My shards
A man suffers from schizophrenia and imagines a group of friends with whom he spends time in his house. The doctor prescribed a medication that he does not take. Because of this, he reacts and has hallucinations. He sees people who don't exist and carries on having conversations by himself.


Best Short Film (Main Category)
Best Actor (Main Category)
Best Thriller (Additional Category)
Best Trailer (Additional Category)


Directed by: Ciubotariu Rozalia Irina
DATING AUDREY
DATING AUDREY is the story of Pete Trumbull, a nostalgic young man who spends too much time wallowing in self-pity and living in the past. After a night of bingeing his late mother's Audrey Hepburn films, Pete wakes up to find Audrey there with him, attempting to help him move forward. The lesson Pete learns from their time together is that yearning for the past only delays one's future.


Best Short Film (Main Category)
Best Director (Main Category)
Best Actor (Main Category)
Best Actress (Main Category)
Best Cinematography (Main Category)
Best Original Score (Main Category)


Directed by: Dan Hertzog
703 - short, gay and delicious
Pizza call center worker Claire knows that something is terribly wrong when her long time customer James struggles with his usual order.


Best Short Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Tom McIntire
Simon
When Simon knocks on a couples door, he brings news that will turn their world upside down.


Best Short Film (Main Category)
Best Actor (Main Category) - Sam Garioch
Best Drama (Additional Category)


Directed by: Ed Willey
Diana from Hong Kong
Diana Sato (41 years old), a woman from Hong Kong, lives in Tokyo, Japan with her two elementary school-age sons and Eiji (8 years old). Diana starts her own Chinese conversation class as a side job to save for her son's future.
Taku Nagayasu (35 years old) joins Diana's Chinese conversation class due to her random chance. Nagayasu was a 35-year-old part-time worker who lived with vague anxiety about his life.
Through his Chinese conversation class, Nagayasu gradually began to look beyond Japan to the world. At the same time, a major event that shook the world was taking place in Hong Kong...


Best Feature Film (Main Category)
Best Independent Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Naoki Fujimoto
Back to the Lake
When memories overwhelm her, Leila, aged 19, experiences a sensation akin to being submerged. She is battling dissociative episodes, where her anxieties, remorse, and delusions become entangled. Despite her ability to endure, the burden of her past experiences remains inescapable. Like water clinging to her upon reaching the shore, the residue of her memories persists.


Best Experimental Film (Main Category)
Best Student Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Jinyang Li
Bespoke ART
When bespoke becomes a label for optimized service, the human race is no longer content with customizing things; it begins to customize humans. One by one, the perfect service, the perfect children, the intricate global fertility chains, and the women therein fade out from the documentary footage, while director Jingjing steps into the spotlight from behind the camera. She becomes a Thai surrogate in captivity, but also a surrogacy agent who achieved upward social mobility; she turns into a selfless and hypocritical American surrogate mother – a product of technology born through surrogacy herself; she even tries to play an elite black lesbian at the very top of the feminist chain of contempt, only to collapse in on herself.


Best Experimental Film (Main Category)
Best Director Of Photography (Main Category)
Best Actress (Main Category)
Best Director Debut (Additional Category)
Best Producer (Additional Category)
Best Poster (Additional Category)


Directed by: Jingjing Chen
Return To Planet Underground (Part1)
A former underground techno dj working at a big famous law firm spirals down to dark sides of society where the war already started and finds himself in moral grayareas. With one eye on the past and one eye on the future he stirs among the ashes of the real underground.


Best Experimental Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Gideon Homes
...Or to Be
The stories of non-meeting. Two people trapped in a triangle of emptiness, fear and loneliness. Dance video as a story of life, as an object. Performers in a dialog with space, sound, light and paper.
Both the dance video and the video installation …Or to Be evolves, shapes and naturally transforms one of the main topics of the piece – space in a dialog with characters, light and sound which are understood as an equal partner in creation. Thanks to that finds a spectator himself in an unusual and unexpected spatial contexts and perceptions.
The original duet is the result of two “solos” of the dance piece involving another area of the dance video as an object.
Presents two people trapped in a triangle of emptiness, fear and loneliness. Two characters transformed as the natural culmination of the original piece into a triangle of space-sound-lights. A caricature of near misses, it is an urgent commentary on our inability to abandon routine stereotypes, relax into hysteria and get at least a little bit closer to one another.
Two characters, each unaware of the other, are connected only by the spectator who sees them together. The audience witnesses this non-meeting, imagining what would transpire if the characters caught sight of one another. The production offers an original take on the oppressive emptiness of the present, experienced against a backdrop of ceaseless communication and the endless accumulation of experiences.
The installation consists of two separate videos which are being simultaneously projected either opposite or next to each other. A spectator experiences two separate stories of non-meeting in one space/room.


Best Experimental Film (Main Category)
Best Dance Video (Additional Category)


Directed by: Stéphanie N´Duhirahe
THE ORDER.
THE ORDER is a search for answers to questions about people and the world. It is the result of "conversations" with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Why shouldn't the "creator" ask the "creation" what he thinks about it?


Best Experimental Film (Main Category)
Best Dance Video (Additional Category)


Directed by: Wojciech Turek
Dear John Olvey
"A woman copes with grief after her husband's sudden death, finding strength and purpose in rebuilding her life."


Best Short Documentary Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Scott Thurman
Pastrone!
The finding of an autobiographical manuscript written by Giovanni Pastrone, the most relevant figure of Italian Silent film, prompts a researcher to reopen the historically closed case on the director.
After having dominated the early phases of Cinema, Giovanni Pastrone abandons his creature to become a self-taught healer, devoting the rest of his life to Man's antagonistic struggle against Death.
This documentary sheds a complete new light over an emblematic exponent of the 20th century and the stunning story of his only tragic failure.


Best Feature Documentary Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Lorenzo De Nicola
Legerin, in search of Alina
As Alina transforms into Legerin, her story mirrors the broader Women Life Freedom movement. Beginning in Cuba, her engagements in Mexico, exploration in Syria, and journey through Europe converge in a shared struggle for women's rights worldwide.
As Alina undergoes a transformative metamorphosis into Legerin, her personal evolution mirrors the broader transformation within the Women Life Freedom movement. Commencing in Cuba, her engagements with the Zapatistas in Mexico, her journey through Europe and exploration of the Kurdish cause in Syria symbolize a convergence of struggles. These experiences forge vital connections between seemingly distant realities, significantly contributing to the overarching fight for women's rights globally.
Through the lens of Alina's journey, "Legerin: In Search of Alina" provides a compelling insight into why women around the world draw inspiration from the Women Life Freedom movement. The film captures not only Alina's unique and transformative experiences but also sheds light on the broader message of women's agency, resilience, and the pursuit of a life free from oppressive structures.
In essence, "Legerin: In Search of Alina" emerges as a narrative thread intricately woven into the fabric of the Women Life Freedom movement—a powerful testament to the influential role of individual stories in shaping the collective struggle for equality, autonomy, and the universal right to lead a life of freedom.


Best Feature Documentary Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Maria Laura Vasquez
Take your space
The first feature-length documentary on Mexican urban art and graffiti was shot over the course of four years without any financial support from institutions. It is based on the coexistence of the community of Mexican urban artists, is independent and one hundred percent free in its expression. It also extends to the other branches of Mexican hiphop and skateboarding. The documentary familiarizes us with the development of the movement from its beginnings to the present day with a focus on its essence of rebellion and resistance. It presents urban arts as a path of freedom and independence of an individual, who is confronting the global power of the capitalist system and its attempt to invade our lives and the way we behave. The film also points to the characteristic feature of Mexican counterculture in relation to the resistance of native cultures.


Best Feature Documentary Film (Main Category)
Best Inspirational Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Karolína Alvarez
Time Machine
The year is 2099. When a moonquake reveals an unnatural rock formation, the protagonist gradually learns about the principles of rock formation and the true nature of the universe.


Best Animation (Main Category)


Directed by: Zihan GAO
Wild Eye Pub
Are you tired of watching depressing or overly serious short films over and over again? Our film will introduce you to the world of alcoholic hideouts and absurd attempts to get love. During an unplanned visit to a local taproom called „Wild Eye Pub“, the person of Death succumbs not only to a sudden love affair, but also to a number of other deadly mistakes and absurd situations. The short puppet animated film Wild Eye Pub by Filip Nerold is a crazy comedy full of cheeky and deranged humor.


Best Animation (Main Category)


Directed by: Filip Nerold
CHAIN
"Chain," directed by Ling Han, is a 3D animated short film featuring charming characters and a sophisticated environment. It uniquely tells the story of the mantis catching the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
"Chain" is visually stunning and emotionally rich, expressing nature's survival instincts and prompting viewers to ponder life's deeper questions. We sincerely recommend this film to fans of animation and proverbs.


Best Animation (Main Category)
Best Original Score (Main Category)
Best Sound Design (Additional Category)
Best Producer (Additional Category)


Directed by: LING HAN
Call Me Norma
Haunted by her reflection, Marilyn Monroe confronts her inner shadow, Norma Jean.


Best Short Screenplay (Main Category)


Written by: Rebekah Scheffelmaier
Today While Resting
A new mother tries to rest after a nasty fall, but is unsettled when her baby son seems to advance impossibly fast while in her husband's care.


Best Short Screenplay (Main Category)


Written by: Tommy Britt
Welcome To California / From L.A. County Jail to #1 in Sales
****Based on a true story.
Sandra leaves her sales job for Hollywood with 2 secrets: her desire to perform and her mental illness. Although twice her health sends her packing from L.A.'s world of acting schools, stunt work and romance she's determined to succeed the third time. Shortly after her arrival her mind clicks into a manic state. Within twenty-four hours she finds herself in the worst hell imaginable: detained and manic in a system that refuses to follow protocol. It follows her struggles with mental illness, romance and her rise from L.A. County Jail to #1 in Sales.


Best Feature Screenplay (Main Category)
Best Screenwriter Debut (Additional Category)


Written by: Sandra LeeAnne Boszko
Price of a bargain
Vincent Hill is a psychopathic writer who writes his own books because of his victims. When someone is no longer interesting enough for him, he decides to kill them.


Best Original Screenplay (Main Category)
Best Mobile Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Ciubotariu Rozalia Irina
48 Hours in Atoka
A young reporter is dispatched from Dallas Texas to cover a two-day music festival in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma of Atoka, when he learns local townsfolk have more on their minds than enjoying some music in the summer heat.


Best Unproduced Screenplay (Main Category)


Written by: Brad Heath
Rollaway
A violent incident uproots queer Russell's turbulent young East Coast life and lands him in Seattle in the care of his grandmother, Ida.


Best Unproduced Screenplay (Main Category)


Written by: Tom McIntire
Ritual
Mother and daughter live in a seemingly happy world. Every weekend they take the train to their grandmother's.This ritual has been repeated for many years. It is part of their lives. While waiting for the train and traveling, hidden emotions and desires are revealed.


Best Micro-Short Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Grażyna Maria Gudejko
The Sauce
A timid but earnest young man seeks wisdom in the dark lair of a skilled master practicing an ancient game. The game is Sauce, and its demands are heavy. The master questions the young novice, testing him to see if he is worthy, and all the while deftly shuffles his cups of the finest and tastiest sauces, making patterns and shapes that confound the younger man. Finally, it is all too much, and the neophyte must try his skill against the master in this great game—but is it a game? The young man will have to learn quickly if he doesn’t want to get lost in the game of Sauce.


Best Micro-Short Film (Main Category)


Directed by: Richard Goblin
The Gliwensbourg Chronicles - Season 1
Winter 1915, Northern France, a French trench is shelled and all the soldiers are buried, leaving only one survivor. Underground, he manages to crawl out into a hole leading to a tunnel. There begins a journey that takes our soldier to the mysterious village of Gliwensburg in 1925...
The soldier arrives, amnesiac, in the middle of a booty hunt between clans living reclusively in the marshes, a marsh that has been plagued by a curse for a decade. The loot hidden in a mine during the war is their ticket out, but the threatening presence of mysterious creatures makes underground expeditions perilous...
As one problem never comes alone, an agent of the State arrives in Gliwensbourg to shed light on the County's finances in the midst of a national policy of economic recovery. The noose is tightening around these unsociable people. Lala, the Elder and Shaman of the 'melons' community, warns the soldier about this announced agent of the State whose fate is linked to his own. He absolutely must find out what mission the Djinns have entrusted him with, and the clock is ticking...


Best Director (Main Category)
Best Original Score (Main Category)
Best Cinematography (Main Category)
Best Web-Series (Additional Category)


Directed by: Emilie TOMMASI
Immersion
A woman in a new home must protect her family while contending with the unexpected inhabitants of her house.


Best Director (Main Category)
Best Producer (Additional Category)
Best Poster (Additional Category)


Directed by: William R.A. Rush
The Guest
Temporarily living at her friend's house, Sofia is stalked by a supernatural being who seeks to impose his authority.


Best Actress (Main Category) - Abril Capitani
Best Director Debut (Additional Category)
Best Poster (Additional Category)
Best Horror (Additional Category)


Directed by: Franco Nicolás Maldonado
Ancient Lands and Lives-Above the Grand Canyon Rims
Ancient Lands & Lives- Above The Grand Canyon Rims is a high impact and fast-paced short Docu-music video that embraces Arizona’s Grand Canyon wildlife experience through versatile animal habitats and its resilient pinyon-juniper evergreen trees on the Canyon's Rims. Its vast colorful canyon rock formations reveal layers in geological time, dramatic thunderstorms with rising cloud formations, dark night skies (Milky Way Galaxy visible) and sacred tribal lands.


Best Editing (Main Category)
Best Composer (Additional Category)


Directed by: Carol J. Amore
Frankenstein
A movie musical, based on Mary Shelley's novel, about the human need for love and companionship.
Having lost his mother at a young age, Victor Frankenstein seeks to end human mortality and arrogantly enters territory beyond his control. While he enjoys unconditional love from Elizabeth, he grants none to his creation.


Best Original Score (Main Category)


Directed by: Joe LoBianco
LANDSLIDE
A young man, tormented by inner demons and anguish, seeks solace in nature. One day, when he discovers a hidden gift beneath a tree, his entire existence undergoes a profound transformation.


Best Student Film (Additional Category)
Best Young Actor (Additional Category) - Anton Forsdik


Directed by: Julius Wadman
SNAKES!!
When a small town is ambushed by an unwelcome reptile, people start to question whether or not it can actually be killed.


Best Young Director (Additional Category)


Directed by: Zander Rice
The Little Boy and The Duck on a Cliff's Edge - Feature Film
A young aspiring writer, living in poverty, struggles to look after her grieving family, whilst dealing with her own guilt, after her little brother dies in her watch. She goes to a cliff's edge to commit suicide when she is greeted by a little boy and a duck who try and persuade her to go home. A feature film set in the cost of living crisis in Hastings, East Sussex.


Best Screenwriter Debut (Additional Category)


Written by: Gabriella Leonardi
Widow's Wishes
After accidently killing her husband, Nivea turns to her friends, Swahlli, Iesha and Asia, their therapist to help cover her crime.


Best Television Script (Additional Category)
Best Screenwriter Debut (Additional Category)


Written by: Holly Sawyer
Reality Is On To Something
A widowed, Black therapist finds herself begrudgingly in grief therapy that doesn't work out and restarts life as a stand-up comedian after going through a series of life-changing events.


Best Television Script (Additional Category)
Best Screenwriter Debut (Additional Category)


Written by: Holly Sawyer
Imbroglio
“Imbroglio” is set in a timeless and imaginary Italian world and is a loving nod to the arch Hollywood and European film noirs of the forties and fifties.
Giorgio Gambetti is a Tax Inspector for the ‘Giustizia Tributaria’, whose profession of expiring frauds parallels a personal quest.. to hunt down the young libertine who has corrupted his wife, Maria.
Giorgio’s private search takes him to the underbelly of a city that knows his name only too well. His pride crushed (by having to confess his wife’s infidelity during his investigation), Giorgio concludes that there is no civil way out of his suffocating predicament – his “imbroglio”. So when he finally procures to confront the young love rival in a downtown café, he finds that there is no recourse but to take a life.


Best Scenography (Additional Category)


Directed by: Ian Sciacaluga
Hot Air Hippo
A hot air balloon in the shape of a hippo, and an opera singer, cross paths in the Arctic.


Best Composer (Additional Category)
Best ECO Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Nicholas Snyder
A SONG FOR TWO
A man lives with a clone - a female version of him. The things get complicated when he discovers that the clone actually claims that the man is in fact the one cloned by her.


Best Drama (Additional Category)
Best Black & White Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Franciszek Przanowski
virus
In the futuristic world of highly advanced technology, human beings are transformed into mechanical lifeforms. A deadly electronic virus suddenly breaks out and the entire mechanical civilisation is on the verge of destruction.


Best Sci-Fi (Additional Category)


Directed by: Yufeng WANG
The Guest
Temporarily living at her friend's house, Sofia is stalked by a supernatural being who seeks to impose his authority.


Best Horror (Additional Category)


Directed by: Franco Nicolás Maldonado
The Low and Mighty
The village dignitaries go hunting with the new farm manager… What could go wrong?


Best Dark Comedy (Additional Category)


Directed by: Karácsony Péter
Queen: checkmate for the King
This documentary film expresses the will and commitment to sharing, through the story of emotions and experience, the context of the socio-cultural event 'Queen: "Check the King"', and with it re-present the testimonies of the victims of gender violence and feminicide.
Especially that of Stefania, who asked that her experience be of help to other women who experience or have experienced similar domestic violence.
It is the desire to put one's suffering at the service of others: a way to overcome it and prevent other people from experiencing similar pain.
The event we are describing, developed with the theatrical communication formula (let's not just call it a theatrical show), took place in Palermo on 27 May 2023 by the associations Vita Onlus of Milan and MarcoSacchi of Palermo, with the collaboration of Ennio Giganti, for the organization and planning part; Sergio Vespertino for the theater planning and direction and with the personal contribution of Dacia Maraini.
This film supports the commitment of all those who actively work against gender violence, with the aim of spreading the cultural, cognitive aspects and awareness of what still happens around us, so that everyone is no longer an extra in life of others, but can become a protagonist and actor by giving a concrete hand in helping victims of gender violence and helping to stop this social plague.
All this is presented with the concreteness of life, without pretending not to know or see. To address the issue responsibly, it is necessary to assume one's share of objective responsibility, because everyone is still part of the Educating Community, which has the task of preventing, combating and reporting, without silence, shame or fear.
With the courage to do and testify; with strength to ask for help and help; with the commitment to promote a healthy sentimental and civil education, today we take the step, without shame, to report and ask for help.
Let's keep alive the desire and hope that all this can soon end.


Best Educational Film (Additional Category)
Best Inspirational Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Luca De Giorgi, Sergio Vespertino
Wait in the Car
Adrift while burdened by the weight of grief, Robert seeks a way through the obscurity of a life he never planned. Carrying only mementos of former happiness and fear of the untrodden path ahead, he is lead on a pilgrimage chosen by fate, where footprints will be erased and a heavy past unable to follow.


Best Music Video (Additional Category)


Directed by: Damien Hyde
Heroin(e) Hypocrite
"Heroin Hypocrite" is a high-energy, punk song written by Amy Swallow. The song explores themes of identity, the importance of authenticity and self-deception through satire and vintage imagery. The lyrics depict a narrative where someone presents a facade, projecting a “rockstar” image of rebellion while concealing their own vulnerability and inner turmoil. This video utilizes dolls, toys and eccentric costumes to not only call-out the romanization of drug use, but also to call back the importance of staying true to your child self.


Best Music Video (Additional Category)


Directed by: Marz Gebhardt
Closet
Each person expresses their perspective on clothes and the episodes related to the clothes through movement. Find your true self, get out of the frame, and add more colors.


Best Dance Video (Additional Category)


Directed by: YESEUL CHOI
My Mum Used to Call Me Sister
Award-winning photographer and author Sonia Marin has been capturing the cherished memories and life of her grandmother and mother over the past twenty years. This is a lifelong journey into retracing the steps that the women in Marin’s life have taken as they ventured from Italy to the United Kingdom and back. The photography book Twenty Weights, Please represents the pinnacle of this journey, along with an intimate short film written by Sonia Marin and shot by Vittoria Elena Simone, My Mum Used to Call Me Sister. Every aspect of this project has been lovingly nurtured and presented, allowing us to delve into the intricate narratives that transport us back to the vibrant 1950s through the director’s lens.
“My mum used to call me sister was born from my overpowering need to imagine and to tell: I remember at her place, between a cigarette and a cup of tea, how her tales from that past captured my imagination, I was fascinated and I really felt as if I had been there myself in those streets, in that factory and, under that damp sky... I could almost smell the air.
I interviewed my mother and I wanted her to remember as many details as possible, and her words took shape in precise and recurring images, simple moments of everyday life that returned like unexpected gifts, giving her a comforting smile. It is that sense of belonging that I wanted to resurface, a link with that precise moment, a homage to a past that reshapes and returns as a moment to contemplate.
As I showed my mom the project, I think she was moved. She paused for a moment; it certainly didn't close the wounds, but it brought peace. Yet, the feeling of what could have been still lingers. This weighty inheritance passed down from my grandmother to my mother and now to me, serving as a reminder of missed opportunities and of the persistent longing to do something meaningful in life.
Even before working on this short film, the text included in the photography book related to this project speaks of a shirt that breathes when the wind occasionally touches it. And I realize that these images, notes, and reflections always return to my photography unconsciously. All narration lies in this - the presence and absence. The house may appear empty, yet there's intangible energy persisting. It's like a room filled with memories, a box within a box, each layer holding its own significance”


Best No-Budget Film (Additional Category)


Directed by: Sonia Marin
GHATTAM
A gripping short story, 'Ghattam,' revolves around a mysterious watch that entangles its wearer in a perplexing loop of events."


Best Thriller (Additional Category)


Directed by: Vidhun V Nair
BE A PART OF IT TOO
Art Giraffe International Film Festival is opened to participants from all over the world.

© All Rights Reserved. AGIFF Inc.
Contact us: artgiraffefilmfestival@gmail.com