LIFF Wiz-Art’25 announces International Competition

HUN TUN // 15 min., Magdalena Hejzlarová, Czech Republic, 2024

A young woman measures her strength against the king of chaos himself. The more she wants to win, the less she succeeds. Through a mythological story, the author looks back to the time when she discovered that there are things in life she will never control.

SMOKE OF THE FIRE // 22 min., Daryna Mamaisur, Portugal, Ukraine, 2023

There is Portugal, there is the Portuguese language and there is a Ukrainian filmmaker who learns the language and approaches the role of the potential migrant. There is also a play of words: zangar and o zangāo. How is it possible to express such an empowering emotion as anger in the fragile attempts of a beginner? The video essay is woven from the filmmaker’s narration, language classes, personal videos and archival images from Kyiv – revealing the split reality of anyone who is finding a safe place abroad while longing for home, which is under the constant danger of war.

LIVING STONES // 20 min., Jákob Ladányi Jancsó, Austria, Hungary, 2025

Natasa undergoes therapy at an unorthodox rehabilitation center far from the city. Her sessions with her therapist are slow and uneasy, as she is reluctant to trust him. When the therapist introduces her to horse therapy, she finds a fragile sense of connection and acceptance that gives her the courage to revisit her darkest moments. The boundaries between therapist and patient start to blur, their interactions grow increasingly intimate and the chasm between healing and harm widens.

MADE OF SUGAR // 25 min., Clàudia Cedó, Spain, 2024

Maria is 30 years old, has an intellectual disability and a desire deep inside: she wants to be a mother. The lack of understanding towards her desire will lead her to a fight for her rights, to an uncomfortable rebellion to recover the decision-making power over her own body.

THEIR EYES // 20 min., Nicolas Gourault, France, 2025

How does a machine learn to read the world? Testimonies and screen recordings introduce the experience of online micro-workers from the Global South: their job is to teach the AI of self-driving cars to navigate the streets of the Global North.

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS // 20 min., Franz Böhm, United Kingdom, 2024

BAFTA 2025 Winner (Best British Short Film). Based on a true story – A father and son running a makeshift hospital on the front line of war, face a tough decision when a platoon of soldiers approaches their building. They must find a way to protect both their patients and themselves.

CRITICAL CONDITION // 24 min., Mila Zhluktenko, Germany, 2025

Inspired by the events around the life of Lev Rebet, Ukrainian author and editor-in-chief of the Munich-based exile newspaper „Ukrainian Independist“, “Critical Condition” portrays the fates of the Ukrainian diaspora in the past and present.

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT // 13 min., Nebojša Slijepčević, Croatia, 2024

February 27, 1993, Strpci, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A passenger train from Belgrade to Bar is stopped by paramilitary forces in an ethnic cleansing operation. As they haul off innocent civilians, only one man out of 500 passengers dares to stand up to them. This is the true story of a man who could not remain silent.

RUTH // 22 min., Sonia Martí Gallego, Spain, 2024

Year 2000. Maya, a young Londoner, travels to the small village of her Spanish girlfriend, Ruth, who has passed away in an accident. She wants to bid her farewell, but the harsh blow, along with the anxiety of presenting herself as the «foreign girlfriend» in front of unknown family and friends who speak another language, turns into confusion when she realizes that nobody knows who she is, and she will find herself completely out of place.

PERCEBES // 12 min., Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves, Portugal, 2024

With the sea and the urban Algarve as a background, we follow a complete cycle of the life of a special shellfish called PERCEBES, goose barnacle. From their formation, to the dish, in this journey, we cross different contexts that allow us to better understand this region and those who live there.

BLUE HEART // 15 min., Samuel Suffren, Haiti, 2025

Their loving son is away. Marianne and Petion are living in Haiti with a telephone, waiting for a call from the USA, where their son has left for the American dream.

CRUST // 26 min., Jens Kevin Georg, Germany, 2023

In this family, you only truly belong when you’ve gotten your first wound. But Fabi is 12 and still without scars. On Grandpa’s farm, he has to finally prove that he fits in. Fabi’s father knows the boy must face this now – after all, they all had to. And Fabi really wants to belong. But how much of him (and his skin) will be left in the end?

SUCKER’S DEATH // 21 min., Krzysztof Grudziński, Poland, 2023

“Young,” a member of a nationalist organization, resides in a quiet town with his solitary mother, leading a life oscillating between his workout routines at the gym and his job at a local store. The other members of his nationalist group castigate him due to his brother’s homosexuality and his departure to Warsaw. One fateful day, “Young” is coerced through blackmail to place an explosive device at an upcoming LGBT rally in the capital. The twist in the tale emerges with the involvement of the young man’s mother in the midst of this high-stakes situation. As “Young” confronts the dire decision before him, his loyalties and beliefs are put to the ultimate test.

THE SHYNESS OF TREES // 9 min., Bingqing Shu, Maud Le Bras, Jiaxin Huang, Simin He, Lina Han, Loïck Du Plessis D’argentré, Sofiia Chuikovska, France, 2024

Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the french countryside. But her mother isn’t being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the plants, insects, and the old oak tree at the end of her garden…

WORMS // 19 min., Domenico Distilo, Italy, 2025

In the rural landscape of Friuli, northern Italy, twelve-year-old Rosi shoulders the weight of her fractured family after her father’s abandonment. Living with her two younger sisters, Emy and Mary, and their mother, who has spiraled into a deep depression, Rosi juggles household responsibilities, cares for her sisters, and faces bullying from local children who cruelly mimic the harshness of the adult world around them.