MONDAY 13/10 | 20:00
Almost Certainly False
Neredeyse Kesinlikle Yanlış
20’, 2024
Turkey
Fiction
Synopsis
Having fled the war in Syria, Hanna and her young brother Nader find themselves staying in a run-down neighbourhood of Istanbul. Hanna spends her days learning nail design in order to earn a living, while dreaming of finding a way to migrate to Europe. When she meets a Turkish guy, İbo, on a night out, she finds herself trying to balance her identity and desires with the needs of her young brother.
Credits
Directed by: Cansu Baydar | Screenplay: Cansu Baydar | Cinematography: Barıs Özbiçer | Editing: Doruk Kaya, Çisem Baydar | Art Direction: Görkem Canbolat | Costume Design: Ceyda Yüceer | Sound Design: Taylan Geçit, Burak Yücel | Cast: Rahaf Armanazi, Isa Karatas, Büsra Albayrak, Ferhat Akgün, Ubey Gül, Dante | Producers: Sinan Yusufoglu, Ceyda Yüceer, Izlem Genç, Ulas Tuna Astepe, Ali Farkhonde, Cansu Baydar | Production Companies: Ekho Film, Nana Film, Fok Project | Co-producers: Vefa Geylani, Fatih Bay
Director's Bio
Cansu Baydar is an Istanbul-based filmmaker. She studied Film at Bahçeşehir University and has spent many years working as an assistant to directors and producers in the film industry. Her first short film, Almost Certainly False, was selected for its premiere at the 81st La Biennale Venice International Film Festival, in the official Orizzonti Short Films Competition. She focuses on exploring themes of identity, memory, boundaries, and borders in her work.
Filmography
2024 Almost Certainly False / Neredeyse Kesinlikle Yanlış
Selected Awards
- Best Short Film Award, Baku International Film Festival, Azerbaijan, 2024.
- Best Short Film Award, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey. 2024.
- Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Actress Awards, Izmir International Short Film Festival, Turkey, 2024.
- Audience Award, Landshut Short Film Festival, Germany, 2025.
- Best Short Film Award, Akbank Short Film Festival, Turkey, 2025.
Trailer
Shadows
12’, 2024
France, Jordan
Documentary, Animation
Synopsis
At a crowded airport, Ahlam, a 14-year-old mother, is running away from Baghdad, the only place she has ever known. As she fights the shadows lurking around her, she reflects on her journey to reclaim her life.
Credits
Directed by: Rand Beiruty | Screenplay: Rand Beiruty | Cinematography: Marta Magnuska | Editing: Abdallah Sada | Art Direction: Ambre Decruyenaere | Sound Design: Kinane Moualla | Producer: Idris Lettifi | Production Company: Piano Sano Films | Co-producer: Jude Kawwa, Shaghab Films
Director's Bio
Rand Beiruty is a writer, director and co-founder of Shaghab Films, a production company based in Amman, Jordan. She holds a practice-based Ph.D. revolving around questions of representation and participatory filmmaking from Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Beiruty is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Beirut Talents, Rotterdam Lab, Locarno Documentary School, ANIDOX:LAB, Film Leader Incubator Asia, Documentary Campus and Ji.hlava Academy. She has pitched her projects on international platforms and received awards from Tribeca Film Institute, Mifa Animation du Monde, Arab Cinema Center and European Network of Young Cinema, among others. Her debut feature documentary Tell Them About Us celebrated its world premiere at CPH:DOX 2024.
Filmography
2024 Shadows
2024 Tell them about us
2020 Encountering Samir
2018 Nudar
2017 Halfway
Awards
- World Animation Competition Award, 38th Leeds International Film Festival, UK, 2024.
- Grand Prize, Animation Festival of Roanne, France, 2025.
- Grand Prize, Regard International Short Film Festival, Canada, 2025.
- Best Arab Film, Beirut Animation Nights Festival, Lebanon, 2025.
- Hypatia Golden Award, 11th Alexandria International Short Film Festival, 2025.
Half an Orange
18’, 2024
Cyprus
Fiction
Synopsis
It's summer on a farm in Cyprus. Valeria, a reclusive young writer, spends her days focused on her work. One evening, she meets Antigone at a party. Antigone is outgoing and carefree, contrasting with Valeria’s reserved nature. Amid the sunlit fields and beaches, Valeria and Antigone grow closer, discovering the beauty of a newfound desire.
Credits
Directed by: Loukia Hadjiyianni | Screenplay: Loukia Hadjiyianni | Cinematography: Emiel Chung | Editing: Damien Heraclides | Art Direction: Marios Neocleous | Costume Design: Vasiliki Troulioti | Music: Anastasia Demetriadou | Sound Design: Stavros Terlikkas | Cast: Melissanthi Zanga, Thekla Flouri | Producer: Loukia Hadjiyianni | Co-producer: A.B. Seahorse Film Productions Ltd
Director's Bio
Loukia Hadjiyianni is a Cypriot-Georgian director based in Berlin. With a background in Psychology and Neuroscience, she works across fiction and documentary, creating intimate, character-driven stories. Alongside her freelance practice, she is currently studying Film Directing.
Filmography
2025 On a Quiet Day
2025 Skin Hunger
2024 Half an Orange
2024 Ludmila’s Apple Pie
Awards
- Best LGBTQ Short Award, Venice Shorts, United States, 2024.
Trailer
The Devil and the Bicycle
24’, 2025
France
Fiction
Synopsis
Yasma, a 13-year-old Lebanese girl from an interfaith marriage, is preparing for the ritual of her First Communion. But as her sensuality awakens, a completely different kind of ritual takes place.
Credits
Directed by: Sharon Hakim | Screenplay: Sharon Hakim | Cinematography: Laetitia de Montalembert | Editing: Clémence Samson | Music: Marc Codsi, Aghiad Ghanem | Sound Design: Rawad Hobeika, Benoît Gargonne, Lionel Guenoun | Cast: Mélissa Succar | Producer: Astrig Chandèze-Avakian | Production Company: Aeternam Films
Director's Bio
Sharon Hakim is a writer and director. After studying in Paris and New York, she directed La Grande Nuit in 2020, her first short film — a musical inspired by an Egyptian puppet operetta, which was broadcast on Arte. The film was selected at Clermont-Ferrand, Cinemed, and received two awards in Cabourg and one in Brest. In 2024, she directed two short films: Nostalgia for the Dodos, pre-acquired by Canal+ and shot in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, and The Devil and the Bicycle, shot in Lebanon and adapted from the eponymous short story by Tamara Saade. She is currently working on her first feature film, Mermaid Avenue, produced by Les Films du Tambour.
Filmography
2025 Como Ler o Vento
2024 The Devil and the Bicycle
2024 Nostalgia for the Dodos
2020 La Grand Nuit
Awards
- National Student Prize, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France, 2025.
Challenges of a Solitary Mind
3’, 2025
Austria
Animation
Synopsis
A snail body with fancy boots opens the film as she confidently strides onto the scene and instantly establishes her most distinctive characteristics: The snail is simultaneously hard and tender with her ever-present house, at once introverted and open, eager to be on the move even if slower than other life forms – but even this assessment only results from a relativising comparison.
Credits
Directing, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production: Astrid Rothaug
Director's Bio
Astrid Rothaug, born in 1996 in Austria, lives and works in Vienna. In 2014, she began studying in the Department of Graphics and Printmaking at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In 2018, she studied Painting at FBAUL Lisbon as part of an Erasmus scholarship. For her diploma project, Puzzling, she received the “Förderungspreis des Landes Niederösterreich” (Lower Austria Advancement Award). After completing her studies, she began working as an independent artist in the fields of printmaking, drawing, painting, and writing.
Filmography
2025 Challenges of a solitary mind
Blue Heart / Coeur Bleu
15’, 2025
Haiti, France
Fiction
Synopsis
Their loving son is away. Marianne and Petion are living in Haiti with a telephone, waiting for a call from the USA, where their son has left for the American dream.
Credits
Directed by: Samuel Suffren | Screenplay: Samuel Suffren | Cinematography: Samuel Suffren | Editing: Samuel Suffren | Music: Tamara Suffren | Sound Design: Roodie Rigaud Marcelin | Cast: Marie Diana, Arnold Joseph, Samuel Suffren | Producer: Samuel Suffren | Production Company: Kitfilms | Co-producers: Carine Ruszniewski, Louise Bansard, GoGoGo Films
Director's Bio
Samuel Suffren is a Haitian filmmaker and producer. He is making a trilogy of short films inspired by the story of his father, which has been showcased at prestigious festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Locarno, Sundance, and FESPACO. He is currently developing a feature documentary, Lòtbò, and his first fiction feature, Je m’appelle Nina Shakira.
Filmography
2025 Blue Heart
2024 Dreams Like Paper Boat
2022 Agwe
Awards
- Best Cinematography Award, Vienna Shorts, Austria, 2025.
- Best International Short, Dokufest, Kosovo, 2025.
Trailer
The Visit
9’, 2025
Cyprus
Fiction
Synopsis
It is visiting day in a dementia care home. A lonely old man gets a visit that desperately seeks to bring out emotions and fading family memories. From the cracks of emptiness, a tender light rises, reminding that hope was never far.
Credits
Directed by: Louis Patsias | Screenplay: Marios Nicolaou | Cinematography: Giorgos Rachmatoulin | Editing: Sotos Christou | Production Design: Christy Polydorou | Costume Design: Constantinos Natiotis | Music: Christos Andreou | Sound Design: Sotos Christou | Cast: Spyros Stavrinides, Anna Yiagiozi | Producer: Valia Gatsiou | Production Company: The Coffee Films | In co-production with: Deputy Ministry of Culture
Director's Bio
Louis Patsias has been active in the Cypriot film and audiovisual storytelling as a director and producer since the mid-1990s, when he founded the production company The Coffee Films. He has directed and produced over 100 commercials for local and international clients, and produced both short and feature films. In 2018, his own film The Profile was featured at the Cyprus Film Festival. This is his second short film to enter the festival circuit, marking his consistent focus on resonant themes, his continued passion for the short form, and his commitment to strengthen the voice of Cypriot cinema.
Filmography
2025 The Visit
2018 The Profile
Trailer
Little Monsters
Les Petits Monstres
14’, 2024
France
Fiction
Synopsis
Today, visually impaired teenager Erwan can't wait to get to school to declare his love for Agathe. Unfortunately, he first has to share a medical transport van with David, a wheelchair-bound suck-up who tries every day—quite unsuccessfully—to make friends with Erwan. When David tries to make sure they never arrive, war is declared.
Credits
Directed by: Pablo Léridon | Screenplay: Pablo Léridon | Cinematography: Pauline Pénichout | Editing: Lucas Marie | Production Design: Pauline Le Goff | Costume Design: Kamili Lagadec | Cast: Samuel Kalambay Kunda, Oscar Bloess, Alice de Lencquesaing | Producers: Eliott Khayat, Hugo Tomes | Production Company: Mauvaise Troupe Productions
Director's Bio
Ο Pablo Léridon σπούδασε Λογοτεχνία και Κινηματογράφο προτού ξεκινήσει τις σπουδές του στο τμήμα σεναριογραφίας της Σχολής La Fémis, από την οποία αποφοίτησε λίγο πριν το lockdown. Συμμετείχε στη συγγραφή αρκετών σεναρίων για ταινίες μικρού μήκους, όπως οι Brothers του Ugo Simon και The Voice of Others της Fatima Kaci. Αυτή την περίοδο, συνεργάζεται με νέους σκηνοθέτες στα πρώτα τους μεγάλου μήκους πρότζεκτ και γράφει τη δική του πρώτη ταινία μεγάλου μήκους, με τίτλο The Medium Monsters. Το The Little Monsters είναι η πρώτη του μικρού μήκους.
Filmography
2024 Little Monsters / Les Petits Monstres
Awards
- Audience Award, Paris Court Devant, France, 2025.
- Acting Award, Angers Premiers Plans, France, 2025.
- Middle School Award, Travelling Rennes, France, 2025.
- Audience Award, Festival du Film Court d'Angoulême, France, 2025.
- Acting Award, Les regards de l'ICART, France, 2025.
- Audience Best, Saguenay Regard, Canada, 2025.
- Acting Award, Les Hérault du Cinéma, France, 2025.
Trailer
Nikos' Long Walk
25’, 2025
Cyprus
Fiction
Synopsis
Two strangers embark on a road trip to reach the top of a mountain and shout in frustration.
Credits
Directed by: Andreas Sheittanis | Screenplay: Andreas Sheittanis | Cinematography: Hector Papageorgiou | Editing: Andreas Sheittanis | Art Direction: Stephanie Mourouzi | Costume Design: Caterina Ttakka | Music: Panayiotis Tyrimos | Sound Design: Elias Theodorou | Cast: Constantinos Tsitsios, Stefanos Michael, Andreas Tselepos, Dimitris Antoniou, Pambina Georgiou, Kleitos Komodikis | Producer: Andreas Phylactou | Production Company: Black Lemon Projects | Co-producers: Parrot With a Carrot, Seahorse Films
Director's Bio
Andreas Sheittanis studied Film Production & Cinematography at Bournemouth University. He currently works as a director and scriptwriter in Cyprus. Amongst other things, he has directed eight short films so far.
Filmography
2025 Nikos' Long walk
2022 A Night of Riots
2019 Confession
2017 Fish Bowl
2016 Y.K.AN.
2015 The Storyteller
2013 Cookies
2013 Tanabata