Apart from the main competition, the festival also features a selection of short films. The films, judged by a student jury, are divided into seven thematically different blocks. Eyes on You offers stories of female protagonists - among these you can look forward to Each and Every Night (Et Chaque nuit) that will bring you to an animated world full of imagination where little Lea has been seeing shiny deer-like creatures. Another one is a German movie Frida, an intimate and quiet study of the need for human closeness won the Queer Palm for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. The film In this moment / En ce moment) brings a personal analysis of two women’s fragile bond and in the details of the poetic camera captures the ups and downs of living together.
Second block, First Time, shows the wishes and desires of the trans community. In this selection you can find a Mexican movie Imelda and Luis (Imelda y Luis) that portrays the desolate reality in which nothing is impossible in the children’s eyes. Australian movie Fish Head tells a story about Nahla, teenage girl who doesn’t identify with the stereotypes pushed by the people around her. What attracts her more than stereotypical attributes of a woman are glittering fish scales, green hair, natural ease and wild abandon. Simply everything that only a mermaid can be….
The third block, Take Whatever You Want, examines the boundaries of one’s body and privacy. A Columbian movie Son of Sodom taking place in the infamous city of Medellin that is supposed to be the complete opposite of its past and the main tourist attraction offers a gloomy ride through the dark side of the metropolis, full of honest accounts on youth, death, and drugs. Italian movie Playtime (Giochi) tells a story about a crazy mother who tries to win the love and attention of her son in this surreal film by various means - kitty ears or even a pretend choking.
Injection – Explosion – Destruction looks at the world in utterly non-traditional ways and among non-traditional movies you can see for example a French film Spontaneous Combustion (Combustion spontanée), which will offer a mystery plot, beautiful femmes fatales and tragic moments in vivid colours and stylised shots as a tribute not only to the legendary Italian giallo horrors of the 1970s.
Gender identity is examined in depth in the selection Out of My Shell. We can point out The Call - the first Cypriot film with a transgender theme speaks with great sensitivity about family relationships that may never be mended.
Delicious Boys reveal everything boys and men may long for. Don't miss the Israeli film Virgin my ass (בתול בתחת) about the friendship between Ophir and Harel, that will be facing some obstacles due to Ophir's unconventional request.
And the last block in the selection is Queer Hygge, full of soothing shorts perfect for watching under a warm blanket. International Short Film Competition is full of amazing pieces and we cannot wait to show them to you!
