Below are listed
- short films selected for the categories Filmmakers – Live Action Shorts, Filmmakers – Animated Shorts and Apulian Students, competing for the monetary prizes for each category and for special mentions;
- a selection of short films for children which will be screened during the second night of the festival;
- three short films that are not competing for the monetary prizes but may be nominated for some special mentions.
Each short film is presented together with a short synopsis by the author.
Live Action Shorts
Baggage by Antti Ahokoivu
A couple starts conversing about their past relationships while carrying around a bed.
After dating for a good while, Vilja and Olavi decide to move in together.
Vilja’s apartment is perfect for them, except that they still need a bigger bed.
While carrying Olavi’s old double bed to their new shared home, difficult emotions arise as they learn new details about one another’s past relationships.
Danzamatta by Vanja Victor Kabir Tognola
The morning after a wild party, David and Oscar discover that their roommate Robin is still dancing.
What the heck is going on?
Work it Class by Pol Diggler
During a fancy New Year’s Eve party, two dancers will try to mock the upper class audience by changing the song of their performance.
Pianura Innocente (Innocent land) by Francesco Bolognesi and Michele Cardano
On a summer day that flows like any other, among jokes, laughter and football games, three kids receive a worrying call: in the area, a crime has just been committed and the killer is still on the loose. They have to get home, quickly.
A Cena con Delivery (Dinner With Delivery) by Daniele Catini
Nunzia is about to celebrate her 80th birthday. The elderly lady tries to involve relatives and friends to celebrate with her but everyone, through apologies, renounce attending her party. Nunzia taken by loneliness and not wanting to be alone on the day of her party, she decides, with a stratagem, to order take-away food to keep the delivery service boy behind a fake fainting. The apparently ironic evening masks Nunzia’s profound solitude. Michele, the boy involved with her – understanding the stratagem of her lady – invites her to dance a waltz until he embraces her. Nunzia lets herself be carried away by her emotions until she cries. The following day the woman, satisfied with the previous evening, calls again, in order not to be alone, the delivery service.
Rodas by Manu Toro
RODAS is an audiovisual project reflecting on the contemporary meaning of cohabitation. Poetics of the domestic formed with humor, magic and irony, articulating different moments of everyday life in a contemporary urban context.
Mark II by Brent Howard
A lowly office worker stumbles upon a floppy disk that will transform his life forever.
Homeless by Luca Esposito
Under the absent gaze of passersby, a Philadelphia homeless man tries to show the world the only thing that belongs to him.
Dilemma by Mario Pane
Two friends, Emilio and Lorenzo, drive to a country house. They ran over a boy and put him in the car. The two discuss what to do: Emilio wants to get rid of the body while Lorenzo wants to report the incident.
Apocalypse notes (La musica è in pericolo) by Gaffié Pierre
What would happen if one day we realized that all possible melodies have already been created? And, like polar bears, musical creation is at risk of extinction? While going to register his new songs at the Author’s Society, Thomas, a young and eager guitarist, discovers the incredible news… Will his girlfriend be able to calm him down?
Animated Shorts
Homebird by Ewa Smyk
Struggling to make it in a big city, a young artist finds herself retreating into the rose-tinted memories of the village she left behind.
Cromosoma X by Lucia Bulgheroni
During their office break, Rich and his colleagues joke about a new female colleague by commenting on some of her photos with macho allusions and jokes. A pink smoke bomb launched by some feminist protesters enters the office window and hits Rich, who is thus catapulted into a deep and hellish dream.
The House of Loss by Jinkyu JEON
The elderly at the nursing home have their heads shaved. The protagonist who works there sees them but can’t read their expressions. However, from one instance, he finds himself looking closely at their faces.
Yallah! by Nayla Nassar, Edouard Pitula, Renaud de Saint Albin, Cécile Adant, Anaïs Sassatelli, Candice Behague
Beirut, 1982. As Nicolas prepares to flee his hometown, torn apart by an endless civil war, he crosses the path of Naji, a reckless teenager determined to go to the Swimming Pool. Trying to protect the young man, Nicolas finds himself pulled into a surreal race against war, all for the mere freedom of going swimming.
A bite of bone by Honami Yano
A little girl reflects on her last summer with her father at his funeral.
Pig by Jorn Leeuwerink
A group of animals hook up a power grid to the socket-shaped snout of one big, sleeping pig. The animals use the pig’s energy for simple things at first, but soon they render themselves dependent on a city where every single thing – the useful and the useless – is automated… How long can that last?
Revelation by Michele Bernardi
Michele Bernardi interprets with the technique of digital animated drawing the execution of the piece by Luciano Berio “Call (St. Louis Fanfare)” performed by the wind quintet Billi Brass Quintet (Gabriele Paggi, Davide Bertoni, Gabriele Ricci, Flavio Pannacci, Simone Lanzi ).
How Small! by Charlene Xu
A young woman reminisces about her deceased grandmother, whose volatile personality troubled and confused her as a child.
Girl in the Water by Shi-Rou Huang
Contemplation of torn walls and scars reminds the heroine of the ups and downs of love. The film depicts femininity and female internal time-consciousness through the convalescence of a woman’s broken heart, which is based on my personal experiences.
Cimpoiasca by Barbora Halířová
Cimpoiasca is a music video that uses folklore motives to tell the story of a pure woman’s friendship. With the help of schnapps and wild dances, these women manage to overcome a little nightmare
The magic Flute by Raffaello De Pol
The animated short created for the Overture of “The Magic Flute” and projected during the live performance of the Opera, was created with the intention of creating a single large multimedia theatrical event. The film narrates the metaphorical journey of Mozart himself, tugged and disputed between the world of good and that of evil.
The Seine’s Tears by Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard, Nicolas Mayeur, Etienne Moulin, Hadrien Pinot, Lisa Vicente, Philippine Singer, Alice Letailleur
17 october 1961, “Algerian workers” get down the streets to manifest against the mandatory curfew imposed by the Police prefecture during the Algerian War.
Where the stone will fall by Beatrice Pucci
Once upon a time there was a pond where Gerda the frog lived … And then there was a king who gave a stone to his son and said: “where the stone will fall you will get a wife”. As often happens in fairy tales, fate offers unexpected possibilities, in this case a stone falls into the pond and the prince is, despite him, tied to Gerda the frog.
Apulian Students
Per le vie del Paradiso (Through the streets of heaven) by Giuseppe Gimmi
The story of a boy in the Apulian countryside of the seventies. Twenty-year-old Tonino Bianco is a farmer struggling with the hard work of the land. One morning Tonino goes to a local church and as he slowly approaches a canvas, he is catapulted into a different reality, similar to the world of dreams, where he imagines, through a memory, embracing his father Tommaso, who died for a serious illness. The overwhelming chatter of the people, however, reveals itself as a pivotal point in Tonino’s life, disorienting his thoughts.
Aftertaste by Nicola Scamarcia
Laura is a chef and is preparing a dinner in which her sister Monica and Roberto, Laura’s boyfriend, will taste a new dish of her invention. During dinner, the atmosphere is serene and convivial until Laura accuses Roberto of cheating on her with her sister. A quarrel begins in which the two guests realize they have been poisoned. First Monica and then Roberto die under Laura’s pleased gaze.
Almost quiet by Lorenzo Galante, Giulia Mustafà, Katia Prudenzano, Barbara Figliuolo
The protagonist presents her evident bipolar disorder, which accompanies every action, then transporting in a confusional state and dissociated from reality surrounding her.
This condition leads her to have continue emotive fluctuations.
The “teen age” is the phase of transit which solidifies the person and their personalities. A fragile phase where we’re fragile.
The protagonist doesn’t accept her condition initially, overwhelmed by fear, trying to run against herself until she collapses on her knees, understanding how useless is going against her own person.
At last, the acceptation phase.
Children shorts
Monkey Domino by Ulf Grenzer
An ape at the zoo is reminiscing about his life in the jungle.
The encounter with a manager and his daughter changes his cage life for ever.
Elevator Alone by Anastasia Papadopoulou
Four people and the time they spend in an elevator. Inspired by everyday life and by the difference in people’s behavior when they are alone, in contrast to the socially acceptable behavior that individuals adopt when in public space and especially in the confined and always awkward setting of an elevator.
Marea by Giulia Martinelli
A special family of moon guardians is living on a tiny island and dealing with the ups and downs of their everyday life and of the tide.
The film depicts the delicate balance between the characters and the environment in which they live.
Befriend The Wind by Aneta Pauliny
Sometimes that, what we consider our enemy, can become the means to something much better.
BOOUOO by Woonjung Kim
Jun-hee wakes up in the advertisement for a BUYU apartment she longs for. Then suddenly, space starts attacking her and makes her fall into the mall. She also falls into numerous item whirlwinds at shopping malls. At the moment of chaos, she sees a dim light deep in the floor. Jun-hee decides to accept all gravity and to throw herself in the dark.
Steps by Tatiana Moshkova and Marina Moshkova
How many steps does it take for the sullen reclusive Monk to save one little lemon tree?
Lost Brain by Isabelle Favez
One day, Louise the crocodile, accidentally sneezes her brain out. To top it all off, it even escapes! This suddenly makes it difficult for Louise to perform the simplest tasks and nothing works out anymore.
Big Box by Nuria Torreño
What if you could send your feelings? In a world where it is possible to send your feelings via mail service, a young postman named Hermy faces the arduous task of delivering the biggest package the company has ever seen. However, this will not stop our cheerful mailman, who will make use of all available means to make the package reach its destination and fulfill his mission.
The shorts Pig, Where the stone will fall and The magic Flute are also included in this category.
Special section
My Father’s Damn Camera! by Milos Tomic
A reckless boy in an almost desperate and therefore troublesome way persistently seeks the attention of his father – a photographer. Being confronted with his father’s artistic chaos and his obsessive fascination with photography-life, on his path of growing up these elements eventually become essential for strengthening their father-son bond.
In a story that intertwines hand-drawn and stop animation in collage technique, the author takes his audience on a ride through the archive of Slovenian photographer Dragiša Modrinjak, and at the same time draws from personal experience as a filmmaker and father.
A metà by Istituto Comprensivo “De Amicis Laterza”, Bari
Joy, sadness, fear, uneasiness, admiration, surprise. How hard can it be to express and recognize emotions with a mask covering half of our faces? During a class exam, boys and girl in a middle school talk about their emotions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bari C.le: 30 minuti di attesa by Claudio Scarasciullo
As a commuter a station is, usually, the place where the workday ends. What happens though if you miss your train and you’re forced to wait half an hour before being able to go back home? You start looking at people around you: other commuters, tourists, people that spent an unusual day in the big city instead of staying in their small provincial town. So we take a look at the life of the Bari Central station and in a small poem for images we observe a small part of the human comedy.
