Die Schwefelhölzchen

15-year-old Marie tries to escape her life. Together with her friend Kati and her clique, she sets off to celebrate New Year's Eve. A lavish party night begins, at the end of which Marie finds her personal happy ending.

When We Met

In the summer of 2012 in a small town in the south of China, divorced shopkeeper Peng Yun makes the acquaintance of Ji Qing Qing who sells meat skewers from her rickshaw.

Turkish Gothic: Portrait of a Family

An upper-class family who wants to have a picture of their family made meet with a famous painter. In this process, the painter, who witnessed the inner dynamics of the family, helps these people to face their own reality through painting.

Date

Frustrated by a long wait for her tardy boyfriend, a young woman is unsatisfied by the candle he sheepishly offers in retribution, then sulks at the armfuls of roses he snaps up from a deli. Her brooding evaporates at the turn of a corner, when she and her ruefully silent companion are confronted by a wall adorned with flyers depicting people still regarded as missing after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The Wedding of Jack and Jill

With Thelma

An Icelandic volcano has blocked air traffic and Thelma’s parents are stuck overseas. Until planes start flying across the sky again Jean, Vincent and Thelma share the same roof.

Crow's Nest

Joey (13) returns home to live with his mother Daphne after she has regained custody over him and his brother Ricardo (8). While celebrating their reunification, their resolve to restore the balance of their relationship is tested.

The Prince of Val-Be

Genius Party

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

Glory Hole

"Glory Holes" are mostly found in the basements of sex shops, sex clubs, or what are commonly referred to as whore bars. The pleasure is blind, anonymous. He delights in this blindness. "She" is the engine of his fantasies, his fears, his uneasiness and her naive and vain generosity. "He" will be waiting for her every Wednesday. This short film is the first fiction film directed by Guillaume Foirest as part of his graduation thesis at ESRA Nice in 2005. The film was distributed by DVD Pocket and has made many festivals around the world .

(Practically) Gay

After Alex's boyfriend breaks up with him at a wedding, another couple invites him in for a nightcap in their Airbnb's hot tub. When he starts to open up to him about his romantic troubles, they console him in more ways than one. Alex reckons with the feelings for women he's previously ignored out of a belief that living authentically as an out, bisexual male was impractical.

Apollo

15-year-old Angus considers the sacrifice he needs to make for the approval of his older brother's friends.

Summer Sounds

Three generations of Youngseok’s family live together in a house. Even though his mentally ill grandmother’s time on this Earth is gradually running out, Youngseok is embarrassed by the way she behaves like a child in front of his friends despite her efforts to take care of him. The film displays the challenges of a family who live with a dementia patient, told from young Youngseok’s perspective. Dreamlike summer nights in the film evoke the innocence of childhood, and the gathering of dear friends and family.

The Drum

The Drum is a short film that follows the journey of Kang, a recently retired man in his 60s dealing with the sudden onset of a late-life crisis. He realises that he must mend old conflicts and learn to accept his new life or risk losing himself in the emptiness of old age.

Paper House

Paper House is a short film set against the backdrop of a traditional Chinese funeral and its customs. The film follows the story of a family as they descend into disharmony after the death of their patriarch. The title of the film refers to the old Chinese tradition of burning paper offerings for their deceased loved ones. This short film is a eulogy for this colourful art form that is fast disappearing in Singapore’s modern society.

Spring

Amanda struggles to keep something inside as she spends the day taking pictures of her best friend.

Catherine

A tragic comedy of a sweet little girl, who grows up to be a crazy old cat lady.

Romie-0 and Julie-8

Two rival robotics companies in the future release their latest creations at a robotics convention, claiming each to be the latest and greatest in technological advances. Mega Stellar Company's release is a robot boy named Romie-O, while Super Solar Cybernetics has released a girl robot named Julie-8. Unforeseen to each of the company's creators, is how each of the advanced robots soon falls in love with the other.

Dia Estrelado

In an inhospitable place, a boy and his family struggle for survival.

Lukas & the Aspies

'Lukas & the Aspies' is a story about 12-year old Lukas. In many ways, Lukas is a normal kid: He plays in a band, hangs out with his friends and fights with his little brother. But Lukas' has also Asperger syndrome - and hence his own set of unique problems.