Professional Competition 9

1. Ashkasha 06:17 Spain 2022
   

   Directed:	Lara Maltz
   Screenplay:	Lara Maltz
   Production:	Lara Maltz
   Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

   
   

   Ashkasha is a living being guided by curiosity. This causes her to lose her head and get trapped in the depths, where is submerged on a discovery journey.

2. Holy Shadow / Santa Sombra 02:00 Argentina 2023
   

   Directed:	Patricio Plaza, Paula Boffo
   Production:	Patricio Plaza, Paula Boffo

   
   

   A woman that has been kidnapped by a trafficking network prays to a pagan saint to ask for her release.

3. No lullaby 03:58 Argentina 2022
   

   Directed:	Ezequiel Torres
   Screenplay:	Ezequiel Torres, Pablo Roldan
   Production:	Ezequiel Torres, Ezequiel Torres
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   A girl tries to go back home with her little brother while she protects him from this wild imagination.

4. no name cat 16:00 Moldova 2022
   

   Directed:	Ghenadie Popescu
   Production:	Vitalie Popov
   Dialogue Language:	Romanian, Russian

   
   

   In a quiet Moldavian village, an innocent cat witnesses how the inhabitants are uprooted and the village’s life takes a dramatic turn over night. Based on testimonies of stalinist repressions’ survivors.

5. Dante and Death / Dante y la Muerte 04:13 Argentina 2023
   

   Directed:	Nano Bor
   Screenplay:	Nano Bor
   Production:	Nano Bor
   Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

   
   

   The loneliness and purposeless routine for an older person can become a challenge and an overwhelming burden day after day, to the point of asking to end this seemingly hopeless situation. But in that desire there may be an opportunity to find an unexpected company.

6. Corona-Man 02:09 Israel 2022
   

   Directed:	Shacham Rubin
   Screenplay:	Shacham Rubin, Idan Rom
   Production:	Shacham Rubin
   Dialogue Language:	English, Hebrew, Japanese

   
   

   "Corona-man" is an animated short movie, with the titular hero as the Cell-city sole savior, or may he be our demise? The clip allows the viewer to get a twisted look at our reality. What if false conceptions and alternative facts were given life through our pop culture? Manifest as afternoon or Saturday morning children programming? This short film is an homage to the '80s & '90s American and Japanese cartoon shows with a subversive, bold, and fabulous gay take.

7. SWING 04:44 Spain 2022
   

   Directed:	Ignasi Tarruella
   Screenplay:	Ignasi Tarruella
   Production:	Ignasi Tarruella
   Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

   
   

   In a world of toys a wooden robot feels lonely. Suddenly another robot appears but he or she doesn't want anything about him. He has to find out the way to establish a relationship.

8. The Umbrella / Le parapluie 15:30 France 2022
   

   Directed:	Claire Ledru
   Screenplay:	Claire Ledru, Mino Malan
   Production:	Luc Camilli
   Dialogue Language:	French

   
   

   Incessant rain erodes the earth, its matter collapses, nothing remains of the landscape except a long field and narrow pillars rising against an immense sky. On one of these islands, a survivor stands motionless, clinging to his umbrella, his only weapon against the deluge. It is in the narrow confines of this tiny stage that individuals will be forced to live one on top of the other.

9. Lovely Rita 04:10 Switzerland 2022
   

   Directed:	Elena Madrid
   Screenplay:	Elena Madrid
   Production:	Lina Geissmann

   
   

   The strict traffic policewoman Rita loves control and order in her workplace. That’s why she has drawn up a rigid, rectangular road network, through which she directs the drivers with precise instructions. But as more and more cars find their way into her narrow network and it soon threatens to burst, Rita loses control in the traffic. A short story about stress, traffic jams and how to make the best of it.

10. Am I a painter?/ Czy jestem malarzem? 05:15 Poland 2023
    

    Directed:	Michał Kucharski
    Screenplay:	Michał Kucharski
    Production:	Michał Kucharski
    Dialogue Language:	Polish

    
    

    A plasticine character named Grey Clay lives in a painter's studio, hiding in a drawer. Once upon a time he watches the painter's work with great interest as he creates one painting after another. One day he is left alone in the studio and decides to try to paint a picture himself. Despite his inexperience, will he manage to overcome adversity and create his own painting? Plastelinowa postać imieniem Szarek mieszka w pracowni malarskiej, ukrywając się w szufladzie. Pewnego razu z ogromnym zainteresowaniem obserwuje pracę malarza podczas tworzenia kolejnych obrazów. Pewnego dnia gdy zostaje sam w pracowni postanawia spróbować samodzielnie namalować obraz. Czy mimo braku doświadczenia uda mu się pokonać przeciwności losu i stworzyć własny obraz?

11. TURN TURN TURN 05:57 United States 2023
    

    Directed:	James W. Hawk
    Screenplay:	JAMES W. HAWK
    Production:	JAMES W. HAWK

    
    

    An abstract animation that simply deals with the animation of opposites; circles vs triangles, red vs cyan, 3 vs 10, black vs white, in and out, clockwise and counter clockwise, and hectic vs peaceful. While all of the time it TURNs TURNs TURNs.

12. sketch 05:00 Iraq 2023
    

    Directed:	Oday abdul kahdum
    Screenplay:	ali abd alzahra
    Production:	Oday abdul kahdum

    
    

    The film talks about an artist who did not believe in his art and what he offers and does not know the artistic value he possesses, while there are others who take advantage of opportunities

13. The Land of Milk & Honey 11:14 Belgium 2022
    

    Directed:	Isabelle Nouzha
    Screenplay:	Isabelle Nouzha
    Production:	Isabelle Nouzha, Sami Elhage, Françoise Bloch
    Dialogue Language:	Arabic, French

    
    

    After a series of massive destruction the inhabitable territories left are protected by huge walls of separation. In between this walls, there is on one side a population of destitute survivors and on the other, elites with the aim of transforming the popular rage into a workforce.

14. The antiquary / O Antiquário 08:00 Portugal 2022
    

    Directed:	Manuel Matos Barbosa
    Screenplay:	Manuel Matos Barbosa
    Production:	António Costa Valente
    Dialogue Language:	Portuguese

    
    

    Every town has its collector or antique dealer, a mole who walks around in the ruin of things looking for stories or treasures. Vicente was a stingy old man, sparing with words. In his collection, the pixie of mercy that he admired so much was missing. The despair of not seeing his desire fulfilled drove him to illness. On the town's feast day, the procession visited the sick. Vincent received a visit from the priest, seeing, as if in a prodigy, the prior in great robes, holding the marvelous pyxid in his hands.

15. Ana Morphose 10:00 Portugal 2023
    2nd Place - International Professional Short Animation - Jury
    

    Directed:	Joao Rodrigues
    Screenplay:	Joao Rodrigues
    Production:	Rodrigo Areias
    Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

    
    

    A little girl reads herself to sleep. As she dozes off, the physical world starts melting into an alternate reality where the contents of a book rule over the laws of physics. Ana has to escape being swallowed by the overwhelming accumulation of printed knowledge and find her own space in a world where nothing is what it seems.

16. Cricket 08:00 Israel 2023
    

    Directed:	Natalia Ryss
    Screenplay:	Natalia Ryss
    Production:	Dmitry Mosyagin
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    One day, a childless peasant family had a son... a cricket. Expressionistic drama, Requiem-Guignol. Experiment with narrative form, where the role of music, sound, becomes equal to the image, without any priorities.