Kiss/Crash (United Kingdom) by Adam Cole

What destruction is triggered by romance? What pleasure is there in a car crash? Kiss/Crash is a provocative short film that uses AI-generated imagery to explore the theme of desire and the expanding gap between real experience and artificial representation in the digital age. Here, an AI repeatedly and lovingly translates a car crash into a kiss, increasing in intensity with every collision. The piece creates a compelling metaphor between two seemingly unrelated Hollywood images: the violent car crash and the romantic kiss. Drawing on a familiar cinematic language, this piece also connects AI imagery to a long history of image-production technologies meant to incite and homogenize our desires through artificial representations.

Running time: 00:01:10

European Man...American Beach (United States) by Rex Shannon

A European man goes naked to an American beach. A clothed American beachgoer takes offense and a brawl ensues.

Running time: 00:06:56

Black Dragon (Rồng đen) (United States) by Alexander Thompson

Vietnam, 1968. A feared American colonel nicknamed “the Black Dragon” by Vietnamese locals must face his inner shadow when his platoon presents him with a captured Vietcong girl who harbors some very unusual powers. A Jungian psychological thriller/parable examining the capacity for monstrous evil lurking within us all, the film is loosely inspired by the My Lai Massacre, one of America’s most pernicious wartime atrocities. 

Running time: 00:14:40

Lost From Sea (United Kingdom) by Adriana Carlot

Based on Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” a siren by the name of Phoebe, takes on the appearance of a

human that walks on earth. She argues that her looks do not condemn others to death, but her eyes

are indeed soft and powerful. Phoebe walks along the estranged land, and delivers an impactful

monologue in a mesmerising, beautiful way.

Running time: 00:01:55

This Is Not a Drill (United States) by Hannah Whisenant

A personal experimental documentary where I process a recent diagnosis and talk to my sister about hers. Together, we discuss past experiences, regrets, and misfortunes while also acknowledging how our chronic illnesses make us better humans.

Running time: 00:16:00

Archeìo (Switzerland) by Jonathan Moratal

It is very complicated to get rid of your guilt. Stay calm, Archeìo will take care of it.

Running time: 00:02:20

The Factory (Iran, Islamic Republic of) by Masoud Saadat

Afrooz is an experienced lawyer who has the power to declare a large but bankrupt factory closed, on the other hand, the workers make a plan together to prevent this from happening.

Running time: 00:19:02

Motus (Portugal) by Nelson Fernandes

Motus: a body in motion. A stop-motion animation where conception, degradation and regeneration cohabit in a unique way. A creation on a metal sheet using ethanol as the raw material.

Running time: 00:04:10

Cataract (Denmark) by Jonatan Egholm Keis

A desperate woman robs a gas station with her nearly-blind younger brother and catapults herself into deep water in order to pay for his cataract surgery.

Running time: 00:24:24