Student Competition 3

1. Blossom 04:08 Portugal 2024
   International Student Short Animation - Audience Award
   

   Directed:	Mariana Pinheiro
   Screenplay:	Mariana Pinheiro
   Production:	Mariana Pinheiro

   
   

   Ryu, a ludic representation of the soul, goes on a journey of self-discovery while confronting all the elements has been repressing in her own unconscious mind.

2. Don't Feed the Unicorn 02:55 United States 2024
   

   Directed:	Kimberly Jiali Peh, Katherine Marie Hogan
   Screenplay:	Kimberly Jiali Peh, Katherine Marie Hogan
   Production:	Kimberly Jiali Peh, Katherine Marie Hogan
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   While foraging in a mystical forest, a young troll boy named Junior decides to secretly feed a wild unicorn some snacks despite his dad’s warnings not to. The unicorn begins following him for more and more food, growing increasingly persistent and manic before finally getting caught by Senior. Senior finishes the bag of Troll Mix snacks, causing the unicorn to get enraged and make him her next meal! Senior gets dragged away to the unicorn’s evil cave lair, where Junior has to come to the rescue. However, during their escape, they are caught and both run away from the unicorn and her magic. At the height of the chase, Junior distracts the unicorn with the empty bag of Troll Mix while Senior cuts the rope bridge. The unicorn attempts a final bite at the trolls, but falls down the deep canyon to her apparent demise. Leaving the trail, Junior spots another young troll with his own snacks, and frantically warns him not to feed the unicorn. The young troll doesn’t listen, and gets dragged away by the unicorn.

3. With all this panic / Con todo este pánico, Atte. 04:17 Argentina 2024
   

   Directed:	Catalina Lorente
   Screenplay:	Catalina Lorente
   Production:	Catalina Lorente
   Dialogue Language:	Spanish

   
   

   On the day of his graduation at a school event, Paquito (12) must read his farewell speech in front of the entire school, which makes him extremely nervous. When it's time to speak on stage, a strange creature comes out of Paquito's stomach. The Creature torments Paquito throughout the day and follows him on the way to his house. At night, before going to sleep, the Creature snuggles next to him and Paquito begins to accept the fact that maybe they will be together forever.

4. NEMO 02:48 United States 2024
   

   Directed:	Luisa Bel Cardoso Head
   Screenplay:	Luisa Bel Cardoso Head
   Production:	Luisa Bel Cardoso Head
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   Even bunnies on the moon need love.

5. The Announced Tragedy 10:00 Thailand 2023
   

   Directed:	Thanut Rujitanont
   Screenplay:	Thanut Rujitanont
   Production:	Thanut Rujitanont
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   “The Announced Tragedy” uses animation production as a process of memory consolidation. The work can be seen as a personal memory extension that preserves the irrational and incomplete memories of the director towards the house where he grew up. The work recalls the space and time of these memories, ultimately overwriting, re-editing, and re-materializing them in the form of animation. The work consists of 4 chapters, each chapter enacts a specific memory the director had as a child in his house.

6. BUG / باگ 06:07 Iran, Islamic Republic of 2024
   

   Directed:	Ali Masoumi
   Screenplay:	Ali Masoumi
   Production:	Ali Masoumi
   Dialogue Language:	English, Persian

   
   

   The impact of positive and negative actions and reactions of parents on the mind and behavior of children from childhood to adulthood

7. IN/FINITE / UN/ENDLICH 05:57 Germany 2023
   

   Directed:	Daniel Maaß
   Screenplay:	Daniel Maaß
   Production:	Daniel Maaß
   Dialogue Language:	German

   
   

   Two hikers come across a hypnotic-looking water pit in a dry desert. The water pit is now the trigger for an all-encompassing conflict: Should they settle down or keep wandering?

8. The Onion / הבצל 03:12 Israel 2024
   

   Directed:	Itamar Kelner, Tal Brudner, Noam Gichon
   Screenplay:	Itamar Kelner
   Production:	Noam Gichon
   Dialogue Language:	Hebrew

   
   

   A little onion sets out on a journey to discover the source of the crying in the vegetable village where he lives, only to find that the answer has been right in front of him all along.

9. Child Star 10:48 Indonesia 2024
   

   Directed:	Roger Noel Austin Lee
   Screenplay:	Roger Noel Austin Lee
   Production:	Janice Stefani Soemarno
   Dialogue Language:	Indonesian

   
   

   A Mother and son are watching movies together, the environment around them filling with warmth, love, and joy. Fast forward to the future, the son named Robin is now a rising child star. Robin sits in the living room feeling bored as ever as any other day with nothing to do. He becomes jealous as he hears other children having fun just outside his house playing with each other. Robin tries to sneak outside but is caught by his over strict mother, setting the stage for a wild chase while confronting their emotions. As Robin navigates the complexities of an Asian family social culture and the effects of fame on him, the film gently explores the impact on relationships, specifically the mother and son relationship and how cultural ego plays a big part in an Asian household. This film emphasizes the importance of communication and an honest heart to heart between child and parent.

10. A Solid Future (english version) 07:10 Spain 2024
    

    Directed:	Javier de la Torre González
    Screenplay:	Aitor Esteves Saizarbitoria
    Production:	Noelia Gordo Fernández, Lucía Lorenzo Ceballos
    Dialogue Language:	English, Spanish

    
    

    A Solid Future is an 2D/3D animated hybrid short film that tells the story of Bob, a guy that through a mysterious machine can see the future of anyone who dares put a token into it. Reading from person to person, Bob will see that the future is an unpredictable thing and will do everything in his power to avoid letting the totalitarian and horrific future of Cute Guy, from becoming a reality. Unfortunately for him, destiny has another thing in mind.

11. Thanks, Mom. / Спасибо, мама. 02:20 Russian Federation 2024
    

    Directed:	Anna Khoroshko
    Screenplay:	Anna Khoroshko
    Dialogue Language:	Russian

    
    

    Reflections on teenage complexes, relationships with mom and love.

12. Heartland 02:19 Canada 2024
    

    Directed:	Helen Peng
    Screenplay:	Helen Peng
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    Desperate for human touch, a middle-aged man follows the woman of his dreams through an alternate-reality hallucination.

13. Express Photo 02:15 China 2024
    

    Directed:	Kiki Jiang, Dashun Zhou
    Screenplay:	Kiki Jiang, Dashun Zhou
    Production:	Kiki Jiang, Dashun Zhou
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    A tourist girl has her camera snatched away by a monkey, can she get it back?

14. Kukeleku 03:04 Netherlands 2024
    

    Directed:

    Jelle Janssen

    
    

    After discovering a squeaky toy, the voiceless rooster Nugget fakes his crow to claim the throne, but soon realizes that power isn't as fulfilling as he imagined.

15. VOID 02:28 Australia 2024
    

    Directed:

    Waroonrat Thanaboonsrikoon

    
    

    "VOID" is a short 2D animation portraying the turmoil emotions journey of a child living in a domestic violence household. The animation uses visual elements like metonymy and metaphor to show the parent's troubled relationship and transform the abstract concept of child trauma into a tangible visual experience.

16. Uzak 03:13 Turkey 2024
    

    Directed:	Balkan Akarsel
    Screenplay:	Balkan Akarsel
    Production:	Balkan Akarsel
    Dialogue Language:	English, German, Russian, Turkish

    
    

    A man who lost his wife finds his wife again...

17. APRIL 07:50 India 2024
    

    Directed:	David Yambem
    Production:	Plankton Collective
    Dialogue Language:	Manipuri

    
    

    A woman in her late 20s comes to her hometown in Manipur, a small state in the North-Eastern part of India, after a long year working in the city. She has to make sure her short stay at home is worthwhile. Her journey gives a glimpse of the rural lives of valley people and their food culture

18. Four walls of memory / Cztery ściany pamięci 11:46 Poland 2024
    

    Directed:	Joanna Płatek
    Screenplay:	Joanna Płatek

    
    

    A story about a girl who wanted to escape her own fear, but accidentally traps herself together with it in a small cabin in the woods. Locked inside four walls, with no way out, she has to deal with hunger, cold and the fear of something that once wanted to hurt her... but now lies dead beside her.

19. Choosing ignorance / Εθελοτυφλώντας 06:29 Greece 2024
    
    

    Choosing ignorance is an animated film based on Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", in his work "Politeia" and concerns "the effects of education and the lack of it on human nature". The story takes place in a small village full of lambs, whose only care in the world is playing around, having only one real goal: being accepted in a most popular clup in their village. The only ones that can go through the club’s Security are the ones that possess a special coin, which given to a few chosen ones every day through an ATM. The protagonist, Lana, failed to get the needed coin and couldn’t follow her best friend, Sia, to the club that day. Against all odds, she eventually found it in the most unusual of places. But in the same time she accidentally unearthed the secret hidden behind her village’s weird ways.