Reliefs (Mexico) by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Fernandez

Carlos is approaching midlife trapped in a personal crisis that has lingered too long. Rosa, his mother, suffers from disabling pain that is only mitigated by the warm waters of hydrotherapy. One night, she offers to make the ultimate sacrifice so that they can both transit to a better place. A short film about love, hope  and relief we all long for.

Running time: 00:17:40

Anna's Freezer (Netherlands) by Jetske Lieber

After her premiere night, 35 year-old Anna comes home alone. When she discovers that her freezer is completely frozen, a solitary spectacle starts where Anna battles her freezer and tries to escape her lonely reality.

Running time: 00:07:26

Dancing Standing Still (Netherlands) by Drea Chuma

Dancing Standing Still explores grief and the unexpected places it reveals itself. It is the grief of small boxes that arrive quietly, wrapped in beautiful beginnings. It emerges as questions, asking us to rely on self-trust in unfamiliar emotional terrain. The poem carries the film, offering a place to land as seasons shift in subtle, unassuming ways. It holds space for the tension between movement and pause: dancing as a step into newness, standing still as the quiet moments of processing change. Shot on Super 8, the film relies on the natural imperfections of the analogue medium, woven into texture, colour, and space to make these emotional states visible.

Running time: 00:01:31

The Bull (United Kingdom) by Victor Nauwynck

Cyriel and Marie, a childless married couple, live on an isolated farm. Their laborious, monotonous lives are turned upside down when a highly virile bull is brought onto their farm. While Cyriel is determined to impregnate their cows, Marie develops an unlikely attraction to the bull.

Running time: 00:19:59

New City (Netherlands) by Sebald van der Waal

Documentary filmmaker Johan (33) returns to Amsterdam to make a film that aims to hold up a mirror to the changed, gentrified city of his childhood. But conversations with friends and family force him more and more to confront himself and his own loneliness.

Running time: 00:20:00

Nightfaces (Austria) by Martin Winter, Stefan Langthaler

Mahan is a taxi driver in Vienna, but his job frustrates him. He longs for his family and a normal life. One rainy night, a homeless woman gets into his taxi. She urgently wants to see her son, whose birthday it is. Mahan tries to get rid of her and accidentally breaks her present. To make up for the damage, he takes the strange woman on one last trip through the dark city.

Running time: 00:23:00