Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival 2024
Network Round Shorts

Wednesday 13th - Sunday 24th March

1.

Love Will Tear Us Apart
Dir. ZhouAnQi Liu
United States
Synopis: On a transcendental night, a nihilist young man grasps at the last chance to save his failing relationship from persistent poverty and frustration.

2.

Goodbye Roses
Dirs. Adam Floeck
France
Logline:Amidst the pandemic, a small-town outcast steals his dad's body from the morgue to bury it in his mom's backyard.

3.

The Golden Boy
Dirs. Michał Radziejewski, Kosma Masny, Kosma Masny
Poland
Logline: music video directed by Michał Radziejewski & Kosma Masny for Polish band Gibbs. SAFE is the second solo album by Gibbs, a performer from Kłobuck, who lives in Silesia. Jonatan, 4money and Gibbs himself are responsible for the compositions on the album. Work on the album began at the beginning of this year, during the artists’ stay in Asia.

4.

[INSERT SHORT FILM TITLE]
Dir. Kory Orban
Canada
Logline: "In the mind of every filmmaker, there are two wolves locked in an epic, eternal, and fierce battle for control and influence. The combatants? The analytical left brain and the whimsical right. [INSERT SHORT FILM TITLE] personifies these cerebral hemispheres in the monumentally (or at least marginally) comedic performances of Chrissy Mozylisky and Matthew MacCaull, evoking the cinematic manifestation of that cerebrum arm wrestle in the form of a meta-troll of the short film genre."

5.

Seminal Animals
Dir. Karim Souissi
Morocco
Logline: North Africa, near future, a number of extremely violent sexual assaults causes a massive public outcry and a radical shift in the political landscape. A new law is passed installing a curfew for women. After 9PM, any crime committed on women is no longer punishable by law. At night, gangs of teenagers roam the streets, hunting for prey.

6.

Electricity
Dir. Ludovic Verwaerde
France
Synopsis: ELECTRICITY, directed by Ludovic Verwaerde, confronts constraint and freedom, embodied by a robotic pack pursuing a wild man. Through the metaphor of the structure of the hospital and that of the patient, the video illustrates the absurdity of wanting to cage an untameable force at all costs. The music, composed by LAAKE is a dazzling tale where piano and orchestra clash with percussion, polyphonic voices, and organs in a march that is both mournful and luminous.

7.

Another Brick In The Wall
Dir. Dayne Sagor
Australia
Synopsis: In the rough and tumble of 1980s Melbourne, the Passenger must navigate a conflict with seasoned underworld figure Heath Cox. What starts out as a simple objective alongside his mentor, the Driver, quickly spirals into a bizarre, hilarious and hair-raising series of events that lead the Passenger into a crossroads in his burgeoning criminal career.

8.

Sounds of Stillness
Dir. Jana Raschdorf
Sweden
Logline: An ordinary house, surrounded by trees and ever-changing weather. Through its walls, we perceive sounds as the building silently witnesses the stories happening within its walls. Different voices fill the footage by telling us about their stillbirth experiences at different stages within their healthcare journey – together forming a whole.

9.

The Ceiling
Dir. Louisa Connolly-Burnham
United Kingdom
Synopsis: Harriet and Jamie wake up from a one-night stand. They want to see each other again - they have lots of chemistry. But when Jamie tries to have sex with her and she says 'no' several times, in many ways, it happens regardless.

10.

Leo Marchutz & Lithography
Dir. James Ruffato
France
Synopsis: As time passes and WWII grows ever farther from us, we run the risk of forgetting the events that took place at the time and the risk of history repeating itself. By showing Marchutz's inspiring story of self-discovery as an artist in the face of his great suffering and difficult survival during the Holocaust, this film hopes to bring a new prism through which to engage with the events caused by the Third Reich.

11.

KARDI - Skybound
Dir. Jauk Gustavo Ku
Korea, Republic of
Synopsis: Four middle school students tore and stuck a flower bloomed in summer on their little fingers. And they passed out when looked up to the sky. They found clear being after woke up in a school. That transparent existence takes after themselves.

12.

To Kyiv and Back
Dir. Ricardo Daniel Kauffmann Lee
Germany
Logline: Short documentary depicting a road trip through a war torn Ukraine, focusing on Kyiv and it's surrounding areas, just a day after the Russian military retreated from there. Experience first hand the horrors and tragedies of this conflict

13.

Won't You Come Out
Dir. Thomas Chiasson
Canada
Synopsis: Best friends Millie and Matty challenge the confines of everyday life for a taste of freedom. Their day begins in high spirits, but they are forced to change tack when Millie is locked away by her father. Now Matty becomes her liberator, and leads Millie into a night of unbridled adventure. Together Millie and Matty will test the limits of friendship and discover the price of hedonism.

14.

Schmetterling
Dirs. Valerie Sophia Musolesi, Edda Lina Janz
Germany
Logline: Young Elin is suffering from cancer. With her condition rapidly deteriorating, she decides to go to the hospice. For the members of the family this means an extreme challenge, whereby each member deals with the situation differently.

15.

My Grandma's Appletree: A Testimony of an Apolitical Life
Dir. Leandra Hoffmann
Germany
Synopsis: 'My Grandmother's Appletree' is a documentary about the memories of my 96 years old grandmother who grew up during the Nazi regime in Germany. She described herself as apolitical and there are many things she can no longer remember. What happens to history when contemporary witnesses forget it? And what is the testimony of an apolitical follower?

16.

Berlin Rising
Dir. Vincent Janssen
Germany
Logline: As Berlin's rent crisis continues to increase, so does the number of fleeing tenants. When this problem reaches Zayna's own doorstep, the young artist decides to fight.

17.

PENTACLUB [The Club of Five]
Dir. Roberto Strazzarino
Italy
Synopsis: The year is 1968. Five teenage boys dream of running a movie theater in which they will not show pro-war films. One summer afternoon Giò, Delfo, Max, Ricky and Paolo learn to become trusted friends, indispensable to one another. A coming-of-age, adventure film about friendship, one with small but large rebellious acts that signal the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. A group of friends, who met in the 1960s, was essential to the film's production. Therefore, Pentaclub is a film about friendship, both on the screen and behind the scenes.

18.

Influence
Dir. Justin Thomas
United States
Synopsis: