A boy leaves a party and gets on a passenger tram. Aboard, he shyly watches a girl, who soon falls asleep.
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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.
Edward James Olmos narrates this multi-fest winner about an immigrant who recalls a vivid and momentous memory where he discovered his boundaries.
A high-speed drive through the streets of Paris.
During a game of hide and seek, a new bride hides in a chest and remains undiscovered until a strange visitation thirty years later.
A short comedy by Mike Leigh about the romance between a young woman and a man who communicates only through jokes and humor...
A young boy gets caught stealing a sheep and is shaved of all his hair and branded with a mark on his forehead so that everyone will know that he is a thief and not to be trusted. Dumped in the desert, the thief covers his marking with a headscarf and goes to the nearest village where he is taken in by a trusting family in return for his work. However, has be actually changed or is he still the same thief at heart?
An exhortation to drivers to pay attention to road safety. In just 15 minutes, John Krish manages to give this road safety film something new and different by presenting events not from the point of view of the driver, but of his brain, memory and ego, who operate from a rather camp technology-driven command centre.
A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.
The film features two men who emerge from the sea carrying a large wardrobe, which they proceed to carry into a town.
A young man walks into a meticulously clean and sterile bathroom and proceeds to shave away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene.
The Killers is a 1956 student film by the Soviet and Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his fellow students Marika Beiku and Aleksandr Gordon. The film is based on the short story "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1927. It was Tarkovsky's first film, produced when he was a student at the State Institute of Cinematography.
Bunny, an elderly rabbit who uses a walker, is in her kitchen one night baking a cake. A photograph from her wedding day is on her wall. A pesky and persistent moth bangs about the kitchen. She shoos it outside, turns off the porch light, and returns to her baking. The moth finds its way back into the kitchen, she bats it with a wooden spoon, and it falls into the mix. She stirs it up, pours the batter into a pan, and pops it into the oven. But the moth isn't done: it has a different mission, turning the oven into a portal, and inviting Bunny on a voyage of reunion.
A short film that explores desire and missed connections in a universe where it's possible to try try again.
Backstage before a performance, a French actor recalls his time in Madagascar during World War II, when he secretly ran a Resistance radio station under the watch of a collaborationist police chief. His story unfolds in flashback, revealing espionage, deception, and divided loyalties within the French ranks. Made for Britain’s Ministry of Information, this 1944 French-language propaganda short satirizes Vichy opportunism and wartime hypocrisy, and was shelved for decades before its release in 1993.
A middle-aged British man struggles to reconcile his homosexuality and his Catholic upbringing.
After escaping a Nazi POW camp, a young Scottish RAF gunner recounts his perilous journey through occupied France with the help of the Resistance. During his debriefing in London, French intelligence officers press him for details—especially about one companion whose true loyalties may not be what they seemed.
After his mom's funeral, a boy encounters the odd girl next door, who insists they journey through space to find a planet for departed souls.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation is an animated short based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" franchise.
Birger is old and retired from work, but he still goes back to work since he has nothing else to do. Back home he gets a rare visitor: a girl from Hare Krishna recruiting new members.
A young intellectual, Mati, engineers himself into a situation where he has to spend a weekend with his wife Helina and her lover Eduard. The trio goes to Eduard's summer house, surrounded by the majestic scenery of big forests and an empty beach. Mati, either out of jealousy or pride, has decided to win back his wife and will do anything his introverted and inert mind can come up with.
Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
A pretty young girl falls for an enigmatic, shy man who sweeps her off her feet. She becomes pregnant but is not allowed to tell him. His advisers are adamant. Back home, they have set up a wedding with the daughter of an antagonistic family and marriage will put an end to the blood feud between them.
The story of the encounter between a boy and a girl. He confesses that he fell in love with her at first sight, but she does not believe him. However, as they walk through the night in Madrid, they share their desires, secrets, and maybe a few little lies. But soon the film brings us back to the harsh reality of power struggles, psychological games and conflicts between the sexes. Stockholm thus offers an incredible reading of the relations between young people today.
After etching their love on a stalk, a boy and girl reunite years later, reigniting their romance amidst the Mexican Revolution.
A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.
The story unfolds in an industrial town where a young and charming literature teacher arrives, assigned to teach at an evening school. One of the boys from the metallurgical plant falls in love with the educated girl, but communication between the two young people turns out to be quite challenging.
Among gunshots and boleros, a passionate relationship flourishes between a lonely transvestite and a young guerrilla during the Pinochet dictatorship.
When aspiring musician and student Deniz falls for a rough-hewn motorbike racer, tragedy and family opposition obstruct their path to love.
Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects?
In Paris at night, a young aspiring filmmaker grapples with heartbreak after his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. After a failed attempt to confront his friend, he wanders the streets and encounters a girl who has just been abandoned. Their paths cross at a party, bringing together two tormented souls.
A delivery boy falls for a young girl who is hearing impaired. Comparing themselves with water birds and trees, together they are going to break the barrier and pursuit their dreams and take their relationship to the next level.
Jeanne is a young woman, striking but otherwise without qualities. Her mother tries to get her a job in the office of a lawyer, Bleistein, her lover years ago. Jeanne fails the interview but falls into a relationship with Franck, a wrestler whose dreams and claims of being in a legitimate business partnership Jeanne is only too happy to believe. When Franck is arrested, he turns on Jeanne for her naivety; she's stung and seeks attention by making up a story of an attack on a train. Is there any way out for her?
A suicidal young man is committed to a Dublin psychiatric hospital where he meets new friends who greatly influence his life.
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
A philosophy professor has an illicit affair with one of his students, a bright yet troubled girl who lives alone.
A couple of fisher-folk are joined by a young new apprentice in the middle of a raging storm.
After his grandfather's death, a young man decides to fulfill his elder's last wish with the help of his new friends. The problem starts when he falls in love with a female friend who may not feel the same.
Family and friends try to sabotage the budding romance between a young upper class girl and a humble student.
Katya is a young, outstanding and upcoming ballet dancer. In just a few weeks she is due to have a major audition for the New York Ballet Academy and Katya has good chances of getting a scholarship. But when she meets a group of street-dancers the girl dives into a completely new world.
The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
