Thematic Competition
Biography
Ary Zara has a degree in Cinema and Multimedia Communication by Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon, he has been highlighted by his academic short film which was awarded by ZON as “best creative work” and “best short film”. Afterwards, he made an international film circle with screens in various countries where it was once again awarded. Right now he's with Take it Easy working on a short film.
An Avocado Pit | Um Caroço de Abacate
Portugal | 19’38” | 2022
Director: Ary Zara
Cast: Gaya de Medeiros, Ivo Canelas
Production: Andreia Nunes, Frederico Serra (Take It Easy Films)
Synopsis:
Larissa, a trans woman and Cláudio, a cis man, meet one night, in the streets of Lisbon. Two people, two realities, who dance their differences away till morning light. In challenge, in surprise, in awe and in recognition. An empowering story, free from violence and filled with light and hope for the better days yet to come.
Biography
Farzaneh Fathi is an Iranian poet and woman documentary film director. Most of her poems are about Iranian people. "It's Still Autumn '' is her first film as director, but she cooperated with many directors as the writer of documentary films .
It's Still Autumn | It's Still Autumn
Sweden | 20' | 2021
Director: Farzaneh Fathi
Producer: Yaser Talebi
Synopsis
In recent years, a huge wave of shocking and unbelievable narratives of sexual harassment, assault and rape of women has taken over social media; An unprecedented move by Iranian women, reminiscent of the #MeToo global movement, which has exposed countless sexual assault incidents around the world.
Biography
From the world of advertising, she gradually approaches the world of audiovisuals. She works as an assistant director on various shootings and with directors. With “Adriana en el olvido” she has taken the step to produce and direct her own projects. For several years she has been working on her first feature film script, "Mrs. Fran's Color Theory".
Adriana in Oblivion | Adriana in Oblivion
Spain | 12’ | 2022
Director: Elena Piquer
Cast: Ángela Bermúdez, Raúl Navarro
Producer: Elena Piquer
Synopsis
A screenwriter tries to write a story of heartbreak and abandonment. The character, Adriana, is inspired by her producer, a woman in her fifties who already feels to be in another stage of life. But he gets stuck, the story does not flow. The character is the problem. She does not sell…
Biography
Joana Oliveira is script writer and director. She has been working in the audiovisual area since 1999. Master in Cinema by the School of Fine Arts, she has directed several productions of short fiction films, documentaries and TV programs. Joana is also a university professor and scriptwriting consultant. She is currently a partner at Bukaya Filmes.
Kevin | Kevin
Brazil, Uganda | 81’ | 2021
Diretor: Joana Oliveira
Cast: Joana Oliveira, Kevin Adweko
Producers: Luana Melgaço, Joana Oliveira
Synopsis
It’s the first time that Joana, a Brazilian woman, visits her friend Kevin in Uganda. They became friends 20 years ago while studying in Germany and they haven’t seen each other in a long time. A film about a friendship between women. From this meeting, the film weaves the fine plot that is a conversation between two friends: the stories of the past, the desires, the paths taken, the different ways of facing the unfolding of life. From this arises a bond of love and partnership that resists distance and time.
Biography
Aitana Ahrens made, during her formative years at ECAM, several short films. Some of them were part of the training and others fruit of the urgency and desire to film. Plastic Touch (2022) is her final ECAM short film.
Plastic Touch | Palpitation Plastique
Spain | 12’ | 2022
Director: Aitana Ahrens
Cast: Alexandra Pino, Cinta Ramírez Guión
Production: Adela Mayo
Synopsis
A sex doll called Lucy wakes up in the bedroom of a doll brothel. She lives with Mina, another doll. Together they watch TV: their window to the real world. They imagine themselves living far away. After a while, Lucy wants to escape. But Mina doesn’t want to leave. Lucy has to choose between freedom and the doll she is in love with.
Biography
Aitana Ahrens made, during her formative years at ECAM, several short films. Some of them were part of the training and others fruit of the urgency and desire to film. Plastic Touch (2022) is her final ECAM short film.
The Stonebreakers | LAS PICAPEDRERAS
Argentina | 16’ | 2021
Realizadora: Azul Aizenberg
Elenco: Azul Aizenberg
Produtora: Azul Aizenberg
Synopsis
Carolina Kzan is a Brazilian filmmaker. After a solid professional career as a video editor, she currently works as an independent filmmaker in Paris. In her creations, she combines theoretical analysis and practical experimentation to propose new approaches and push boundaries when it comes to questioning classic film genres such as fiction, documentary and experimental and the (non-existent) lines that separate them.
Biography
Carolina Kzan is a Brazilian filmmaker. After a solid professional career as a video editor, she currently works as an independent filmmaker in Paris. In her creations, she combines theoretical analysis and practical experimentation to propose new approaches and push boundaries when it comes to questioning classic film genres such as fiction, documentary and experimental and the (non-existent) lines that separate them.
Little Dreams with Open Eyes | Little Dreams with Open Eyes
France | 28” | 2022
Director: Carolina Kzan
Cast: Néva Kehouane
Producer: Irene Van Zeeland, Carolina Kzan
Synopsis
One day, Frida - an ordinary woman in her thirties - walks down a quiet street before entering a completely unremarkable building. Frida doesn't live in this place and only goes there to dream with her eyes wide open. Through the unusual images created in her mind, we are taken on an adventure about sorority and the transmission of knowledge and life experiences between women of different generations and backgrounds. Hand in hand, the women walk, run and fly together.
Biography
Soledad Marambio is a poet and translator. She has translated numerous works by Anne Carson and is now working on a book of essays by Mary Ruefle to be published this year. Before “About my Blood” she directed the short "Retazos: una conversación con Sylvia Molloy", about the Argentinian writer Sylvia Molloy.
ABOUT MY BLOOD: AN ESSAY ON MENOPAUSE | DE MI SANGRE: UN ENSAYO SOBRE LA MENOPAUSIA
Norway, Chile | 24’03” | 2022
Director: Soledad Marambio
Producer: Soledad Marambio
Synopsis
What connects a mother, a daughter and a granddaughter to the women accused of being witches and burned for it? Through collages, interviews, and quotes, this film reflects on the aging female body, on the silence and shame that surround it and on the possibility of celebrating it and turning into a space of encounter.
Biography
Amina Maher is a filmmaker and artist whose works train her unblinking gaze on the breakdown of the family structure, shame culture, and patriarchal myths. Her films have been part of Cannes Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, CPH:DOX Forum, and Shorts México among many others.
WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOME? | خانه دوست کجاست؟
Germany | 11’ | 2022
Director: Amina Maher
Cast: Paolo, Amina & Judith
Producer: Amina Maher
Synopsis
Where Is The Friend´s Home? is an auto-ethnographic coming-out film that tells us about queer friendship, a place where people dare to be honest and discover a shared ground of a particular kind of loneliness.
Biography
In 1983, French actress Maria Schneider gives an interview for the TV show Cinéma Cinémas. The conversation takes an unexpected turn when she challenges film industry practices and is asked to talk about the controversial film Last Tango in Paris (1972).
MARIA SCHNEIDER, 1983 | MARIA SCHNEIDER, 1983
France | 25’ | 2022
Director: Elisabeth Subrin
Cast: Manal Issa, Aïssa Maïga, Isabel Sandoval
Producer: Helen Olive, Martin Bertier
Synopsis
In 1983, French actress Maria Schneider gives an interview for the TV show Cinéma Cinémas. The conversation takes an unexpected turn when she challenges film industry practices and is asked to talk about the controversial film Last Tango in Paris (1972).
Biography
Born in Tokyo, she moved to New York in1998 and received a BFAfrom Pratt Institute, where her work was shown in a group exhibition on campus. After graduating, she was planning to stay in NY as an assistant to a Japanese artist. But she was forced to return to Japan due to a traffic accident immediately after graduation. After being discharged from the hospital, she began working for a nonprofit organization devoted to disabled assistance. She took a temporary leave of absence to attend a Danish school, where she began shooting and editing video,and stayed for 10 months.After returning to Japan, she attended a film school in Tokyo to study documentary filmmaking.
Maelstrom | Maelstrom
Japan | 79’ | 2022
Director: Mizuko Yamaoka
Production: Mizuko Yamaoka
Synopsis
Mizuko Yamaoka suffers a spinal cord injury in a car accident in June 2002, just after graduating from art college in New York. She loses the use of her legs, abruptly putting an end to her life up to that point, and returns to live with her parents in Japan. Trapped in a wheelchair, she feels distant from her dreamed future in the art world. But she sets up a camera and begins documenting her life day by day.
Mirage | Mirage
Portugal | 2’ | 2022
Director: Vanda Novo
Producer: ESMAD, P.Porto
Synopsis
“Mirage” is about a girl that finds herself in an empty space deep in thought, revealing the way she sees herself and her relationship with the mirror world.
Biography
Vanda Silva Novo, from Viana do Castelo, finished her degree in Multimedia at ESMAD in 2022.
Biography
Christine starts writing and directing in 2019. Being fiction or documentary, her films are based on a message of emancipation, and EMILIA is one of them.
EMILIA | EMILIA
France | 19’45” | 2022
Director: Christine Almeida
Cast: Alex Andrea
Producer:
Synopsis
Emilia, 70, had a simple life. A life devoted to her husband, her children, her family. A life where she never asked any questions about her desires. When she loses her husband, everything collapses
Biography
Humaira Bilkis is a Dhaka-based independent filmmaker and producer. Bilkis explores the complexity of human relationships through an observational approach. Her work tends to be self-reflexive. As an associate producer and director, she has worked on a wide range of project.
Things I Could Never Tell My Mother | Things I Could Never Tell My Mother
France | 80’ | 2022
Director: Humaira Bilkis
Producers: Humaira Bilkis, Quentin Laurent
Synopsis
For a long time, my mother was a passionate artist. She passed on to me her love of poetry, theater, and film, which became my profession. But ever since she made the Hajj, the great Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, in 2002, she has changed profoundly. She now lives cloistered in our apartment, following the precepts of Sharia law, rejecting the richness of her previous life. She keeps urging me to get married and to stop making films. When she suggests that we undertake the Hajj together, I accept her invitation: it will be an opportunity for us to resolve our differences. But the COVID-19 pandemic makes our trip impossible. Forced to live behind closed doors with my parents as their health deteriorates, I try to come to terms with what my mother and I still have in common.
The Spiral | The Spiral
Argentina | 20’ | 2022
Director: María Silvia Esteve
Cast: Emma Isabella, Richard Townley, Viveca Paoli
Producer: Laura Mara Tablón, María Silvia Esteve
Synopsis
A WhatsApp audio begins, and with it, a downward spiral unfolds. The voice of a woman sinking into a health anxiety attack, quickly entangles a complex labyrinth of fears and emotions. The Spiral is a dive into a lonely ride, an hypnotic escalation towards childhood, family, and the loneliness of “home”. Does home really feel like home?
Biography
María Silvia Esteve is one of the most emerging female directors in Latin America. Her first feature Silvia, premiered at IDFA, and won at Docaviv, DocLisboa and Habana Film Festival. She is writing her first fiction feature Fauces, based on her film Criatura, which won the Pardino d’oro to the Best Auteur Short at the Locarno Film Festival.
