looking for creative challenges in stop-motion, either modelling or animating. Filmography: Flow of Being (2024), Out of Internal Worlds (2016), Chicks on the Highway (2011, graduation film)

In a factory driven by endless ambition, a mysterious wooden idol grants every wish for success. A young worker devotes himself to it—until a hidden room reveals a different world and sparks a desire for change. What does it mean to work, and why do we work at all?

Angel Wu was born in 1998, graduated from Taipei National University of Arts in 2020. With pencil, ink, watercolor, wood, sound, and sometimes zebrafish, she shapes the questions that come to her. Questions about bloodlines, empires, mental illness, time, love, light, Wall Street, eyesight, entropy, eternity, poverty, beauty, and the first 22 hours of zebrafish life… She works as a calligrapher and filmmaker between Taipei and Münster. Her recent movies include drawn undrew draw (2020) and Force x

Franz and Milena – between them a distance, her husband and loads of letters – it is love that fills Kafka’s life with light and hope and at the same time illuminates the fears and darkness in him. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s Letters to Milena Jesenská, “Kafka. In Love” explores the multidimensional experience of falling in love.

Zane Oborenko is an animated film director and artist from Riga, Latvia. She has completed BA studies in Brera, Academy of Arts of Milan, Italy, and MA in animation at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Zane has developed unique author’s handwriting in sand animation. Her diploma film “IMG_00:01. JPG” received the Best Student Film award at the Fredrikstad Animation Festival in 2014...

A wintry poem about the Nordic nature. The sun moves low and days get shorter. Birds fly South, porcelain animals and insects hide from the freezing wind and snow. Only a small porcelain girl wanders the abandoned landscape with no way out.

Anu-Laura Tuttelberg graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013 with an MA in Animation, specializing in stop-motion. Her graduation film Fly Mill won 20 prizes globally. Her first post-graduation film, On The Other Side Of The Woods, premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival and won 12 awards across 85 festivals. Winter in the Rainforest, the first in her nature trilogy, premiered at Annecy in 2019, winning 13 festival prizes and the Estonian Cultural Endowment Award. Anu-Laura, known for her set designs in stop-motion films, won the 2022 Estonian Film and TV Award for Best Production Design. She teaches animation at her alma mater

A man recounts his capillary peregrinations through his adolescence - from the barber’s trauma to his first love to the loss of his hair and eventually his father. Through this, we see a construction of a masculinity in the making.

Sameh (Cairo, Egypt) finished his MA in filmmaking at EICAR Film School, Paris. His first short film FIFTEEN premiered at TIFF ‘17 and won several awards around the world. His recent film, I AM AFRAID TO FORGET YOUR FACE, is the first Egyptian film in 50 years to be selected for the Official Short Film Competition at Cannes Film Festival. Sameh is currently developing his debut feature film.

Rhythmic gymnastics is considered to be one of the most beautiful female sports. What we see is that young, gorgeous girls in their glittering leotards move lightly on a big carpet, with a smile on their faces. Behind the mask of perfection, however, there is eternal self-dissatisfaction and endless internal struggles in the group. Through the eyes of a competitor, we follow the journey of the entire national team from a training session to the competition mat and observe how their intrigue ends up.

The Hungarian animation director, Anna Tőkés studied animation at Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design. She has worked in the industry since 2018. She feels comfortable in several different animation roles such as art directing, animating, or production managing. Her first film as a director, the animation short titled THE LAST DROP (2024) has been selected for Sarajevo FF.

Helpless in the face of a repressive state, a young couple leaves their home — an escape that turns into a surreal nightmare.

Natalia Mirzoyan is an animation director and artist based in Estonia, originally from Yerevan, Armenia. She holds a Master's degree in Animation from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). Her films, including My Childhood Mystery Tree (2009), Chinti (2012), Five Minutes to Sea (2018), and Merry Grandmass (2020), have been selected for numerous prestigious festivals, such as Berlinale, Annecy, Zagreb, Fantoche and Hiroshima, earning her multiple awards. Winter in March (2025) is her first puppet animation film. Natalia is working with a range of techniques, from hand-drawn to stop-motion. In addition to her work in animation, she is an artist, illustrator, and sketcher. Natalia has participated in several group exhibitions and held three solo exhibitions of her own.

In a world where, after each break-up, ex-partners must exchange a chosen body part, Wish You Were Ear explores the lasting impact of relationships. People not only lose a literal piece of themselves with each split, but also carry visible reminders of every past love. The protagonist, feeling fragmented and deformed, yearns for their original, whole form. Yet, when they unexpectedly see their former ear on someone else, it sparks a journey of self-acceptance, revealing that these parts are what truly shape their identity.

Mirjana Balogh is a Hungarian animation director and graphic designer, working across both fields. She recently graduated from MOME Anim, debuting her first animated short film, Wish You Were Ear.

“Deluge” is an ever-evolving landscape where the present inevitably coexists with the past. Memories are formed, reshaped, and obliterated, relentlessly competing for space. Control is surrendered, and mistakes and second chances are embraced. It is the slow stampede of a vulnerable mind.

Meejin Hong is an experimental animator deeply rooted in the fine arts. She holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Printmaking from Cornell University. She is part of a team of post-disciplinary artists at Electronic Countermeasures, LLC based in Los Angeles. She was born in Spartanburg, SC and currently resides with a creep of tortoises and other unruly creatures in Winnetka, CA.

A skier on melting ice — caught between motion and impermanence. The short film touches the fragile threshold between natural forces and human traces, drawing viewers into the glacier’s innermost breath and immersing them in its fading soul. The melting glacier stages a visually poetic disintegration. Its echo reverberates through the skier’s thoughts, pulling him into the depths of his own psyche. Snow fractures into digital shards; space dissolves into a shimmering breath of transience. A visual resonance of the climate crisis — fragmented, dislocated, yet impossible to ignore.

Hemelsbreed is a poetic, meandering journey of discovery through the worlds we inhabit and how they shape our sense of home. It asks what it means to be at home in a world of shifting boundaries and how personal connection can bridge distance in time and space. What happens to our own identity when we are always on the move? What do we hear and what do we listen to in a world of digital noise? Helle Monne is an audiovisual artist working primarily in film and site-specific installations. Her practice centers around themes of connection, memory, and nature, often exploring the tension between the familiar and the alien. By combining documentary elements with abstract visual language, she invites viewers into a dialogue between the known and the strange, emphasizing how these shifting perspectives shape our understanding of each other and the (natural) world around us. Initially studying conflict studies, her work remains informed by an interest in societal dynamics, human connection, and climate change...

Portugal 1872. The Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, travels to the city of Porto, and stays at the Grand Hotel du Louvre, property of Maria Henriqueta de Mello Lemos e Alvelos. In the present day, the attempt to make a film about this episode becomes an invocation. Maria Henriqueta is with us. Memories, sounds and sensations take over the screen, and help build an emotional geography of our invisible protagonist. This is a phantasmagoria of the senses. A good haunting.

Nuno Ochôa Pimentel (b. 1992) is a filmmaker and film distributor from Portugal. He studied cinema at Escola Superior Artística do Porto and screenwriting at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2019 he was part of the Locarno Film Festival's Industry Academy and in 2022 participated in a residency promoted by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Escola das Artes - Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he developed the short film MARIA HENRIQUETA WAS HERE. He lives in Berlin.

In the valleys surrounding the Dolomite Mountains, children reimagine ancient Ladin legends while they examine bodies of water, holes, caves and passages looking for something lost or forgotten. Through a poetic choreography, the film becomes a fictional journey creating resonances between the landscape, magical thinking and Ladin – the protected old Rhaeto-Romanic language of the valleys, a puzzle unfolds as a timeless fable. Eva Giolo is an artist working in film, video, and installation. Her work places particular focus on the female experience, employing experimental and documentary strategies to explore themes of intimacy, permanence and memory, along with the analysis of language and semiotics. Her films, installations and other projects have been widely exhibited at festivals, museums and galleries internationally...

I live in Saarland. The place is surrounded by forests and I find it very beautiful and exotic. Almost like a Bob Ross painting. But while hiking I came across a bunker and realized that there were beasts lurking behind the happy trees. A short essay film about war and forest.

Víctor Orozco Ramírez is an independent filmmaker born in Mexico and based in Germany. His films have participated in more than 250 Film festivals and had won awards among others at the following international film festivals: Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Morelia Film Fest, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb. They had also been awarded with the Preis der Nationalgalerie for filmmaking, the First Steps Award and the German Short Film Award.

He does not remember much from that time. Things have faded, like the color of a painting after too much light. The only thing that bothers him is this music. It keeps popping up... He thinks he forget what it meant. All he knows, for sure, is that he cannot get it out of his head.

He is a film producer and director, member of EFA and alumnus of Berlinale Talents and Locarno Spring Academy. He studied in workshops with Werner Herzog, Radu Jude and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His film productions were featured in more than 150 festivals all around the world including Cannes Quinzaine, Locarno, Venice SIC@SIC, Camerimage, Rotterdam IFFR. His short film "Happy New Year, Jim" premiered at Cannes Film Festival during the 54. Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. In 2023, he took part in Locarno Spring Academy with Radu Jude where he shot "Eschaton Ad"...

A golfer fails to strike, a soccer team plays against itself and a rally co-driver faces an identity crisis. They are surrounded by an audience unable to act. Shot in sports video games, the film "A World At Stake" turns the ordering principles of victory and defeat upside down and negotiates social roles between individual sovereignty and collective passivity. In the face of catastrophe, a feeling of political powerlessness remains. Nothing less than the world is at stake.

The media guerilla Total Refusal is a collective of artists, researchers, and filmmakers who upcycle the resources of mainstream video games to create political narratives in the form of videos, interventions, performances, and lectures. Their work has been screened at over 250 film and art festivals and exhibited at various spaces. The films premiered at Berlinale '20, Locarno '22 und '23. Since their foundation in 2018, Total Refusal have been awarded with more than 50 prizes and honorary mentions, amongst them Locarnos Best Short Direction Award 2022 and Best Shortfilm at the European Film Awards 2023.

Close to the Austrian border, three friends from Tehran are dropped off by their smuggler. They must spend the night in the Slovakian forest, until the next truck picks them up. Despite the difficult journey, the prospect of a new future keeps them moving forward. During the night, the group faces a dilemma that leads them to a point of no return.

Reza Rasouli, born in Mashhad, Iran, is a director and screenwriter whose lifelong passion for theater and cinema began with his first film projects as a child. He has lived and worked in Austria since 2019. Reza holds a bachelor's degree in directing and is currently studying for a master's degree at the Vienna Film Academy. His short films have been screened at numerous international film festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs and Short Shorts. His graduation film “Night of Passage” won the audience award at the Max Ophüls Film Festival, among others.

How hard is it to be a girl? How hard it is to be a sister? An intimate dialogue between two sisters in a hotel room gradually unveils the struggles and joys and nights and days of girlhood entwined with unspoken family secret.

Daniela Sláviková (*1999) comes from Bratislava, Slovakia and after graduating from highschool, she pursued her directing and screenwriting studies at TBU in Zlin, Czech Republic. Her bachelor's film, Ipanema, was short-listed for Czech lion award and premiered at Finále Plzeň. She has then earned her second bachelor's degree from Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava with her short film The Bus premiering at 65th Zlin Film Festival. She started her first year of master’s at one-semester stay in Lisbon. Her short Nights and days shot on 35mm earned a jury mention at BEAST. In her films, she mostly focuses on female protagonists and themes of loneliness, inter-generational relationships and girlhood.

A 17-year-old Ada spends the school vacation helping her Father sell contraband cigarettes on the streets. This unusual complicity enables Ada to spend more time and strengthen her bond with a loving but aloof Father. However, as Ada gradually ventures into adulthood, Father struggles to acknowledge that his daughter has grown up, and their worlds start drifting apart.

Dovydas Drakšas is a Lithuanian writer and director who currently resides and works in Berlin. He has a degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge and a master’s in filmmaking from the London Film School. He is attracted to stories that explore how elements like memories and upbringing, location and society play an important role in shaping personal identity. “Praeis” is his second short film and a graduation project from the London Film School.

On this hot summer day, 17-year-old Nayla is faced with the same dilemma every Lebanese youngster is faced with today – to leave or to stay. Two men in her life have set ideas about it, but both might wake up to a surprise.

Leila Basma is a Lebanese filmmaker and photographer currently based between Beirut and Prague. She holds a BA in Audiovisual Arts from IESAV at the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, and an MFA in Film Directing at FAMU in Prague. Through her work, she tries to explore the themes of society, youth, womanhood, and identity. Her second-year short documentary The Adam Basma Project was short-listed for the 48th annual Student Academy Awards (the Student Oscars) after touring various international documentary film festivals. Her photography work, was exhibited in various galleries in Beirut and Prague.

Basia (35) hides her problems from her husband. She spends her nights compulsively exercising, and tries to be a normal wife during the day. Her relationship with Zbyszek (35) becomes increasingly cool and distant. While taking exams for an acting college, Basia meets Alicia (20), a scatterbrained candidate who came to the exams with a baby. Alicia, careless with her son, leaves him alone. Basia takes on the care of the child and then experiences an unexpected, almost mystical connection between her and the toddler. After a demanding interrogation and emotional confrontation with her husband, Basia kidnaps Alice's child and inadvertently puts him in danger. This forces her to confront her own past and unprocessed grief. Now she is ready to begin the healing process.

Bartlomiej Blaszczynski - husband, father, actor of Silesian Theater (more than 35 theatrical roles), theater director (his play "Staś and the Bad Leg" was awarded at many prestigious theater festivals) and film director ("Seal Story", "Funeralia" - participation in more than a dozen film festivals...

After learning about her estranged mother's severe Alzheimer's, Sepideh, a single mother, chooses to visit her after ten years despite their troubled past to see if her mother still recognizes her and remembers their conflicts.

Soha Niasti, born in 1994 in Ramsar, Iran, studied architecture at the University of Tehran before turning to cinema. Her acting career began in 2019 with My Second Year in College, which earned her the Best Actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival. She later appeared in the acclaimed TV series Actor. Niasti’s passion for filmmaking led her to write and direct her short film The Two Lives of Sepideh (2024), which screened internationally and won several awards. She also collaborated with Saeed Roustaei, as both actress and script assistant on Woman and Child (Cannes 2025).

At her birthday party, a Chinese woman who has recently moved to the United States to live with her daughter tries to keep her daughter's secrets from her new friends.

Amie Song is a New York-based filmmaker. Splitting her time between the US and China, she explores how people reconcile living between cultures, traditions, genders, sexualities, etc. Her passion lies in pushing the boundaries of narrative, reimagining how films can question our perception of reality. She is currently an MFA Film Directing/Screenwriting candidate at Columbia University. Her short film THREE will premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as La Cinef Official Selection. Her previous short films screened at the Video Art & Experimental Film Festival, New Filmmakers NY, New York Shorts International Film Festival, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, etc.

Three men tell their very different perspectives on the death of their friend Luki during the robbery on a flower shop.

ANDREJ HARING (*1999) is an Austrian writer and director. His passion for film was sparked early on, as both of his parents work in the film industry. Since 2020, he has been studying screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy while simultaneously pursuing studies in theatre, film, and media studies. In 2024, he completed his bachelor’s degree in the latter and is continuing with a master’s program. His academic background complements his artistic work with solid theoretical knowledge. He has worked as an assistant director and script supervisor on numerous national and international projects.

Two children get lost in the woods during a schooltrip. In the middle of the forest they find an abandoned medieval church, which serves as their only shelter for the night.

Hungarian filmmaker Maya Nogradi was born in Israel, grew up in Budapest, completed her BA in the UK, then worked as a Researcher and Editor in London for three years, and in Rome for five years, while directing documentaries in Ukraine, Russia, Croatia and Serbia. She will finish her MA degree in Film Directing in 2025, at the at the prestigious University of Theatre and Film Arts in Hungary, in the class of Lajos Koltai. She is currently working on her diploma film and her first feature length film. Her background in Documentary and Photography had a strong influence in her filmmaking: a strong visual language is as important to her as the script.

Panna and Atus live in timelessness, while the grass just withers around them. But can this last at least until the end of the allergy season?

Although my experiences inspired me to try myself out in filmmaking, my life has been full of twists and turns. After I finished my studies in history and art history in Budapest, I left for China to start a new chapter in my career. In Shanghai, I tried to absorb everything that being a foreigner and traveling in Asia could give me. I worked in a video art studio as a curator and had the chance to get a glimpse at filmmaking, helping to create performance art pieces. After I started publishing my short stories back in Hungary, I made my first short film. It was then I realized I truly arrived home...

A protist is an organism that is neither animal, vegetable, nor fungi. Plant-like protists are called algae – such as those “flowers of the sea” cyanotypes created by Anna Atkins and published in a landmark book in 1843. In a mesmerizing frenzy of images and text, this animated short transforms her images into a protest of the historical erasure of the colonial violence that enabled their creation.

Sasha Waters' essay films and experimental shorts – from Chekhov for Children – a Top Ten mention in the Senses of Cinema World Poll – to 16mm films such as Respiration and Fragile – embrace a personal, artisanal approach to craft...

A phytogram cocktail made with three varieties of basil.

Ruth Hayes animates in film, video, flipbooks and other precinema devices, experimenting with form and content while exploring visual phenomena, engaging in political critique, and mining personal experience. She learned to animate at Harvard, earned her MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts, and taught animation in the interdisciplinary curriculum of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington for 25 years, retiring with emerita status in 2021.

An arrangement of found image sources from the 16th Century onward, the film looks at the changing representations of the giant star at the center of the solar system. From celestial maps to telescopic photos, the film traces the sun as a natural constant, a mirror of human curiosity, and a radiant symbol of mystery.

Derek Taylor creates films that explore the intersection of documentary and experimental filmmaking, with a particular emphasis on themes of history and landscape. He often examines the tension between the temporary and the enduring aspects of lived experience, using formal and textural elements to explore this dynamic...

Violence is not limited to physical acts—verbal violence can also cause irreparable harm to the soul. Synopsis: This experimental short film visualizes the intangible damage of words through striking imagery. The fragility of paper mirrors the vulnerability of the human heart. Each act of violence leaves irreversible marks on its two-dimensional surface, just as verbal abuse etches scars into the psyche. The film asks: Do we underestimate the power of words? If harm doesn’t bleed, does that make it acceptable?

8th Blue Danube Film Festival

22 November 2025 - 30 November 2025

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2025 - SHORT

400 CASSETTESThelyia Petraki

Greece, 202414'00"Short

FALL INTO EACH OTHERVivian Bausch

Austria, 20246'08"Short

IMMACULATAKim Léa Sakkal

Germany, 202422'00"Short

LEFT-HANDED PENAdas Burkšaitis

Lithuania, 202418'00"Short

LIVING STONESJákob Ladányi Jancsó

Hungary, 202519'57"Short

NE RÉVEILLEZ PAS L'ENFANT QUI DORTKevin Aubert

France, Morocco, Senegal, 202527'15"Short

NEXT STOPFanni Potonyecz

Hungary 202529'57"Short

NVHAI (LILI)Zhao Guang Luo,Shu Han LIAO

China, 202514'49"Short

PRIMERA ENSENANZAAria Sánchez, Marina Meira

Cuba, Spain, 202514'00"Short

SILENT STABLENathan Coen

France, 202419'00"Short

STOMACH BUGMatty Crawford

United Kingdom, 202415'10"Short

THE IDEA OF AN ISLANDCarmen Pedrero

Spain, 202419'00"Short

THE LONELINESS OF LIZARDSInês Nunes

Portugal, 202515'00"Short

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2025 - DOCUMENTARY

ANNGEERDARDARDORChristoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken

Denmark, 202519'41"Documentary

BEING JOHN SMITHJohn Smith

United Kingdom, 202426'45"Documentary

BLUEAna Vijdea

Romania, 202420'00"Documentary

CITY OF POETSSara Rajaei

Netherlands, 202421'22"Documentary

KOKI, CIAOQuenton Miller

Netherlands, 202511'03"Documentary

LANAWARUAngello Faccini

Colombia, Mexico, United States, 202415'29"Documentary

OLD SUMMERMaria Wider

Poland, 202325'00"Documentary

SADODavide Palella

Italy, 20249'25"Documentary

THE FIRST TIMESGiulia Cosentino, Perla Sardella

Italy, Spain, 202516'00"Documentary

THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLDKevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis

Greece, 202426'30"Documentary

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2025 - ANIMATION

BUTTERFLYSuncana Brkulj

Croatia, Denmark, 20248'07"Aniation

DOG EARPéter Vácz

Hungary, 202520'00"Aniation

FLOW OF BEINGHelen Unt

Bulgaria, Estonia, 202411'11"Aniation

FORCE TIMES DISPLACEMENTAngel Wu

Taiwan, 202511'52"Aniation

GLASSHOUSEKatalin Sárdi

Hungary, 20258'15"Animation

KAFKA. IN LoveZane Oborenko

Czech Republic, Latvia, 202410'11"Animation

ON WEARY WINGS GO BYAnu-Laura Tuttelberg

Estonia, Lithuania, 202410'00"Animation

S THE WOLFSameh Alaa

France, 202510'24"Animation

THE LAST DROPAnna Tőkés

Hungary, 202410'43"Animation

TRASSIC CUDDLEIulia Turicianu

Romania, 20255'28"Animation

WINTER IN MARCHNatalia Mirzoyan

Armenia, Belgium,, Estonia, France, 202516'22"Animation

WISH YOU WERE EARMirjana Balogh

Hungary, 202510'14"Animation

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2025 - EXPERIMENTAL

DELUGEMeejin Hong

United States, 202412'05"Experimental

EVANESCENTStefan Wetzka, Anna Florentina Altmann, Otto Moser, Adrian Fuchs

Austria, 20257'15"Experimental

400 CASSETTES
Thelyia Petraki

Greece, 2024
14'00"
Short

FALL INTO EACH OTHER
Vivian Bausch

Austria, 2024
6'08"
Short

IMMACULATA
Kim Léa Sakkal

Germany, 2024
22'00"
Short

LEFT-HANDED PEN
Adas Burkšaitis

Lithuania, 2024
18'00"
Short

LIVING STONES
Jákob Ladányi Jancsó

Hungary, 2025
19'57"
Short

NE RÉVEILLEZ PAS L'ENFANT QUI DORT
Kevin Aubert

France, Morocco, Senegal, 2025
27'15"
Short

NEXT STOP
Fanni Potonyecz

Hungary 2025
29'57"
Short

NVHAI (LILI)
Zhao Guang Luo,Shu Han LIAO

China, 2025
14'49"
Short

PRIMERA ENSENANZA
Aria Sánchez, Marina Meira

Cuba, Spain, 2025
14'00"
Short

SILENT STABLE
Nathan Coen

France, 2024
19'00"
Short

STOMACH BUG
Matty Crawford

United Kingdom, 2024
15'10"
Short

THE IDEA OF AN ISLAND
Carmen Pedrero

Spain, 2024
19'00"
Short

THE LONELINESS OF LIZARDS
Inês Nunes

Portugal, 2025
15'00"
Short

ANNGEERDARDARDOR
Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken

Denmark, 2025
19'41"
Documentary

BEING JOHN SMITH
John Smith

United Kingdom, 2024
26'45"
Documentary

BLUE
Ana Vijdea

Romania, 2024
20'00"
Documentary

CITY OF POETS
Sara Rajaei

Netherlands, 2024
21'22"
Documentary

KOKI, CIAO
Quenton Miller

Netherlands, 2025
11'03"
Documentary

LANAWARU
Angello Faccini

Colombia, Mexico, United States, 2024
15'29"
Documentary

OLD SUMMER
Maria Wider

Poland, 2023
25'00"
Documentary

SADO
Davide Palella

Italy, 2024
9'25"
Documentary

THE FIRST TIMES
Giulia Cosentino, Perla Sardella

Italy, Spain, 2025
16'00"
Documentary

THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis

Greece, 2024
26'30"
Documentary

BUTTERFLY
Suncana Brkulj

Croatia, Denmark, 2024
8'07"
Aniation

DOG EAR
Péter Vácz

Hungary, 2025
20'00"
Aniation

FLOW OF BEING
Helen Unt

Bulgaria, Estonia, 2024
11'11"
Aniation

FORCE TIMES DISPLACEMENT
Angel Wu

Taiwan, 2025
11'52"
Aniation

GLASSHOUSE
Katalin Sárdi

Hungary, 2025
8'15"
Animation

KAFKA. IN Love
Zane Oborenko

Czech Republic, Latvia, 2024
10'11"
Animation

ON WEARY WINGS GO BY
Anu-Laura Tuttelberg

Estonia, Lithuania, 2024
10'00"
Animation

S THE WOLF
Sameh Alaa

France, 2025
10'24"
Animation

THE LAST DROP
Anna Tőkés

Hungary, 2024
10'43"
Animation

TRASSIC CUDDLE
Iulia Turicianu

Romania, 2025
5'28"
Animation

WINTER IN MARCH
Natalia Mirzoyan

Armenia, Belgium,, Estonia, France, 2025
16'22"
Animation

WISH YOU WERE EAR
Mirjana Balogh

Hungary, 2025
10'14"
Animation

DELUGE
Meejin Hong

United States, 2024
12'05"
Experimental

EVANESCENT
Stefan Wetzka, Anna Florentina Altmann, Otto Moser, Adrian Fuchs

Austria, 2025
7'15"
Experimental

HEMELSBREED
Helle Monne Huisman

Belgium, Netherlands, 2025
23'49"
Experimental

MARIA HENRIQUETA WAS HERE
Nuno Pimentel

Portugal, 2025
13'45"
Experimental

MEMORY IS AN ANIMAL, IT BARKS WITH MANY MOUTHS
Eva Giolo

Belgium, 2025
23'50"
Experimental