The End in Slow Motion (United States) by Joshua Kaufman

A woman develops heightened awareness of the cruel world outside of an unnervingly calm house, as the threat of apocalypse stokes chaos.

Running time: 00:12:47

Life Support (United States) by Jamon Tolbert

Inspired by true stories, an emergency doctor struggling under the weight of life and death decisions must confront his own hidden traumas as he teaches a young medical student what it truly means to save a life.

Told with raw intensity and emotional depth, Life Support has won multiple jury awards for Best Short Film, Best First Time Filmmaker, & Best Performance. It offers a rare glimpse into the world of emergency medicine, where every choice can mean the difference between life and loss.

More than a film, Life Support has sparked a national campaign to heal a system in crisis. It has inspired an educational platform that uses film and storytelling to confront burnout and moral injury among doctors, nurses, and frontline responders, with the goal of reaching medical schools, residencies, and hospitals across the country.

Running time: 00:10:32

Kicking Toward Tomorrow! (South Korea) by Yunbin AN

A recreational soccer team run by a small Christian church — David and Goliath FC. For the team’s star player, Dongchan, soccer isn’t just a hobby — it’s his entire life. Fueled by an unrelenting desire to win, Dongchan throws himself into rough challenges and risky tackles without hesitation.

Each time he charges across the field, the referee’s whistle pierces the air again and again, and the opposing team rarely escapes without injuries. Unable to stand by any longer, team captain Jeonghwan decides it’s time to take action.

Running time: 00:29:59

The Floating Life|UNTAMED by yuyang cheng

The Floating Life Performance｜山海浮生 is an award-winning, multi-sensory immersive physical theatre show, created and directed by artist Yuyang Cheng in 2022 as her graduate work in Architecture Association School of Architecture Spacial Performance design (AAIS).

This signifies a life voyage, profound and poetic in its silence, as a multimedia artist and director, Cheng combines contemporary dance and multimedia and installation including AI as her poetic language which explores bodies as a unique medium in urban spaces, natural landscapes and the spiritual world under the oriental context. Imagine that your spiritual world and body coverage into a whisper towards nature. Our body landscape become the medium discusses the uniqueness among urban space, landscape and spiritual world. Dancing with the soul throughout a lifetime. We are just like a grain of dust floating through a silent journey towards the shimmering light at the end of darkness...

Running time: 00:20:50

Menagerie (United Kingdom) by Lingyi Cong

In a speculative future where the roles of humans and animals are reversed, the protagonist exists within a controlled, zoo-like environment, performing under constant observation. As animals in the present world grow numb to the human gaze and technology further distances humans from direct interaction with non-human life, this piece envisions a reality where captivity and surveillance reshape existence. Through surreal performances, it challenges the audience to confront the power dynamics of observation, the marginalization of animals, and the shifting boundaries between species, ultimately urging a reevaluation of humanity’s relationship with the animal world.

Running time: 00:03:53

A Robot of Me (Belgium) by Ron Chiers

A Robot of Me is a short AI-generated film that plays out like a virtual reincarnation of Andy Warhol in the age of artificial intelligence. In an apparently mundane scene - Andy buying soup in a supermarket - a philosophical daydream begins to unfold.

The film echoes his famous quote: “Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine, wouldn't you?” and raises the question of how Warhol might engage today with social media, AI, deepfakes, and prompts.

Running time: 00:02:45

Dragonfly (China) by Siyang Liu

Great-grandson Zhou Zihang has only two memories of his great-grandmother - her funeral and a contact. Unable to remember season and weather, he only remembers the persimmons that were handed to him and the unexplained crying

Running time: 00:19:27

Knife, Chocolate (Iran) by Hooshmand Varaei

This movie is the story of a happy family! The son of the family is antisocial, psychotic, skeptic and sexist who judges women by the smell of their cosmetics!

Running time: 00:15:00

Hairy Dreams (Canada) by Lina Cruz

Hairy Dreams evokes the interior world of a lonesome yet carefree character. Through words and movement, this is a visual abstract tale, taking place in a white cave-like space made of paper. Within this sort of origami igloo, a surrealist puzzle of images portrays the everyday routine of a diligent being.

Through various incongruent actions, the character assembles and disassembles repeatedly its interior translucent world. In this quest for an interior castle, time is always present, haunting yet of precious companionship.

The daily routine eventually leads to the ultimate goal: the need to be fed in order to keep the dream flowing. Towards the end of the cycle, in a sort of "oneiric" and liberating flight, the character swiftly disappears into the paper walls of its imaginary castle.

Running time: 00:08:57