OPENING NIGHT MOVIE
OPEN TO PUBLIC, FREE ENTRANCE Thursday, 3/10 19:00 Cinema Milenium
The Last Time We Were Kids
Italy, 2023, 110'
Director: Claudio Bisio
Rome, summer 1943. Four children play war while the bombs of real war explode around them. Italo is the rich son of the Federal, Cosimo has his father in confinement and an atavistic hunger, Vanda is an orphan and a believer, Riccardo comes from a wealthy Jewish family. They are different but they don't know it and between them "the greatest friendship in the world" is born, impervious to the divisions of history that bloodies Europe. But on October 16 the Jewish boy is taken away by the Germans together with over a thousand people from the Ghetto. Thanks to Italo's father Federale, the three friends believe they know where he is and, to honor the "spit pact", decide to leave in secret to convince the Germans to free their friend. Yet another imaginative mission becomes reality, the three children travel alone in an Italy exhausted by war, among disbanded soldiers, deserters, occupying German troops, exhausted and hungry populations.
MOVIES FOR SENIORS
OFFICIAL SELECTION, SENIORS Friday, 04/10
My Summer With Irene
Italy, 2024, 90'
Director: Carlo Sironi
The young and timid Clara meets the spirited Irène. These two girls with absolutely contrasting personalities are brought together by their recent struggle with an illness that, in the midst of their vulnerable adolescent years, has transformed their previous outlook on life. When they impulsively decide to spend some time at the seaside, it feels as if they are actually trying to stop time. But the idyllic sundrenched setting and the girls’ seemingly innocent faces hide a difficult and unfathomable experience.
A summertime coming-of-age romance from the Generation section at this year’s Berlinale, My Summer with Irène shows how fragile the present moment can be when we admit that all good things must come to an end.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, SENIORS Saturday , 05/10
Summer Brother
Netherlands, Belguim, 2023, 100'
Director: Joren Molter
Brian and his father Maurice live in a shabby mobile home park. When the care institution offers a financial fee if they will take care of Brian’s severely mentally disabled brother Lucien over the summer holiday, Maurice immediately agrees. Brian takes on the care of Lucien, and they slowly become real brothers. But as matters escalate between Maurice and his creditors, the mobile home is no longer a safe place for Lucien, so Brian is forced to make an adult decision.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, SENIORS Sunday, 06/10
When F***ing spring is in the air
Poland, 2023, 110'
Director: Danyael Sugawara
When Fucking Spring is in the Air is a punky feel-good road movie about the rebellious 17-year-old Kasia, and her worthless family. When her grandmother dies and she finds herself penniless, it’s time she finds out the truth about her parents’ emigration and their money. She embarks on the inevitable ‘coming of age’ journey and discovers that her family is not at all what she had expected.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, SENIORS Monday, 07/10
Sunce mamino
Serbia, Croatia, 2023, 95'
Director: Kosta Djordjevic
RELJA'S (16) grandmother passed away. Hismom, OLGA (46), a cold and strict woman, had a very bad relationship with her late mother and refuses to organize and pay for the funeral. It soon turns out that ANA (16), the girl Relja is unhappily in love with, reacts emotionally to his family loss and shows affection towards him for the first time. Relja realizes that it is possible to turn a tragedy into an opportunity and starts
organizing the funeral, hiding it from Olga. Relja maneuvers between love and
death to win the girl.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, SENIORS Tuesday, 08/10
12 Dares
Sweden, Norway, 2023, 103'
Director: Izer Aliu
In Södra Ryd, unwritten rules about manliness and status reign. You do not let your brother down without consequences. After a fight, where Food leaves the unforgiving leader Salle in a fix, the gang freezes him out. To get back into the warmth, he has to prove his loyalty by doing twelve daring exploits. Director Izer Aliu borrows from personal experiences in a raw portrayal of a gang of friends marked by violent tendencies and rock-solid loyalties. 12 Dares is a playful growing-up portrayal with associations to Guy Ritchie’s early gangster films, but here the same rough macho ideals are channelled into a gang of petty hooligans outside of Skövde.
MOVIES FOR CADETS
OFFICIAL SELECTION, CADETS Friday, 04 /10
When we lost to the Germans
Netherlands, Belguim, 2023, 86'
Director: Guido van Driel
1974, the day after the Netherlands’ defeat in the final of the World Cup, Jonas (12) meets Daan (13) in a suburb of Amsterdam. They are not friends, but on this boring summer day they decide to wander together. The two boys, coming from different social backgrounds, discover that they have a common interest: talking to Karsten, Jonas’ best friend, who has returned from holiday earlier than expected to be questioned by the police. Five days earlier, Catootje, the girl Jonas is in love with, disappeared in the neighborhood, and perhaps Karsten knows something about it. The boys begin to look for him, thus spending a memorable day, made up of moments of joy, embarrassing situations and distressing mysteries.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, CADETS Saturday, 05 /10
The other way
Italy, 2022, 97'
Director: Saverio Cappiello
Andrea Viscomi is a late career footballer, from Rome, captain of the local football team, U.S.Collidoro, in southern Italy. During the imminent period of the 1990s World Cup, he meets Marcello, a boy who dreams of becoming a footballer and lives with his mother of Arbëreshë origin, in the popular neighborhood called “Aranceto". Their lives are intertwined. The friendship with the footballer rekindles in the boy the desire for a father figure that he has never had and in the footballer a forgotten carefree time, which has been lost above all due to his involvement in match-fixing. The coming-of-age novel of Marcello crosses the descending parable of Andrea's career, in the sign of a friendship necessary for both.
Director Biography - Saverio Cappiello.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, CADETS Sunday, 06/10
Love According to Dalva
Belgium, France, 2023, 83'
Director: Emmanuelle Nicot
Twelve-year-old Dalva, who wears the make-up and clothes of a much older woman, lives alone with her father. Following a police raid of their home, Dalva’s father is arrested, and she is put into the care of a foster home. Dalva is dumbfounded and outraged at first, but she soon meets and befriends her new roommate Samia, a teen with a temper, and social worker Jayden, and gradually comes to understand that the love she shared with her father was not what she thought. With their help, Dalva will learn to become a child again.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, CADETS Monday, 07/10
M
N. Macedonia, 2023, 100'
Director: Vardan Tozija
The world outside the forest is a desolate and dangerous place. The forest is all what eight-year-old Marko has known and the only person he knows is his paranoid, protective Father. His most precious possession is his Picture Book where he believes he can find the answers to everything. His life suddenly changes when he discovers an innocent gentle boy with Down Syndrome named Miko living on the edge of the forest. Things turn for the worse when the boys are left alone to fend for themselves against the remnants of humanity. Marko has no clear idea of what it means to have a mother, but the boys must go on a journey to find her. Outside the safety of the forest, Marko is faced with a shattered world shrouded in silence and full of peril.
MOVIES FOR JUNIORS
OFFICIAL SELECTION, JUNIORS Friday, 04/10
Planeta 7693
Montenegro, Serbia, N. Macedonia, 2024, 110'
Director: Gojko Berkuljan
Luka lives with his family in a very interesting neighborhood in the suburbs. The family is quite harmonious and pleasant. During a turbulent period, when the mother suffers a miscarriage in the advanced state of pregnancy, big misunderstandings and conflicts start emerging in the family. The father can’t seem to adapt to the new situation in which his wife, who has always pampered him, no longer cares and blames him for everything she is unhappy about. His sister Sandra is not able to fit in with peers. She becomes rough towards her family and blames them for all of her failures. Left alone, Luka immerges himself in fiction trying to find a solution for all the problems. He meets a girl in an abandoned factory complex, where he often spends his time practicing his “super powers”. She introduces herself as the serial number 7693. The two spontaneously get closer and the girl begins to help Luka develop a plan that could fix the already endangered family relationships
OFFICIAL SELECTION, JUNIORS Saturday, 05/10
Winners
Germany, 2024, 118'
Director: Soleen Yusef
Eleven-year-old Mona and the rest of her seven-member Kurdish family have fled Syria and ended up in Berlin. Or, more precisely, the neighborhood of Wedding where Mona is sent to a notorious primary school attended by 90 percent “foreigners”. Chaos reigns in the school. Most of the teachers are having a nervous breakdown and frustration levels amongst the pupils are growing by the day. Mona feels it, too. She can barely speak German, but she can speak football. In her hometown, she often played street football with her mates. She misses her home, her friends and especially her aunt Helin, who always supported her passion for football. One day a teacher called Mr Che recognises Mona’s special talent and selects her for the girls’ team. But this well-intentioned gesture fails to make things any easier.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, JUNIORS Sunday, 06/10
Greetings from Mars
Germany, 2024, 75'
Director: Sarah Winkenstette
Tom is ten and different from the other children. He doesn’t like change, red things, and anything loud quickly becomes too much for him. His specialty is space. He loves running around in his astronaut suit and likes to wear a helmet in challenging situations. When his mother unexpectedly has to go to China, Tom has to move with his siblings Nina (15) and Elmar (13) for six weeks to Grandma and Grandpa in the countryside in Lunau. This is a disaster for Tom. But to make sure he makes it anyway, his mother gives him a logbook and suggests that he see the trip to his grandparents as a trial Mars mission. Tom’s greatest wish is to be the first person to fly there. “If you can do Grandma and Grandpa,” his mother assures him, “you can definitely do Mars.” And so Tom unceremoniously appoints his permanently phoning sister Nina as a radio operator and the hyperactive Elmar as first officer. Together with his crew, he tries to explore the planet Lunau and to understand grandma and grandpa, who seem to live by their own rules.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, JUNIORS Monday, 07/10
Big Dreams
Czech Republic, 2023, 102'
Director: Daniel Pánek
The year is 1998, in Nagano, Japan. The Czechs win the gold in Olympic ice hockey and the crowds go wild. All the kids want to be like Jagr or Hašek. Among them is Dom, an 11-year-old dreamer who looks up to his new idol. He would love to play hockey, but his parents don't have the money and doubt his abilities. On his grandfather’s advice, Dom and his friend Honza build a hockey team, calling themselves the Sabres after Hašek's home team in Buffalo. This team of disparate, underestimated kids focus on their great challenge – to defeat the Red Wings team from the next village and earn respect. After an initial defeat, the Sabres are taken over by the peculiar coach Karel, a former major league hockey player, and they gradually head for a rematch. This story of friendship, sport, pride, euphoria, and underdogs sends a message that children's dreams have many forms and that children need to be supported.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, JUNIORS Tuesday, 08/10
Three Friends
Turkey, 2023, 93'
Director: Nursen Çetin Köreken
Hilal(13), Ayşe(11) and Mercan(13) are three children working on the streets. Hilal and Ayşe are cardboard collectors and Mercan is a scrap collector. Selim(30), who established a racketeering gang in the city, kidnaps children working on the street, including Hilal, Ayşe and Mercan, and forcibly confiscates their money. Hilal is obliged to give her money to Sarı Selim that she saved to buy medicine for her father. Three children decide to join the pigeon race that will be held that day with Mercan's carrier pigeon to fight against Selim's bullying. Selim, who comes across them when they go to register for the pigeon race, takes the pigeon out of its cage and releases it to prevent Mercan's pigeon from participating in the race. By the time the children caught the pigeon and arrived, the racing truck was long gone. Three Friends decide to catch the race truck with their own means and embark on a journey where they will get to know each other better, go through many difficulties, and become three close friends.
SHORT FILMS FOR SENIORS
Friday, 04/10S
Just Kids
by Roberto Urbani
Italy 10'
Everything has changed for Giulia after Marilena’s arrival in the village. Before it was just Giulia and her best friend Nadine. But now Nadine has eyes only for the newcomer. And Giulia can't endure it. To play in the woods might offer Giulia the chance to prove that she’s better than Marilena.
Saturday, 05/10
The man who could not remain silent
By Nebojša Slijepčević
Slovenia, 13'
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.
Sunday, 06/10
Fall
by Leonid Velkovski
North Macedonia 14'
Haunted by visions of Marko, his late childhood confidant, Pavel, now
18, grapples with a harrowing blend of grief and guilt. Convinced he’s
culpable for the tragedy that befell Marko, Pavel’s journey through
mourning morphs into an introspective odyssey, compelling him to face the specters of his past and the daunting truths within.
Monday, 07/10
A Tin of white
by Sara Stijović
United Kingdom 11'
.A single mother is torn by guilt by her daughter’s recent death. Pushing herself to move on for the sake of her teenage son, she decides they have to clear out and paint her room. The act of doing so ignites a fight between the two quietly grieving family members.
Tuesday, 08/10
Villa with pool
by Karma Gava
Italy 10'
Simone is an introverted boy who struggles to let go. A hot afternoon of August he invites friends to his splendid villa with swimming pool: it is his moment of glory. While he is looking for the courage to approach Francesca, who is having fun with the other more casual friends, the unexpected happens and the situation worsens...
SHORT FILMS FOR CADETS
Friday, 04/10
Echoes
by Sophie B. Jacque
Canada 10'
Despite the undeniable complicity that unites them, Manue, 11, suffers from the uncontrolled anger of her mother Isabelle. How far will this violence echo in her?
Saturday, 05/10
The Acrobatic Age
by Mathieu Barbet
France, 09'
Lucas, thirteen, takes part in an acrobatic rock workshop for the first time. In the gymnasium, bodies fly away, the risk of falling is permanent and the heart races. A big jump into adolescence.
Sunday, 06/10
Cicciolina Pocket
by Claudio Casazza
Italy 16'
Summer 1990, another sweltering afternoon in the sleepy Italian province. Four kids are killing time away, when a new challenge seems to arouse their sexual awakening. But, is adulthood really as appealing as it seems?
Monday, 07/10
The Ruse
by Johane Prégent
Canada 11'
Clara, 14-year-old, eats her lunch every day hidden away in the school bathroom. In the eyes of her peers, she’s a bitch. She has suffered their bullying, but now knows how to avoid her tormentors. When 12-year-old Felix stumbles into HER room looking for a place to hide, the hunted teens find themselves in.
Tuesday, 8/10
Miss Posture
by Luca Turco
Italy 09'
Carmen lives with her daughter Sharon in a modest house in Forcella, a working-class district in the centre of Naples. After losing yet another competition due to her mother's exuberance, Sharon must immediately prepare for the new international event 'Miss Posture'. This time Carmen will have to face a strange law of counterpoise.
SHORT FILMS FOR JUNIORS
Friday , 05/10
A Farewell Letter
by Elkie Herhberg
United Kingdom 10'
Anna (12) and her mother (40) arrive in a gloomy ultra-Orthodox neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Anna, who brought a pair of bicycles with her, soon discovers that it is forbidden for girls to ride there.
Saturday , 05/10
Last Generation
by Andrea Castoldi
Italy 06'
The young Ali, unable to tolerate his parents' arguments over financial matters, decides to help them by buying what they need at the town market. Even though he is just a child and has no money, how will Ali manage to return from the market with a bag full of objects?
Sunday, 06/10
The Yellow One
by Itana Vukosavljević Montenegro, 14'
Forced deliveryman and unfulfilled painter Koča, by unplanned delivery of a bouquet of flowers on the occasion of the birthday of an art teacher Sara, and his first love from middle school, is faced with the realization that life does not stop for people in their thirties.
Monday, 07/10
Recess
by Kerem Ergün, Ismet Ergün
Germany 09'
All children love candy, almost....! Once upon a time in a Turkish remote village a strict elementary school teacher treats children to ice cream during recess. Everyone is delighted. Only the defiant Leyla realizes the treat has a bitter aftertaste and launches a small but mighty act of rebellion.
Tuesday , 08/10
Small Steps
by Francesco La Barbera
Italy 05'
In small steps Antonio, a 12-year-old boy, defends a man from the abuses of his own friends. Following this event, the boy's present and future will be profoundly changed, together with that of those around him.
Animation Short Films
Tuesday, 10/10
Garrano
by Vasco Sá, David Doutel
Portugal 14'
A Garrano horse is forced to pull a heavy load under a blazing sun. Young boy Joel discovers a man who is about to set a forest on fire.
Tuesday, 10/10
A Tiny Number
by Luc Lavault
Portugal 12'
As a prisoner in an Auschwitz outdoor commando, Rahmil escapes one day with a comrade. They have only a few apples in their hands and the forest as a witness.
Tuesday, 10/10
Empty Little People
by Josh O’Caoimh, Mikai Geronimo
Ireland 02'
Empty little people, with an insatiable thirst for tea... begin running out of tea, on All Hallows' Eve.
Tuesday, 10/10
Cloudy
by Joshua Pereira
Singapore 07'
While avoiding a conversation with his mum, Elliot encounters a peculiar little creature. Together, they embark on a little adventure!
Tuesday, 10/10
Lucky's plan(e)t
by Marko Vasić
Serbia 05'
Lucky the Gnome ,the protagonist of this movie, goes to a meadow every morning where he ritually waters a flower for years. However, one day he finds Wicky the evil gnome taking the flower and carrying it away in an unknown direction.
Tuesday, 10/10
In a drop
by Valeria Weerasinghe
Italy 08'
Split between two cultures, a young girl falls into an imaginary jungle to escape her daily life. Guided by a drop, she finds herself in front of her roots and realises her heritage will forever be an important part of her identity.
Tuesday, 10/10
Octopus Banana Hotchpotch
by Milanka Fabjancic
Slovenia 08'
A lively and dynamic journey through the lives of best friends, soulmates Mila and Mara. Two quite different life paths join in a wonderful adventure over many decades, enriched and driven by sisterly love.
Student Short Films
Tuesday, 10/10
Horror Vacui
by Lara Jakovina
Croatia 04'
Horror Vacui - the fear of empty space. Fearing silence and emptiness, we clutter our lives with unnecessary stimulations. But, sometimes, we need a little empty space to breathe.
Sunday, 08/10
Fishy dish
by Shandzii
United States 04'
A boy meets a hungry mermaid on the beach and gives her something to eat. The next day, the Mermaid prepares a surprise.
Tuesday, 10/10
The Cloakroom
by Mihail Filkov, Ninko Pavlovich, Radoslav Yamakov
Bulgaria 05'
A young man is trying to find his way by putting on and taking off the clothes that fate gives him. Encounters with his own identity and attempts to pursue it lead him into the unknown.
Tuesday, 10/10
A letter you will never get
by Danilo Lazovic, Jana Marinovic
Serbia 03'
A young girls literary assignment found in the trash turned into a animated movie using other stuff people would throw in trash
Tuesday, 10/10
After Zerocalcare
by Gabriele Vivante
Italy 15'
Elio and Tommaso are best friends but when Elio has admitted to the Comics Academy while his friend not, they have an argue. When Tommaso is ready to leave the city, Elio goes through the whole city on his bike to reach his friend and apologize to him
Tuesday, 10/10
Purgatory
by Lukas Vizner
Czech Republic 03'
As Ida, a widow and devoted Christian, awaits the results of her medical examination, the confession in the local church becomes the place where she realizes the experiences she has missed out on and seeks answers to questions. Will this quiet and sacred place unravel the mystery of her life's journey?
Tuesday, 10/10
My Lonely Good Wishes
by Rahi Abdullah
Bangladesh 01'
The movie My Lonely Good Wishes is made in a metaphorical sense. The story of the movie shows a boy buying a mirror. But one time it is seen that the mirror is broken. The wishes of the boy in the story are very organized but they are shattered by time. But people are optimistic. So good wishes.
Films made by School Students
Tuesday, 10/10
Honey Milk
by Ulaş Çetin Köreken
Ahmet Ratıp Paşa Fine Arts Highschool
Turkey
Tuesday, 10/10
The Newspapers
by Dorotea Bukvić, Juraj Škovrlj, Nola Škrbec, Vid Balja, Niko Karaula, Tonka Krnić, Frane Krnić, Mihael Dučak
Croatia
Tuesday, 10/10
The girl who fed the birds
by Dora Bosnić
FKVK Zaprešić
Croatia
Tuesday, 10/10
They saw you
by 1 grade class
(11-12 years old)
mentor prof. Vittorio Caratozzolo
Italy
Tuesday, 10/10
The letter
by 6D Student class
Escola Básica de Lousada Este_Caíde de Rei
Portugal
Tuesday, 10/10
Three brothers - one city
children and teenagers during the "Fifny Fyrtel Animacji" in University of Arts in Poznań
Poland