“Scattered Sea” by Lia Sáile | Germany | 13’ | exp | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
Moving between magical realism, performance and documentary, Scattered Sea explores the question of how people can connect with each other across borders in a multi-relationally diverse world with its cracks of entangled historical traumas, a fractured present, power imbalances and a deep longing for belonging.
17 performers from North Africa and Europe interact and relate to each other, creating hybrid spaces, intertwining, allowing closeness – daring fragile beginnings. Symbols are traced, deconstructed, space is negotiated, drawn with sand.
Filmed in Morocco, Malta and Germany, the film dissects and interweaves inter-culturality, territoriality and de/coloniality, touching upon tensions between the MENA region and Europe.
Lia Sáile:
Lia Sáile (b. 1985) is a conceptual and media artist who explores boundaries, transitions, and thresholds in media, social, and political contexts. Her work touches on the construction of individual and collective identity while examining systems of belonging and differentiation. She studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies in Vienna and Malta, and Media Art at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. She has presented her projects in a number of solo and group exhibitions, film and photography festivals and public interventions, all in an international context. She lives and works in Cologne and Munich.
“Stereoton” by Cecilia Marie Hökenschnieder | Germany | 5’ | exp, ani | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
Twins share perfect togetherness in the womb, but who leaves first? The real world crashes in, social pressure, time and individuality pulling them apart. Can they balance closeness and distance without losing themselves?
Cecilia Marie Hökenschnieder:
Cecilia Hökenschnieder is an animator and director, born and based in Berlin. She initially studied Film and Theatre Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Afterwards, Cecilia began her Bachelor’s degree in Animation at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, which she completed at the end of 2024. In the fall of 2024, she started her Master’s degree in Animation Directing at the same university. Cecilia has worked for several years at Sputnik Kino and at various film festivals, including the British Shorts and the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin. She is currently employed at the Filmuniversität as a student assistant to Frank Geßner, Professor of Theory and Practice of Visual Arts. For the Sehsüchte Film Festival 2025, Cecilia curated the program for the Fokus Animation section as part of a small team.
“Nestling” by Yana Kadurina | Czechia | 13’ | exp | 2025 | International Premiere
Synopsis:
A nestling is a symbol of fragility, youth, and the longing for safety. In a stylized tailor’s workshop, we observe the relationship between a young woman and an aging man. The space, which initially seems like a shared sanctuary, gradually unravels under the weight of his desire for the ideal Madonna. SHE builds her own world, ruled by her imagination and confident sexuality, while simultaneously balancing between the longing for the nest’s safety and the urge to take flight.
Yana Kadurina:
Director Yana Kadurina was born in Kyiv and has been living in the Czech Republic since 2021. She studied Film Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc , since 2023, she has been continuing her studies at FAMU, where she is currently finishing bachelor's program at the Center of Audiovisual Studies. In her work, she creates highly stylized worlds where she interweaves colors, set design, and symbolic details. She focuses on experimental film, photography, and animation, combining narrative fragments with stylization. Her work is characterized by dreamlike intimacy, a melancholic tone, and an emphasis on visual aesthetics. Her animated film Home was screened at festivals such as Animánie and FAMUFEST and won awards for best animated film at the Mladá kamera Uničov and Vřed 2025 festivals. Nestling is her second-year film.
“Wounded Light” by Abril Catalina Beascoechea | Spain | 10’ | exp | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
Claire, a young writer, is in an emotional and creative pause, until she finds her old projector, starting a dance with memory that will make her reconnect with the child she once was and with everything her body hides.
Abril Catalina Beascoechea:
Abril Catalina Beascoechea is a photographer, director and cinematographer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Born in Cantabria in 2002, she grew up with a love of photography, poetry, and literature, until she developed her passion for film in high school. It was then that she began going to the movies alone, participated in the Cinestudio initiative of the Filmoteca of Cantabria, winning two awards for her writing, and experimented with her first audiovisual project for a philosophy class. In 2020, she began studying Filmmaking and Screenwriting at the University of the West of Scotland, producing the dance short film Cotton Void (2021) on her own; and subsequently becoming involved in various short films, mainly as a director of photography and camera assistant. In 2024, she graduated with first-class honours, after completing her final year short film Wounded Light, which she wrote, directed, and did cinematography for; and continues to participate in new projects such as Julia Gonzalez Franco's Witches Without Sin as director of photography. She is currently developing the script for her next short film, Ladies (working title).
“Spinning Days” by Anne Chpakovski | France | 11’ | exp, ani | 2024 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
A young woman's inner voice unfolds. Successively erased, covered over, she recounts intimate moments of her life. As the story emerges, and through the unspoken, a portrait of her relationship with a little too close friend takes shape.
Anne Chpakovski:
Anne Chpakovski is a painter and filmmaker who graduated from the Arts Décoratifs de Paris in 2023. She is currently working in Germany, where she is completing a post-master's degree at the Leipzig School of Fine Arts. Anne's first solo exhibition took place at the Miyu gallery in Paris in October 2023.
“The Last Time I Played With My Dollhouse” de Mia Nel | Portugal | 12’ | exp | 2025 | Regional Premiere
Synopsis:
A child, a woman and a dollhouse.
Mia Nel:
Mia Nel é realizadora portuguesa que estudou Realização na ETIC e Cinema e Audiovisual na ESAP. Com interesse especial pelo cinema experimental, foi nomeada em 2022 para o Prémio Sophia Estudante na categoria Experimental pelo filme Pé D'água.
“How do I look” by Maria Bacelar | Portugal | 5’ | exp | 2025 | National Premiere
Synopsis:
From an edited sequence of scenes of women applying makeup, this short film offers a critical reflection on makeup as a symbol of objectification, coming of age, empowerment, and mask. The work offers a space for an essential debate on feminism, identity, and gender equality in contemporary society. The characters are women of different ages and ethnic backgrounds. It observes how cinema, across years, genres, and nationalities, represents women and how they relate to makeup.
Maria Bacelar:
Maria Jacobetty Bacelar (born 2004) is a multidisciplinary Portuguese artist who earned a Bilingual Diploma upon completing the International Baccalaureate program. In 2021 she made a short film titled A Daughter’s Cake for a school project, which screened at festivals. In 2023 she co-founded the European Film Club. In 2024 she served on the youth jury at the Porto Post Doc festival. She is concurrently pursuing a degree in film at Universidade Católica Porto and is also involved with the youth jury of Shortcutz Ovar. Maria has contributed to Amagazine and was interviewed on the Observador podcast “Convidado Extra”. She is increasingly interested in exploring different aesthetics and narratives, enjoys working with and manipulating diverse materials, and often combines them in her practice.
