Like a Western Christmas Eve family story, this film is based on director Chieh Yang‘s own experience. Using the little girl as her avatar, she’s telling us the farce of a Chinese family reunited on a Chinese New Year's Eve in the 1980s for a dinner that’s not a happy meal, but also a magnification of grievances. Through the little girl’s unreasonable fun, we see her regret for her father’s absence, an epitome of a Chinese family, and the larger history of Taiwan’s national changes. Jury Prize for Taiwan Competition at the 2018 Kaohsiung Film Festival.  

The lives of an Indian family are hilariously disrupted when their patriarch decides to adopt a rooster as a pet. We watch as each member of the family (including two cats) tries to adjust to the new situation, even as Tungrus’ constant crowing and aggression drive the film to its inevitable conclusion. First-time director Rishi Chandna captures the chaos inside a cramped Mumbai apartment with humour and warmth, proving that short documentaries can entertain. Best Documentary at the 2018 Shorts That Are Not Pants.

Mysteries, obsessions and reveries overlap as a feverish child’s mind plays tricks on him by making him confront his fears and face anxiety-inducing situations while he wanders a hostile, empty, uninviting house undergoing construction. Director Aaron Poole blurs the line between the real and the dream through slow shots and chiaroscuro lighting, allowing the unpredictable and the unexpected to happen. Grand Prix National Competition Shorts at the 2019 Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.

In a striking black-and-white animation that’s as deceivingly simple as it is inventive with form, this shape-bending, haunting short film combines a minimalist style with a captivating voice-over to transport us into the mind and body of a woman trapped by an eating disorder. Best Nordic Animation at the 2019 Minimalen Short Film Festival.

The latest work from the duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, Swinguerra – a word play between “swing” and “Guerra” (meaning war in Portuguese) – was commissioned to represent Brazil at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Following a continuous artistic research, the film references popular expressions of culture, specifically, the Brazilian musical genre of swingueira. The dance competitions being explored are given a dreamlike, almost fantastical, quality. Here, the fictional war has a whimsical effect. A hybrid of visual arts and cinema, this short film is above all a sensorial experience where politics are transfigured into bodies and their movements. Best Brazilian Short Film at the 2019 São Paulo International Short Film Festival.