Talking Shorts

What are your favourite short films of all time?

Protecting the Palestinian Narrative

Interview with Eslam Saqqa, Ayman Alazraq by Sanne Jehoul

At this year’s Uppsala Short Film Festival, Gaza Film Unit presented “Protecting The Palestinian Narrative”, a selection of four short films spanning several decades, which shed light on Gaza, the ongoing struggle for Palestinian...

Talks Interviews

Affectionate Counter-Narratives

Interview with Elahe Esmaili by Savina Petkova

Just a couple of days after images of Iranian doctoral student Ahou Daryaei became a viral symbol of resistance against Iran’s strict hijab laws, we talked to Elahe Esmaili about her short documentary A Move, in which she refuses to wear a hijab.

Films On The Circuit

looking she said I forget

Bathroom Blues

Review by Savina Petkova

Naomi Pacifique’s new short film dwells in melancholy and unlocks a form of intimacy that is unlike anything else we’ve seen bodies share on screen.

Reads Notes

Memory in Textures

Essay by Eneos Çarka

Certain films call to action our entire sensory sytem: the moving image is not only seen but heard and felt too. In shorts by Neritan Zinxhiria, Slava Doytcheva, Norika Sefa and Ana Hušman, layered textures of memory are tactically explored.

Films On The Circuit

Oyu

Last Rites

Review by Anas Sareen

Elegant and deeply human, Atsushi Hirai’s Oyu is a carefully constructed homecoming haunted by loss.

Happening now

Festivals

Leuven International Short Film Festival

29.11—07.12.2024

Founded in 1995 as an excuse to showcase the founders' own student shorts, the now EFA-, BAFTA- & Oscar-qualifying festival hasn’t lost its initial goal, always putting young, emerging film talent front and center. Taking place around...

2024 Reading List

Memory in Textures
Recalling Experiences Through Surfaces and Matter

Essay by Eneos Çarka

Keep Filming
Palestinian Short Films Towards Liberation

Essay by Öykü Sofuoğlu

Blurred Lines

The Oasis I Deserve by Inès Sieulle

Review by Yan Guan Rosanna Suter

Confessions Of A City Dweller

2nd Person by Rita Barbosa

Review by Nino Kovačić

A Christmas From Hell

Zima by Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki

Review by Ebba Yttermyr

Flowing Femininity

The One Who Knows by Eglė Davidavičė

Review by Grete Kaio, Liene Helēna Nugumanova, Kamilė Zinkevičiūtė

Emptied Away

The Veiled City by Natalie Cubides-Brady

Review by Jason Todd

You Are Being Watched

A Kind of Testament by Stephen Vuillemin

Review by Michiel Philippaerts

Republic on Fire

Ardent Other by Alice Brygo

Review by Zachary Seager

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.