Shorts Selection

Director: Justine Gauthier
Duration: 15’ 47”
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Lili, a feisty 10-year-old girl, has always swam topless. When her parents force her to wear a bikini top for a trip to the water park, she rebels: why should she hide her flat chest when her friends, all boys, don't have to?

Director: Anthony Coveney
Duration: 13’ 18"
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Angie, a bigorexic bodybuilder at the end of her career, discovers an unusual growth in her back. While consulting the doctor's office, she is told that she will have to cut her lifestyle habits in order not to deteriorate her case. Angie takes a disturbing look at body obsession while exploring narcissism and insatiability.

Director: Luca Fiore
Duration: 6’ 37”
Country: Canada
Year: 2024
Dan’s everyday life becomes the focus of a documentary crew that only he can see.

Director: Lauren Eden
Duration: 5’ 58”
Country: Canada
Year: 2024
A lonely college student downloads a dating simulator app only to find her pixelated partner may be more real than she thought.

Director: Cristian Angelo Nigro
Duration: 5’ 5"
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Amidst the heat at a Sicilian school, two girls engage in a Western-style confrontation, only to crush the bullies within themselves.

Director: Alexandre Lefebvre
Duration: 17’ 28"
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Drowned in a family reunion chaos filled with testosterone and pig roast, Reynald will try to prove to his nephew, his family, but mostly himself that he’s still king.

Director:Sonia Gemmiti
Duration: 6’ 35”
Country: Canada
Year: 2020
An expressionistic exploration of agoraphobia and isolation. A young woman stares outside her window, summoning the courage to step outside.

Director:Kylie Hitchcock
Duration: 14’ 27”
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
1979, Texas: A young boy is forced to navigate a year in an orphanage after his violent stepfather walks out on his mother.

Director: Halima Ouardiri
Duration: 13’ 4”
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Mina loves to skate. Today, her father, recently divorced from her mother, accompanies her to her first figure skating lesson. An ordinary day if something hadn't happened to the skates.

Director: Luigi Capasso
Duration: 9’
Country: Italy
Year: 2024
A young boy, through an unusual encounter and a surreal journey lives a resounding experience through the link between food, culture and identity residing in the traditions of his community. The film tells of the importance of passing on culinary culture to future generations in order to preserve and regenerate it.

Director: Ali Asgari, Gianluca Mangiasciutti
Duration: 14'53"
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Aseman is a young, shy, and reserved Afghan woman, who lives in Italy. When she is given the opportunity to show herself to the world, she will have to decide how much to unveil.

Director: Gianluca Zonta
Duration: 14’
Country: Italy
Year: 2024
A story that wants to address the risks and possible drifts of the use of artificial intelligence, through a short film about love.

Director: Vjosana Shkurti
Duration: 14’59"
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Ina, an introverted 11-year-old immigrant girl, finds herself captivated by Petra, a newcomer to her class from the same country as she is. Faced with her indifference, a desperate quest for connection takes over Ina's world as she moves between dream and reality.

Director: Manisa Hope
Duration: 14’ 20”
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
The Town Of Dead Dreams is the story of three friends, Sun, Dew, and Kind, who go on a journey to find a town that completely differs from the one they live in. On their way, they encounter an unexpected misfortune which changes their destiny. Will they be able to overcome the obstacles that they will face throughout their journey?

Director: Edoardo Pasquini, Viktor Ivanov
Duration: 06’ 00"
Country: Bulgaria, Italy
Year: 2022
Grandma and Grandpa always loved the tranquil life in their apartment, content with enjoying their calm days. But in these times of isolation, where the difference between home and prison is hard to distinguish, a long forgotten feeling rises again: boredom. And boredom can be a very dangerous matter...

Director: Mattia Ramberti
Duration: 15'20"
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
In a stylized film portrait, the bedouin female boxeur Reem Al Shammary is driven by her desire to forge a path to the Olympics and inspire a younger generation of women to fight against gender inequality in Jordan.

Director: Kiarash Dadgar Mohebi
Duration: 8’ 13"
Country: Canada, Islamic Republic of Iran
Year: 2023
A birthday ceremony preparation gets upside down as something horrible takes place.

Director: Benoît Le Rouzès Ménard
Duration: 14’ 44”
Country: Canada
Year: 2023
Due to serious heart problems, Madeleine is forced to quit her position at the neighborhood grocery store. Except that her job is her whole life; her colleagues, her only family. The quinquagenarian spends her last days of work fighting to save what is near and dear to her heart…

Director: Alberto Marchiori
Duration: 10'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Orlanda wants to give her niece a pair of ballet slippers for her dance recital. But finding them in the right colour is no easy task.

Director: Daniela Mileykovsky
Duration: 11’ 39”
Country: USA
Year: 2024
Shani, a career-driven Ukrainian woman, and Diego, a Uruguayan single father, meet serendipitously at a work conference despite hailing from opposite coasts. As they part ways and return to their separate lives, a bond begins, nurtured through text messages and late-night calls. The story takes a turn when Diego, grappling with his emotional readiness, pulls away, leaving Shani ghosted and emotionally adrift.

Director: Silvia Di Gregorio
Duration: 9’ 21”
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
A Chinese restaurant in a small Italian province becomes the scene of conflict between the Chinese owners and their customers, a family who have emigrated from southern Italy. A story of immigration, stereotypes and mistrust that leads to a grotesque climax. In the surreal and comical finale, the children try to put the two similar and dysfunctional families back together.

Director: Leonardo Balestrieri
Duration: 15'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Inspired by real instances of violence against LGBT+ people, Safari follows Elia, a member of a "hunting" group, who serves as an example of the dissonance felt when one is forced to suppress oneself. Emerging from this annihilation will be lacerating but inescapable.

Director: Chiara Seveso
Duration: 4’
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Aurora is a mourning Sardinian woman sewing. Suddenly, she absently pricks her finger with a needle, which transports her to her youth, when she was taught to sew by an old woman referred to as “Tzia."

Director: Rianne Stremmelaar
Duration: 7’ 57”
Country: Netherlands
Year: 2023
After the break up with her relationship, Wendy is forced to take on a new challenge; she goes back to the student house. With reluctance and a broken heart, she tries to pick up the thread again.

Director: Rianne Stremmelaar
Duration: 2’ 15”
Country: Netherlands
Year: 2023
A large white country house in a small town. A family lives in the house, the orchard is inhabited by a colony of crows. What happens when these worlds collide?

Director: Stefano Lorenzi, Clelia Catalano
Duration: 11’ 33”
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
A man and a woman are separated by a wall. However, their love doesn’t accept divisions, barriers, or obstacles. They are a couple of street artists: freedom runs in their veins. Borders don't exist. The man can’t tolerate the "death strip" that separates him from her. And day after day, with tenacity, imagination, and love, he tries to return to her arms.

Director: Roberto Valencia
Duration: 9’ 54”
Country: Ecuador
Year: 2023
One morning, a mysterious man is found lying in the square of a village inhabited by only six residents. No one knows who he is, nor where he came from. They must act quickly and decide what to do before the stranger awakens.

Director: Cardo De Togni
Duration: 7’ 32”
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
The film follows the footsteps of an artist who embarks on a solitary expedition into the island's hinterlands. During an extraordinary night, this journey leads to a magical encounter with a deity from Tahitian mythology. This pivotal moment sparks a profound contemplation, birthing a story that blurs the lines between the human and the divine, challenging our perception of reality and spirituality.

Director: Costanza Lusini
Duration: 3'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Voluptas is a short animated film, created in mixed technique, that intends to tell through images the Hymn to Venus introduction of the De Rerum Natura written by Lucretius. The main character of this short film is Venus, the poet's muse, who, through the strength of passion, transforms the world around her, bringing life. The words of Lucretius, transposed in music, accompany her path. At her passage, storms calm down, forests and fields sprout, and animals follow her draw by the strength of desire.

Director: Lilou Massouty (a.k.a. Pwatapwet)
Duration: 2'
Country: France
Year: 2022
A women victim of domestic violence realize that her body is fragmenting over time.

Director: Ciara Kerr
Duration: 9'
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2023
Renee loses herself in a controlling relationship and the abuse she suffers gets worse until she is utterly trapped.

Director: Antonio Carannante, Laura "Legner" Samela
Duration: 6'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Giulietto is a really shy 8-year-old whose parents recently moved to the countryside and are going through a hard time in their marriage, which reflects on the child despite their intentions. Giulietto finds a way to escape, hiding under the big cherry tree with his friend Mario.

Director: Maurizio Rigatti
Duration: 15'
Country: Italy
Year: 2022
At the end of his studies, Libero - suffering from a rare disease - wants to move out and live with his friends. Despite qualifying as a social media manager, Libero cannot find a job that will provide him with financial independence. Faced with the possibility of working as a cashier, Libero hesitates, perhaps bitter at the idea of ​​a job other than the one he dreamed of.

Director: Danilo Rovani
Duration: 9’
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Maurizio takes care of someone every day. He does it with a smile and with joy. The days normally pass in their simplicity while he continues to take care of his "little one." He washes and feeds her, plays and talks with her, sleeps next to her, and calls her "my baby." But who is the person he takes care of every day?

Director: Marco Santi
Duration: 15'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
20 November 1945, Villarbasse (Italy). Jocu narrates the real events that lead four young people to transform from petty thieves into murderers.

Director: Maurizio Ravallese
Duration: 15'
Country: Italy
Year: 2022
A healer with extraordinary powers suffers the worst of curses: he can’t save his sick wife. But close to him, there’s his beloved granddaughter, who doesn’t give up.

Director: Simone Marino
Duration: 10'
Country: Italy
Year: 2022
Mariano is devoted to his neighbourhood church and his job as a police inspector and styles himself after his idol, Maurizio Merli. He often confides in his parish priest, Don Amedeo. Meanwhile, Mariano finds himself following a new drug case - the CDC.

Director: Giulia Cafagna
Duration: 12'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
The celebration of a young priest's decision to embrace his vocation and the renunciation of carnal love in a captivating melancholic Rock and Roll musical.

Director: Filippo Susinno
Duration: 03'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Marco has been in prison for 20 years for murder. It is the day of his release, the day he can be reborn. But the only feeling he can feel is the fear of being free again. Sometimes, it only takes a few seconds to change a life.

Director: Luana Rondinelli
Duration: 09'
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Assunta is a prostitute whose son has been removed from the brutal fury of a violent father. She chooses to give him into foster care to allow him to have what she cannot give him. Through the protagonist's point of view we will investigate the delicate bond between mother/child/foster family, without ever losing sight of the child's emotional priorities.

Director: Gabriele Gravagna
Duration: 17’ 32"
Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Osas Egbon is the president of the first Italian association against the exploitation of prostitution, set up in the aftermath of the murders of young Nigerian women in Palermo and formed entirely by Nigerian women, former victims of trafficking. Osas speak their language, but above all, have experienced first-hand what prostitution and violence mean. In a direct interview, she recounts how she managed to rebel.