INTERNATIONAL FICTION
MAITIGHAR
Nepal - 15’
SYNOPSIS
After a festive evening with her friends in Pokhara, Asha, a young high-school student, discreetly returns to her village. Arriving at her mother's house, she is unaware that she is about to enter the adult world.
INFORMATIONS
Director: Marc Gurung
Writer: Marc Gurung
Producer: Lucas Tothe
Key Cast: Rakshya Thapa, Karma Shakya, Kabita Ale, Pashupati Rai
ABOUT
Born in Gouvieux, France, Marc Gurung trained and worked as an editor before turning to writing his own films.
59 DEGREES
France 9’52
SYNOPSIS
A couple and a real estate agent visit a parking space.
In 2050, parking lots are now rented out as apartments, because the temperature is much lower than outside, where it's constantly over 50 degrees.
But the man in the couple is thinking of buying for his mother, who is in a nursing home without air conditioning, and the woman is thinking of buying for herself.
The real estate agent, on the other hand, is thinking of just one thing: making money.
CREDITS
Directors: Matias de Sa Moreira, Cyril Pinero
Writer: Matias de Sa Moreira
Writer: Cyril Pinero
Key Cast: Hélène Morguen, Matias de Sa Moreira, Cyril Pinero, Jean-Michel Cortana, Domitille Branchu Barbier, Fanny Vambacas, Arlette Najsztat, Caroline Cristofoli, Sarah Labhar
Director of Photography: Romé Tillier
First assistant camera: Jacques Rosselli
Sound designer: Clément Cassan
Make-up artist: Michèle Gomis
Editor: Cyril Pinero
Sound Post Production: Quentin Merieux
ABOUT
Matias de Sa Moreira
Born in 1976, I grew up in a family of 10 children with very cinephile parents. Initially attracted by real-life cinema, I completed a Master's Degree in Creative Documentary Filmmaking (Creadoc) under the guidance of director Mariana Otero. After documentaries, I turned to fiction in order to master acting and write my own dialogues. I make several films for the Nikon Festival, the Mobile Film Festival, Paris Courts Devant and TF1's Imagine competition. These films allow me to develop my characterization, improve my direction and strengthen my attachment to comedy and drama.
In 2021, I created a collective of actors called "Demain on réplique" (Tomorrow we reply). We organize professional meetings with casting directors, directors and scriptwriters, a time for collective work and research.
Cyril Piñero
After many different lives and an unlikely encounter with a theater troupe in a bar in Bourges (France), Cyril left everything behind to train as an actor at the Cours Florent in Paris, where he never imagined for a second that he would meet passionate directors who would teach him the adventure of directing. After dabbling in commercials, music videos and demo tapes, he turned to fiction, bringing to life the many facets of his childhood.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
What if one day we started living in parking lots, because it's now very hot outside and air conditioning is very expensive. Not everyone can afford to stay in their apartment.
Laws are gradually changing. Real estate agencies can now rent anything to anyone.
In 2021, in the middle of a heatwave, I imagined myself sitting in my parking lot to work, because the temperature was so pleasant. From there began my desire to tell a story about a near-future where people living in big cities would move into basements.
Then, together with Cyril Piñero, we imagined a fairly simple, classic situation involving a visit to an apartment, to create an everyday life in a futuristic situation.
Matias de Sa Moreira and Cyril Piñero
ANTIGONE
Iran - 19’33
SYNOPSIS
A group of young actors face problems when they are about to perform their play on stage
CREDITS
Director, Writer and Producer: Peyman Rajabi
Key Cast: Shadi Ziaei, Vahid Meshkat, Shide Ghafarian, Masoud Ghorbani, Zahra Amirifard, Kiarash Kamro, Shaban Hatami
ABOUT
Peyman Rajabi is a director and writer for theater and short films.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This film is inspired by the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement, a movement that originated in Iran and resonated across the globe. The story reflects my personal experiences in theater, where I have repeatedly witnessed the ruthless censorship of scenes, especially those related to women. These experiences compelled me to create a narrative where the silenced voices of women can be heard through art.
Despite relentless censorship and countless limitations, the fight must continue, and we must stand against oppressive systems. This film symbolizes that resistance. With a theatrical approach, I aimed to merge theater and cinema. The story unfolds in the style of two-act plays: in the scenes where the theater performance is shown, the camera remains static, while in the backstage moments, the handheld camera conveys the group's vibrant and tense atmosphere. The mise-en-scène of the performance and the backstage scenes are designed to complement each other, with Antigone’s death dance on stage serving as a symbol of "Woman, Life, Freedom", Antigone representing women, the dance symbolizing freedom, and the stage embodying life.
This film provides an opportunity for audiences to witness, through the story of a theater troupe, the challenges and struggles faced by women in Iran. My hope is that this work can amplify a portion of the silenced voices that long for freedom and justice.
VAGABOND
France - 12’
SYNOPSIS
In a near-future world where borders are no longer just physical but encoded into our very identities, Vincent, a French international student, arrives in the U.S. for his studies. As his plane lands, a wave of panic washes over him—his passport feels like a fragile tether to who he is. His fears escalate at border control when the officer scanning his documents can’t match his passport to any existing country. Vincent’s very existence seems to glitch in a system built to map every person to a place.
Detained and interrogated, Vincent finds himself grappling with questions of belonging, identity, and reality itself. In a world obsessed with categorization, he begins to uncover cracks in the systems that define nations and people. What he discovers will change the way he sees himself, and his place in the world, forever.
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Jean-Charles Andreu
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project: SCAD
Producer: Julia Moran
Key Cast: Isaac Liu, Alexandra Miles
ABOUT
JC Andreu is a French filmmaker with a passion for storytelling that bridges the mythical and the modern. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), JC has honed a distinctive voice that employs magical realism to unearth social truths. Now based in Los Angeles, he crafts narratives that illuminate the human experience, using the extraordinary and the absurd as a lens to reveal the complexities of contemporary life.
YOUTH ANIMATION
France - 5’
SYNOPSIS
On a distant planet named Airon, the intergalactic corporation S.O.U.R.C.E is cornering the resources of the natives, prompting them to rebel.
Water, now scarce, is the focus of all battles.
The soldiers guarding the last oasis controlled by S.O.U.R.C.E have all been wiped out by the natives. With the exception of a single survivor.
CREDITS
Directors: Alexandre André, Louis Bonnaud, Adrien Gouloubi, Mathieu Hebrard, Pierre Lopez, Anton Markov, Evana Mingsisouphanh, Maxence Porelli, Ludovic Vacher
First-time Filmmakers | Student Project - ESMA
Producer: ESMA
Compositor: Seiji Champollion
Sound Design: Guilhem Favard, José Vicente, Yoann Poncet
Mexico - 6’
SYNOPSIS
In a small town women are disappearing, vanishing into dust. Through a poetic narrative we accompany a group of women/witches, their relationship with the earth and nature, and their freedom which allows them to turn into birds and fly. However, the increasing violence is drying out their lands and killing the women.
A poetic retelling of a 17th century tale of witchcraft in our 21st century; a story about women, witches, gender violence, about women’s strength and resistance.
CREDITS
Director: Julia Granillo Tostado
Student Project - Universidade Lusófona de Lisboa, Luca School of Arts, Aalto University
ABOUT
Julia is a Mexican animator/illustrator/choreographer constantly mesmerized by movement and all of its possibilities. She completed her B.A. at Bennington College '19 (USA), where she studied the concept “Emotion through motion” through the disciplines of Animation and Dance.
She graduated from a Masters Degree in Animation from LUCA School of Art '21 (Brussels) with her film "Tonalli" and her dissertation "The Importance of Representation in Animation- with a focus on Latin American women." Later she completed a second Masters Degree as part of the RE:Anima EMJMD program (Genk, Helsinki and Lisbon). Currently she works as a freelance
animator and illustrator.
United States - 5'
SYNOPSIS
An abomination mimic creature enters the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and disguises itself as her, tricking the Big Bad Wolf into walking into a trap.
CREDITS
Director, Writer and Animator: Alisdair Zhang
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project- Pratt Institute
Music: Kanenar Wen
ABOUT
Alisdair Zhang graduated from Pratt majoring in 2D Animation with a Bachelor's degree in Digital Arts. During my studies, he was honored with the President's Scholarship. As a first-generation immigrant, he has been diligently adapting to life in the U.S.
Alisdair have a passion for digital arts and enjoy creating comics in my spare time.
Mexico - 5'
SYNOPSIS
A Mexican migrant worker struggles to connect back home as the harsh environment she now lives in is reflected onto the only thing she thought would be amiliar: the sea.
CREDITS
Director, Writer, Animator, Cinematographer: Mica Bolaños Meade
Student Project - Universidade Lusófona - Centro Universitário de Lisboa
Key Cast: Amy Selma, Maclovia Gonzalez
Additional Fabrication / Animation: Adriana Andrade, Bia Castro, Luana Rodrigues, Daniela Tietzen
ABOUT
Mica Bolaños Meade (14/12/1996) is a director, animator & concept artist from Mexico City. Mica is an Adobe Creative Scholar and in 2019 she completed a BA in Animation, Illustration & film History at the Maryland Insitute College of Art. In 2023 she graduated with honors from the MA in Animation from the Re:Anima European Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree program.