2021 Official Selection 

Broken Down – US – Director: Jessy Cale Williamson 

• Harold, a guilt-ridden agoraphobic, must overcome the confines of his self-imposed prison to save a boy who has risked everything to help him. Broken Down is a powerful drama that explores how the journey to conquering the demons within begins by letting the heart reach out to others in need.

Beast Beast – US – Director: Danny Madden

• Three interweaving stories of youth navigating identity, first love, petty crime, and gun violence in a southern town.

Feature Documentary

Strings Attached – US – Director: Bruce Broder

• The documentary delves into the lives, on and off stage, of four superb musicians who give up the prospect of solo careers to form The Dover Quartet. The film captures when they ‘break through,’ winning the most prestigious international string quartet competition, and are suddenly in demand around the world. They achieve success and realize their dreams… but what does it mean? Will the endless days and nights on the road, the cheap hotels, the slim pay and the internal conflicts overwhelm their love of the music? Or will the music win?

Knots: A Forced Marriage Story – US – Director: Kate Ryan Brewer

• Forced and child marriage is happening all across the U.S., legally. Three survivors - Nina, Sara, and Fraidy - take us on a journey into the depths of this human rights abuse hiding in plain sight.

White Noise – US – Director: Daniel Lombroso

• The documentary is the definitive inside story of the movement that has come to be known as the alt-right. With unprecedented, exclusive access, White Noise tracks the rise of far-right nationalism by focusing on the lives of three of its main proponents: Mike Cernovich, a conspiracy theorist and sex blogger turned media entrepreneur; Lauren Southern, an anti-feminist, anti-immigration YouTube star; and Richard Spencer, a white-power ideologue. 

  The film takes the viewer into the terrifying heart of the movement—explosive protests, riotous parties, and the rooms where populist and racist ideologies are refined, weaponized, and injected into the mainstream. As white nationalist violence surges in America and across the world, White Noise represents an urgent warning about the power of extremism, and where it’s going next.

Short Narrative

A Separation – US – Director: Yalan Hu 

• On a warm autumn day in 1990, Huixian, a young Chinese woman, arrives in Florida to reunite with her PhD husband, after a four-year separation. Filled with blossoming hope and desire, she is introduced to another side of American life.

Call on Me – US – Director: Pia Cook 

• A lonely old man resorts to chatting with an equally lonely telemarketer.

Godmother – Iran – Director: Afshin Akhlaghifeyzasar

The Helping Hand – US – Director: Brenden Hubbard 

• From the Academy Award winning team behind Curfew, The Helping Hand explores the ties between technology and a growing family. With a new baby at home, young parents adopt a hi-tech monitoring system. Will it be an answer to their woes or have they invited a monster into their home? 

One – Spain – Director: Javier Marco Rico 

• Far out at sea, a cell phone floating inside an air-tight bag starts to ring.

Well – Spain – Director: Diego Puertas 

• A man wakes up in shock in the bottom of a well. No memories of how he got there. He's cold. It's dark and there's water all around him. He tries to climb the wall with his bare hands, but every time he ends up falling back into the water. Time is ticking away and his anxiety is on the rise. Then, a figure leans in at the top of the well...

Bodies – Iran – Director: Morvarid Kashiyan 

• It is a story of a transsexual. A boy who feels like a girl. He is a stage actor and has fallen in love with his director. 
  He would like to have a sex change and become a girl but his conservative father does not approve of this. 

Discovery – Russia – Director: Mikhail Saburov

• A father - daughter fishing trip leads to an unexpected discovery.

Ms. Rossi — Italy — Director: Pat Battistini

• While on her way to a business meeting, Ms. Rossi takes an interesting detour.

Horn – Iran – Director: Ghasideh Golmakani 

• An Iranian lady tries to find a place to park her car in Tehran to be on time for a business appointment. Men in the streets disturb her concentration while she is driving, but she finds a solution..

I’m Happy, I Promise – US – Director: Mimi Cave

• A series of phone calls between Parker and his friends narrate Parker's mission to find true happiness through superficial obsessions.

Show & Tell – US – Director: Sakshi Gurnani

• A 6-year old boy wants a Barbie doll for his collection of rugged toys but his mother thinks something might be 'wrong' with him. This humorous film reflects on the adult views imposed on children and creates a commentary on gender and identity. Will an Indian family accept their son if he is part of the LGBTQIA+ community?

The Camel Boy – France – Director: Chabname Zariâb 

• Somewhere in the desert, a little boy is plunged by force into an intimidating and completely foreign new world: the world of camel racing. Will the distant hope of seeing his mother again give him the strength to overcome his fears and find his place in this hostile environment?

The Pains of the Sea – Iran – Director: Mohammadreza Masoudi

• Syrian and Iraqi immigrants try to cross the sea to reach Turkey. A mother has to choose between seeing and not, the death of her child in front of her eyes in the sea...

Three Blades – France – Director: Matthieu Maunier-Rossi

• One day in the life of a family of three : three men, alone with their dreams and frustrations. Three generations under the burning sun. A day like every other day... And between them, everywhere, in every hand, there are blades: machetes.

Small World – US – Director: Jim Ford

• Two strangers meet in a far away land and realize they are from the same town.

Gifts from Babylon – Netherlands – Director: Bas Ackermann 

• Gifts from Babylon is a short narrative film exploring the psychological impact of illegal Africa-EU migration through the lens of a Gambian return-migrant. The film captures the personal conflicts that arise when Modou, a deported refugee, returns to his home country after having lived illegally in Europe for five years.

Faraway, So Close – US – Director: Gustavo Milan

• A young man relies on the support of his greatest ally in order to live the excitements of a double life

Dry Leaves – India – Director: Ali Sohail Jaura 

• Zahida arrives at a home for the old, believing her son will take her back after a week. Hesitant and apprehensive, she meets Farhat, who is full of hope but as the story unfolds she realizes that the future might be different from her expectations.

I Hope They Remember My Name – Canada – Director: Patrick Weiers 

• Struggling with depression, a famous vlogger travels to Asia and documents his search for dopamine.

Listen – US – Director: Jhanelle Elissa

• A black woman who feels like a glitch in society decides to speak up. When her outer bubbly persona is met with exhaustive complacency, she resorts to a tragic alternative with a smile.  

The Latent Circle – Iran – Director: Mohammad Homafar

Stucco – US – Directors: Janina Gavankar & Russo Schelling 

• J is trying and failing to move forward as the scars of old relationships keep her trapped inside her new home. While hanging a piece of art, she knocks a hole in her wall that reveals what might be a hidden room. Her mind races to think what could be on the other side as she continues to unravel.

Tea Time – US – Director: Tara Price 

• A story about a sweet little girl having an innocent backyard tea party with her toys… or so it seems. When no one else is looking, her toys come to life as real people and it’s revealed that ​she's actually their mob boss with a score to settle! Meanwhile, her oblivious brother is raining on her parade with his insistence that he and his action figure get to play too! Will ​the toys escape her bloody wrath?​ ​It's Calvin and Hobbes meets Scarface! With a special appearance from WWE Champion Rob Van Dam.

Waffle – US – Director: Carlyn Hudson 

• Kerry is at a sleepover with the socially awkward, mysteriously orphaned heiress Katie. Friendship--in a society that grows ever isolating--is explored as Kerry learns the hard way that Katie always gets what she wants.

Ashmina – UK – Director: Dekel Berenson 

• Nestled between a beautiful lake and the Himalayas, Ashmina, 13, lives with her family at the outskirts of Pokhara Nepal, paragliding capital of the world. The remote and traditional town is also a busy tourist destination where the locals are profoundly affected by the swarms of tourists who visit it daily. Forced to skip school, Ashmina helps her family make ends meet by working at the landing field, packing the parachutes of foreign pilots in return of small change.

Ekaant – India – Director: Swapnil Pagare

• 'Manasi' a poet and 'Sudha' a housewife are deeply in love with each other but the restrictions of the society has put chains around their relationship. Ekaant (Solitude) is expression of their secluded extramarital lesbian affair and poetic recital of first moment of closeness.

The Doe – France – Director: Jennifer Lumbroso 

• Helene is spending what seems to be a romantic week-end in French countryside until she has an argument with her lover and gets furious. She decides to flee away and finds herself in rural landscapes, clueless. Nature takes back its rights. The hunt is open. Helen becomes « the doe » while she encounters local characters.

2nd Class – Sweden – Director: Jimmy Olsson 

• Charlotte has a new job as a second grade teacher. One night she is attacked by a nazi and is severely injured. When she comes back to her students she discovers that one of her students is the son of that nazi.

Coming Home – US – Director: Kevin A. Kimball 

• Technical Sergeant Jack Ward, and Senior Airman Danny Spiro wait out a delay at the airport on their last leg home from a long deployment overseas. While Sergeant Ward has been through all this before, Airman Spiro is dealing with the reality of returning home for the first time to a baby girl who doesn’t know him and a wife who may no longer need him.

Eat Your Heart Out – US – Director: Giovanni Tortorici 

• Marceline is vegetarian, kind of lonely, and ready for her date with a cannibal.

The Mirror – Australia – Director: Joel Kohn

• When a young girl discovers a mysterious antique mirror in the basement of her ailing grandmother’s house, she accidentally opens a window between time that allows her to cross over into war-torn Nazi-occupied Poland.

Myosotis Love – US – Director: Charlie LaTourette

• An older woman plants flowers in the garden as she struggles to help her forgetful husband remember how they met. Questions of memory, loss, and love reveal the difference between fantasy and reality.

The Group of Eight – Russia – Director: Ivan Sosnin

• An ordinary hard-worker Ivan works on improving the city that will soon host the SUMMIT. One day he finds out that the city authorities decided to clean up the streets from stray dogs. Ivan makes a decision to help his four-footed friends.

Archibald’s Syndrome – France – Director: Daniel Perez

• Archibald was born with some curious curse: he can’t make a move without everyone around him doing the same thing. Now, a grown man, he robs, by despair, a bank. There, he meets Indiana, a young woman who always escaped every form of control.

Alina – US – Director: Rami Kodeih

• As Nazis separate children from their parents in the Warsaw Ghetto, a gang of women risks everything to smuggle their friend's three-month-old baby to safety. Inspired by true events.

Short Documentary 

Charlotte Mansfield, a Woman Photographer Goes to War – US – Director: Brian Graves 

• Drawing from an extraordinary archive of unpublished military photographs and personal correspondence, as well as expert and family interviews, "Charlotte Mansfield, a Woman Photographer Goes to War" tells the story of Sgt. Charlotte Dee Mansfield’s pioneering career as a Women’s Army Corps photographer during World War II.

Dieorama – US – Director: Kevin Staake 

• By day, she visits morgues, observes autopsies, and studies picture of crime scenes. By night, she turns nightmarish imaginings into precise, red-splattered miniatures.

By the River – Australia – Director: Daniel Braga Ulvestadd

• Stretching along the river Ganges rests Varanasi, the holiest of India’s seven sacred cities, and a place where devout Hindus go to die in hopes of achieving moksha - becoming liberated from the cycle of rebirth. Several so-called ‘death hotels’ exist to accommodate believers who abandon their lives and come here in wait for death - some for as long as 40 years.

Call Center Blues – US – Director: Geeta Gandbhir 

• Call Center Blues is a lyrical portrait  of an unlikely  community of US deportees and their loved ones struggling to rebuild their lives in Tijuana, Mexico. 

Affurmative Action – US – Director: Travis Wood

Modern Whore – Canada – Director: Nicole Bazuin

• University student by day, escort by night, Andrea Werhun led a secret life under the alias “Mary Ann.” To her horror, Andrea discovers outrageous online reviews of Mary Ann's sexual performance written by self-proclaimed “hobbyists.” In this hybrid documentary, hobbyist and escort perspectives collide with hilarious and revealing results. And when the sex work narrative is controlled by johns, there are darker consequences than just a bad review.

Student Shorts

Party Busters – Germany – Director: Patrick Büchting

• When Finn's parents get home sooner than expected, he must cover up a forbidden party, to save his father from getting a heart-attack.

Massacre – US – Director: Samir Arellano

• In Mexico 1968, a protest unfolds outside the apartment of six students.

No Exit – US – Director: Auden Lincoln-Vogel 

Pasture – US – Director: Graham Holford

• Banished and "unnatural", Levis and Giles must learn to adapt to a the secular world.

Last Day – US – Director: Szu-Wei Chen

• As work continues on the border wall, a Chinese sex worker gets surprising news from her visiting lover.

Sentience – France – Director: Guillaume Bierry

• An old lady and a robot, both frustrated of their physical conditions, choose to switch their bodies.

Give it Back! – Israel – Director: Ruchama Ehrenhalt

• Olivia just moved to Israel from New York. Throughout her first day of school in the 6th grade she tries to survive, navigating through the new country she just landed in, her new school and new peers, unsure where she will end up at the end of the day.

Love, Death & Tomatoes – Turkey – Director: Balahan Gürel 

• LOVE, DEATH AND TOMATOES is a tender and warm dark comedy short which is full of quick-witted dialogue and comedic tension. But at the same time, the project is a student film shot on an Alexa Mini. The film tells the story of a dying man and his wife, who decide to commit suicide together in a diner.

One More Please – US – Director: Aleksei Borovikov

• A lonely young man begins a playful drinking game with a handsome stranger.

Keep Me in the Dark – US – Director: Erica Matz

• Recent exes Tyler and Karina collide at a drug-fueled house party hosted by her new rebound. Al. Strung out on dope and betrayals, the fate of all three hinge on Karina's choices.

Exist! – Belgium – Director: Luca Zuberbühler

• An old theater is about to be demolished. A construction worker enters the crumbling building to check if there is anyone left inside. In his search, he strays into a mystical, fragile world until he finds himself in the face of the theater's core.

Misplaced Call – Russia – Director: Elizaveta Pichugina

• Natasha works in a private dentistry, in which she organizes an illegal business with an oriental specialist, Lee, at nights. A regular patient Oksana comes to them. Lee enters the dental office with her and closes the door. Reception of patients begins. Everything goes according to plan, but Granny suddenly appears. She has a sharp pain in her teeth, but Natasha does not let her in. Granny calls the police and faints. A patrol car arrives, one of them is Oksana's husband. 
  What is going on in this clinic?

Wolves of Walter E. Middle – US – Director: Brenna Adams

• After Eli's first middle school heartbreak, his buddies join together to get even.

Out of Stock – US – Director: Bryan Taira

• In 1973, the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, made a joke that toilet paper was going out of stock. By the next day, stores across the country were completely sold out. This is the story of the first day of the toilet paper crisis. 

Tree #3 – US – Director: Omer Ben-Shachar

• After he's been cast (again!) as a background tree in his annual school play, an ambitious and imaginative immigrant boy leads a revolution on stage that his intolerant drama teacher will never forget.

Student Documentary

Ramak Niakan Safi: This is Life – US – Director: Jack Trent 

• Ramak Niakan Safi: This is Life is a short documentary about a religious refugee from Iran who came to the United States with nothing but a soccer ball at his foot, which is all he had ever needed. 

Moksha – UK – Director: Jithin Majeed

• Moksha is a documentary based on the ancient city of Varanasi, sometimes called Kashi or Banaras, in the North Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. The documentary is an attempt to artistically observe this holy city, it's rituals, quirks and the minds of the people in hopes of understanding humanity, humility, fate and life.

Animal Calling – Canada – Director: Candice Dixon 

• A young veterinarian enjoys a rare, relaxing morning in her quiet country home, as she reflects on the mental health crisis silently afflicting those working in the field of animal medicine.

In Circles – US – Director: Christina Kelso 

• Jaime won’t graduate from high school this year. A sudden change in his immigration status halted the senior’s college dreams and is taking a toll on his life. The 19-year-old is chronically absent, failing classes and getting into fights. In another school, his downturn may have ended in punishments or push out. But Jaime goes to Lyons Community School. Not only does Lyons keep him in, but it gives him the opportunity to counsel other students facing similar struggles.

Why We Fly – US – Director: Allie Marsh 

• Only about 7% of all pilots are female. Why We Fly is a collective celebration of lady aviators who make up the 7% and a tribute to our freedom to fly.

Deeper than Blue – Canada – Director: Devon Robertson

• “Deeper Than Blue” explores a shadowed medical crisis that affects mothers called postpartum depression. 
  Told through Amanda Munday; her heartbreaking and empowering story of her experience with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Fiona.

Animation

Division Series – Korea – Director: Ho Kwon Kim

• Prime Minister Abe goes into KFC (Kennedy Fried Chicken) stores to buy chicken, but chicken is already sold out. At the next table, presidents from various countries start playing cards to win the last chicken basket.

Tiny Duel – Mexico – Director: Mauricio Guerra Bonilla 

• A tempting reward. A very (very) young cowboy. A nutritious enemy. The Wild West had never witnessed a more unfitting battle.

One Left – Austria – Director: Sebastian Doringer

• "One Left" takes place in a world where life is symbolized by a heart pictogram that appears above a person's head. 
  Several patients are waiting in a doctor’s office to hear test results regarding their remaining lifetimes. In most cases, the allotted time is not as long as they had hoped for.

Adrift – US – Director: Alexa Boushey

• When a young, devoted painter finds himself stranded in space, he must work through his grief in order to face the challenges ahead and decide whether to return home or move on.

The Holes – Iran – Director: Rozhan Abedi 

• A man reading a newspaper feels a hole under his finger ...

The Rotation – Iran – Director: Hazhir As’adi 

• There is a war between two tribes on claiming the sun in the sky. As a result to that war, sun annihilates and the volcano erupts. Those two tribes now are dead and a new sun is made, both by that lava. Several century will pass and the humans are still in a war to claim the sun in the sky.

Identity Crisis – US -- Director: Natalie Nichols

• A cyborg named Scott is looking for the perfect gift for a loved one, but not all is well in this futuristic city when he finds his own picture on a wanted poster....

Stick to Manual – US – Directors: Christian Antonini & Tanice Arnold

• When a curious robot finds a seemingly worthless book, he discovers that the knowledge within is truly priceless.

You Can Fly! – Korea – Director: Sung Bae Park

• There is an eagle living alone. One day, on the beach, an eagle that living alone picks up eggs. The moment you try to eat eggs, penguins are born. The eagle flies in surprise. The eagle, who came back to the nest awakened, was not so outrageous in this situation, while the penguin was so cute that he could not eat it. Although it is inevitable to send the penguin back to the beach, one corner is uneasy to leave the penguin alone. The eagle brings the penguin back home and the two live together. There were difficulties, but little by little, they become a family. The eagle tries to be the father of the penguin. 

Malakout – Iran – Director: Farnoosh Abedi 

• Music was his passion... 
  Love was his masterpiece...

Echo – Iran – Director: Barzan Rostami

• The story of echo is about understanding and perception of wildlife and environmental abuse and its consequences on human race...

Talent Scout – Spain – Director: José Herrera

• Dominique had been the most prestigious talent scout in París. Now, he is only the shadow of his past until he discovers Sofía, an Spanish flamenco dancer who emigrates to France because of the Spanish civil war and who hides the secret of the greatest talent in history.

The Masterpiece – UK – Director: Christopher Satola

• A thing about an artist, who works to achieve a masterpiece throughout his life. Although what is the actual masterpiece? A story about everyday life and value of every moment lived through.

Ian, A Moving Story – Argentina – Director: Abel Goldfarb

• Ian was born with cerebral palsy. Like all kids, he wants to have friends, but discrimination and bullying keep him from his beloved playground. Ian won't give up easily, accomplishing something that will surprise everyone.