INTERNATIONAL FICTION
TIN CAN
US - 20'
SYNOPSIS
J.C. came to America as an illegal immigrant when he was just a child. Now, as an adult, he's still an illegal alien but has managed to persevere and prosper working as a rodeo clown. However, after a series of unfortunate events, J.C. finds himself down on his luck and in search for a new happiness. He eventually finds it near the Mexican border but the price he pays could get him kicked out of the only country he knows.
SPECIFICATIONS
Director, Writer and Producer: Pat Battistini
Producers: Pat Battistini, Robert Francke, Carlos Ragas
Key Cast: Carlos Ragas, Kevin. E. West, Lisa Cole,Tom Katsis, Jef McClure, Darryl Sims, Christopher Lee Scoles, Sherry Mattson, Viviana Saarvedra, Carlos Medecigo
ABOUT
Pat Battistini
An award winning writer, director, and producer who brings over thirty years of experience to the set, Pat started his career in Chicago working in front of the camera.
Since taking over behind the camera duties, he takes pride in his on-set relationships and communication with actors. His actors have received stage and screen nominations and awards.
With his writing, directing, and producing, Pat has earned a reputation for developing and creating unique and wonderful stories. His fourteen short films have garnered him awards across the board.
Known as a team player, no job is too small for Pat to see through from start to finish. His creative eye for detail and positive, jovial personality has earned the trust of many producers, cast, and crew who continue to want to work with him.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Our film may be long by some festival standards but in the festivals that we have screened, it really resonates with the audiences. Not only because the film tells a wonderful story but it also deals with a very timely subject matter.
I made this film because of the temperament and feelings toward immigration that have been fermenting in the country these past few years. Though the tale is fictitious, I hope to give the audience more to think about in regards to DACA and the people affected by it.
To date, we have won twenty-seven awards for the film.
THE CONNOISSEUR
United States - 16’54
SYNOPSIS
A niche connoisseur of Chinese restaurants meets his match when a new restaurant opens in his neighborhood, and their way of doing things changes his perspective.
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Anne Marie Boidock
Producers: Josh Levine, Jay Johnson, Stephen Boidock
Key Cast: P.J. Sosko, Sarah Bock, Ali Alsaleh
ABOUT
Anne Marie Boidock - Originally from Texas and currently based in Los Angeles, Anne Marie is a writer-director who has produced six narrative films to date. Previously, Anne Marie worked as a creative producer in tandem with screenwriter Rob Edwards (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Princess & The Frog), handling his full development slate of studio projects for partners such as Nike’s Waffle Iron, Steph Curry’s Unanimous Media, Hudlin Entertainment, PatMa Productions, among many others. She also worked with Edwards during his time at Marvel from 2020-2021. Since 2022, Anne Marie has been a member of the emerging writer-director incubator “Craft Services” run by Executive Producer Nicholas Weinstock (Severance, Escape at Dannemora).
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This movie is about someone stuck in a nostalgic loop, using an unconventional coping method. As a writer-director, I’ve always been especially intrigued by coping mechanisms, and I feel that we only ever see a small portion of the coping spectrum on display in the media. I think people are delightful weirdos in real life, and I’ve always felt like there’s more out there to explore on screen.
I’m also curious about where the line is between little, occasional coping mechanisms and more all-encompassing things that we have faith in like God, church traditions, tarot cards, birth charts, horoscopes, tea leaves, cultural practices, and any constant that gives us hope and makes us feel safe or more in control of our lives. What are all of us looking for? I’d argue that, sometimes, it’s a longing to be jolted into something fantastic. A new relationship, a better job, a more interesting city, a state of mind. A reminder that what we already have is fantastic.
This is not a new concept, the dream of finding “greater meaning,” but the appetite for it has grown immensely with the internet and social media. We have become accustomed to convenience and with that has come impatience. We want great things to happen to us all the time now. We want them to seek us out. Lasso us and change us. The point I’m making is... The “jolt” is out there but we’ve forgotten that it is organic. It’s delightfully unorthodox and unpredictable. Slippery. You never know when it’s going to happen. No one is its master.
This movie is about that lightning bolt – in particular, one that happens when one person has a coping mechanism that is totally preposterous to another.
Russia - 19’15
SYNOPSIS
Kolya wakes up in the clinic, he doesn’t remember anything. Meeting Katya gives him hope for salvation. But will Katya be able to find a place for him in her life?
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Светлана Ахмадишина
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project - Московская киношкола
Producer: Мария Самушева
ABOUT
Светлана was born in the small Ural town of Sredneuralsk, not far from Yekaterinburg. Lives in Moscow. He is passionate about helping homeless animals at the shelter. Loves hockey and cinema.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Hello! Our film is a metaphor, it is a social drama.
In the film "Mongrel" the theme of awareness of bad deeds is important to me. In my opinion, it is easy to sympathize with the victim, but how difficult it is to join the antagonist! After all, in each of us there is a mixture of both good and bad, each of us has something to say in justification. Katya’s tragedy in the film is important to me. I don’t feel sorry for her, but I’m scared for her.
INTERNATIONAL MICROSHORT
United Kingdom - 3’
SYNOPSIS
"Memories of the Future" is a cinematic reflection on the growing crisis of space debris, blending science, metaphor, and artistic abstraction. The film is presented from the perspective of a child—a future Earthling—who looks back at humanity’s actions with both wonder and concern. This perspective shapes the visual style: everything is slightly exaggerated, much like a child’s drawing, but rendered in a futuristic way. The satellites appear oversized, the debris fields impossibly dense, and the vastness of space feels surreal. It is a new era of storytelling, where scientific reality meets the boundless imagination of a child.
At the heart of the film is a seemingly insignificant object—a single bolt. It drifts through space, small and unassuming against the backdrop of immense orbital structures. But its presence is deceptive. The bolt represents overlooked dangers, a silent consequence of human negligence. As it moves through the cosmos, it ultimately cracks a camera lens, distorting the view—a metaphorical warning that ignoring a problem does not make it disappear. Like a tiny mistake that spirals into disaster, the bolt embodies the unintended consequences of human actions.
The film’s aesthetic is deeply influenced by classical opera and ballet, using Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, 2nd Movement to transform the slow-motion collision of debris into a haunting "space ballet." The choice of music elevates the visuals, creating a dreamlike yet unsettling atmosphere where beauty and destruction coexist.
By incorporating real audio recordings—Sputnik 1’s signal, abstract radio transmissions, and Earth's magnetic field sounds—the film merges fiction with reality, grounding its imaginative visuals in scientific authenticity. The child’s voice, generated artificially, adds an emotional layer, as if the future is speaking directly to the past.
CREDITS
Director, Writer and Producer: Irina Petrova Adamatzky
ABOUT
Irina Petrova, a Bristol-based polymath, seamlessly blends photography, art, science, and curation in a career that spans multiple disciplines. She has earned over 330 international photography awards and has showcased her work in more than 70 exhibitions worldwide. Her sculpture Fungal Computer is currently on display at FUTURIUM in Berlin as part of the Treasures of the Future exhibition, where it will remain for five years.
Renowned for her expertise in wildlife micro-photography and visionary science fiction installations, Irina merges organic lifeforms with artificial components, creating thought-provoking imagery. Beyond her artistic endeavors, Irina is an ex-committee member of the Royal Photographic Society’s Women in Photography group. She has made significant contributions to the study of non-human cognition, artistic interpretations of science, public engagement, and the philosophy of sentient entities.
Her scientific insights are highlighted in her chapter "Fungal Grey Matter" within Unconventional Computing, Arts and Philosophy (World Scientific, 2022), further establishing her as a pioneer at the intersection of art, science, and philosophy. Additionally, her artwork and photography have been featured as book covers for publications by World Scientific Publishing.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
"Memories of the Future" is a reflection on humanity’s journey into the cosmos, seen through the eyes of a future Earthling. The short film delves into the consequences of our technological advancement, where the beauty of exploration is shadowed by the silent, unnoticed growth of debris surrounding our planet.
In this project, I wanted to explore the delicate balance between innovation and destruction, and the unspoken cost of our curiosity. Through the 3D environment created in Unreal Engine, I sought to visualize a world where satellites, once symbols of progress, have turned into an endless orbit of waste, forming a strange, eerie ring around Earth. The rotating bolt serves as a metaphor for the recurring consequences of our actions—an object of creation now symbolizing a cycle of neglect.
This narrative, told through the perspective of a child, is meant to evoke both wonder and melancholy. The child reflects on a past that’s distant to them, where the Earth they inherit is not one of hope, but of things lost in the void. The final scene, showing a planet composed entirely of satellites with intricate rings around it, is a haunting image of both achievement and its hollow repercussions.
Through this short film, I aim to capture the complexity of space exploration and its unseen aftermath—an ever-expanding debris field that will persist long after we’ve stopped looking. It is a meditation on how we shape the world beyond our atmosphere and the legacy we leave for those who will follow.
France - 3’
SYNOPSIS
Lina is a student at an alternative elementary school, where she has developed a supernatural gift. Her teacher is proud that she is a hope for the future of the planet...
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Aloysia Delahaut
Key Cast : Leana Marin Ilardi, Aloysia Delahaut, Laurent Cyr
United States - 1’
SYNOPSIS
A one minute film about the will to overcome.
CREDITS
Director, Writer, Producer and Editor: Bil Richardson
ABOUT
Bil is an artist, author and historian. He has written, produced or directed feature films, TV series, documentaries, music videos, commercials and shorts. As an artist, he’s done covers for books, magazines and movies. His documentaries are being used as teaching tools at Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, Marquette and many other prestigious universities. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and is in the U.S. Library of Congress holdings. He has been a featured speaker all over the U.S. and in Europe.
Ireland - 3'
SYNOPSIS
Despite their beauty, glacial braided rivers can also be formidable and unpredictable forces of nature. The rapid flow of water combined with the presence of loose sediment can result in sudden changes in channel structure and the formation of shifting sandbars and islands before reaching the ocean. These dynamic conditions pose challenges for navigation and can also contribute to erosion and changes in the surrounding landscape over time.
Overall, glacial braided rivers serve as a captivating reminder of Earth's geological processes and the powerful forces that shape our planet's surface. Viewing them from above offers a unique perspective on the intricate beauty and complexity of nature's creations.
CREDITS
Director, Writer, Producer and Key Cast: Marek Biegalski
First-time Filmmaker
ABOUT
Nature and landscape photographer born in Poland .
Through her work, Marek hopes to inspire others to appreciate the natural world and recognize the importance of protecting it for future generations. Whether she is capturing the rugged beauty of the Irish coastline or the stunning vistas of the Italian countryside, her goal is to create images that transport viewers to another world and evoke a sense of awe and wonder
She’s proud to have contributed to several books and publications, some of which address critical global issues related to the ongoing environmental crisis.
Among her recent accomplishments, she was named the Nordic Nature Photographer of the Year for 2024, as well as the winner of the Landscape - TTL Nature Landscape 2020 award and was awarded a medal in the EPSON International Pano Awards 2023 and received the SIENA Drone 2022,23 award, among many others.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Glacial rivers in Iceland are beyond the imagination.
These remarkable patterns seen from above blending into the bed of braided rivers become truly nature masterpieces and inspiration. Globally they are very rare. They occur only where a very specific combination of climate and geology allows rivers to form ever-changing and highly dynamic 'braided' channels across a wide gravelly riverbed.
The amazing colors typically form on fairly steep slopes and carry a large number of coarse-grained sediments. When the river’s flow decreases, these sediments get deposited on the river bed leaving behind small temporary islands of sand that cause the river’s channel to split. Aside from a steep gradient and abundance of sediments, a variable water discharge rate is essential to their formation.”
Austria - 3'
SYNOPSIS
"Green Vienna" is not just a film project; it’s a vision that shows us what a sustainable future for Vienna could look like.
CREDITS
Director: Samuel Traber
Producer: Gerald Baumann
Key Cast: Valerie Huber, Elke Winkens, Toni Matzl
Cinematographers: Matteo Molina, Lena Hummelsberger
ABOUT
After graduating from HTBLA Ortwein in Communication Design, Samuel Traber studied Media Studies at the University of Vienna as well as Film and Art at the Academy of Fine Arts under Harun Farocki. His short documentaries, such as Würmlas Wände, Simon Beck, and Taggerwerk, focus on art in public spaces. With Van Der Struck, he supported Alexander Van der Bellen’s presidential campaign. Since 2015, he has dedicated himself to the themes of circular economy and food security through VR and short films.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
As a director, it was important for me to create a positive vision of the future, one that inspires us and makes us reflect. In a time when we are often overwhelmed by dystopian scenarios, I wanted to tell a story that gives hope, showing that we are capable of creating cities and environments where people, nature, and technology coexist in harmony. Thus, "Green Vienna" became a thank-you from a future that has solved many of our current problems and portrays us, the people of today, as the heroes who will make it happen.
The film combines real-world footage with cutting-edge AI-generated visuals to create a green, futuristic version of Vienna. It was important to us to not only showcase technological innovations but also to place people at the center—people who actively shape this future. Green rooftops, car-free zones, restored rivers, and sustainable energy are not distant dreams but tangible possibilities that come to life in Green Vienna.
With this project, I wanted not only to present an aesthetic vision of a sustainable city but also to forge an emotional connection. It is an invitation to imagine what’s possible when we work together and have the courage to take new paths. Green Vienna stands for the power of creativity, science, and collective action to shape a livable and green future.
YOUTH MICROSHORT
France - 2’
SYNOPSIS
Amandine lives like everyone else: glued to her screen, disconnected from reality. Every gesture is automated, every interaction replaced by a click. But a simple glance at her turns her daily life upside down. What if the future lay not in technology, but in human moments?
CREDITS
Director: Amandine Catherine Baudon
First-time Filmmaker
Writer: Camille Anna Baudon
Producer: Margaux Henriette Baudon
Cambodia - 2'
SYNOPSIS
This video shows the real struggles of people with disabilities, who are the main cast, and how they try to find their place in the world. It reminds us to be more understanding and kind, so we can create a future where everyone belongs.
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Moth liya
First-time Filmmaker
Key Cast: Song visal
ABOUT
A storyteller who loves to explore real-life experiences. Moth’s work focuses on shedding light on voices that are often overlooked, aiming to create understanding and spark positive change through film.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
In this film, I want to show that people with disabilities are more than just their struggles. They have dreams, hopes, and strength that deserve to be recognized. I hope to encourage viewers to see and value everyone, no matter their challenges.
Portugal - 3’
SYNOPSIS
Two boys live in Lisbon, Portugal.
Having met at school, António Arroio, the two young men have a great friendship.
During one of their meetings in the café in front of the school, they talk to each other and come across a problem of their generation: cigarettes. It's so common that it's more like a fashion accessory. They both take on the challenge of cleaning up the school. Picking up various cigarette butts from the floor.
CREDITS
Director, Writer and Producer: Maria Morais Carrondo
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project - Escola Artística António Arroio
Key Cast: Indiana Charles Oliveira, Sasha Castilho Blouw
Camera Operator: Lourenço Rodrigues Pacheco
Music: Laura Coronel Martins, Matt Oliveira Duque
ABOUT
Born just 16 years ago, Maria has been enchanting the world with her strong character. She is fearless, determined and ready to face challenges and obstacles, and can be a fierce leader and lead a team if necessary. She currently attends the Artistic School António Arroio in the Audiovisual Communication course, more specifically in cinema.
This short film is her first of many projects. Maria is looking forward to sharing her ideas with the world and exploring this incredible art that is cinema.
United States - 2'
CREDITS
Director: Melelani T. D
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project - MESA
Producer: MESA
Portugal - 3'
SYNOPSIS
A family lives in a modern, minimalist house, in a hot desert where there is almost no sign of life, until one day, a mysterious tram appears to "save" them from their tormented life by the red plague and the planets war.
CREDITS
Director: Gonçalo Pereira Soares
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project - Escola Secundária Antonio Carvalho Figueiredo
ABOUT
Gonçalo Pereira Soares was born in 2011, is a student passionate about the artistic field in all its forms of expression. Since 2022, he has been part of the Animarte Children's Theater Group, performing various shows at the Ajuda Botanical Garden and in Room 2 of the São Jorge Cinema. He has had minor roles in series and experience in animation voice-over."