Professional Competition 2

1. 'Captain Orrible’ in Something Strange Happened 05:00 2026
   

   Directed:

   Trevor Hardy

   
   

   A pirate captain has a midlife crisis, but soon learns that sometimes its easier to accept who you really are.

2. Heaven bound / -العود 03:30 2026
   

   Directed:	Houssem dine souaf
   Screenplay:	Houssem dine souaf

   
   

   A boy tires to get back to heaven.

3. The Question / La Question 23:23 2026
   

   Directed:	Alberto Segre
   Screenplay:	Alberto Segre
   Production:	XBO Films
   Dialogue Language:	French

   
   

   Paris, one winter night in 1958. Jérôme Lindon, Director of Éditions des Minuits, secretly receives Gilberte Alleg, wife of French journalist Henri Alleg, who brings him the manuscript ‘La Question’, a detailed account of the torture he suffered in Algiers prison at the hands of the French army.

4. Backstreet Birds / Pingvinas ir Balandis 07:22 2025
   

   Directed:	Gertrūda Nemčauskaitė
   Screenplay:	Gertrūda Nemčauskaitė
   Production:	Justė Beniušytė, Ignas Meilūnas
   Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

   
   

   It's an ordinary evening in the neighbourhood: the residents are at home, quietly watching their TVs. Just like everybody else Penguin loves spending time on the screen, alone and undisturbed. However, a new neighbour Pigeon moves in and he likes different things - a good party. Without knowing how to share limited resources, birds start a fight that leads to only one way - catastrophe.

5. The Horizon from the Tip of the Nose / L’Horizon du Bout du Nez 07:59 2025
   

   Directed:	Étienne Bonnet
   Screenplay:	Étienne Bonnet
   Production:	Étienne Bonnet
   Dialogue Language:	French

   
   

   Diagnosed as completely nearsighted at age 6, I have spent my life in a blur. A journey through the not always clear twists and turns of ophthalmology.

6. Loneliness, snow and pines 04:38 Bulgaria 2026
   

   Directed:	Vladislav Ivanov, Ivaylo Zahariev
   Screenplay:	Vladislav Ivanov
   Production:	Ivaylo Zahariev
   Dialogue Language:	Bulgarian

   
   

   A lonely and boring train station somewhere on the outskirts of a big city. A young man who finds himself there on business calls his girlfriend, but crossed telephone lines turn into a battlefield of personalities. An animation based on the short story "On the phone" by Mikhail A. Bulgakov. Bulgaria | 2026 | 4.34 min I 16:9 | 2D animation

7. Museum 12:00 2024
   

   Directed:	Behrooz Yaghmaeian, Abtin Yaghmaeian
   Screenplay:	Mohammad Shokoohi
   Production:	Nader Yaghmaeian
   Dialogue Language:	Persian

   
   

   Museum" is an exciting animated series that aims to educate children about the rich history of Iranian art. This show takes viewers on a journey through time, exploring the cultural, social, and civilizational identities represented in Iranian works of art.

8. The Last Robot 10:00 2026
   

   Directed:	Jacys Lin
   Screenplay:	Jacys Lin
   Production:	Cheng-En Wu

   
   

   After humanity destroys itself in a war born from fear of artificial intelligence, the last surviving scientist creates a robot that will not hate humans. Years later, the robot wanders through a silent world and encounters a small cleaning machine. Through companionship, loss, and memory, it slowly learns the meaning of love and protection.

9. The Busker 05:25 2026
   

   Directed:	Alistair Kerr
   Screenplay:	Alistair Kerr
   Production:	Alistair Kerr
   Dialogue Language:	English

   
   

   A busker tries to earn some money in a busy town but things aren’t what they used to be…will he succeed? If you enjoyed this will animation please share and subscribe and help to support an amateur animator.

10. The Fear Monster / Medo Monstro 09:57 Brazil 2025
    

    Directed:	Andrew Gledson, Eduardo Padrão
    Screenplay:	Dandara Palankof
    Production:	Rayssa Costa
    Dialogue Language:	Portuguese

    
    

    THE FEAR MONSTER is a powerful and poetic 10-minute animated short that dives into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose world is shaken when a monstrous figure threatens to rise to power. As fear spreads like a shadow, she must discover the strength that lies in empathy, solidarity, and collective resistance. Blending visual beauty with political allegory, THE FEAR MONSTER is a timely and universal tale about standing up to fear, injustice, and the monsters—real or imagined—that haunt our societies.

11. DvsG (David vs Goliath) 13:33 Germany 2025
    

    Directed:

    Stefan Nacke

    
    

    A poetic visual score of resistance and identity: fragile, colorful beings rise from the sea to face a lifeless monolith. Inspired by David and Goliath, this genre-blending short — part video art, part myth — is performed live by two teenage musicians.

12. The Mouse Shrine 02:02 2026
    

    Production:	Ewa Kovalenko
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    | The Mouse Shrine | was born from passion for Japanese culture, especially the way animals show up in its myths, legends, and shrines. For this project, I decided to animate legend based on the story about mouse guardians of Kyoto’s Otoyo Shrine as I really liked the idea of bringing this lesser-known story to life through movement. I experimented a lot with stylisation choices that’ll fit the legend narrative. During the process I got very fond of these characters and had a lot of fun creating their interactions.