Professional Competition 4

1. Water and Mirror 03:29 2026
   

   Directed:	Ziba Arzhang
   Screenplay:	Ziba Arzhang
   Production:	Ziba Arzhang
   Dialogue Language:	No Dialogue

   
   

   A painted bird on the edge of a dried-up pool in an old garden is trapped in a dust-covered world. Overwhelmed by sadness and loneliness, it longs to fly across the sky like real birds. Rain washes away the dust of oblivion, revealing that it was never truly alone. A visual allegory of hope, patience, and finding companionship in solitude

2. The traveler between books / O viajante entre livros 03:11 2024
   

   Directed:	João Paulo Ferreira da Silva
   Screenplay:	João Paulo Ferreira da Silva
   Dialogue Language:	Portuguese

   
   

   A traveler discovers a way to travel between the pages of books. Contato: jpanimationpro@gmail.com

3. The Train in the Room 11:44 2026
   

   Directed:	Reza Arjangi
   Screenplay:	Reza Arjangi
   Production:	Fatemeh Mohammad Alinejadi

   
   

   A filmmaker has set up his stop-motion filmmaking workshop in his place of residence, thus intertwining the story of making his film with his private life.

4. The Last Deer 06:30 2026
   

   Directed:	Mehdi Bargh Zadegan
   Screenplay:	Mehdi Bargh Zadegan
   Production:	Mehdi Bargh Zadegan

   
   

   A deer realizes it is being chased by hunters. When the deer discovers that its family has already been killed, it stops running and no longer tries to escape.

5. Galliformes 07:37 2026
   

   Directed:	Sara Ali Moradi
   Screenplay:	Sara Ali Moradi

   
   

   In a modern poultry farm, all the chickens sleep when the lights go out and wake when the lights come on to eat grain. Meanwhile, by chance, one of the chickens becomes aware. He tries to awaken the others, but he fails. In the end, while attempting to break free, he is killed. Yet at the final moment, he crows — and his cry awakens some of the chickens.

6. Mahya 12:00 2026
   

   Directed:	Amir Feyzi
   Screenplay:	Amir Feyzi
   Production:	Amir Feyzi

   
   

   The film tells the story of an injured little girl in the basement of a hospital in Gaza who opens her eyes after hearing a sound and moves toward it.

7. Find Find / 爪抓 07:40 2025
   

   Directed:	Angela Wong, Anita So
   Screenplay:	Anita So
   Production:	Angela Wong, Anita So
   Dialogue Language:	Chinese, English

   
   

   An octopus finds her new favourite toy – a plastic cup – unaware it will carry her far from home and into the vast, dangerous yet wonderful sea.

8. Treadmill 02:30 2026
   

   Directed:

   Zahra Nasr Esfahani

   
   

   A pesky fly leads a proud horse to the treadmill to get him into trouble, but the ending is different.

9. Antimuseum 14:16 2026
   

   Directed:	Renis Hyka
   Screenplay:	Dionis Prifti
   Production:	Arnen Sula
   Dialogue Language:	Albanian

   
   

   A narrator tells about his beautiful life, but a piece of music interrupts him from time to time, forcing him to start over, denying himself and revealing an increasingly bitter truth.

10. Like an Orchid 02:27 United Kingdom 2026
    

    Directed:	Jana Bashir, Cheryl Chan, Julia Blaszczyk
    Screenplay:	Jana Bashir, Cheryl Chan, Julia Blaszczyk
    Dialogue Language:	English

    
    

    Like an Orchid follows the story of an exhausted woman who steps into a crowded subway train, where she faces the horrors that are not talked about enough...

11. HYDROSPHERE 16:42 2026
    

    Directed:	Andrey Sokolov
    Screenplay:	Andrey Sokolov
    Production:	Mikhail Khuberyan
    Dialogue Language:	Russian

    
    

    Once upon a time in the depth of the isolated seas there was a young octopus. She was very creative and eager to learn. Once she built a spaceship and headed to the stars. Leaving the ocean behind she found herself on the Earth planet, where her adventures began in unknown and hostile world. She realized that getting back home was not easy at all. The last work of director Andrey Sokolov, one of the best students of Aleksandr Tatarsky (The “Pilot” studio)

12. There’s a Howler Monkey in My Hammock / Hay un saraguato en mi hamaca 02:45 Mexico 2024
    

    Directed:	Felicia Jiménez, Williams Ballesteros
    Screenplay:	Felicia Jimenez
    Production:	Williams Ballesteros
    Dialogue Language:	Spanish

    
    

    A young girl named Kika is frightened when she finds a baby howler monkey — locally known as a saraguato — resting in the hammock of her backyard. Restless, noisy, and far from home, the little monkey carries a heartbreaking secret: the destruction of his habitat has forced him to flee the Tabascan jungle in search of water. Blending poetic storytelling with environmental testimony, this short film is inspired by real events that took place in Tabasco, Mexico, during the devastating heat wave and wildfires of May 2024 in the Chontalpa region.

13. Botija, in search of the lost treasure / Botija, Em Busca do Tesouro Perdido 15:45 Brazil 2026
    

    Directed:	George Alex Barbosa, Paulo Alves Muniz, Ricardo Barbosa Santos
    Screenplay:	George Alex Barbosa
    Production:	Maria Elisabete Magalhães, Raylane Neres
    Dialogue Language:	Portuguese

    
    

    Magical-realist drama with social undertones, an elderly woman's spirit returns as a mysterious light to guide a young boy to an ancestral treasure, protecting her legacy from the greed and addiction that destroyed her family.