If There is Light

14 year-old Janiyah Blackmon wrestles with her new life in New York City as her mom tries to move her family out of the shelter system and into a stable home.

Kokoro: Corazón de Ciudad

Film anthology that assembles stories about heartbreak, friendship, first love and self-love involving modern and complex relationships in Mexico City, where different young and old people go through different stages of personal growth in a magical, loving, toxic and sometimes even surreal city, where it is just as easy to run into other characters who live similar situations, as it is to meet the love of your life.

Nörden och kärleken

Daniel meets with friends on the weekends to play Warhammer 40k in the back of a game shop. Måns, one of his buddies, makes him feel different though. Despite the lack of confidence, Daniel tries to figure it out what to do about it.

Bloodshed

Tilly, Miah and Safa are three young women who endure debilitating period pain. Following an adolescence with little menstrual education, support or relief, they navigate the physical and emotional toll of intensely painful periods while trying to maintain a normal life.

When Women Are Crazy

Rosemary House's first film, shot in her backyard, addresses "sex, death and crazy women" in 11 minutes.

Kindness

"I'm the ship's scientist, for God's sake."

Lek and the Waterboy

14-year-old Lek works in his mother's shop. While his best friend flirts with a new girlfriend, Lek has decidedly different fantasies.

Skin

A racist skinhead falls in love with a black woman.

Avant que de tout perdre

Julien is 10 years old. He pretends to go to school but then hides out under a bridge, his backpack filled with clothes. A few kilometers away, 15-year-old Joséphine does the same and waits for the bus.

Libre de Culpa

Twenty-one-year-old Juan gets some terrible news from his doctor: he has aggressive lung cancer. His whole life turns upside down as the disease evolves.

Oasis

Ophelia goes to El Oasis, a tavern where men pick up men, looking for her husband. Her suspicions confirmed, she faints and a transgender prostitute unexpectedly helps her.

De Natura

Water, earth, air, fire – and two children at the height of summer.

To the day I die (songs of the sea)

A fever dream of the faces of love. Six circles of love. A kind of death and rebirth experienced within each circle. Each song in the short film evokes a realm of what love can feel like to a human being, the metamorphosis through the experience of Love. Faced with the person that was at every metamorphosis, there is a certain death, and certain transformation. We watch her move without words towards salvation.

The Red Card

Sam, an outsider in her high school, is finally invited to the most secretive party of the year, but when the party spirals out of control, Sam is confronted by a disturbing side of her date and her peers that she never expected.

Rosa e pezza

Sergio has remained at home to help his father run the family’s butcher shop. His brother Flavio never accepted his share of the responsibility, had a falling out with their father, and decided to leave home. When he comes back after a long time away, Sergio briefly believes that the rift in the family can still be healed.

Verwoede Pogingen

Matthias is going on a weekend course of self-discovery called “My Value on Earth,” which was an expensive gift from his girlfriend. The course is supposed to help him deal with his chronic inability to finish things that he’s started. But before Matthias leaves, his girlfriend springs a surprise on him: he’s going to be a father. And so he hopes to use the weekend, which he has no real desire to go on, to answer new and pressing questions. The “alternative” therapist, however, doesn’t inspire much trust. The tragicomedy Frantic Attempts takes aim at the field of personal development, in particular, dubious therapists who offer quick fixes. After all, what if we should answer our existential questions ourselves instead of trying to find answers from others?

Jsme v tom spolu

Another dreary day in a small town. Viki, Sára, and Kiki, three inseparable friends since childhood, are planning to spend their free afternoon the same way they always do: vodka, cigarettes, talking about everything and nothing. But their group dynamic is different today, more explosive: one of them has reached the second round in a casting call for a modeling job, thus raising her chances of leaving this place of dashed hopes and dreams. Her friends might be willing to support her, if only their anger, sadness, and envy weren’t so powerful… A relentless but non-judgmental look at growing up without any prospects of a brighter future.

The Russian Sleep Experiment

Russian researchers funded by the Soviet Union during WWII are testing an expirimental gas on subjects deemed enemies of the state. The experimental gas is meant to eliminate the need for sleep, but all goes wrong as the gas has unexpected effects on the subjects.

Es geht nur miteinander

Besuch bei Busch

The main committee is of the opinion that the rating "especially valuable" can be retained. The style of the film is appropriate to the subject of "Visiting Busch" in its concentrated limitation to the authentic living environment. The individual visual motifs are composed with great care. On the one hand, the small world appears endearingly portrayed, on the other hand, the film's allusions to the background of the Wilhelm Busch phenomenon are convincing. Above all, the Committee would like to uphold the rating because the film, made in 1961, sought out the people who still knew Busch and bear witness to them in the film in an impressively simple and not exaggerated manner.