OFFICIAL SELECTION - bluedanube

Complexed by his wife's body, a man sneakily administers a mysterious serum supposed to make her lose weight quickly. But following a prank by his wife, it is he who swallows the beverage and starts to shrink visibly.

Born in 1990, in Nantes, Aude David studied at the School of Fine Arts in Nantes, before specializing in animation cinema at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, from which she graduated in 2016. She directed two films during her studies, including « Le Bar du Théâtre », which was selected in Annecy in the Diploma Films Competition. « Un Petit Homme » is her first professional film. Born in 1984 in Paris, Mikael Gaudin studied theater, economics and cinema before entering the Paris Louis Lumière school in 2009 in the cinema section. He then worked as an assistant director on films by Jacques Audiard, Volker Schlöndorff or Pierre Salvadori, before moving on to direct three short fiction films between 2018 and 2020. « Un Petit Homme » is his first animated film.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

Joanna, a young European traveller, roams around the Cape Verde Islands along with her sketchbook. On her way she encounters Lito, a local fisherman who will spur her to delay her departure from the village of Esperança.

Marie Vieillevie, a graduate from the Superior School of Graphic Arts (ESAG) in Paris, won an award at the Annecy Festival in 2007 for "Welcome to Whitechapel District". She spent the following four years as a graphic designer and art director. Continuing her studies at La Poudrière, her graduation film "Soeur et Frère" was awarded at Anima and Anilogue festivals. With her experience in animation and artistic design, she was the lead assistant director on Rémi Chayé's film "Tout en Haut du Monde". "Kaminhu" is her first short film.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

”kawauso” means Japanese river otter. One day, a girl meets a Japanese river otter. They try to communicate, but it doesn't go very well. This is because the Japanese river otter is already extinct, and it is not possible to actually interact with the girl. They existed in separate spaces. By depicting the Japanese river otter, which is said to have gone extinct in 2012, this short film presents an opportunity to reconsider what the modern society has sacrificed.

In the 1990s, I worked on many video installations and interactive works. I started making short films in 2005. In 2010, "Song of the Red Forest" was invited to be screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2012, "Li.Li.Ta.Al" was nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival and the Annecy International Film Festival. In 2016, "Vita Lakamaya" was nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival for the second time. In 2023, "kawauso" won the Sapporo International Short Film Festival. This will be the third time that the film has been nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

Little Martians are future beings who claim to be the creators of our reality. One of them wants to apologize to humanity.

Vanessa Rosa is a US based Brazilian visual artist. Her work merges physical and digital media into a storytelling continuum. Murals become portals to an imaginary world with projection mapping, ceramics metamorphose into living entities with the aid of AI models. She creates fictional tales about world history, past and possible futures intertwined.She started to do street art in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, creating murals that mixed historical characters with the local environment. Her work gradually evolved into tales of world history and cultural exchange, from Portuguese Tiles, Islamic sacred Geometry, Chinese porcelain to the study of ethnomathematics and patterns within indigenous societies. She went from a completely free hand painting approach to a mix of several media. After the 2020 pandemic, Vanessa dived into sci-fi and now she creates a fictional universe called Little Martians.Vanessa has done mural paintings, exhibitions and other projects in South and North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

Sweet Like Lemons is a visual reflection on getting out of a harmful relationship and moving on. The title is a play on the saying “when life gives you lemons make lemonade”, only in this case there is no lemonade to be made but the lemons still taste sweeter than what you left behind.

Jenny Jokela (1990) is a Finnish animation director and artist based in Edinburgh, UK. She graduated from MA Animation at Royal College of Art, London, in 2017. Her graduation film Barbeque (2017) won multiple awards including Cristal for best graduation film at Annecy 2018. Jenny works as self-employed animation director.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

[S] is an artwork that exposes the lifespan of infinity. The film delves into an immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.

Mario Radev (1994, b. Bulgaria) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in London. He works as a director, animator, illustrator, visual performer and educator. His short animated film [O] has been screened at over 60 film festivals and received a nomination for Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2018.

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

An old lady strolls in a hospital in search of her room. She sees a young pregnant woman up to her eyes, ignores her. Little by little, as she goes around in circles, images of the past appear. She meets the young woman again. Then again. Then the old lady decides her life again.

Delphine Hermans studied animation at the Animation Department of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre in Brussels. Since 2006, she has been an animator at Camera-etc where she has participated in a hundred audiovisual projects of all types and has made three personal shorts that have been noticed internationally: The Yellow Envelop (2008), The Sexual Life of Dinosaurs (2012) and Hair (2013). Michel Vandam is an author, screenwriter and professor at the Academy des Beaux-Arts in Liège (Belgium). He has collaborated with Delphine Hermans on several occasions for the writing of the animated short Hair (2013) and the graphic novels 7 jours de canicule (2013), Anesthésie générale (2016) and La somnambule (2021).

Thu, 14:00, Budapest

Three masters of football. They can perform wonders during the match and score impossible goals, but what goes on in their heads when they are about to take penalty kicks?

Vuk Jevremovic (1959, Frankfurt on Main) graduated in Architecture at the Technical University in Belgrade in 1984, and in 2002 he graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich as a masters’ student in the class of Joseph Kosuth. His films have been screened and awarded at film festivals around the world.

Sat, 14:00, Budapest

Despite its overwhelming detail, the city of Los Santos in the video game GTA V is character-ised by a grave absence: children. The film explores the uncanniness of the normality of a beautiful yet ulitmately futureless digital world.

The pseudo-marxist media guerilla Total Refusal explores and practices strategies for artistic intervention in contemporary video games. It works with tools of appropriation and rededication of game resources. Their films and performances were presented among others at Berlinale ‘20, Locarno 22 and at the MoMA in NYC and they have received more than 46 international and national awards and honorary mentions. The current members of Total Refusal are: Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner & Michael Stumpf

Sat, 14:00, Budapest

The defragmentation of the past, the painter, mother and child make up the nucleus of the family - the loss of the mother leads to the dissolution of memory, and memories become signs, ritually stuck in infinity. The artist's artificial space puts him at odds with his surroundings. After it sinks into a kind of darkness of the soul, it plunges deep into itself. Through fiction, there is a common spiritual experience in which he and the child realize closeness. By means of art itself, he finds his way to reconciliation. His art becomes the gateway to a surreal spiritual space in which he questions the humanistic dimension of his own art).

Branko Farac (1962) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he lives and works. Since 1990 he has been a professor of fine arts at an elementary school. He has exhibited at numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition to painting, he is engaged in illustration, drawing comics, animated film and publishes texts on comic book theory.

Sat, 14:00, Budapest

А young writer dedicates his nights to hunting entangled phrases with his pen. The moment he is confronted with the pregnancy of his wife his world collapses. Lingering fears and painful memories overwhelm him and he needs to trace the missing piece.

Asparuh Petrov (1981) developed a passion for animation after he graduated from the High School of Applied Arts in Trojan in 1999. Until 2007 he worked as a motion designer, creating TV idents for several Bulgarian televisions. Since 2007 he has worked as a freelance animation director, and has been creating his own animation projects. Asparuh is one of the lead directors of Compote Collective productions.

Sat, 14:00, Budapest

The violinist Miklós's perpetual compulsion to conform turns into anxiety, and it seals his life. Following an accident, he finds himself in purgatory, where his father, who had died earlier, is waiting to accompany him to God. With a father of bad temper, the journey is a real torment. Along the way, Miklós discovers why he has become an anxious man who blames himself and constantly seeks answers to his fate. And for those answers, he must walk through purgatory.

Fri, 19:00, Vienna

Sat, 14:00, Budapest

Father and daughter have been separated by 3,350 kilometres for seven years. He lives in Syria, she lives in exile in Paris. All they have left is to talk on the internet. The daughter records the conversations.

Sara Kontar (born in 1996) is a Syrian artist, filmmaker, and photographer who has been based in France since 2016, having graduated from ENSAD. Her cinematic work was showcased at the Centre Pompidou in 2022 and at the Palais de Tokyo in 2023. In 2021, she founded Al-Ayoun, a platform for visual storytellers in Syria. Through her films, she explores themes of exile, human emotions, identity, body language, and testimonials, aiming to raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals in similar situations.

Fri, 15:00, Budapest

From their rural Alabama home, two preteen girls attract thousands of online fans while promoting fashion and beauty products. Stays within brand guidelines promoting products to fans online.

Faye is a Greek-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her work documents strains of contemporary American culture in the context of late-stage capitalism, looking at youth culture, excess, disparity and absurdity. She was recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema in 2023. Her films have screened at AFI Fest, International Film Festival Rotterdam, True/False Film Festival, Camden Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest, Rooftop Films, Maryland Film Festival, DC/DOX, and AIFVF, among others. Her latest film, Alpha Kings, was acquired for distribution by The New Yorker where it will be released publicly this October. Her work has been distributed and featured by Vimeo Staff Picks, Nowness, and Paper Magazine.

Fri, 15:00, Budapest

Starting from the observation that her father -who is white- was born in Africa, and that her mother -who is black- was born in Europe, the director questions herself about being biracial and reveals the complex history of her family, from colonialism to the experience of the interracial couple in Europe in the 1950's and 60's.

Elen Sylla Grollimund is a photographer, video maker and animator based in Brussels. She studied photography at LABA in Brescia (Italy) and then works in Paris as a photographer and videomaker with several music artists. After moving to Brussels, in 2019 she joined the collective Atelier Graphoui, where she leads experimental and animation workshops and directs collective films like "Mouvement d'identité" (2019), "Et la lumière fût et autres illuminations" (2019), "Ceci n'est pas une fiction" (2019), "Le Fil(M)agique" (2019), "7 jours sur 7" ( Triennale de Louvain La Neuve, 2021). "La Villa Madjo" is her first short documentary.

Fri, 15:00, Budapest

My grandmother documented me with an Olympus camera my whole life and recently gifted me all her photos. Being confronted with these images made me realize that I have been taking our shared history for granted and that I have very few memories of it. My grandma and her next door neighbor raised me on and off until the age of 6, in Eger, a small Hungarian town, while my parents tried to start a life in the United States. After being reunited with my parents, I grew distant from these two women, and I never really examined this period of my life. This documentary project is an attempt to reconnect with them as we collectively try to piece together the timeline of my childhood and the series of decisions that lead me to live separated from the rest of my family.

Dorottya recently graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, in documentary film directing. Her student films have been screened at Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival (ZSIFF), The National Independent Film Festival (MAFSZ), and Malter Film Festival. Dorottya’s work is on the border between documentary and experimental film, she shoots and often sits in front of the camera herself, often using abstract elements or mixed media images in her work, dealing with deeply personal themes. She is currently in the process of developing her first feature length documentary.

Fri, 15:00, Budapest

Through the voice of Little Jela, the film tells the story of the events that marked a generation and shaped the future of the landscape of Lika, a neglected and sparsely populated region of Croatia. The living conditions impacted on the personal lives of the people who lived there, their solitude, relationships, opportunities, apprehensions and hopes. Little Jela embodies several members of my own family which is predominantly composed of women – mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts.

Ana Husman’s practice disassembles the structures and textures of cinematic elements through film, installation, books, sound, image and text. Hušman experiments with the possibilities of animation, documentary and fictional cinematic methods, and the possibilities of recorded voice and its articulation. Her working process questions and plays with the positions of the amateur and the professional subject of performativity, the medium itself, and the structures that dictate and produce patterns of behaviour. She teaches at the Department of Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and is a co-founder of the documentary film organisation RESTART where she has been holding film education programs for children and young people for many years.

Thu, 16:00, Budapest

In a quiet village, a puppeteer works in peace on a new project. His goal unexpectedly gains momentum, when the man decides to take in refugees from eastern Ukraine. Łukasz's audacious project allows the family to take their minds off the difficult reality. He gains companions, who want to help him finish his work.

A graduate of the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She’s currently studying Film Directing at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, Poland.

Thu, 16:00, Budapest

This hybrid documentary takes us on a journey into a world without men. The island tradition is, that the women choose the image that will represent them on their grave after they're gone. Reality and subconscious mix, as the author questions: “How does it feel to have a family tree consisting only of women? What do our ancestress’ whisper from their silent portraits?” We’re following two women, traveling from the mainland to the island graveyard, to visit their Valerija. On the journey, the author is questioning the archetype of an island woman and her own female heritage through a participatory process.

Sara Jurincic, architect and filmmaker (1989. Zadar, Croatia). Graduated at AF Zagreb 2015. Worked and exhibited with: W.O.R.M. Rotterdam, Klubvizija lab, CAFxCPH, Restart, KONTEJNER. In 2018. she established NOMAD STUDIO – art and spatial-experiment lab, involved in projects, exhibitions and workshops around Europe. In 2019. and 2020. she is part of Sarajevo Talents, EW Talent lab (Wiesbaden), Dok Leipzig Short n’ Sweet pitch (with the project “VALERIJA”). She won multiple awards for her debut film that has been shown on more that 30 international festivals, including Oberhausen film festival (international competition).

Thu, 17:00, Vienna

The story of an extraordinary mother, who survived everything to be with her children. Abused since childhood, at the age of eighteen Viki was sold into human trafficking. Escaping after years of prostitution, Viki started a new life, got married, and had four children, only to find her greatest struggles were just beginning. This short documentary is the testimony of an exceptional survivor who decided she could no longer remain silent.

Lia Lőrinczy completed her first degree in contemporary, fine art curation. Working as a freelance editor on television shows, she developed an interest in motion pictures. In 2020, she joined the Documentary Director MA program at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. Over the last two years, she has made more than five short documentaries, both jointly and independently.

Thu, 16:00, Budapest

Fri, 19:00, Vienna

A stunned crowd faces a fire: fear needs to be conjured, fire must be turned into a sign.

Born in 1996 in Montpellier, France, Alice Brygo is graduated from ENSAD (École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) and Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. Her artistic practice is situated at the borders between documentary, fantasy cinema and art installation. Her short film « Soum » premiered in Berlinale Shorts competition and was awarded Best Student Film in GoShort, Lichter Art award, and Grand Prize at Brive international cinema festival. Alice Brygo’s work bears witness to a generational trouble in the context of a fragile era. Invested by in-between characters, her movies explore imaginaries of survival and the intimate and political link that individuals have with the urban spaces they invest, especially in the parisian region.

Could film gelatin, a 16mm film camera, 3 lenses and film developing chemistry experimentation act as messengers between the spirit and the physical world? a one day trip to the remote town of Panguipulli (Chile) seeks to explore possibilities and to also expand on the power of audio frequencies as a healing instrument. /A manifestation of the hummingbird movement? /A connection between mind, landscape, sound, latent image? /A replication of Rukapillan volcano’s intermittent flows of magma through fissures on the earth’s surface? -Colibri- erupts 16mm single frame experiments & bursts smoke and sonic healing vibrations.

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

"Déjà Nu" is an audiovisual poem about the appreciation of transiency, the recognition of the body, the ensoulement of nature, euphoria and loss. It is an associative work of polycultural sentiments.

Rolf Hellat studied film at the School of Arts Zurich, Switzerland. He attended an exchange program at the film institute of India in Pune. Since then he has made fictional and documentary films as a director and editor, which have been shown at Palm Springs Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival, among others. He seeks to understand connections between humans in all their diversity and desires humanity as a humble part of nature. He is constantly in a state of learning and tries to reflect his privileges. In addition to his film work, he’s making music with sensor kinetic object instruments in the duo "Oszilot" together with Luc Gut. Oszilot has performed pieces at the Kunsthaus Zurich and the Haus der Elektronischen Künste Basel, among other venues (www.oszilot.com). He also spent time in the forests of Brazil working on an organic farming project, he played tenor recorder in paris sleeping on the streets or he tried to walk to spain with a donkey...

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

Night falls down on empty business premises - and lights go up! A minimalistic musical.

Jussi Eerola (b.1969) has worked as a cinematographer on many internationally rewarded films since 1992. His directional debut was a documentary about electro-hypersensitive people titled Refugees of Technocracy (2009). In 2015 he finished another documentary together with a longtime collaborator Mika Taanila: The Return of the Atom premiered at TIFF (Canada) and won the NORDIC:DOX Award at CPH:DOX (Denmark). Eerola's first minimalistic short film Blue Honda Civic premiered at IFFR 2020 and was screened at many festivals including 58th Ann Arbor FF (USA), Beijing ISFF (China) and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (Germany)...

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

Life is Metamorphosis, bounding from being to being as new ways of saying “I”. In 16mm, Ainá Xisto prints an abyssal record guided by a more-than-human relationship through dreamlike landscapes, creating a magical reality inhabited by real characters, open up to dialogue and to others.

From deep waters and red clay; amid the metropolis and hinterlands of northeast Brazil, Ainá Xisto (1991) currently works between Portugal and multiple regions of South America. Filmmaker, educator, and visual artist, she got a Master in Cinema at the School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University. Ainá makes her creations magical instrumentation and update to immemorial time connections, sharing creative pedagogies and imaginaries of transmutation and healing.

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

"Of Times and Memories" is a short film that uses family archive footage, experimental music and fragments of text found in the author's grandfather's diary to narrate a recurrent dream.

Tras licenciarse en Derecho por la Universidad Carlos III, decidió dedicarse a su verdadera pasión: el cine. Este año se ha graduado de la diplomatura en Cine Documental en la ECAM. Durante estos tres años, además de aprender el oficio de la mano de profesores como Sergio Oksman, ha realizado numerosos cortometrajes y mediometrajes junto a amigos, algunos de los cuales han sido seleccionados en festivales como Arkipel, el festival internacional de documental experimental de Yakarta.

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

Photographic sequences painted with golds and greys animate the guilt of a childhood incident of killing an ant while washing hands in the sink. The Zen-like visuals sweep into one another with whispering monologues and glitching noises reflecting the realms of cosmos, power, guilt, prayers, and existence.

Moe Myat May Zarchi (born in 1994, Myanmar) is a filmmaker, musician and a multidisciplinary artist. Her short films have been screened at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival, Minikino Film Festival and have won awards at Singapore International Short Film Festival (SGIFF), Bangkok Asean Film Festival (BAFF) and UK Asian Film Festival. She was also a finalist in Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize in Moving Image and won the Prince Claus Seed Awards as an Emerging Artist. In most of her works, Moe loves to explore the metaphysical, identity, femininity and personal aspects through innovative use of visuals and sound. She also founded a cinema magazine and organization called “3-ACT” to support cinema education in Myanmar.

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

Wind descends, dust rises shows the transit of a woman who realizes that her soul is outside her body or mask.

Jael Jacobo Architect and audiovisual producer, she bases her work on memory and ancient art, using animation, video mapping, expanded cinema, analog and experimental cinema as a form of expression; in addition to the intervention of space and manipulation of light. She has performed and her short films have been exhibited at various festivals around the world. She has also taught animation workshops at various cultural centers and universities.

Thu, 17:00, Esztergom

Elvis dreams of an alternate reality in which previously strict gender norms are mocked and his queer desires are eventually fulfilled – a détournement of the white playboy stereotype in the Elvis movies.

Dina Yanni is a video artist and researcher whose work is heavily influenced by popular culture, digital image manipulation, and critical theory. Through compilation and analysis of existing footage, experimental editing and data corruption, Yanni strives to reveal, reevaluate and reframe power structures discovered in the original materials. Dina Yanni holds a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Film Production. Her work has been exhibited at experimental film and video art festivals internationally.

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

Film created from the Polish Educational Archive materials, tells the story of a matriarchal family through the eyes of a child grappling with the reproduction of ideological and representational systems.

Zuza Banasińska is a visual artist from Warsaw, currently based in Amsterdam. Their essay films and installations utilize video, game engines, sound and sculpture to animate spectral realities sedimented within archives. The subsequent works create complex ecosystems that challenge unitary notions of identity, gender, and representation. They studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, at the Universität der Künste in Berlin in the class of Hito Steyerl, and at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Their works have been shown in such spaces as the U-Jazdowski CCA in Warsaw, “Dům Umění Mesta Brna” in Czech Republic, “Blindside” in Melbourne, among others. In 2023 they have been awarded the Artist Start grant from Mondriaan Fonds. Their work is also currently supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Stimuleringsfonds.

A photographic image in its production: exposure, development and reproduction. As the subject of its recording the faces of two people. The experimental short film "IMAGE ME" equates the face with the photographic image, exposing the merge with our depiction and a mechanics of rotation around our own axis.

Till Gombert was born 1991 in Freiburg (Germany) to a family of photographers. He studied from 2014 til 2020 at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe with a major in Media Art / Film and continues his studies within the postgraduate program of Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln. He directs narrative films, with a minimalistic approach that take their time for observation, and experimental films, often shot on Super8. Tills work has been selected for various festivals, i.a. Beijing Int. Short Film Festival, Szczecin European Film Festival and Interface Video Art Festival. www.tillgombert.de

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

This film is a contemplation of life through the prism of war. It is a premonition of global world changes... and a hope for the prudence of humanity. Human beings live in a world of memories, fears and passions, dreams and hopes. In our memories, we increasingly want to return to the world of childhood - summer, where joy and light reign, as opposed to cruel reality, loneliness and existentialism. But it is becoming more and more difficult to get into this world, to dissolve at least mentally in the sun's glare. This film is about man in nature and nature in man, about cyclicality, the beginning and the end - the path to eternity. Autumn is heading towards winter, and we are so eager for light.

Oleksandr Stupak works in the field of monumental and easel painting, graphics and sculpture, audiovisual art. Born on February 13, 1984 in Kyiv, Ukraine...

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

The specific manipulation of 35mm material creates a unique collage of scratched, cut and burnt images that have been treated with corrosive liquids, painted by hand and manipulated. In the magical chaos, an artificial intelligence partially explores and interprets the limits of the unpredictable and the destructive beauty. A fascinating interaction between analogue manipulation, planned chaos and AI.

Astrid Busch geb. 1968 in Homburg/Saar ist Studiengangsleiterin des Studiengangs BA Film & Sound an der Fachhochschule Dortmund. Sie hat ein abgeschlossenes Diplom im Studiengang Film/TV.. Seit 2000 lehrt sie als Hochschuldozentin an der Fachhochschule Dortmund. Neben der hauptberuflichen Arbeit als Dozentin für Film realisiert sie kleinere experimentelle Filmarbeiten als Regie und Kamera. Sie beschäftigt sich neuen Medien wie AR, VR, XR, Game Development und deren künstlerische Möglichkeiten.

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

The film 'relièf Relief' meanders downstream along the Austria-Slovakian border river Morava posing questions about landscape, image memory, and the reverberations of historical circumstances.

Johannes Gierlinger Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In his work he deals with historiography as well as with forms of memory, remembrance and resistance. He explores readings, doubts and possible future images in the form of essayistic work. His work has been shown at national and international film festivals and institutions. Lives and works in Vienna. Mira Klug Studied at the University of Applied Arts, Department of Fine Arts, Photography. In her artistic works, she uses photographic, cinematic as well as spatial installation methods to investigate historical, social as well as structural patterns as appearance and behavior. Her works have been shown at numerous national and international exhibitions. Lives and works in Vienna.

Wed, 19:00, Bratislava

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

Rule No. 5: Shadow Your Man Closely assembles a film loop collage out of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. train scene. One shot becomes the base for specific editing procedures through which the film narrative is reconstructed and a new plot is created.

Miro Manojlovic (Zagreb, 1985) works in music, film and theatre. Since 2014 he has been working as an Art Associate at Academy of Dramatic Art and cooperates with numerous artists at home and abroad. He has created music for numerous films, theatre and dance performances, and actively works as a film author, editor and music composer. In his free time he is devoted to exploring merry mysteries of sound and vision.

Thu, 19:00, Esztergom

Bandstorm blows, waters scarce. In a remote mining town without any radio signals, a quirky teenage girl gets curious about a passing truck driver.

Viv Li is a Chinese filmmaker, writer and comedian based in Berlin. She has been writing and directing films in the UK, China, the Philippines, US, Portugal… Born and raised in Beijing, she spent the past ten years traveling and living in various cities in Europe, South America and Southeast Asia before settling in Berlin. In 2021, she was named one of the 50 most anticipated female Chinese directors. Her latest self-produce short film, I Don’t Feel At Home Anywhere Anymore, received a Special Mention at IDFA.

Fri, 13:00, Budapest

Sandy is a 30-year-old actress suffering from asthma. Tonight she will be performing in a theater. Before that though, she has to teach a yoga class to some old ladies in her neighborhood, work as a clown at a children's party and audition for a commercial. In this equation, somehow she has to try and fit in Spiros, her boyfriend.

Alexis Koukias-Pantelis is a film director, screenwriter, and production sound mixer. He has directed seven short films which have traveled to international film festivals, including Aesthetica Short Film Festival, BUFF Malmö Filmfestival and Tirana Int. Film Festival. He has credited work in the sound department of films that have been screened in some of the most prestigious film festivals of the world including Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes, Venice Int. Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival. His latest short film as a director, "Aerolin" (2023), funded by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (Ert) and the Greek Film Centre, won the EFA candidacy at the Cyprus Int. Short Film Festival.

Sat, 12:00, Budapest

A museum security guard senses an art theft about to happen. When she consults her pendulum, she sees a sharp rise in the dollar's value. An unexpected job loss and a severance package leads her to connect with an employee from a currency exchange house.

Francisco Lezama (1987) is an Argentinian screenwriter, director, and actor. He has taught Film History at Universidad del Cine since 2016 and has worked at the Museo del Cine film archive since 2012. His short films have been programmed at Berlinale, Locarno, New York Film Festival, AFI, Viennale, BAM, FICUNAM, Vila do Conde, Entrevues Belfort, and BAFICI, among others.

Fri, 13:00, Budapest

Shortly before the end of the summer holidays, a country boy spends his savings on his dream of a city hairstyle – with surprising results. A story about bidding farewell to childhood and the poetic end of a summer.

Lam Can-zhao, a Chinese filmmaker born in 1994, made his directorial debut at the age of 20 with "THE DOG," a low-budget feature film that brought him into the spotlight. In 2023, he produced, wrote, and edited the short film "A Bright Sunny Day," which was selected for LA CINEF at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. In 2024, his short film "A Summer's End Poem," for which he served as writer, director, producer, and editor, won Best Short Film at the 74th Berlinale Generation Kplus competition.

Fri, 13:00, Budapest

A recurring mysterious sound from mountains in the Himalaya is heard only by two curious young shepherds. Unable to convince the villagers of the scary nature of such sound, they journey into the unknown to unravel the mystery.

Born in 1990, Stenzin Tankong is a Film & Television graduate from the Symbiosis Centre of Media and Communication. He’s a director and scriptwriter from Ladakh. He has been working on motion pictures for about five years now, and his one aim is to bring the stories of his people and culture onto the world platform. LAST DAYS OF SUMMER is his first professional film.

Sat, 12:00, Budapest

Having just moved to Amsterdam, Lou prepares her new apartment that she will share with her partner, Joel. For now though, Joel is on a trip with an intimate other. Confronted with the complexities of her non-monogamous relationship, Lou shifts her gaze to the rhythms of her new city.

Naomi Pacifique is a Swiss-Dutch artist. She works across filmmaking, music, visual arts, and poetry. Across the arts, her work interests itself in intimacy and the spaces found there to discover and reinvent both oneself and the environment one is surrounded by. Naomi completed her studies in the UK, where she graduated from Oxford University with an Mst in Creative Writing and from London Film School with an MA in Filmmaking...

Fri, 13:00, Budapest

Dana wants to show empathy. Penelope wants to explore empathy. Penelope's artistic experiment unfolds and Dana's feelings are whirled around.

Hilke Rönnfeldt, born by the Baltic Sea coast in Northern Germany with Danish-Icelandic roots, graduated as a screenwriter at Swedish Alma Education and as a film director at independent film school collective Super16 in Copenhagen. She is a Berlinale Talents, Oxbelly Episodic Lab and European Short Pitch alumna. Her projects revolve around life in rural communities, worlds of work, intimacy, and the sea. She has a strong faith in the poetic capabilities of the image. www.hilkeroennfeldt.com

Thu, 17:00, Vienna

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

Punksinger Luna rebels against the indifference of her artsy friends by writing a song about Laugo, the construction worker from across the street. The collision of the worlds of affluent neglect and everyday work leads to a dramatic downfall.

During her two studies at Filmakademie Wien in screenwriting and directing she started working for ORF and did TV-Docs in Kenya and Iran. In 2016 Jasmin spent three months in NYC at Susan Batsons School of Acting. While developing her film projects she never stopped filming music videos. She won the Best Newcomer Award at Diagonale in 2016 for UNMENSCH and the Gedanken-Aufschluss-Award at the Dok Leipzig in 2020 for ROBINS HOOD

Thu, 17:00, Vienna

Sat, 16:00, Budapest

Two lonely village women fight for the affection of a cat. Their funny rivalry aims to ensure that neither is left alone. But to do so, they must call a truce and figure out how to resolve their loneliness.

Varga Gábor was born in Rimavská Sobota (Slovakia) in 1994. He studied documentary film directing at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica After that he continued film directing studies at the University of theatre and film arts in Budapest, which was completed at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna in cooperation with Freeszfe Society.

Thu, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

An insurance scam and the left thumb of the single father Vladimir find themselves in a low-key tragedy about the kafkaesque barriers of the Austrian immigration law.

Olga Kosanović, born on 01.04.1995 in Austria, is a director and cinematographer living in Vienna. In 2020 she completed her film studies at the HFBK Hamburg in the class of Angela Schanelec. Her short films have screened at numerous international festivals, in 2021 she was awarded the 3Sat Young Filmmakers Award at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and the Austrian Film Award 2022 for her film "Comrade Tito, I Inherit". In addition to her work as a freelance director and cinematographer, she works as a teacher at the Graphische and the Hertha Firnberg School in Vienna.

Thu, 17:00, Vienna

Thu, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

Pragma is a mother-daughter story set in the course of a day, in which the repressed tension between Juli and Lili and the lack of real, attentive love that the girl would need from her mother is symbolised by the daughter's inability to eat her mother's cooking without being sick at their own birthday lunch. A drama with some absurd. At the core of the dysfunctional relationship dynamics is none other than the grandmother, who raised the mother in a very oppressive way, with difficulty expressing unconditional love.

Wed, 19:00, Bratislava

Fri, 19:00, Vienna

Sat, 12:00, Budapest

December 1999. I remember that, amidst the Millenium Bug anxiety, I went to the birthday of Enrico, a kid who lived with his family in an old and isolated farmhouse.

FRANCESCO SOSSAI was born in the Italian Dolomites area. He started filming short films at an early age. He moved to Rome where he graduated in English and German Literatures. He was then admitted at the DFFB – German Television Film Academy in Berlin. His first feature length film "Altri Cannibali" celebrated its world premiere at PÖFF 2021 where it was awarded as „Best First Feature“. The film subsequently had its Italian premiere at the 39th Torino Film Festival and was screened worldwide in numerous other festivals. Francesco is currently working on his second feature „Le città della pianura“, a co-production between Italy and Germany He lives in Veneto, Italy.

Wed, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 16:00, Budapest

A young girl and her Companion take a walk where they discuss life and what happens afterwards.

Eleonora is a writer/director of films and TV series. She holds a BA in journalism from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, an MA in Screenwriting from California State University Northridge and is an alumni of the Serial Eyes program for TV writing in Berlin, Germany. Her films “Hairs” and “Fighting for Death” have won a dozen awards and screened over 80 Oscar/BAFTA/EFA qualifying festivals around the world. Her last short film “The Sign,” which she co-wrote/directed with Yona Rozenkier as part of the omnibus “SEE Factory” premiered at the Director’s Fortnight program at Cannes Film Festival’s 2019 edition. Her debut feature ‘Things Unsaid’ premiered at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2022. It was financed by the Macedonian Film Agency, Serbian Film Centre, Eurimages and SEE Cinema Network. She is currently finishing her new short film and developing a feature.

Thu, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 12:00, Budapest

There's nothing more pathetic and sad than the midlife crisis of an artist who truly has it all but realizes it way too late.

Emília Ondriašová first earned a Master's degree in Marketing Communication, which naturally led her to directing commercials. She also studied filmmaking at the EFC in Denmark and directing documentary at the NFTS in London. As a current student of Directing Fiction at FTF VŠMU, she likes to explore themes of loneliness and anxiety as well as the complexities of family relationships. On her last film This Peculiar Day she worked as a director, co-writer and an editor.

Thu, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

With hope to break a creative impasse, the woman pores over a blank piece of paper, drinking a half-empty glass of wine. The fear of failure haunts her at every step, taking the form of wine red. The animation created in ink is a metaphorical image of the heroine's inner experiences and her struggles with the lack of faith in her own abilities and achievements.

Katarzyna Orłowska is a graduate of BA studies in animation at the University of Arts in Poznań. Her main interest is traditional animation, but she has also explored other techniques, including stop-motion animation and projection mapping.. During her studies, she created several film etudes focusing mainly on psychological and philosophical topics.

Sat, 16:00, Budapest

Lucky the Gnome ,the protagonist of this movie, goes to a meadow every morning where he ritually waters a flower for years. However, one day he finds Wicky the evil gnome taking the flower and carrying it away in an unknown direction. After Lucky embarks on a search, he arrives at a castle where Wicky grinds flowers and makes paint. After triumphing over the evil gnome, Lucky restores the old order, and the ritual of watering the flower continues.

Marko Vasić was born in 2001. in Belgrade. He graduated In 2023. from the Faculty of Applied Arts, on Animation module in Belgrade. He is currently pursuing a master's degree at the same faculty.

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

The story follows the main character 'Magpie', who, as is her custom, collects shiny objects into her nest. However, other birds living in her vicinity build their nests in a classical practical way – from pieces of wood, in contrast to Magpie, which just mocks them and manically stuffs her nest with a huge pile of gold. However, on the day of the storm, she realizes that she has nowhere to hide in her nest, and her tree is on the verge of collapse. This becomes her downfall.

Samuel Puchovsky is a graduate of the Visual Effects department at VSMU based in Slovakia. Working in wide range of media, including games, advertisement, animation and film, he tries to approach each work in a way that combines the knowledge gained across the fields.

Wed, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 16:00, Budapest

"Under the Debris" is a short photography film about waiting for the unknown and being trapped in the fear of losing loved ones, derived from the earthquake happened near the eastern border of Turkey in February, 2023. The film focuses on the experience of being unable to contact those enduring a catastrophe and the desperation of waiting helplessly. It's an ode to everyone whose loved ones live in an unsafe environment.

Derya was born in Istanbul in 2000. She moved to Vienna to study Theater Film and Media at the University of Vienna in 2019. During her studies she worked as assistant to director, video designer and music arranger in various film projects and theater performances. In addition to her engagement in theater and film productions, she is also creating independent audiovisual projects. She has recently worked as director's assistant with Nathalie Borgers for her upcoming documentary film.

Fri, 13:00, Budapest

Our memories play an important role in the construction of identity and self-awareness. My childhood memories have acquired a special value for me since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, my home country. For many children, this time will become a formative memory. My childhood in Ukraine was different and I want to share it with the audience in the form of an animated short. In the film I tell a personal story about my childhood memories and explore how memories are preserved and why they have a special meaning for people.

Alexandra is an award-winning Ukrainian illustrator and animator, currently in Vienna, Austria. She studied visual communication in Kyiv(KNUCA), Vienna(Angewandte) and London(UAL). In her works she addresses modern, urban and people - inspired topics, often in a humorous way, using bright colours and mixed media.

Tue, 19:00, Vienna

Thu, 19:00, Bratislava

Sat, 18:00, Budapest

8th Blue Danube Film Festival

22 November 2025 - 30 November 2025

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - animation

A TINY MANAude David, Mikaël Gaudin

France, 202210'00"Animation

KaminhuMarie Vieillevie

France, 202415'00"Animation

kawausoAkihito Izuhara

Japan, 202315'00"Animation

'Little Martians: Dear Human, My Muse'Vanessa Rosa

Brazil, 20244'05"Animation

Sweet Like LemonsJenny Jokela

United Kingdom, 20235'31"Animation

[S]Mario Radev

United Kingdom, 202412'33"Animation

The Marrons GlacésDelphine Hermans, Michel Vandam

Belgium, 202310'00"Animation

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - animation region

11Vuk Jevremovic

Croatial, 20225'28"Animation Region

Children of the birdsJúlia Tudisco

Hungary, 202411'25"Animation Region

KinderfilmAdrian Jonas Haim, Robin Klengel, Michael Stumpf

Austria, 202311'35"Animation Region

PSYCHOGRAPHICBranko Farac

Croatia, 20227'00"Animation Region

Three BirdsZarja Menart

Slovenia, 20248'18"Animation Region

TraceAsparuh Petrov

Bulgaria, 20226'42"Animation Region

Your DadAnita Kühnel SzabóJenny Jokela

Hungary, 202314'15"Animation Region

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - Documentary

3350 KMSara Kontar

Syrian Arab Republic, 202313'00"Documentary

Christmas, Every DayFaye Tsakas

United States, 202413'49"Documentary

Villa MadjoElen Sylla Grollimund

Belgium, 202313'25"Documentary

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - Documentary region

How did I get there?Dorottya Márton

Hungary, 202330'00"Documentary Region

I Would Rather Be a StoneAna Husman

Croatia, 202423'48"Documentary Region

The ClawMarta Z. Nowak

Poland, 202316'58"Documentary Region

VALERIJASara Jurinčić

Croatia, 202315'00"Documentary Region

Who I Can Still BecomeLia Lőrinczy

Hungary, 202329'47"Documentary Region

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - experimental

Ardent OtherAlice Brygo

France, 202316'00"Experimental

ColibríSebastian Vaccaris

Australia, 20244'02"Experimental

DÈJÀ NURolf Hellat

Côte d'Ivoire, 202314'19"Experimental

GrasshopperJussi Eerola

Finland, 20239'00"Experimental

GroundappleLLonymus Axoparri

Finland, 20239'06"Experimental

I Dreamt of MountainsAllison Roberts

United States, 20234'45"Experimental

Metamorphosis' Chantings Or That Time When I Incarnated As PorpoiseAiná Xisto

Portugal, 202311'28"Experimental

Of times and memoriesJaime Marqués Cordero

Spain, 20245'48"Experimental

The AltarMoe Myat May Zarchi

Myanmar, 202310'10"Experimental

Wind descends, dustJael Jacobo

Mexico, 20245'50"Experimental

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024 - experimental region

Boys! Boys! Boys!Dina Yanni

Austria, 202413'37"Experimental Region

GrandmamauntsistercatZuza Banasinska

Poland, 202422'30"Experimental Region

IllnessAnnabella Fudella

Hungary, 20238'34"Experimental Region

IMAGE METill Gombert

Germany, 20225'55"Experimental Region

A TINY MAN
Aude David, Mikaël Gaudin

France, 2022
10'00"
Animation

Kaminhu
Marie Vieillevie

France, 2024
15'00"
Animation

kawauso
Akihito Izuhara

Japan, 2023
15'00"
Animation

'Little Martians: Dear Human, My Muse'
Vanessa Rosa

Brazil, 2024
4'05"
Animation

Sweet Like Lemons
Jenny Jokela

United Kingdom, 2023
5'31"
Animation

[S]
Mario Radev

United Kingdom, 2024
12'33"
Animation

The Marrons Glacés
Delphine Hermans, Michel Vandam

Belgium, 2023
10'00"
Animation

11
Vuk Jevremovic

Croatial, 2022
5'28"
Animation Region

Children of the birds
Júlia Tudisco

Hungary, 2024
11'25"
Animation Region

Kinderfilm
Adrian Jonas Haim, Robin Klengel, Michael Stumpf

Austria, 2023
11'35"
Animation Region

PSYCHOGRAPHIC
Branko Farac

Croatia, 2022
7'00"
Animation Region

Three Birds
Zarja Menart

Slovenia, 2024
8'18"
Animation Region

Trace
Asparuh Petrov

Bulgaria, 2022
6'42"
Animation Region

Your Dad
Anita Kühnel Szabó
Jenny Jokela

Hungary, 2023
14'15"
Animation Region

3350 KM
Sara Kontar

Syrian Arab Republic, 2023
13'00"
Documentary

Christmas, Every Day
Faye Tsakas

United States, 2024
13'49"
Documentary

Villa Madjo
Elen Sylla Grollimund

Belgium, 2023
13'25"
Documentary

How did I get there?
Dorottya Márton

Hungary, 2023
30'00"
Documentary Region

I Would Rather Be a Stone
Ana Husman

Croatia, 2024
23'48"
Documentary Region

The Claw
Marta Z. Nowak

Poland, 2023
16'58"
Documentary Region

VALERIJA
Sara Jurinčić

Croatia, 2023
15'00"
Documentary Region

Who I Can Still Become
Lia Lőrinczy

Hungary, 2023
29'47"
Documentary Region

Ardent Other
Alice Brygo

France, 2023
16'00"
Experimental

Colibrí
Sebastian Vaccaris

Australia, 2024
4'02"
Experimental

DÈJÀ NU
Rolf Hellat

Côte d'Ivoire, 2023
14'19"
Experimental

Grasshopper
Jussi Eerola

Finland, 2023
9'00"
Experimental

Groundapple
LLonymus Axoparri

Finland, 2023
9'06"
Experimental

I Dreamt of Mountains
Allison Roberts

United States, 2023
4'45"
Experimental

Metamorphosis' Chantings Or That Time When I Incarnated As Porpoise
Ainá Xisto

Portugal, 2023
11'28"
Experimental

Of times and memories
Jaime Marqués Cordero

Spain, 2024
5'48"
Experimental

The Altar
Moe Myat May Zarchi

Myanmar, 2023
10'10"
Experimental

Wind descends, dust
Jael Jacobo

Mexico, 2024
5'50"
Experimental

Boys! Boys! Boys!
Dina Yanni

Austria, 2024
13'37"
Experimental Region

Grandmamauntsistercat
Zuza Banasinska

Poland, 2024
22'30"
Experimental Region

Illness
Annabella Fudella

Hungary, 2023
8'34"
Experimental Region

IMAGE ME
Till Gombert

Germany, 2022
5'55"
Experimental Region

In the Noise of the Downpour
Oleksandr Stupak

Ukraine, 2024
11'47"
Experimental Region

Manitulation
Astrid Busch

Germany, 2023
5'24"
Experimental Region

reliéf Relief
Johannes Gierlinger, Mira Klug

Austria, 2023
9'00"
Experimental Region

Rule No. 5: Shadow Your Man Closely
Miro Manojlovic

Croatia, 2023
9'59"
Experimental Region