Ice Breath (Romania) by Leonard Alecu

Between 2015 and 2024, Leonard Alecu filmed the melting icebergs off Greenland's East coast. Sailing dangerously close to icebergs, Alecu handled his camera to record the ice masses yielding to the ruthless ocean. Filmed in black and white, Ice Breath is a cinematic poem whose only elusive actor is the filmmaker's gaze. In 43 minutes, a sequence of flat pictures turn into dynamic tableaux, an existential journey from genesis to extinction. The hypnotic feature of the film is enhanced by the soundtrack Become Ocean, a haunting composition by John Luther Adams suggestive of a relentless tidal surge, of melting polar ice and rising sea levels. Become Ocean received critical acclaim, earning the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. More than an environmental documentary, Ice Breath and Become Ocean is an experimental fusion exploring the vast, inscrutable meanings of climate change. 

Running time: 00:42:50

Redford (United States) by Martín Granada Lopez

When Adam, a sidelined wrestler, witnesses the mistreatment of his arrogant teammate Will, an unexpected bond forms between them. But as challenges escalate, Adam faces a pivotal choice: to trust the newfound friendship or remain on the sidelines alone.

Running time: 00:09:50

Scenario (Japan) by Kazunori Miura

Running time: 24:59

Hands (Portugal) by Filipe Piteira

Hands are the connection and the path between the body and soul. The mode of search and self-knowledge, which is intuitive and sensorial, with them, discovering and transcending themselves. It is the receptive and restless mind that transforms hands into instruments of grace.

Running time: 00:07:00

Retrieving Roadie (United States) by Luke Stone

It’s just another dull business trip for a lonely pet food salesman until he rescues a dog who could change his life – if they survive a harrowing journey home.

Running time: 00:07:30

Knife, Chocolate (Iran) by Hooshmand Varaei

This movie is the story of a happy family! The son of the family is antisocial, psychotic, skeptic and sexist who judges women by the smell of their cosmetics!

Running time: 00:15:00

Higher Grounds (United States) by Joe Kramer

On the fateful day intelligent life arrives to destroy Earth, one slacker alien gets sidetracked when he’s smitten with a bitter barista. Suddenly, our survival depends on whether this space-schmuck can get her number, before his plucky partner blows us sky high.

Running time: 00:16:59

When the hawk comes (Armenia) by Lilia Li-Mi-Yan, Katherina Sadovsky

The plot and melody of an Armenian lullaby are taken as a starting point, where a mother tries to calm her son by offering to make a symbolic choice of a destiny bird. The boy does not choose peaceful birds, nightingale, or magpie. His predictable choice is a warlike hawk. The horrors of war are resolutely put out of the brackets of this world without men. It is a gynaeceum, majestic, beautiful and frightening. Nineteen women of different ages wander in a string through the endless desert, re-mastering or forever saying goodbye to the space reminiscent of the fields of past battles. At times, the space collapses into a dark cave, a cramped stage area or a place for prayer. At these moments, the movement of women looks like a mysterious ritual. It seems necessary and meaningful. Under the alarmingly changing sound of the lullaby, the stones hang in the air, the predatory hawk turns into a drone and the expectation of catharsis increases. The audience, indeed, is brought close to him, and twice. At first, space explodes with a cataclysm, suggesting the fateful presence of higher forces, and later, the glow of sunset is too similar to a fatal explosion of human origin. And it becomes clear that in this story, there is not only a happy end, but there is no end – it is looped, as it should be at video screenings. Here, this usual technique takes on a new meaning and significance. The story begins from the beginning, and the viewer returns to the pile of female bodies that wake up from sleep or get up after death. Folklore motifs of a lullaby are filled with actual meanings, meditativeness – hidden despair.

Running time: 00:05:58