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.
A father takes his son to the funfair on Halloween. What should be the stuff of childhood dreams becomes, instead, the therapy material of adolescent trauma in Rachel Walden’s gut-punch roadtrip.
Through sketch-like animations, Tomek Popakul and Kasumi Ozeki skilfully capture teenage rage and rural isolation in contemporary Poland.
In Eglė Davidaviče’s deeply personal film, the exploration of self-acceptance is intrinsically connected with community.
No hollow performances of masculinity to mask the realities of grief in Guillermo García López’s Roma family tale. By exploring insecurities, his coming-of-age story becomes a metaphysical quest for reassurance.
An unapologetic coming-of-age tale, La Perra dives straight into the paradoxes of female desire. A lonely and sometimes hurtful experience.
Feminism and sex triumph at the same time in Flóra Anna Buda’s big winner of the Cannes, Annecy, and Sarajevo short film prizes.
Aziz Zoromba’s Simo offers insights into the dynamics of a culturally diverse family, but leaves out the most meaningful conversations.
In a clever and playful moral, the extensive process of constructing a tree house charts the significance of time.
Lithuanian filmmaker Vytautas Katkus stars alongside his actual father, exploring the increasingly tenuous connection between ageing father and son.
With its contourless, bright, and lively 3D animation, Sierra captures the microaggression that is undeniably present in every example of parental expectations, and does so in a genteel way.
Diana Cam Van Nguyen’s festival hit is a personal story that becomes one of intergenerational and -cultural confrontation.
Through a thirteen-year-old boy’s minimalist story and point of view, Dad's Sneakers resonates with worldwide sympathy for a country and people whose integrity is currently under attack.
Nikita is a young teenager and a real techno music aficionado. Berlin is calling in this Eastern European love child of Gaspar Noé’s Climax and Xavier Dolan’s Mommy.
The past is inescapable for the protagonists in Marie Larrivé’s Noir-Soleil, in which the filmmaker wants us to pay close attention to “unmoments”—seemingly unimportant short occurrences where the characters stare into space or an animal moves between the bushes.
Competing in the prestigious Cannes short film competition this year, Orthodontics is as an anachronistic tale of youth and friendship.
Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival’s Grand Prix eloquently highlights the filmmaker’s grudge against patriarchal, male-dominated societies. Rightfully so.
