Young Directors Competition 2.
01 Procrastination Yoga!
Director(s)
Paulina Ziolkowska
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Poland, Germany
Production: Filmuniversitaet Babelsberg Konrad Wolf
Length: 07' 36''
Category: Graduation film
Synopsis
A few exercises to procrastinate better, faster, and more efficiently.
02 Misophonia
Director(s)
Michelle Gruppetta
Film info
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: Malta
Production: Michelle Gruppetta
Length: 02' 50''
Category: First film
Synopsis
“Misophonia” is a risograph animated project designed to unsettle an audience through combined sounds and visuals. This project is inspired by an aural disorder, and intends to distress the audience with a soundscape composed of these trigger noises and accompanying visuals through risograph animation. In an era where individuals, especially in Malta, are constantly bombarded from every side by an excess of noise pollution that infringes on their personal space and peace, this project highlights that even the most innocuous sounds can have an effect on people, more than we might ever realize.
03 Cordoglio
Director(s)
Luna Clara Ronco & Riccardo Incampo
Film info
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: Italy
Production: Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti
Length: 03' 32''
Category: Student film
Watch the trailerSynopsis
In death, every being returns to the cycle of nature. The body dissolves, and in parallel, those who remain must learn to reshape their inner world. "Cordoglio" uses the image of a crow’s decomposition to reflect on the symmetry between physical decay and emotional renewal. An animated meditation on loss, transformation, and the quiet persistence of life through absence.
04 Funfair
Director(s)
Éva Darabos
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Hungary
Production: SALTO Films, GASP! Films
Length: 13' 00''
Category: First film
Synopsis
The challenges and reflections of young adult life come to life in a surreal amusement park. A young woman, thanks to her aching wisdom tooth, one day finds herself in this fantastical funfair.
05 Tar
Director(s)
Fariba Farzanfar
Kaveh Sistani
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Iran
Production: Iran University of Art
Length: 05' 00''
Category: Graduation film
Synopsis
Tar is an experimental under-the-camera animation crafted with real strands of hair. In Persian, the word tar carries a dual meaning: both a strand of hair and a traditional Iranian string instrument. Within this symbolic interplay, an enraged centipede storms a young girl’s inner world, shattering musical instruments. Amid the chaos and dissonance, the delicate sound of the tar emerges, opening a fragile space for transformation.
06 This Feminine Side
Director(s)
Alice Siniscalchi
Film info
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: Belgium, Finland, Portugal
Production: Re:Anima Joint Master in Animation
Length: 07' 29''
Category: Graduation film
Synopsis
Femininity, defined and reimagined, through Lisbon’s queer voices and mixed-media art.
07 Sardine
Director(s)
Rory O'Brien
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: United Kingdom
Production: University for the Creative Arts
Length: 02' 03''
Category: Student film
Synopsis
A film based on my personal experiences of feeling like a sardine.
08 Our Father
Director(s)
Stuart Hill
Film info
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: Ireland
Production: Dun Laoghaire Institute Of Art Design + Technology
Length: 07' 17''
Category: Graduation film
Watch the trailerSynopsis
When a bible-basher’s midnight street-sermon can’t draw a crowd, he hatches an erotic plan to lure the masses away from the late-night porno shop and preach the Lord’s ‘good word’ through seductive dance. When the Priest Police catch wind of this, they make sure it never happens again.
09 Sensual
Director(s)
Tanja Nuijten
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Germany, Switzerland
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Length: 04' 12''
Category: Student film
Synopsis
Softly, slugs trace their way across wet lips. Snakes glide gently through fingers, while a bear embraces a woman's body with a loving hug. “Sensual” offers an unusual, subjective, and deeply intimate perspective on the feeling of physical closeness and tenderness. Using animal metaphors, the film takes us on a journey through the intimate emotions of the foreplay, unfolding into the gentle and loving touches of our partner.
10 Inlands
Director(s)
Zsófia Fanni Pethő
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Hungary
Production: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
Length: 05' 05''
Category: Graduation film
Synopsis
An inner landscape in constant motion, where traces of the world around us summon the passage of time. Here, collective memory dissolves into personal nostalgia; places and moments drift beyond their concrete form, surrendering to a fluid, emotional logic.
11 Mom
Director(s)
Camille De Vulpillieres
Film info
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: Belgium
Production: ENSAV La Cambre
Length: 12' 46''
Category: Graduation film
Watch the trailerSynopsis
Mom is the name of a little girl living her childhood in Cambodia. She is also the mom of the filmmaker. She remembers the sea, her mom, sister, the Khmer rouge …
12 Aquarium
Director(s)
Pauline Carette
Film info
Year of production: 2026
Country of production: Belgium
Production: Camera-etc
Length: 06' 16''
Category: First film
Watch the trailerSynopsis
A water leak gradually invades the house of a man who remains curiously inactive in the face of this urgent problem.