Day 1 Oct. 5 / 17h

Shorts 1
1:30

Harvest Moon / Rick Stevenson, Molly Smith / United States / 2026 / 0:18:45
When twelve-year-old Sovan and his little sister are left at a children's home by the only family they've ever known, Sovan's grief hardens into anger. Determined to take control of a life that suddenly feels beyond his grasp, he makes a reckless choice that threatens to destroy the very connections he desperately needs.
Half a world away, twelve-year-old Oliver arrives in Cambodia with every advantage Sovan lacks: financial security, a stable home, and two parents. Yet beneath the surface, he carries a deep loneliness no one seems to notice.
As Oliver and Sovan’s lives intersect, both boys are forced to confront what family truly means and discover that belonging is not something we are given, but something we build together.
WORLD PREMIERE

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Dreamt by Another / Vikki Bardot / Turkey /2025 / 0:08:22
"Dreamt by Another" is an allegorical take on creating with artificial intelligence and a meditation on identity, memory, and love. Interweaving passages from Pinocchio (1883), The Velveteen Rabbit (1922), Frankenstein (1818), and Borges's The Circular Ruins (1940), the film builds a single narrative about coming into existence. It extends the lineage of wooden puppets, toys, and monsters into the realm of artificial intelligence, as the latest chapter in humanity's pursuit to make the unreal come alive. Rooted in Vikki Bardot's long-standing artistic practice of exploring visual textures and dreamlike aesthetics, the film asks: What does it take to become real?
PORTUGAL PREMIEERE

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Memories of a Friend (Souvenirs d'un ami) / Olivier Smolders / Belgium / 2025 / 0:24:20
A narrator tells the story of an eccentric childhood friend.
osmolders@gmail.com
PORTUGAL PREMIERE

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A Room in Bangkok / Javier Olivera / Spain / 2025 / 0:20:00
Through the grainy, fleeting frames of Super 8 film reels, the filmmaker revisits a childhood trip to Asia, where her father’s business partner—a constant presence in their lives—captured a family's narrative through his lens. Haunted by a persistent suspicion of a long-forgotten night in a Bangkok hotel room, the narrator embarks on a journey of recollection, grappling with fragmentary memories, traumatic energies and power of oblivion.
EUROPEAN PREMIERE

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Early Feelings ( Erken Hissler) / Nurlan Hasanli / Azerbaijan / 2025 / 0:18:00
During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, an 11-year-old Azerbaijani boy grapples with his first encounter with death while competing with neighboring children for the attention of a girl at the funeral.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE

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Short 2

Slet 1988 / Marta Popivoda / Germany, France, Serbia / 2025 / 0:22:00
74-year-old dancer Sonja Vuki?evi? moves through socialist-modernist spaces, her body echoing Yugoslavia’s last mass performance. Intertwined with a teenage girl’s diary from 1988, the film traces the shift from socialist collectivism to rising nationalism.

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Species of Analogy / J. M. Martínez / United States / 2024 / 0:13:00
A field guide: Flora evolving with environmental changes, and pollinators utilizing biomimicry. Natural objects are gathered, and sculptures of and from the landscape cast reflections of nature being infinite, self-knowing, and alive....
PORTUGAL PREMIERE

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The Moon Also Rises / Yuyan Wang / France / 2024 / 0:24:00
Artificial moons are going to be launched into space to eliminate the difference between day and night. An elderly couple retreats into their apartment, isolated from nature and the outside world....
PORTUGAL PREMIERE

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Index / Radu Muntean / Romania / 2025 / 0:29:00
Deep in an uncharted forest, an isolated ornithologist discovers a wild child captured in a grainy video, recorded by one of the infrared cameras he had hidden among the trees.

etc.

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