Competition Programme - Short Film 2025

In the Competition Programme - Short Film, as selected by the selector Elma Tataragić, there are 10 films this year: three will have a world premiere and seven will have a regional premiere.

 

 

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM

 

AN OSCAR® QUALIFYING FILM

Award in the amount of €2,500

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM CANDIDATE

 

1. BERNA'S EYES / SYTË E BERNËS, Ermal Gërdovci (Kosovo*, North Macedonia, 2025, 17 min.) – World premiere

 

Berna, a young woman weighed down by unspoken trauma, moves through the neon-lit streets of Prishtina, haunted by a menacing spectre from her past. As she attempts to navigate her bleak existence, a series of violent encounters forces her to confront her deepest fears.

 

2. DESERT, SHE / IERIMOS, Ioanna Digenaki (Greece, 2025, 14 min.) – World premiere

 

A dog is lost. Another day of heat plagues Athens. Klea and her roomies keep talking, walking, sweating (and smelling), in a city that is running out of water.

 

3. PROCEDURE / PROSEDÜR, Rabia Özmen (Türkiye, 2025, 18 min.) – World premiere

 

Murat has recently started serving a prison sentence. He asks his wife Sema to bring him something that is prohibited by the prison's procedures. Unable to withstand her husband's pressure, Sema attempts to break the rules and deliver what he has requested.

 

4. ALIȘVERIȘ, Vasile Todinca (Romania, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

 

Tatiana, an unemployed woman, spends her days selling her personal belongings in order to survive. Today, she has an important deadline, and she might end up selling a piece of her body in order to keep a roof over her head.

 

5. ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG, Lili Koss (Bulgaria, 2025, 19 min.) – Regional premiere

 

In a slow, sticky summer in late 1990s Eastern Europe, twelve-year-old Ro sets out to procure a pirated copy of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD. Her journey—through crumbling friendships, stolen cigarettes, and VHS-era power games—unfolds in a world where childhood slips quietly into something else, and cinema becomes the only available glimpse of escape.

 

6. HYSTERICAL FIT OF LAUGHTER / HISTERIČNI NAPAD SMEHA, Matija Gluščević, Dušan Zorić (Serbia, Croatia, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

 

Sneža, a gentle general practitioner nearing retirement, has secret S&M relationships with various men. When her son uncovers her secret, she has the chance to be completely free.

 

7. INDEX, Radu Muntean (Romania, 2025, 28 min.) – Regional premiere

 

Deep in an uncharted forest, an isolated ornithologist discovers a wild child captured in a grainy video recorded by one of the infrared cameras he has hidden among the trees.

 

8. THE SPECTACLE, Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary, France, 2025, 17 min.) – Regional premiere

 

A young Roma boy is chosen for a television feature after word spreads of his unusual gift. As expectations rise, his quiet talent faces the harsh glare of media scrutiny. What follows is a quiet unravelling—for him as well as for those around him.

 

9. UPON SUNRISE / KAD SVANE, Stefan Ivančić (Serbia, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

 

After losing her job, a single mother engages in petty scams in an attempt to provide for her six-year-old son.

 

10. WINTER IN MARCH / LUMI SAADAB MEID, Natalia Mirzoyan (Armenia, Estonia, France, Belgium, 2025, 16 min.) – Regional premiere

 

A young Russian couple, feeling helpless and sad as a result of the war, decide to leave their home for good. Their journey to Georgia becomes a surrealist nightmare, and their greatest fear—being separated at the border—unexpectedly catches up with them.