Professional Competition 4

1. The Strange Case Of The Human Cannonball 10:00 Ecuador 2024
   Honorary Mention - International Professional Short Animation- Jury
   

   Directed:	Roberto Valencia
   Screenplay:	Roberto Valencia
   Production:	Andres Aguilar
   Dialogue Language:	Spanish

   
   

   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.

2. The Jubilee 12:07 United Kingdom 2024
   

   Directed:	Wilma Smith
   Screenplay:	Wilma Smith
   Production:	Carol Brown
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   Through stop motion animation, Mimi is a little mouse girl who is made from the paper napkins from a wedding anniversary party. We follow her journey in this paper napkin world as she tries to navigate her confusion and frustrations of what is going on and through the help of an old man memories come flooding back in to play, as Mimi is an old lady who remembers fragments of her life through a cloud of dementia, through the help of Elder her husband, against a confusing backdrop of their 60th Wedding Anniversary party. A poetic and beautiful vignette of romance, love and loss. The characters based on the real life drawings on a paper napkin by the filmmakers Mother who suffered from dementia.

3. The melancholy of the phoenix / La melancolía del fénix 12:20 Spain 2023
   

   Directed:	Mika Oliete
   Screenplay:	Mika Oliete
   Production:	Diego Saniz
   Dialogue Language:	Spanish

   
   

   An afflicted man dreams that he returns to his mother's womb to be reunited with his long-awaited mother. A journey through depression, melancholy and mourning for what he lost and that he refuses to give up.

4. A house to share / Une maison à partager 04:30 Belgium 2024
   

   Directed:	pascale Hecquet
   Screenplay:	pascale Hecquet
   Production:	pascale Hecquet
   Dialogue Language:	French

   
   

   After the departure of his children and the death of his wife, René-Claude lives alone in his large house. One day, he decides it's time to share it.

5. Apocalypsis 04:12 Argentina 2024
   

   Directed:

   Nicolas Sanabria, Emmanuel Alcalá, Andrés Llanezas

   
   

   In the summer of 1994, in a small pasture in Argentina, a group of children gather to play soccer under the warm sun of the siesta hour. However, what begins as another day of fun will soon become a memory.

6. The Abyss 08:00 Russian Federation 2024
   

   Directed:	Dmitry Nekrasov
   Screenplay:	Daria Zimina, Kirill Keychenko
   Production:	Alena Sycheva, Kirill Keychenko

   
   

   Based on the story “The Abyss” by Leonid Andreev. A young couple spends the day on a walk, enjoying the first timid feeling of falling in love. However, the heroes walk too long. The road home goes through a dark and ominous forest. Sentimental romantic feelings disappear when the couple encounters an animal manifestation of the instinct of love and destruction in the person of three tramps in the forest. A terrible turn of events and a fall into the abyss of the unknown reveal the secret desires of the protagonist, who discovers a dark beginning in himself and makes a fatal choice.

7. TALAIAS 10:28 Portugal 2024
   

   Directed:	Maria Raquel Atalaia
   Screenplay:	Maria Raquel Atalaia
   Production:	António Costa Valente

   
   

   A boy in love with a girl goes to her house but things don't go well. Upon returning home, the boy meets a talaia, one of the beings that live in the forest. Eager for company, you take the talaia home but he will only have one thing on his mind, returning to his friends.

8. Dezkak 10:58 Iran, Islamic Republic of 2024
   

   Directed:	Azad Maroufi
   Screenplay:	Azad Maroufi
   Production:	Zahra Ebrahimi

   
   

   In a timeless place, In the middle of nowhere, There lived a creature, Feeding of children's souls, Fueling by their spirit. A girl was destined to empower the creature and when she realizes that, she decides to run.

9. Nube 07:31 Mexico 2023
   

   Directed:	Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera Estrada, Christian Arredondo Narvaez
   Screenplay:	Christian Arredondo Narvaez, Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera Estrada
   Production:	Valentin Maupin, Aristote Douroudakis, Balint Gelly, Bella Szederkényi, Christian Arredondo Narvaez, Diego Alonso Sanchez de la Barquera Estrada

   
   

   After witnessing an old dark stormy cloud painfully rain and die in sorrow, Noma, a puffy white cloud realizes that Mixtli, her daughter, a dark stormy cloud, is in danger of raining prematurely.

10. In your eyes 03:00 France 2024
    

    Directed:	Helia Gillon
    Screenplay:	Helia Gillon
    Production:	Helia Gillon
    Dialogue Language:	English, French

    
    

    An explorer, is meeting the life of a woman through her eyes.

11. Sightings and Visions / Visagens e Visões 18:59 Brazil 2024
    

    Directed:	Rod Rodrigues
    Screenplay:	Rod Rodrigues
    Production:	Jacqueline Medeiros, Melina Marcelino, Ítalo Rodolpho, Felipe Gillet, Rod Rodrigues
    Dialogue Language:	Portuguese

    
    

    During a trip in the early hours of the morning, a taxi driver tells a passenger strange stories that occurred in different neighborhoods and decades of Belém, changing the girl's perspectives and reflections about the city.

12. The Opera Addict 04:04 China 2023
    

    Directed:	Lirong Dong
    Screenplay:	Xiao Liu
    Production:	Lirong Dong
    Dialogue Language:	Chinese

13. Kin 04:01 New Zealand 2024
    

    Directed:	Helena Vujanić-McCondach
    Screenplay:	Helena Vujanić-McCondach, Mariah Reeder, Amélie Etchepare, Hsiao-Chien Wei, Kahn Rabbette
    Production:	Mariah Reeder, Simon Heath, Arien Hielkema
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    In "Kin," Anna confronts the emotional task of sorting through her late father Murray's belongings and preparing his house for closure. Little does she know, Murray had formed a special bond with a stray cat he named Tuna, who eagerly awaited his return outside the house. When Anna arrives, Tuna's excitement quickly turns to confusion and longing as he realizes Murray isn't coming back. Seeking comfort, Tuna sneaks into the house to have a last look at Murray’s photo. Anna, consumed by grief, reacts with frustration to the unexpected visitor and throws him back outside. As Anna finishes packing, she discovers her father's fishing badge on Tuna's collar. She realizes the true depth of their connection and welcomes Tuna, bridging the gap between past and present.