Student Films
Trailers and Info
Acronymity - US
When a man wakes up in a sterile world he doesn’t recognize, his only hope of recovering his memory is to decipher a cryptic acronym: CCNEN.
Director - Andrew Imai
Andrew Imai is a filmmaker and astrophysics student based in the United States. He recently completed his sophomore year at the University of Notre Dame, where he studies Physics and Mathematics with a focus on cosmology. He was awarded an opportunity to study physics abroad at the University of Oxford, New College for the duration of the 2025-26 academic year. Alongside his research on black holes and the early universe, Andrew creates films that explore memory, identity, and disconnection through an abstract, emotionally grounded lens.
His latest short film, Acronymity, continues his exploration of surreal narrative forms. Andrew is drawn to films that leave space for ambiguity and reflection, aspiring to the kind of deeply personal and formally ambitious work found in the films of Charlie Kaufman, Shane Carruth, and Richard Kelly.
Andrew’s previous short, The Last Vigil, was accepted into several independent and student film festivals, helping him develop his voice and confidence as a director. Acronymity marks his return to the festival circuit and his most ambitious and personal creative project to date.
Director Statement
Acronymity is a film about memory, identity, and the quiet erasure of self in an unfamiliar world. At its core, it explores what it means to forget who you are (a common experience at college) and what it takes to remember. We wanted to make something that captured a sense of emotional dislocation: the feeling of being awake in a world that doesn’t feel quite real, and of clinging to small fragments of meaning as everything else slips away.
The film is intentionally abstract. We didn’t want to explain everything but rather evoke a state of mind. The choices in coloring and sound design were meant to mirror the protagonist’s experience of isolation and eventual self-recognition.
As a students of both physics and philosophy at Notre Dame, we're drawn to questions that don’t have simple or complete answers. Acronymity is our attempt to ask one of those questions in cinematic form. It’s a personal piece because it reflects how we as college students process the world: through feeling, ambiguity, and moments of quiet revelation.
Fish Dance - Iran
This film is narrated by a female painter who lives with her dead fetus in a remote house and tries to overcome this loss...
Director - Narges Elahi
Narges Elahi is a dramaturg and writer from Iran. She earned her Master’s degree in Dramatic Literature from the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, in Tehran. «Fish Dance» is her first work as a director.
Filmography : «Fish dance» is the first film she has directed.
Director Statement
Studying the philosophy of phenomenology taught me to look at every phenomenon as an object and to trust new methods in processing the narrative and not to be afraid of experiencing new narrative methods. Therefore, this way of attitude helped me to be able to represent this fictional event with an individual and personal experience. Based on what was said, I decided instead of an easy narrative for this concrete story that expresses the loss of a woman who is mourning her lost fetus; I went for an experimental narrative, which is the result of my phenomenological approach to this story.
For example, although the red clock that we see over and over again in this film is a recurring element to show the passage of time; But it is not only meant to show the passage of calendar time, but it also means that our protagonist has a problem with the passage of time just as she is struggling with life. It is as if she has a problem with the essence of the universe.
Garbage bags are not just a normal means of collecting garbage for the hero, but also a symbol of negative thoughts and the sense of guilt she has for losing her fetus. It is as if this volume of negative thoughts has invaded her body and soul like a black shadow. Based on this, we can also consider the pool as a woman's ovary, with which sometimes the woman experiences sexual relations, sometimes she goes to war with her to risk her life and her fetus, based on a personal decision.
In this narrative that we witnessed, is the story of the fetus separate from its mother?
If we see that house as a mother's womb, and imagine the woman we witnessed as a fetus in the womb, what impression will we have of that movie now...?
In my opinion, can also look at this film in this way. Experience it.
Gül - Austria, Turkey
A summer day amidst languages, meals, and misunderstandings.
Gül, far away from home, works in a Turkish village with a patchwork family. As young Filiz idles, Gül faces an unexpected early departure, her thoughts torn between her distant homeland and the life she's living.
Director - Lidija-Rukiye Kumpas
Raised in Graz with Turkish-Ukrainian roots, Lidija-Rukiye studies film production at the Vienna Film Academy. She works as a sound assistant on feature film sets, produces, and directs short films with an interest in hybrid formats.
Screenings/Awards
Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2024
Saarbrücken
Germany
January 24, 2024
International
Official Selection
Diagonale'24 Festival of Austrian Film
Graz
Austria
April 5, 2024
Austrian Premiere
Official Selection
Vienna International Short Film Festival 2024
Vienna
Austria
Winner Best New Comer Award 2024
Sarajevo Film Festival
Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
August 19, 2024
Student Film Competition
Festival dei Popoli - International Documentary Film Festival
Firenze
Italy
November 7, 2024
Italy
Official Selection
Kasseler Dok Fest
Kassel
Germany
November 17, 2024
Belfort International Film Festival Entrevues
Belfort
France
November 19, 2024
Cinema Next Tour Vienna 2024
Viena
Austria
Winner Jury Prize
ker - Iran
A young man tasked with guarding a mosque is forced to secretly shelter his lover inside the sacred place for several days. Their hidden presence pushes them across multiple red lines — from the risk of being discovered by religious authorities to the intimate realities of love and the human body. Any revelation could destroy his life and turn their fragile refuge into a catastrophe.
Director - Sajad Soleymani
Sajad Soleymani is an Iranian independent filmmaker, writer, and researcher with a Master’s degree in Art Studies. He began his career by making short fiction films and completing long-term filmmaking courses. His early short, Slightly on the Other Side, was screened at multiple festivals and won several awards.
After exploring narrative cinema, he turned to documentary filmmaking. His documentary The Sidewalk, which focuses on underground street musicians, garnered awards and critical attention. He went on to make other documentaries, including The Arbaab, and later returned to fiction with the short film 12 O'Clock, which attracted strong interest from international festivals.
Sajad also gained festival attention as a screenwriter, particularly with the screenplay for Shopar. In addition to his independent films, he has directed music videos, industrial documentaries, and promotional teasers.
As a bold and independent filmmaker, Sajad has consistently worked on projects that challenge social and cinematic norms — films that cannot be screened or produced openly in Iran due to their themes. His voice as a filmmaker is deeply personal, politically aware, and artistically daring.
He is currently developing his first feature-length film with the same commitment to creative independence and fearless storytelling.
Stella Anyways - France
In a Parisian square, three high school girls, Stella, Mila, and Elsa, share their experiences and desires. When Stella speaks up, her confession is intriguing: she is in a secret relationship with someone who has neither a phone nor a real identity, only a pseudonym. A revelation that casts doubt and unsettles the conversation.
Director - Yan Berthemy
21 year-old producer, director and distributor, he founded the production and distribution company FUSA FILMS in 2022, responsible for about fifteen short films screened at various festivals in France and SVOD platforms like Prime Video, Canal Plus, TF1, Outbuster etc.
He is studying cinema at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle university and soon he will attend the European Film College in Denmark.He his influenced by genre cinema film directors like Dario Argento, René Laloux, Jonathan Glazer, Lucio Fulci, J.P Melville, Claude Chabrol, Yorgos Lanthimos, Bertrand Mandico, Sofia Coppola, Mœbius, Topor, Druillet, & more.
With a growing presence in French genre cinema, he founded and presides over the Giallo International Film Festival, a government-funded festival dedicated to French and international genre short films, which will celebrate its third edition in November 2025.
France, June 24, 2026, Upcoming digital release
Screenings/Awards
16th Cinefantasy Film Festival
Sao Paulo
Brazil
September 7, 2025
South America premiere
Official selection
Sinistro Film Festival
Manchester's LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival (SCENE)
Manchester
United Kingdom
August 16, 2025
UK Premiere
Gasp Queer Delayer
Marché du film de Cannes
Cannes
France
May 20, 2025
Cannes Film Market
4th Sci-Fi Floripa Film Festival
Brazil
July 27, 2025
Premiere
Giallo Film Festival (CNC)
Paris
France
October 25, 2025
Official selection
Gasp! Horror Film Festival
Fantasy Film Festival
Paris
France
June 13, 2025
International premiere
Best animated film
01st Watch Shorts London
Londres
France
June 6, 2025
International Premiere
Official selection
Onirica Film Festival
Film Thurrock
Thurrock
United Kingdom
October 17, 2025
PIFF – Pinerolo International Film Festival
MIRADA CORTA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
SHORT SHOT FEST
The Banana Garden - Iran
On the day of the wedding in the village, strange news reaches the children: In Kianoush garden, trees similar to "bananas" have been seen. During the war years and in the days when bananas are very rare, the children decide to compete with each other to get it. When the children go to the garden, they notice a fighter jet explode in the sky and an enemy pilot, lands in the garden…
Director - Reza Keshavarz Hadad
Tie Your Hair - Iran
A seven-year-old girl visits an old, beautiful house with her father , a house filled with valuables, long abandoned after its owner’s death.
Everything seems normal until the girl suddenly disappears.
Log line:
A little girl and her father visit an old house in order to buy it, During the visit, the little girl goes missing, and a secret is revealed.
Tag line:
sometimes adults Involve children in their own games.
Director - Sheida Makaremi
Sheida Makaremi (born May 8, 1996) is an Iranian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actress. She holds a Master’s degree in Cinema and has directed a short film titled Tie Your Hair. In addition to directing, she has participated in several short film and theater projects as an actress and assistant director.
Filmography :
«Tie your hair» is the first film she has directed.
Director Statement
For my first filmmaking experience, I chose to start from a personal concern — confronting a part of society that is constantly pushed to the margins, where people are often forced to cross unwritten moral boundaries just to meet their most basic needs.
For me, this story is not about a simple act of theft; it’s about the unseen face of poverty and its silent influence on shaping identities, especially for children, who are forced to adopt adult roleslong before their time. In this short film, I aimed to tell a simple yet layered story — one that avoids judging its characters or manipulating the audience’s emotions. It follows a little girl visiting an old house with her father, and in the end, the innocence that seemed so obvious at first gives way to a bitter and unexpected truth. What the girl does is not rooted in malice, but in the experience of growing up in an insecure and unequal world, where the line between right and wrong becomes increasingly blurred.
Choosing an old, abandoned house as the film’s main location was a conscious decision, creating a space that appears neutral and lifeless on the surface, but quietly carries the traces of lives once lived within its walls. This contrast mirrors the emotional world of the characters and turns the house into more than just a setting — it becomes a symbol of dreams and opportunities that, formany, are forever out of reach.
In terms of cinematic language, the film relies heavily on extended long takes. The use of uninterrupted shots was a conscious stylistic choice, allowing both time and space to breathe naturally and enabling the mise-en-scène to reveal its layers without the interruption of cuts. This approach fosters a sense of observational realism, placing the viewer in an almost voyeuristic position — as if they are silently trailing the characters through the house, step by step, uncovering the truth alongside them.
The camera functions throughout as an impartial, detached observer: it neither indulges in the characters’ emotions nor accelerates the rhythm of revelation. This deliberate emotional distance invites the audience to construct their own interpretation of the narrative and, ultimately, confront a reality that subverts their initial assumptions.
In the end, my goal with this film has been to reflect on the hidden layers of need, poverty, and the loss of innocence — which, even in the simplest situations, can quietly fade away.