“Mother of Dawn” by Clara Trevisan | Belgium, Brazil | 8’ | ani, exp | 2025 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
In the dead of night, a hungry creature searches for food and perpetuates an endless cycle.
Clara Trevisan:
Clara Trevisan is a visual artist from Porto Alegre. Her research focuses mainly on themes of the fantastic and the imaginary, explored through animation, illustration, and the construction of objects. Mãe da Manhã is her first short film as director.
“Wish You Were Ear” by Mirjana Balogh | Hungary |10’ | ani | 2025
Synopsis:
In a world where ex-partners must swap a chosen body part after each break-up, every relationship leaves a visible mark. Disfigured and longing for wholeness, the protagonist encounters someone wearing their former ear - and begins a journey toward self-acceptance. A reflection on how relationships reshape us, inside and out.
Mirjana Balogh:
Mirjana Balogh is a Hungarian animation director, illustrator, and graphic designer. Her work blends abstraction and reality, often drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of machines. She co-organizes the Ukmukfukk Zine Festival, showcasing self-published magazines. Her graduation film, Wish You Were Ear, premiered at the 2025 Berlinale and won the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film.
“My Grandmother is a Skydiver” by Polina Piddubna | Ucrain | 13’ | ani, doc | 2025 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
Alfyia, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a
midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother's safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.
Polina Piddubna:
Filmmaker, artist and activist with Ukrainian and Central Asian Tatar and Bashqort roots. Polina was born and raised in Kharkiv, started her career in Kyiv, and has been living in Berlin since 2019. She has a bachelor's degree in animation and is currently doing her master's as an animation director at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Polina also organises social and educational projects, works at film festivals and does artistic research on decolonial topics.
“Valentine's Day” by Sonia Mossoczy | Poland | 6’ | ani | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
What does it feel like to be single on Valentine’s Day? A story about how irritating people in love are.
Sonia Mossoczy:
Sonia Mossoczy - author of animated films from Poland. In her art she puts focus on relationships, coping with emotions and finding ones place in the world. She tells simple stories using her original aesthetic.
“Someone special” by Alice Gervat | France | 7’ | ani | 2024 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
Lisa matched with Xuân through a dating app, and she is to meet her for the first time. But there is a problem: to appeal to Xuân, Lisa lied and told her that she is fluent in Vietnamese, her native language, despite not understanding a single word. Getting deeper into her own lies, there is only one week left before the date for Lisa to actually learn Vietnamese. Otherwise, Xuân will find out she’s a fraud…
Alice Gervat:
Born in 2001, Alice Gervat is a French artist, animator and illustrator. In 2024, she graduated from a master’s degree in animation at Paris Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. With her graduation short film Someone special (một người đặc biệt), she offers a sincere and refreshing take on her Vietnamese heritage and personal identity, with a lot of humour. Alice enjoys creating expressive and sensitive female characters in her work, placing them at the centre of her vibrant stories that blend slice-of-life moments with touches of romantic comedy.
“Sweet Cabanyal” by Anna Juesas, Sonia Sánchez | Espanha | 4’ | ani | 2025 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
Amparo, an extravagant and passionate ex-star, faces losing her house at the hands of Dan, a clumsy architect who owns a multinational. Dan will seek to redesign a historic neighborhood in which Amparo's premises will rise as the resistance. Will it be Amparo's last show?
This non-dialogue animated short film, created by Barreira A+D students, addresses cultural resistance and historical memory, sensitively reflecting the fight against gentrification in the Cabanyal neighborhood of Valencia.
Anna Juesas & Sonia Sánchez:
Anna Juesas and Sonia Sánchez, both born and living in Valencia, direct Sweet Cabanyal with the students of Barreira Arte y Diseño S.L.U.
Anna Juesas studied Audiovisual Communication and specialized in screenwriting through the Masters of Creativity and Screenwriting of the Rey Juan Carlos University and Globomedia. Since 2018 she has written and directed four animation short films, in Barreira.
Sonia Sánchez studied Fine Arts and specialized in 2D and 3D Animation. This is her second short film as a director.
“Jeanne & Jean Jean” by Thanys Martin | France | 7’ | ani | 2024 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
One saturday afternoon, in a furniture store, Jeanne and Jean Jean wonder if they are really meant to live together.
Thanys Martin:
Thanys was born in 2000. During 18 years, she practiced life and rode ponies every weekend. In 2018, in a burst of risky radicalization, after a laborious year selling underwear, she decided to join the Atelier de Sèvres. She no longer practiced life, but lived it. Even more, she discovered that she could bring her stories and her drawings to life. Influenced by Eugène Ionesco, Sandy Hoffman, Tomi Ungerer, the magazines of her childhood... As by High School Musical, she developed a universe where Love confronts the consumer society (and its minions) with lightness and humor.
Her universe is inspired by 70s illustrations, with broken perspective, flat and colorful visuals, geometric shapes, which she uses and diverts to showcase harassing advertising and outrageous consumption. She also gets involved with cut-out paper, often from magazines, whose advertising pages she carefully uses to make films that make fun of them...
Freshly graduated, her ideas flow and gallop across the vast plains of creation, already co-writing a new short film.
“The Bird From Within” by Laura Anahory | Portugal | 5’ | ani | 2024
Synopsis:
The film follows a woman and the bird which lives inside of her, and how their inability to co-live together leads to physical wounds to her body.
Laura Anahory:
Laura Anahory, a finalist in the Master's program in Sound and Image, started from Graphic Design at the Escola Artística Soares dos Reis, completing a Bachelor's degree in Communication Design at ESAD — College of Art and Design. With a particular focus on character design and illustration, she completed a Postgraduate degree in Illustration and Animation at the same institution, which sparked her interest in 2D animation. Since then, she has produced two animated short films - House on the Hilltop (2023) and O Pássaro de Dentro (2024)—as well as a promotional trailer for Cinanima in 2024.
“Bursting at the Seams” by Adriana Andrade, Luana Rodrigues, Daniela Tietzen | Portugal | 3’ | ani, doc | 2024 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
Relatos de 3 mulheres sobre as suas experiências, a sua luta interior entre ser feminina e masculina e as suas jornadas de aceitação.
Adriana Andrade, Luana Rodrigues & Daniela Tietzen:
Adriana, born on the 20th of February of 2003, in Lisbon, but raised in Alentejo. In Highschool, studied Animation 2D / 3D at EPI–Escola Profissional de Imagem. Currently attending the Digital Animation BA at Universidade Lusófona. Art, film, and stopmotion lover, aspires to specialize in film directing.
Daniela, from Algarve, grew up in Albufeira, was born in 26th of November of 2004. In High School enrolled in the Visual Arts at the Albufeira High School, and currently studies Digital Animation at Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon. With a special interest in stopmotion, building sets, character design and 2d animation, one day hopes to work in a feature film that mixes the two techniques
Luana, born on the 4th of February of 2003 and grew up on the Lisbon South Bay. In High School, studied Visual Arts in Manuel Cargaleiro School. After high school, took a gap year and in 2022 enrolled in the Digital Animation BA at Universidade Lusófona. A big lover of illustration, 2D Animation, Stopmotion and Character Design, with her work targeting young audiences.
“The Piano” by Avery Kroll | USA | 8’ | ani | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
One night, a young girl discovers her father bent over the keys at the piano, sparking a lifelong bond that resonates far beyond their final note.
Avery Kroll:
Avery Kroll, a 25-year-old storyteller from Nashville,Tennessee, is passionate about animation and storytelling. She loves rich characters and meaningful narratives and has honed her skills in traditional and digital techniques. Inspired by childhood animated films, Avery aims to create stories that entertain while sparking thought and emotion. She earned a BFA in Character Animation from Southern Adventist University and is set to graduate with her MFA from Lipscomb University.
“Hunting” by Lea Favre | Switzerland | 11’ | ani | 2025 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
Today, Lea is going in search of a subject for a documentary film. When she reaches her chosen location, a stadium above the town, she meets someone who seems different from anyone else, and looks a bit like her. Lea believes she's finally caught her prey, but the roles end up being reversed. The hunter becomes the hunted.
Lea Favre:
Lea Favre was born in 1997 in Sion (Switzerland). In 2020, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in both History and Aesthetics of Cinema and History of Art at UNIL (University of Lausanne), followed in 2024 by a Bachelor's degree in live action Filmmaking/Directing at ECAL (Lausanne School of Art). She is now working part-time as a production assistant at Hélium Films in Lausanne, driven by a strong interest in animation.
