Thank you to all the filmmakers who participated in the 2025 Beijing Lift-Off Film Festival!
The festival platformed hundreds of films, each project worthy of recognition and celebration. We want to extend a giant thank you to everyone who took part and a special congratulations to all the incredible talent that went into making these projects.
The judges' scores have been combined with the audience's choices, and after careful scrutiny, it's our pleasure to announce the Beijing Lift-Off Film Festival winners!
Winners: Beijing Network Round Shorts
Beauty is Pain
Director/Editor: Liu Jian
Editors/Script Editors: Robert Hope-Jones, Muloy Luib
Project Adviser: DJ Clark
Country of Origin: China
Genre: Documentary Shorts
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Short Documentary
Synopsis: Beauty has never been merely a personal choice; it is deeply rooted in social culture and the logic of capital. Defined Beauty focuses on the costs women pay in pursuit of beauty and the social and cultural forces behind them. The film centers on four individuals—from an elderly woman with bound feet to a university student shaped by social media, to an advertising actress dependent on cosmetic procedures, and a medical aesthetic consultant—each story reflecting the price of beauty and the invisible forces that shape it.
Nettle
Director: Toni Hilgersson
Producer: Pierre Foulon
Country of Origin: Belgium
Genre: Short
Synopsis: Some say Jeanne is mad/crazy because she doesn’t let boys push her around, which doesn’t sit well with everyone.
To protect herself, she decides to say stop. From now on, consider yourself warned, don’t touch Jeanne, she stings.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Short Narrative, Best Director, Best Art Direction
Astronomers (Web series "About People and War")
Director: Dmitry Pasichnyuk
Writer: Shirokov Mikhail
Producer: Anna Chizhova
Country of Origin: Russian Federation
Genre: Short Narrative
Synopsis: Only one soldier knows the secret of the ancient German cathedral. But the mystery also has its own secret.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Web Series/Episodic, Best Cinematography
The Apple Picker's Son
Director: Yang Zimik
Writer: Dulguun Bayasgalan
Producer: Cathy Ni
Country of Origin: United States
Genre: Short
Synopsis:A 10-year-old Kashmiri boy, still discovering his supernatural powers of telekinesis learns his migrant worker father is leaving to work in the apple harvest in war-torn Kashmir. Fearing for his father’s life, he must now use his powers to keep his family together.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best First-Time Filmmaker, Best Actor (Neil Khurania)
Nada Siempre
Director: Gaby Anaid López Ruiz
Writer/Producer: Gabriela Anaid López Ruiz
Producers: Centro Diseño, Cine y Televisión, Andrea López Ruiz, Andrea Ruiz Gónzalez, Andrés Robles Lizano, Eduardo Gómez, Paulina Chi
Country of Origin: Mexico
Genre: Music Video
Synopsis: Líli, a young woman who lives in Mexico City, to get home she has to travel by subway at night to get home. On one of her endless journeys, she realizes that someone or something is chasing her. When Lilí tries to get away, she thinks that she will find protection in a convinince store.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Animation
Seal Lullaby
Director/Animation: Xin Li
Country of Origin: China, United States
Genre: Music Video
Synopsis: This hand-painted animated music video depicts the journey of a baby seal on his own after leaving his mother, featuring Anne Akiko Meyers who performs Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby with Grant Gershon leading the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Music Video
Winners: Beijing Network Round Features
Cuberdon - The Curious Story of the War of the Noses
Director/Writer/Producer: Frederik Van Melle
Country of Origin: Belgium
Genre: Feature Documentary
Synopsis: A story about two cunning candy vendors whose fight spiralled out of control and made headlines around the world.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Feature Documentary
Before They Arrive
Director/Writer/Producer: Ashraf Mtaweh
Producers: Jamal Awar,Mahmoud Korek
Country of Origin: Lebanon
Genre: Feature Documentary
Synopsis: The absurdity of normalizing the political, social, and economical catastrophes that have been governing the Lebanese daily life, comes to a boil when Samer and Rana try to get comfortable in preparation for some romance. All their advances are abruptly halted with all that is happening out of their control.
Season Award #16 Shortlist: Best Feature Narrative
16th Annual Lift-Off Season Awards
The Lift-Off Season Awards is an annual event that celebrates the very best of indie film. Following each Lift-Off film festival, films that have excelled in their respective category are short listed for a Season Awards Nomination. At the end of the year, once all the 12 city-based festival have taken place, the shortlisted nominated films are reviewed again by the jury and Official Nominations are designated. Click here for more information about the Lift-Off Season Awards.