Competition Commissioned Animation
Dante Alan ZaballaArgentina, 2025 | 04:55 min | 2DMusic video for Juana Molina Hand painted with acrylics on acetate film. A song inspired by the story of the Monkey King from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West.” In this story, a powerful monkey, born from a magical stone, is trapped beneath a mountain by Buddha himself after becoming too powerful and causing chaos in heaven.
Irida ZhongaGreece, Netherlands, United States, 2025 | 04:49 min | 2DIn one of Aesop’s fables, a crow is searching for water. It spies a pitcher – but the water inside is beyond its reach. So, the crow begins dropping in pebbles. One-by-one, they displace the water, and the crow quenches its thirst. This is just one of many fascinating displays of intelligence from corvids. Katharina Brecht digs into what makes this bold, brainy family of songbirds so smart.
Daniela GodelFrance, 2025 | 02:22 min | 2D, Cut-outThe king is inconsolable! He spends his days mourning his deceased queen, mistreating his servants who try to comfort him. It is only with the arrival of a mysterious woman, more tearful than himself, that he becomes intrigued. But behind the black veil covering her face, what does she truly want?
Alvaro GiraldoSpain, 2025 | 04:25 min | 2DA ghost feels lost and tries to figure out why. The feeling of not knowing where he belongs overwhelms him as he searches for answers in the forest.
Anne IsenseeGermany, 2025 | 09:00 min | 2DA movie is only a movie when everyone can laugh or hold their breath at the same point! However, people with hearing and visual impairments can only laugh or shudder if the movie is available in an accessible version. And how does that work? Our animated video “Heroes for all” is aimed at filmmakers, with especially the next generation in mind. It shows how a high-quality accessible film version is created.
Nigel W Tierney, Federico HellerArgentina, Ireland, United States, 2025 | 05:30 min | 3DDace attempts the unthinkable: To go for a short walk without his phone. Unfortunately, his phone (“Phoney Bunny”) has other plans, coming to life and chasing him through the park. As he dodges his phone’s attempts to suck him back in, he encounters other screen-junkies and encourages them to do the same. "Addicted to It" is a fast and ridiculous metaphor for how we literally can’t do anything without our phones.
Jeanne TiesséFrance, 2025 | 02:22 min | 2DA man carries a bundle and, with confident steps, walks across colorful hills... The man appears very small, but his project is immense! We follow him on a journey within the four walls of his room. But as the journey progresses, his feeling of freedom seems to fade... Is the journey over? Does he still believe in it?
Matisse Gonzalez, Jeremy John WilsonGermany, 2025 | 01:04 min | 2D, Live Action, PuppetsIn a small town not far from here, an unexpected eclipse unsettles the calm of its inhabitants. As darkness falls and the sun disappears completely, they hold hands. A trailer for the 41st Interfilm International Shortfilm Festival.
Angèle ChiodoFrance, 2025 | 03:16 min | 2DAnimals drink and dance to the rhythm of the beat. The party is scorching. The air is heavy. The club is humid. The atmosphere is clammy. The walls are oozing. The space fills with liquid. The wildlife is submerged.
Lorca AlonsoFrance, 2025 | 02:22 min | 2DIs there someone in this bed? A sleeper train travels along the mountains at night. Titi sleeps on the bed above her mother's. She reaches out to an empty berth. Titi stares at the receding horizon, imagining her father pushing the train... Suddenly, her mother steps out into the corridor. Another train passes by. Abruptly, images of her recent breakup with Titi's father resurface.
Ayoub Chaibi, Léo Ceccaldi, Mario LatcherFrance, 2026 | 00:45 min | 3DIn a ruined alley, a dog hunts down a cat carrying a mysterious bag. When he seizes it and discovers kibble inside, a sharp crunch splits the silence. Shadows emerge, and the hunter realizes he is the prey.
Joe HambletonCanada, 2026 | 03:00 min | 3D"Cognitive Dissonance" examines the divisive nature of social media and its impact on the human psyche. As we are bombarded daily with curated images that reinforce our perceptions of the world, our realities gradually diverge. Algorithms reinforce our beliefs while normalising behaviors that don’t align with our true selves. When our perceived realities conflict with what we observe in the real world, it creates mental distress. As we retreat back into our social media bubbles to avoid this distress, we limit our potential to develop and better ourselves. We grow apart and dehumanise each other.
YUCAMexico, 2025 | 04:30 min | 2DBetween the real world and the spiritual realm, an ancestral Xolo dog and an ordinary man shape a story woven with care and companionship. Inspired by the spirit of the Mexican Day of Dead tradition, XOLO reveals where love finds new ways to exist, even as the world shifts around them.
Chloë DanguyFrance, 2025 | 02:22 min | 2DIn a train carriage, Jeanne reads. A fellow passenger, despite her wishes, tries to engage her in conversation. Gradually, the other men in the compartment join in the unwanted exchange, complimenting and oppressing her. Trapped, Jeanne must find a way to rid herself of her aggressors. She grabs an empty bottle... Will she finally find peace?
Julia FernandezUnited States, 2025 | 03:30 min | Stop Motion, ClayComposed of 300 hand-crafted ceramic tiles, the analogue stop-motion music video for “Dirt” by Emory constructs a fragile universe from dirt itself. As tiles shift and landscapes slowly transform, the animation reflects the quiet progression of time: revealing moments of growth, stillness, and subtle change. Each frame holds visible traces of labour and care, inviting viewers to witness a sense of movement and emotional presence within material that is traditionally still.
Wandrille MaunouryFrance, 2026 | 04:35 min | 2DIn 18th-century rural France, a huntress is on the trail of her former lover, a vampire disguised as a nun. A breathless battle ensues, as the huntress is driven by her anger to put a definitive end to this toxic relationship.
Michaela RežováCzech Republic, 2025 | 07:27 min | 2DThe short animated film "The Architecture of Sharing" explores participatory and community-led housing as a response to the current housing crisis. Using the Czech initiative Shared Houses – specifically the social cooperatives The First Swallow in Prague and Flyful Seagull in Děčín – as examples, it presents a replicable model of collective housing organisation based on shared governance, a non-profit structure, and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. The film situates everyday experiences of co-living within legal and economic frameworks, showing how architecture can serve as both spatial and institutional infrastructure that ensures long-term housing affordability and strengthens community resilience.
Capucine GougeletFrance, 2025 | 02:38 min | 2DIn a moonlit nocturnal garden, Loud discovers a free and sensual world, where an extravagant party leads her from dances to mysteries...
Nespy 5euroItaly, 2026 | 05:41 min | 2D, Stop MotionAmid urban alienation and constant agitation, a solitary figure plays the trumpet. Words and images loop through an upside-down reality where real and fake collapse, and identity must be endlessly proven through familiar automated rituals.
Eilidh NicollUnited Kingdom, 2025 | 03:15 min | 2D, Stop Motion, CoffeeStrangers ponder our attitudes towards death and dying – reflecting on how a conversation over tea and coffee at a ‘Death Cafe’ might make broaching the subject a little less terrifying.
