60+ COMPETITION
BLOCK I
1. I Do Remember, dir. Ron Osgood, 19:58 min., USA 2026
1972. Northern California. A road trip. A hitchhiking adventure. What could go wrong?
Ron Osgood is a retired Indiana University film professor, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a Vietnam War veteran. Throughout his career, he has focused on creating documentaries that foster empathy, dialogue and historical understanding. His work has been broadcast nationally on PBS stations and screened at film festivals, educational institutions and museums. His earlier films include Just Like Me: The Vietnam War – Stories from All Sides, My Vietnam Your Iraq, Climate Change in National Parks, Shirts & Skins and Trouble No More.
2. The Stream XV, dir. Hiroya Sakurai, 10:50 min., Japan 2025
Time dwells within all that flows. Wind, water and lines of cars pass across this land. On the highway, time moves straight towards the future. Yet there are places where time flows backwards – rivers, forests, shrines and villages, where time returns to its source.
Hiroya Sakurai was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1958 and graduated from the University of Tsukuba. He is Professor Emeritus at Seian University of Art and Design. His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the J. Paul Getty Trust. He received awards at the Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy (2016) and the Ann Arbor Film Festival in the United States (2018).
3. The Coffin Road, dir. Alistair Kerr, 10:27 min., Great Britain 2025
The film tells the story of the ancient Coffin Road on the Isle of Harris in Scotland. Coffins were carried along it from the east coast to the west for burial because the ground on the eastern side was unsuitable for digging graves.
Alistair Kerr is an animator and artist from Kilmaurs in Ayrshire, Scotland. He runs Front Room Productions from the back room of his house. Specialising in stop-motion animation, he takes part in every stage of production, from screenwriting, character creation and set design to music, editing and post-production. His films have received numerous awards at festivals in the United Kingdom and abroad. After a 45-year career as a musician and road inspector, he began creating animation several years into retirement.
4. Miss Arlene, dir. Pat Battistini, 26:00 min., USA 2026
After a bullied boy with diabetes befriends a quirky elderly baker, their unlikely friendship blossoms in the kitchen. The result is a heart-warming story about the healing power of friendship, the joy of discovery and the recipe for finding your passion – one whisk at a time.
Pat Battistini is an award-winning writer, director and producer with more than thirty years of experience. He began his career in Chicago in front of the camera and now works primarily behind it. He takes pride in the relationships he builds on set and in his communication with actors. Performers in his films have received nominations and awards for both stage and screen work.
5. inthebalance…wanting, dir. Eric Kunzendorf, 5:26 min., USA 2025
inthebalance…wanting asks: Are we choosing the good, or are we simply accepting the lesser of two evils? It reminds us that rather than making a virtue of such choices, we must recognise that they are still evil. Perhaps our best hope is that time will not find them wanting in the balance.
Eric Kunzendorf is an award-winning animator and storyteller. He has taught computer graphics and animation at college level for more than three decades and has exhibited animations and prints nationally and internationally at venues including SIGGRAPH Computer Animation and the Breckenridge Film Festival.
BLOCK II
1. Portrety tożsamości, dir. Jolanta Zaręba, 21:00 min., Poland 2026
Anna is our guide and narrator, as well as an intermediary in telling the stories of people identified as LGBT+. Photography is her passion. She believes that documentary photography, besides being a source of information and knowledge, should be a medium capable of changing the world and, above all, changing minds. Following Anna and the subjects of her photographs, we arrive at extraordinary places of religious worship.
Jolanta Zaręba makes her films independently and has pursued filmmaking as a passion for ten years. With a camera and tripod, she follows her subjects. This approach has produced films about mature people: a triathlete, runners, a member of a winter-swimming association, an epidemiologist and a rock band. She works at TVP’s Rzeszów branch as an editorial secretary responsible for the station’s programme schedule.
2. The Bowl, dir. Dave Steck, 5:50 min., USA 2026
During a family dinner, a son is torn between his wife’s wishes and the needs of his ageing father.
Dave Steck is a filmmaker, artist, educator and TED Talk speaker on engaging with the creative process. A member of the Producers Guild of America, he combines art and technology across a wide range of screens to tell compelling, cinematic stories that offer audiences glimpses into lives beyond their own.
3. The Last Reporter, dir. Michele D’Anca, 20:00 min., Italy 2025
An internationally renowned photojournalist – the last reporter left in a besieged city – is hunted by the invading army because of his photographs documenting war crimes. Intelligence services arrange an emergency evacuation; he has fifteen minutes to get himself and his archive to safety. He is about to flee when someone knocks at the door.
Michele D’Anca is a director, screenwriter and actor. After a long career in theatre, television and film, he turned to screenwriting, receiving awards for Distress Call, The Last Reporter and Mala Erba. He made his directorial debut with Distress Call (2024), which was acclaimed at international festivals.
4. The Photographer, dir. Christele Billault, 12:00 min., France 2025
What is the purpose of a photo shoot? What kind of chemistry can arise between two strangers? In this intimate, closed-door setting, two worlds meet: that of Daphné, a lively woman in her sixties, and that of Julien, the photographer. Beyond the poses and clichés, a moment of authenticity and emotion opens up. In this private space, the magic lasts until the fleeting instant is captured.
Christèle Billault first dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. Theatre ultimately brought her to the stage, where she learned to place the body at the service of emotion and great texts. A period in the corporate world, although clearly not for her, gave her a different perspective on human nature. She returned to the arts and expanded her work to include voice acting. Photography followed. A camera, a few lenses and a course in the basics drew her fully into the visual world. Her eye and sensitivity became central to her practice. For Billault, a photo session is above all a human encounter – an exchange and a collaborative act, like cinema or theatre: a play of shadow and light.
5. Beyond Silence, dir. Marnie Blok, 16:52 min. Netherlands 2025
In this real-time, one-room drama, Eva (25), a deaf PhD student, arrives at the office of university study adviser Sandrine (54) with her sister and interpreter Anna (24) to report sexual abuse by Eva’s professor. Caught off guard, Sandrine advises Eva to contact the university’s confidential counsellor. But the counsellor is a man, and Eva does not want to talk to a man. Reluctantly, Sandrine engages, warning that a complaint is unlikely to have consequences and urging a more pragmatic path. Eva begins to waver, but Anna will not let her retreat. As the conversation intensifies, Sandrine’s tone hardens and she subtly shifts responsibility onto Eva. Sandrine’s failure to help finally pushes Eva to say aloud what actually happened. When she asks for help once more and receives no response, Eva has heard enough and leaves. Anna follows. Only when the door closes behind both women does Sandrine break down.
Marnie Blok is an award-winning screenwriter and director working across film and television. A former actress, her final role was in Frailer (TIFF 2014). Blok has written acclaimed features including Jackie (TIFF 2012), The Happy Housewife, Kenau, Open Water and the Swedish film Simon and the Oaks. For television, she created or wrote acclaimed series including Line 32, nominated for the Prix Europa, Ramses and Máxima. Her series Childhood Dreams was selected for CANNESERIES 2022 and won Best Series at the New York Festivals in 2024. Her directorial debut, Beyond Silence, won multiple Oscar-qualifying international awards and was shortlisted for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2025 Academy Awards.
BLOCK III
1. The Last Take, dir. Brian Foyster, 14:17 min., USA 2025
Facing the end of his life, a movie star from Hollywood’s golden age must reconcile with the only man he ever loved.
A native of Brooklyn Heights and Manhattan, Brian Foyster now lives in Los Angeles. He graduated with honours from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Acting and became a member of The Actors Studio in 1988. In 2006 Martin Landau and Mark Rydell invited him to join its Board of Directors. For the Studio’s 75th anniversary, he co-produced an eight-week Oscar Sundays film series at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, featuring prominent Studio members, with Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino and Sally Field taking part in Q&A sessions. Foyster has 45 acting credits on IMDb and has appeared in 65 theatre productions. He is also active in animal rescue and has saved 38 dogs from euthanasia, adopting the twelfth – a pointer mix named Oreo.
2. Hope2, dir. Daniele Pignatelli, 6:28 min., Italy 2025
A horse enters an artist’s studio in search of its origin.
Daniele Pignatelli has taken part in major film festivals around the world and received several prestigious awards.
3. A Homecoming, dir. David Caudle, 17:21 min, USA 2025
A Homecoming quietly follows Doug, a newly trans woman returning home for her parents’ anniversary after a long absence. She has not yet chosen her new name. Her mother Vicky, supportive from afar, unexpectedly struggles to see her changing child in the flesh. To overcome her mother’s fear with love, Doug makes an extraordinary gesture of grace.
David Caudle is the award-winning, published author of several plays, including The Sunken Living Room, Visiting Hours and Downward Facing Debbie. He has made it his mission to place LGBTQ+ characters at the centre of universal conflicts. He co-wrote the short film Silk, directed by John Magaro, and wrote the short films Feet of Clay, directed by Carrie Preston, and Landfill, directed by Anezka Sebek. A Homecoming is his directorial debut.
4. Anything Can Happen to a Living Person, dir. Kristina Bele, Slavica Đulić, Tetiana Kislinska, Jadranka Kevilj, Katica Pecigoš-Kljuković, Vesna Ražnatović, Vesna Kralj, Đurđa Štefanec, Andor Janči, Ante Korlat, Eduard Pešun i Sonja Jadreško, 25:00 min., Croatia 2025
This 25-minute documentary-style film follows older people through brief encounters about ageing, children, love, intimacy, home, food and everyday life. Created in Zagreb through the 54+ film workshop Only the Sky Is the Limit, it was co-authored by its performers and led by award-winning director Karlo Vorih for Shadow Casters.
All of the authors have participated for several years in the Zagreb-based film and media literacy programme Only the Sky Is the Limit, run by Shadow Casters.
5. Predator, dir. Javier Fesser, 7:00 min., Spain 2025
Two friends are travelling through a remote place when their car breaks down, with tragic consequences.
Javier Fesser is a distinguished director and screenwriter and the recipient of six Goya Awards. His notable films include El milagro de P. Tinto, Camino, two adaptations of Mortadelo y Filemón, Campeones – the most successful Spanish production of 2018 – Historias lamentables (2020) and Campeonex (2023).
THROUGH GENERATIONS COMPETITION
BLOCK I
1. The Player, dir. Mohammad Ahmad Al-Hadari, 37:17 min., Egypt 2025
A portrait of Mohamed Zabeib, a visually impaired Egyptian chess champion.
Mohammad Ahmad Al-Hadari is an Egyptian director. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering in 2001 and later studied directing. During his studies he wrote and directed the short film A Cup of Tea. He also directed the short film His Majesty (2016).
2. Okrawek, dir. Magdalena Gwóźdź, 8:50 min., Poland 2025
After several years away from her family home, Magda returns to Silesia for her niece’s First Communion. She finds the mother she has not seen for a long time baking a cake. This seemingly ordinary activity becomes the backdrop for an intimate conversation about motherhood.
Magdalena Gwóźdź is a director, reporter and journalist. For years she has told the stories of people in extreme circumstances, producing reports about women’s work, violence and exclusion. She completed a directing course at Speakers Avenue and is a student at the Wajda School. Okrawek is her fiction film debut.
3. One Last Time, dir. Karim Rahbani, 20:00 min., Lebanon 2025
Toufic, a widower in the twilight of his life, lives alone in a monotonous routine. One morning, a charming neighbour knocks on his door after mistaking his house for another, breaking his monotony and turning his life upside down. A dormant passion for life awakens within him, stirring a youthful sexual energy that was on the verge of disappearing. What follows is a journey of self-discovery and a quest to fulfil his deepest desires, if only for one last time.
Karim Rahbani is an award-winning Lebanese director. His first two short films, With Thy Spirit and Cargo, were widely screened at festivals around the world and collectively received more than thirty awards. His work spans fiction, documentary, television and advertising across the Middle East and the Gulf. In 2020 he was selected to write and direct a short film for the International Emmy-nominated series Beirut 6:07, created after the 4 August explosion in Beirut. He recently directed Dark Minds, the first Arab documentary series about serial killers in the region, produced by SRMG Studios and now available on Netflix. In 2022 he co-founded RAHBANI 3.0, a music and film production company. He also directed and co-produced the 2024 Lebanese tourism campaign Meshwar Rayhin Meshwar. Rahbani is part of the third generation of the celebrated Rahbani family, renowned for its oriental music and musical theatre.
4. Melodia ciszy, dir. Ina Knap, 8:20 min., Poland 2025
Bożena is losing her hearing, so she makes various attempts to overcome the communication barrier. Her new reality and desire to find a common language lead to a surprising discovery that brings her closer to her grandson.
Ina Knap is studying directing at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School. She holds degrees in English philology and Electronic Information Processing from Jagiellonian University. She has worked as a translator and technical writer and now makes short fiction and documentary films.
BLOCK II
1. Czas dla siebie, dir. Jacek Półtorak, 21:14 min., Poland 2026
Karol, a postman about to retire, seemingly has everything he needs for a peaceful life. Yet instead of relief and the joy of free time, he feels emptiness. Together with his wife Zofia, he experiences a day meant to celebrate a new chapter, but it turns into an evening of painful confessions.
Jacek Półtorak is a director, screenwriter, cinematographer and photographer. He runs the production company Emotions Production. He has directed and produced the short fiction films Messenger (2021), Ostatni raz (2022), Czwarta taryfa (2024) and Czas dla siebie (2026).
2. Nam już wszystko wolno, dir. Aleksandra Chmielińska, 15:21 min., Poland 2026
Janina, a lonely elderly woman, unexpectedly finds herself in hospital with suspected lung cancer. On the ward she meets the eccentric Bruno, who draws her into a world of carefree adventures and small rebellions against hospital routine. Together they break the rules and rediscover a youthful joy in life. Their new bond is disrupted, however, by Janina’s test results.
Aleksandra Chmielińska is a directing student at the Warsaw Film School. She graduated from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, where she studied design and media art. Her work combines experience in applied art with a passion for cinema, creating images distinguished by visual and narrative sensitivity.
3. Tato, dir. Kamil Mrozowski, 16:04 min., Poland 2025
Tomasz lives with his two children, his daughter Julia and his son Kamil. Despite his difficult personality and the high expectations he places on them, he is a good and loving father.
Kamil Mrozowski is 23 years old and lives in Wrocław. He studies cultural anthropology at the University of Wrocław, is a member of AKRF Fosa and a student at the Wajda School. In his free time, he enjoys fishing.
4. The Last Projectionist, dir. Vitor Casemiro, 20:00 min., Brazil 2026
Tenório is a projectionist. Amid the digitalisation and technological transformation of the cinema where he works, he soon realises that he is no longer needed. Widowed and depressed, he searches for fragments of purpose to fill his lonely routine, but nothing seems good enough. After a nightmare, Tenório begins to rethink his relationship with the projection booth and his family’s grief, finding the strength he needs to continue on his path.
Vitor Casemiro was born in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, on 17 March 1992 – the same week David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch premiered. His artistic practice explores the night, coming of age and the relationship between cinema and the photobook. He is also a photographer, editor and screenwriter. As an editor, he has published more than twenty photobooks over the past nine years. The Last Projectionist is his first film.
BLOCK III
1. A Storm Is Coming, dir. Cristóbal Arteaga Rozas, 19:00 min., Spain 2025
In a Galician village, Antón, a retired farmer, leads a quiet life with his wife Uxía, tending to their crops and animals. His routine is suddenly disrupted when he receives a call from Vortex, an alien general who warns him of an imminent threat that could freeze time and endanger the universe.
Cristóbal Arteaga Rozas studied screenwriting at the Universidad Católica and later directing and screenwriting at the Instituto del Cine de Madrid. His feature films include Lighthouse Without Island (2014), The Sad Smell of Flesh (2013), which premiered at Karlovy Vary and received an award in Seville, Ave y nada (2015), The Objects Statements (2016), The Deaths (2019), Homo Homini Lupus (2021) and Mental Lagoon (2024). His short film Construction of a Sound (2021) received awards in Soria and at Bogoshorts.
2. Bed Blocker, dir. Richard Eades, 11:07 min., Great Britain 2026
After an accident lands a bitter young man in hospital, he is forced to share a room with a dying eccentric whose obsession with the view from the window begins to reveal unexpected truths about connection, loss and the stories we leave behind.
Richard Eades has been making films since childhood, making his debut at fourteen on the BBC’s Screen Test. After a career in documentaries and corporate film, he developed a keen eye for human connection. Co-written by Eades, Bed Blocker marks his solo narrative short-film debut, as he moves from fact to fiction.
3. Farm, dir. Kate McGill, 15:07 min., New Zealand 2025
The heroine of Farm is Jeanie, a spirited seventy-year-old facing the prospect of life in a retirement home. Although she is still aching from the death of her soulmate Jimmy, Jeanie has an exuberance and zest for life that are entirely her own. Jeanie lives on the edge of her family’s land, in a home surrounded by images of her life. Her sense of reality is increasingly fractured, and her reluctance to leave home deepens her bond with the cows – especially one whose care, warmth, humour and spirit remind her of Jimmy. Her daughter Liv is trying to help her move into assisted living while navigating her own grief and her mother’s early dementia. As the line between memory and hallucination begins to blur, Jeanie’s connection with the cow becomes a source of comfort, mischief and companionship. After hiding in the shed, building a living room in the barn and confronting her loving but overprotective family, Jeanie makes one final break for freedom. She chooses to spend her last moments on the farm as the cheeky rebel Jimmy fell in love with. Dashing into the paddock with a cow in tow, Jeanie becomes the heroine of her own story – a woman determined to live by her own rules until the end.
Farm is an ode to memory, old age and the meaning of home – to what we choose to hold on to. This gentle black comedy explores grief, dementia, reincarnation and the complexities of family. It asks whether we can ever truly let go of those we love, or whether they will always find a way back to us, whatever form they take.
Kate McGill is an actor, writer, director, casting director and māmā from Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. A graduate of the acting programme at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, she has worked extensively in theatre, television and film. Her television directorial debut was the award-winning comedy Raised by Refugees; she went on to direct three episodes of its second season. She was also a director attachment on TV3’s Madam and co-directed an episode. Her short film Farm has recently completed post-production and is also being developed as a feature.
McGill is drawn to dark humour, coming-of-age stories, cross-cultural whānau and family, and the environment. Becoming a mother to five-year-old Hinemāia deepened her work and sharpened her focus on female-led projects. She is currently developing the feature films Ruthless, Farm and Set the Date, as well as the revenge comedy series Sonny Did It.
4. Epiphany, dir. Chiqui Carabante, 23:00 min., Spain 2026
One night shared by a father and son changes their lives forever.
Chiqui Carabante won more than forty awards for his short films Los Días felices and Bailongas. His first feature film, Carlos contra el mundo, premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. His second feature, the metaphysical comedy 12+1, won Best Film and Best Director in the ZonaZine section of the Málaga Film Festival. In 2016 he released the short films Normal and Una casa en el campo, followed by the feature film La Fortaleza in 2022.
5. Before It Gets Dark, dir. Ricardo De Janon, 15:43 min., Panama 2025
Belén (86) and Olmedo (92), a couple from Los Santos, Panama, decide to recreate their wedding photograph so they can preserve it in memory before old age and the loss of their sight prevent them from doing so. Their wish leads them to restage their wedding and bring to life a portrait that never existed. The process, however, becomes a slow farewell before they can no longer see one another – not even in the photograph itself.
Ricardo De Janon graduated from Universidad Latina de Panamá with a degree in Audiovisual Production in 2014. He has worked on documentaries, films and advertising projects in Panama and internationally.