Talking Shorts
Welcome to ! We write about short films, produce long reads on short film programmes, and feature talks with filmmakers → all fully immersed in the European circuit of festivals, which is home to our workshops and discussions.
Films On The Circuit

waking up in silence

A Safe Haven

Review by Monika Navickaitė

While holding onto their innocence, Ukrainian child refugees become aware of the war in this German-Ukrainian documentary that masterfully depicts the impact of life in exile.

Talks Interviews

The Birth and Death of a Film

Interview with Bill Morrison by Savina Petkova

With over fifty titles to his name, Bill Morrison’s body of work is tied together by the word ‘archive’, as all of his films interrogate already existing footage, helping audiences discover images deemed lost or decaying.
Talks Interviews

Honouring a Place

Interview with Basil Da Cunha by Olivia Popp

Throughout multiple films, Basil Da Cunha has introduced a postcolonial orientation to filmmaking, in which the community he depicts is involved in telling its own stories and reclaiming its narratives.
Reads Notes

Loosely Based On…

Essay by Marina Zigneli

Marina Zigneli ponders over the elusive concept of film adaptation, unglueing its intricate layers through different forms of storytelling found in the short film format.

Reads Notes

(Not So) Forbidden Pleasures

Essay by Savina Petkova

Savina Petkova reflects on the cinematic grammar of pornography and the effects of consuming NSFW images in the context of a festival screening.

Call: European Workshop for Film Criticism #7
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Call: European Workshop for New Curators #2
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Next month

Go Short — International Short Film Festival Nijmegen
Festivals

Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen

01—06.04.2025
The Netherlands is a haven for international film festivals. In addition to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Go Short in Nijmegen—a small town in the east of the country just five kilometers from the German border—has made a name for itself as...

2025 Reading List

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A Safe Haven

waking up in silence by Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko

Review by Monika Navickaitė
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Digital Witnesses

Man Number 4 by Miranda Pennell

Review by Patrick Gamble
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Blurred Lines

The Oasis I Deserve by Inès Sieulle

Review by Yan Guan Rosanna Suter
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Affectionate Counter-Narratives
Elahe Esmaili on A Move
Interview with Elahe Esmaili by Savina Petkova
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Bathroom Blues

looking she said I forget by Naomi Pacifique

Review by Savina Petkova
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We Are Your Friends
Inès Sieulle on The Oasis I Deserve
Interview with Inès Sieulle by Jason Anderson
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Beyond Black and White

Her Name is Ida by Oscar Bøe

Review by Klara Jovanov
Filmfest Dresden
Festivals

Filmfest Dresden

08—13.04.2025
Dresden. Cradle of chocolate manufacturing, center of German animation and home of Filmfest Dresden, first held in 1989 (only a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall). If you drive across the Elbe towards Neustadt today, it's hard...

2025 Reading List

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Inside My Head

Genealogy of Violence by Mohamed Bourouissa

Review by Rafael Fonseca
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Past the Guilt
Pavel Mozhar on Unwanted Kinship
Interview with Pavel Mozhar by Marcelina Leigh
Hideous}
Lyrical Monsters
Yann Gonzalez on Hideous
Interview with Yann Gonzalez by Anas Sareen
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Skirts Without Scots

Juck [Thrust] by Olivia Kasterbring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira

Review by Susanne Meisenberg
Shrooms}
Psilocybin Dreams

Shrooms by Jorge Jácome

Review by Zachary Seager
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All Welcome?

Sorry I am late (but I brought a choir) by Håkon Anton Olavsen

Review by Khushi Jain
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The Leash of Love

Sit. Play. Stay. by Cecilie Flyger Hansen

Review by Ilo Tuule Rajand

Discussions

Working with partner festivals, we organise panel talks, keynotes, and other formats to foster discussions. Recordings are published here to continue the conversation online.

Discussions

What Short Films Fight For (And How)

with Elahe Esmaili, Nicolas Khabbaz, Sacha Prokopenko, Anne Gaschütz
How can cinema promote radical change? Hosted by the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in collaboration with Talking Shorts, this panel conversation tackled ideas about upholding solidarity and care in times of budget cuts...
Discussions

The “Short Film” and Its Audience

with Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, Samir Karahoda, Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner
A panel talk on audience development for short films through programming and filmmaking. This conversation took place during DokuFest’s 23rd edition with Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck (Berlinale Shorts), Samir Karahoda (DokuFest), and...
Vienna Shorts
Discussions

Something Better Change: Film & Activism

with Christoph Schwarz, Gregor Kasper, Delphine Jeanneret
Delphine Jeanneret (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur) moderates this conversation on how cinematic art serves as a powerful catalyst for shifting public perception and how it has been closely linked with activist causes since its...
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