Daddy

Best Short Screenplay

When a seasoned criminal gets a chance at freedom, he must reconnect with his daughter — before their fragile bond is broken.

Part of Me

Best International Short Film

“Part of Me” is a visual exploration of the inner world of a person suspended between inertia and the urge to act.
The protagonist lives within the realm of her own dreams and memories, seeking to reconnect with nature and with herself.

Her journey unfolds through symbolic elements – earth, air, and water. Stilt-walkers embody the earth, aerial acrobats the air, and synchronized swimmers the water. Through them, she seeks liberation and understanding, searching for the boundary between humanity and nature.

Her song becomes a unique language – a voice expressing inner pain and the longing to reclaim a lost connection. In response, mysterious beings appear, embodying the very forces of nature.

The film is a meditative tale about the attempt to listen – to nature, and to oneself; about the pursuit of balance and meaning in a world where the boundaries between reality and imagination gradually dissolve.

Best Day Ever

Best Documentary Short Film

Best Day Ever follows the stories of adaptive mountain bikers Greg Durso and Allie Bianchi as they navigate the relentless challenges of their disabilities and embrace the tremendous support, friendship and joy they find in their rural Vermont riding community. Allie and Greg navigate disability and regain independence with humor, attitude, and grit on mountain bike trails that dismantle ableism, build community, and become a blueprint for trails anywhere.

Terminal To Stage

Best Original Score

Lucia, a meek flight attendant at a small NY airport, has buried her dream of singing beneath routine and self-doubt. A chance encounter in Terminal 8 leaves her holding a stranger’s lipstick — a shimmering token of inspiration she uses in dim banquet bar before she gets on stage, only to find the strange woman appear again at the center of a volatile love triangle during her performance. To Lucia, the woman seemed like a muse, bold and intoxicating, yet her inspiration proved false, tangled in betrayal and illusion. In the aftermath, Lucia finds her true voice and an unexpected ally in a bystander — a friendship born from heartbreak that gives Lucia the courage to keep going.

FAMILIAR YET UNKNOWN

Best Experimental Short

A woman wanders through a forest of mirrors.
Her identity unraveling as she glimpses herself only in reflections.
Alone, she sings a-cappella, her voice echoing through her fractured image.

Empty Your Pockets

Best Short Film

A young airport customs officer must secure an advance on his salary to afford his mother’s medication. As the dark side of his job becomes more clear, he must decide what matters to him the most, and what cost he is willing to pay.

Juniper

Best Environment Short

In the high mountains of the Catalonian Pyrenees, Núria and Josep pick juniper berries to sell to gin factories. Their labour is invisible, and so are the territories they gather from. Once a lucrative business, this gleaning practice is now nearly extinct due to environmental and economic transformations. Rural depopulation, hyperregulation, and climate change in a region marked by environmental, demographic, and economic collapse have all eroded foraging. This film documents the daily life and labour of a couple that sustains an age-old tradition.

The Shapeshifter’s Lament

Best Sound

The Shapeshifter’s Lament is a poetic fantasy reflecting on introduced species. Situating survival at the shifting boundaries between different life forms, it weaves a narrative of kinship, metamorphosis, and the fragile persistence of memory. The question remains: how might the original inhabitants respond to uninvited and introduced arrivals who disrupt the harmony of the land and its living forms?

Creaturas

Best Animated Short FIlm
Best First-Time Director

A shy boy brings monsters to life through his drawings. When they threaten his neighborhood, he must find the courage to stop them—discovering friendship along the way.

Finding True North

Best Producer

Finding True North chronicles the extraordinary journey of Josh Bogle—from a career-ending snowboarding injury and life-threatening struggles with addiction to discovering healing and purpose through adaptive surfing in Hawai‘i, ultimately transforming into the first quadruple amputee surfer with prosthetic legs and an inspiring voice for resilience, redemption, and the power of nature.

AFTERSHOCK

Best Actor
Best Cinematography

In London, Charlie — a 24-year-old American — meets Archie, a brooding, magnetic Brit whose charm feels like the antidote to everything she’s running from. Their summer romance burns fast and bright, but beneath the intoxication lies Archie’s struggle with addiction — a darkness Charlie can’t see until it’s already wrapped around them both.

When their relationship is tested by distance, Charlie experiences a sexual assault that fractures her already fragile sense of self. Told through fractured memories and aching silences, Aftershock traces the fault lines of love, trauma, and dependency as past and present bleed into one another.

Set against the shadows and quiet corners of London, the film is a raw, poetic portrait of a young woman caught between who she was, who she became, and who she’s fighting to be — a story of female resilience and the quiet rebellion of survival.

Cyber-Psycho Chronicles

Best Actor
Best Cinematography

New ‘Cyber-Psycho Chronicles’ Web Series Prepares to Unleash Digital Terror in Rowlett
The locally directed pitch film series explores a serial killer’s twisted psyche as he baits unsuspecting victims online
“Cyber-Psycho Chronicles” delves into the chilling psyche of a psychopathic killer, portrayed brilliantly by Texarkana’s own Kevin Williams, as he uses the vast labyrinth of the internet to ensnare his unsuspecting victims.

Some Of Us Watch The Sunset, Too

Best Director

From Showrunner/Exec Producer Brig Muñoz-Liebowitz – After a couple great dates, Gina Ramirez falls hard for Matt. It seems perfect: they went to the same college, they like the same things, and the chemistry is hot! But when Gina meets his circle of friends, it becomes apparent why they never crossed paths in college: he’s rich.

El Tiempo Que Guardamos

Best Short Film

The Time We Keep” follows Valeria Gomez as she navigates the painful aftermath of her father’s death, wrestling with the decision to erase her traumatic memories with the help of Rafael, a mysterious “Memory Collector.” In a series of emotional flashbacks triggered by her father’s pocket watch Valeria relives both the cherished and painful moments they shared. As she prepares to let go of her most haunting memory, Valeria is struck by a pivotal memory of her father teaching her about the interconnectedness of time and memory through the workings of the watch. This revelation leads her to embrace the full spectrum of her experiences, recognising that every moment, good or bad, is integral to her identity. Valeria ultimately decides to preserve her memories, affirming the enduring bond between her and her father.

Done to Life

Best Cinematography

When a woman begins to unravel, she mines her past for answers. The trauma of a particular event is at the root, but not for the reasons she first imagines.

Murphy’s Law

Best First-Time Director

Nora meets Charles for a date in hopes of love and comes face-to-face with Murphy’s Law.

Mini Painting

Best Documentary Short Film

A short documentary about the therapeutic benefits of painting miniatures.
Based on the experience of a group of friends reunited one evening in a painting session to cope with their struggles.

What can they learn from painting and what can they take with them into everyday life?

Limited Time Redemption

Best Student Short

Li Hao, the omnipotent student council president, becomes the target of a mysterious avenger’s revenge due to his tyrannical and violent behavior. Trapped in a car rigged with a bomb, he is forced to complete a series of “redemption” tasks under the avenger’s orders: groveling apologies to bullied members, confronting the truth behind sexual assault allegations, exposing corruption in campus construction projects… Each step forces him to reckon with his depraved past. Yet, his superficial repentance cannot mask hypocrisy—tempted by money, power, and a twisted hunger for control, this “redemption” spirals into a deranged act of self-annihilation.

Heavy Weight

Best International Short Film

High school student SeeWoo was playing with his little sister, SeoYeon, at home when a water balloon thrown by SeoYeon accidentally fell out the window, resulting in the death of the child living upstairs. The only ones who know the truth are SeeWoo and his mother. SeeWoo hesitates out of fear, but his mother strongly opposes his desire to confess.

Perfect Wall

Best Experimental Short

Symmetrical stiffness Perfectionism artist Oh Ju-bom’s perfect daily life begins to distort.

The Mountain that lives again

Best Documentary Short Film

SACREBLEU 

Best Environment Short

The Stork 

Best International Short Film

Dream To Cure Water

Best Documentary Short Film

To The End

Best Director

When humans really get the chance to live forever, what will they choose.

Picture Break

Best Supporting Actress

A journalist attends the press screening of a movie that’s only a few days away from release. Meanwhile, we jump into the screen.

Lanternfly

Best Actress

In a world where she feels overlooked and insignificant, Althea finds solace in the company of similarly shunned creatures. When a mysterious stranger offers her the possibility of recognition, she must navigate the delicate balance between her desire for visibility and the true value of her unseen connections.

Commentator

Best Short Screenplay

Confused

Best Actor
Best Supporting Actor
Best Original Score

The two brothers, who couldn’t be more different, have a shared dream of a large farm. Slim, one of the brothers, runs a successful whisky distillery and lives with his partner, but they have to keep their homosexuality a secret.
The other brother Henry has become addicted to alcohol, which ultimately leads to the death of his daughter and the abandonment of his wife.
Their mutual friend Frank helps Henry to get out of the alcohol swamp

GRAVE

Best Animated Short FIlm

A gravedigger, haunted by guilt, is chased down by the secret he would rather keep hidden.

The Red Stone

Best International Short Film
Best Original Score
Best Sound

In Guadalajara, 1909, Carmen, an archaeologist, returns to investigate pre-Hispanic findings sent for the Independence Day anniversary. Amid political turmoil, she is tasked with restoring certain idols and objects, rumored to be cursed. Accompanied by Leonor, the housekeeper, Carmen explores the monumental house in search of answers. A grotesque specter, composed of human limbs, lurks in the shadows as Carmen discovers a special pre-Hispanic idol. The house becomes a terrifying stage where Carmen must decipher the mystery and survive this nightmare.

The Art of Looking

Best Documentary Short Film

Two seemingly different groups of people – astrophysicists who try to understand the world by looking at it through telescopes and slime researchers who study the micro-world of the smallest organisms through their microscopes – come to surprisingly similar conclusions about the nature of things and show that the main drive of humanity may be our natural curiosity.

The Fools Who Dream

Best Producer

Gary spends most of his time daydreaming, imagining himself in the movies he loves. With the arrival of a new classmate called Debbie, he feels an immediate attraction towards her, but without the confidence to approach her, he processes his feelings in a dreamlike way. That is until he meets her in reality, causing the thin line between dream and reality to collapse as he faces raw feelings he has never experienced before.

Amongst The Ropes

Best Supporting Actor

Welcome to the Boom Squad

Best Animated Short FIlm

Now What?

Best Short Screenplay

Medicine

Best Short Film

When Marjorie and Jack offer their help to a passenger and things take an unexpected turn, one wonders who was actually helping who.

No Way Beyond the Shadow

Best Cinematography
Best Student Short

A young man who seeks peace by fishing in a lake in a dystopian world tries to go beyond the “shadow” in his journey to find himself. This journey becomes not only an escape but also a test in which he questions the meaning of existence, freedom and the courage to face his own truth.

Shortcut to Destiny

Best Director

Inspired by Michael Ende’s surrealist tale, Shortcut to Destiny follows a young groom who, guided by a mysterious figure, crosses the “midday room”—an endless desert marked by a colossal door, behind which his bride awaits. But when he arrives, something is not as she expected. Desperate to find him, she embarks on the same journey, unaware of what lies ahead. In a desert where time twists and destiny is inevitable, their paths are forever intertwined.

$TACK$

Best Director

Unprecedented times force two fierce rivals to come face to face, for the first time in over a decade, to close a deal for the most valuable substance on earth. Featuring the Daytime Emmy nominated performance of Mark Christopher Lawrence as Hector, $TACK$ is a sarcastic plea for every viewer to be responsible for the attitudes, assumptions and judgments buried deep inside themselves. It’s timely message taunts, teases and dares the audience to discover the film’s hidden twists and clues before their own biases and assumptions lead them down the wrong path.

Fiabexit

Best International Short Film

We too have the right to dream

Fiabexit

Best Spanish Short Film

Paula is about to reveal an invention that will change the rules of the world we live in, but minutes before the presentation she will have a streaming interview with her biggest detractor in front of millions of people.

CHAIN

Best Animated Short FIlm
Best Original Score
Best Sound

“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.

Just For Now

Best First-Time Director
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor

Jessica has just found out she may have made the biggest scientific discovery of not only her life, but the history of mankind. While celebrating her success at her best friend’s diner, she meets Isaac, a charming man who is curious about her monumental achievement. Their flirtatious conversation takes a left turn as Jessica is forced to make a life changing decision that will alter her reality.

Saving Fairy Creek

Best Environment Short

A journey into Systemic Racism with the Indigenous community, focusing on Elder Bill Jones, who’s been fighting to save the Old Growth Forrest in British Columbia, Canada.

Blue Snakes

Best Actor

Blue Snakes delivers a gripping tale of revenge, redemption and the cost of standing up to corruption. It blurs the lines between right and wrong and follows Vince who is battling personal demons and mental health whilst seeking to make amends for past mistakes. Set in a backdrop of escalating crimes and city life encompassing the strains, the hate and the travesties sent to test the strongest of characters.

미래 / Here After

Best Experimental Short

Unknown

Best Student Short
Best Cinematography

A person who wants to get rid of his chains suddenly starts running towards the shining light while sitting in the middle of the snow. There is neither light nor anything else at the end of the road.

Your Room Is Ready

Best Short Film

After waking up in a mysterious hotel lobby, an arrogant hot-tempered businessman must find a way out and come to terms with the consequences of his actions.

Same but Different

Best Documentary Short Film

We take two actors and have them perform one scene in two languages – English and Italian. How different would the scene become when performed in a different language?

Lexi and Alejandro

Best Short Screenplay

A couple toast to their 20th anniversary at home, with a celebratory take out chicken dinner and box wine. But tonight, he has a surprise for her, an intrusive digital device that no home should be without.

Of Prophets and Fools

Best TV Series Pilot Script

THE CURIOUS WOODS

Best Actor

Widowed and retired professor, Bernie lives a rather well-worn life in his house in the mountains. When a mysterious young couple moves in next door, his peaceful life is challenged as their constant brawls bring back painful memories of his past.
Driven by a burning desire to unearth the truth, he gathers the courage to follow the young couple into the forest one day hoping to find answers about his deceased wife. What happens there will change the course his life forever.

Behind The Trees

Best Environment Short

Join Trees for Life, a charity on a transformative 30-year journey to rewild the Scottish Highlands. With over 2 million trees planted to date, this documentary, presented by the Clean Planet Foundation, offers an intimate look behind the scenes of this monumental conservation effort. Experience the passion, challenges, and triumphs as nature’s guardians work tirelessly to restore Scotland’s majestic landscapes.

the woods are lovely, dark and deep

Best Sound

Junction

Best Short Film

Three women at a unique juncture in their lives, grapple with the challenge of connecting with those around them.

The Garden of Healing

Best Short Film

A wealthy Yoruba family is nearly torn apart from within by grief, anger, resentment and waning intimacy… Until a young boy takes matters into his own hands and accepts help from a mysterious stranger.

Up, Up and Away

Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Producer

Half Past Four

Best Animated Short FIlm

A rural village in South Korea in the 1960s when wall clocks were rare. A 6-year-old girl with a red skirt goes to the village store to ask the time. However, the child does not return home immediately and is fascinated by the animals and plants of the neighborhood. When the child arrived home, the sun had already set and darkened.

It’ll get lighter with time

Best Experimental Short

In “It’ll get lighter with time” we follow CM, a writer haunted by his own mind’s creations. His journey oscillates between reality and the surreal, beginning in the starkness of an office and spiraling into the depths of internal conflict in a mysterious place. The narrative twists further as CM encounters a mysterious figure, propelling him into a realm where fantasy and psyche intertwine. Through encounters with fears and desires, CM is thrust into a quest for self-mastery, learning how to deal with his internal voices.

Remnants

Best International Short Film

Set over a single weekend, Remnants is an intimate drama about a son struggling to connect with his widowed father, and a cruel horror in which ageing, illness and dementia are haunting them both.

Love Lockdown

Best First-Time Director

LOVE LOCKDOWN is a darkly twisted love story about lonely people who go to desperate lengths to find love in a disconnected world; and a woman who is finally ready to take control of the narrative of her own reinvention. How far will she go to have the of life of her dreams?

Epilogue

Best Actress

A bitter empty nester has a heart to heart with her deceased sister.

TOMINO

Best Student Short

Erica, a young student is writing her thesis statement on an urban legend known as Tomino’s Hell. After being able to get her hands on a cassette recording of an individual translating the poem from Japanese that is said to be cursed. Reading out loud the poem and then directly dying, Erica starts listening to the recording in the desire to add her analysis in her thesis. Without knowing the terrible consequences, Erica brings to life a terrifying force.

En Avant L’Etoile du Nord ou La joie de “vie”

Best Documentary Short Film

The Last Sketch

Best Short Screenplay
Best Original Score

Beauty

Best Animated Short FIlm

A deer runs for its life in a forest awash with death.

The Croissants

Best Spanish Short Film

A well-intentioned surprise goes awry when one man thinks their situationship is more serious than the other.

Rimbaud’s Left Hand

Best Cinematography
Best Actor

When an unstable vagrant is discovered living in the walls of a bar, the quick-witted owner must navigate the situation until help arrives before things take a turn for the worse.

Florescence

Best Short Film

A young married couple retreat to an English country house in an attempt to salvage Lucy’s worsening mental health. John’s strict instructions and their self-imposed isolation pushes their relationship to breaking point and Lucy begins to experience strange phenomena in the house.

Dr. Vaje

Best Environment Short

In a marginal barrio of Havana, lives and works “Dr. Vaje” a philosopher-shoemaker who gives new life to worn-out shoes, in respect of Mother Earth.

Damagement

Best International Short Film

On the small island of Castara, a couple of goons use their best terrorizing techniques to squeeze their target, but nothing can prepare them for the hand that they’re dealt in this dark comic tale.

The Serena Variations

Best Director
Best Original Score

A young female violinist with undiagnosed autism spirals out of control as she works on a new opus with a domineering composer, embarking on a psychedelic journey that both pushes her to the edge of mental collapse and fuels her creative power.

God’s Plan

Best Documentary Short Film

The inspiring story of the founding and construction of a medical clinic in Higueronal Panama which provides not only health care but Bibles and spiritual health to the surrounding communities! The 20 year journey from concept to opening involved many people and organizations including Jason Moore, Larry Brady, Mission Clinics International, Royal Oak Church of Christ, and Ruben Leon!

Princess Love

Best Actress
Best Producer

After losing her mother, 16-year-old Madison becomes pregnant as a result of being sexually assaulted. Alone, scared and confused, she decides to take matters into her own hands as she turns to the only person she has left – her father.

BLACK WOMAN WHITE MAN

Best Supporting Actress

A young writing critic stumbles upon an attractive young woman at her usual reading spot in a local park. When she finally ushers the confidence to talk to the young woman, a mysterious white man shows up and blocks her chance. The young critic then begins to tussle with the idea that she is never going to measure up to her competition and it sends her down to a spiral that leads her to question her own worth.

Sistem

Best TV Series Pilot Script

Young girl is a victim of the sistem

Bite of Passage

Best Student Short

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Best Experimental Short

BAGS

Best First-Time Director

THE BLIND

Best Short Screenplay

Exchange Offer

Best International Short Film

A complaint registered to the manufacturing company for a dead computer brings back nostalgia and surprises in the life of a retired school principal who leads a lonely, mundane life.

The Roundabout

Best Documentary Short Film

Bader and Yunes, Moroccan immigrants, survive in a settlement next to a busy roundabout on the road to a tourist resort on the Almeria coast. They show us their day to day. No one seems to notice them.

Mr. Munro

Best Experimental Short

REVERSE

Best Actress

The Brave Locomotive

Best Animated Short FIlm

An Old West musical tale with 1940s flair about a mighty little train facing harrowing disaster.

Staudamm (Dam)

Best Student Short

GOING HOME

Best Director

The journey of a Father to bring Home his busy Son for a last meeting with his Mother.

Picking up corpses

Best Actor

This is a materialistic society, There are many reasons why people lose themselves, When a drunken girl encounters a corpse picker with intellectual disabilities，she or he, Where will we go again？

I Need a Light

Best Short Screenplay

When a disgraced New York City journalist is forced to return to his southern hometown to report the news, he uncovers a crime story that could make or break his career.

The dead track

Best Environment Short

Crimson Sands

Best Cinematography

A man is trapped in his own mind and starts experiencing different hallucinations about ways his wife could die. As reality clarifies, we realise he may have done something unthinkable.

BUBBLES

Best First-Time Director

Café Marylin

Best Original Score

The well-known actor with one of the most famous voices in the country is invited to a meeting at Café Marylin, where over a cup of coffee, he is faced with the strange fact that his host’s voice is almost exactly the same as his own. And his vocal doppelganger knows a lot about him. Probably, much more than you can get from the tabloids.