Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
04.11—09.11.2025
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur proves that the most exciting festivals often occur in small towns—probably because not much else happens there year-round. But the festival, near Zurich airport, is not just a local celebrity. Year after year, it attracts countless industry guests and filmmakers from all over the world, who commute between the Casino (the headquarters), the city theater, and the other venues, and along the short distances, not only enjoy networking but also look out for affordable food and drinks (after all, it is Switzerland).
It is interesting to note that a festival that, under director John Canciani, has positioned itself more than ever before as a figurehead of cinema and film art but does not play in a single cinema and instead puts a great deal of effort into setting up its own infrastructure for the best possible film projections every year. While this speaks not least for the cultural-political necessity of the event on a local level, the international scene is most impressed by the excellent organisation, the elaborately curated programmes, and the secret star of the festival: a small Thai karaoke bar, where (almost) all industry guests indulge in their secret passion on one evening.
Text by Daniel Hadenius-Ebner
Reading List

Genealogy of Violence by Mohamed Bourouissa

Cherries by Vytautas Katkus

The Oasis I Deserve by Inès Sieulle

Mast-del by Maryam Tafakory

Alpha Kings by Faye Tsakas, Enrique Pedráza-Botero

Nikola Ilić on Exit Through the Cuckoo’s Nest

A Present Light by Diogo Costa Amarante

One Thousand And One Attempts To Be An Ocean by Wang Yuyan

Yann Gonzalez on Hideous

City of Poets by Sara Rajaei

It’s Raining Frogs Outside by Maria Estela Paiso

Isadora Neves Marques on Becoming Male in the Middle Ages

Nastia Korkia on Dreams About Putin

Watch The Fire Or Burn Inside It by Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel

Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays by Christian Avilés

Hardly Working by Total Refusal

27 by Flóra Anna Buda

Flores del otro Patio by Jorge Cadena
Reading List

Basil Da Cunha on 2720

Oyu by Atsushi Hirai

Shrooms by Jorge Jácome

La Perra by Carla Melo Gampert

Zima by Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki

Bruce LaBruce On “Queering” Art As A Political Act

2nd Person by Rita Barbosa

Alpha Kings by Faye Tsakas, Enrique Pedráza-Botero

Primetime Mother by Sonny Calvento
Reading List

Neighbour Abdi by Douwe Dijkstra

backflip by Nikita Diakur

Mulika by Maisha Maene

10 Missed Calls by Coline Confort

Flores del otro Patio by Jorge Cadena

Lake of Fire by Neozoon
Reading List
Reading List

A Lack of Clarity by Stefan Kruse Jørgensen

Heaven Reaches Down To Earth by Tebogo Malebogo

The Unseen River by Phạm Ngọc Lân

Drought by Remi Itani

Menarca by Lillah Halla