Director, Writer, Producer // SUNG HO KIM
Country of origin // South Korea
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Short Narrative
Synopsis // One day, a boy suddenly went missing. The detective, who responded to the report, did not pay much attention to the testimonies of students and parents claiming that they had been harmed by the boy’s strange behavior. Based on the boy’s condition, suspected to have an intellectual disability, and his impulsive violent tendencies, the detective pursued the investigation with the preconceived notion that the boy had been bullied. Then, a girl who claimed to be the boy’s only friend appeared, making an unbelievable statement that the boy was actually an alien.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Short Narrative
Director, Producer //Katya Mokolo
Writer//Thomas Schmitt
Producers// Dmitrii Grebennikov, Andrey Rasputin
Country of origin // France
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor (Erbolat Toguzakov)
Synopsis //An old man crosses the boundless Kazakh steppe, driving alone. Haunted by memories of a lost love, he stops by Bartogay Lake, flowers in hand. But as he tries to step out, his car door refuses to open, trapping him between past and present.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor (Erbolat Toguzakov)
Director, Writer, Producer // Thirakhun Hsiao Srismith
Country of origin // Taiwan
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Short Documentary
Synopsis // YOUR PLATE, MY WORLD: A delve into the true world of curator and Michelin chef, André Chiang: To where does he find his true world? Is it success, hardwork, or the creative process? This microdoc documents the inner workings of André Chiang’s restaurant, RAW, located in Taipei, Taiwan.
As of the end of 2024, RAW completes its 10 years of legacy, ushering in a new era of André Chiang’s culinary academy.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Short Documentary
The Writer
Austin Glasser
Directors,Writers// Austin Glasser, Luke Madenwald
Producer// Joey Horvitz
Country of Origin// United States
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best First-Time Filmmaker, Best Art Direction
Synopsis //Self isolated, a writer navigates the pressure of the film industry, family, and the looming presence of his father, only to lose himself to his ambitions.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best First-Time Filmmaker, Best Art Direction
Director,Writer // NGÔ THANH PHONG
Country of origin // Vietnam
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Acting Ensemble
Synopsis //After spending the night in a cozy homestay, Quynh’s body grows weaker and weaker, to the point where she realizes she may no longer be able to leave this place.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Acting Ensemble
Bruce Dickinson - Tears of the Dragon- Orchestra - 2026
LEO LIBERTI
Directors // LEO LIBERTI, ANTOINE DE MONTREMY
Writer// BRUCE DICKINSON
Producers // BRENDAN DUFFEY, RAFAEL PENSADO
Country of origin //United Kingdom
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Music Video, Best Editing/Post-Production
Synopsis //This year (2026), besides marking Iron Maiden’s 50th anniversary, Bruce Dickinson reimagines his classic Tears of the Dragon exactly as he had always envisioned it, now accompanied by a full orchestra. But instead of creating a traditional music video, he presents a poetic short film that blends music and dance, rich in subtext and filled with Easter eggs, with his music serving as its emotional and narrative backbone.
Beyond that, he seeks to portray his own journey in a deeply poetic and introspective way. This short film ventures into Bruce’s unconscious, revealing two parallel realms: a ruined warehouse and the vast ocean. Both stand as archetypal symbols of the unconscious, yet they exist in different dimensions of experience.
Within the ruins, Bruce confronts the echoes of his own past, his steps, fragments of the life and work he has already lived. In the ocean, however, lies the collective unconscious, where personal memories dissolve into universal archetypes.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Music Video, Best Editing/Post-Production
Why can't I just be me?!
Jasmine Doctor
Director,Writer, Producer//Jasmine Doctor
Producer// Dan Hale
Country of origin // United Kingdom
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Animation
Synopsis //“Why can’t I just be me”, is an animatic that focuses on my personal experiences of being a “weird black girl.” This animatic talks about a topic that not only relates to me but can be shared experiences that others can connect with. It explores the stereotypical preconceptions of blackness and analyzes the misconceptions that can be presented while representing them through visuals.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Animation
Daemon
Tory Tiano
Writer // Tory Tiano
Country of origin // United States
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Screenplay
Synopsis //After a childhood accident leaves a violin prodigy partially deaf and plagued by a recurring nightmare, he becomes addicted to illegal memory-reliving technology that lets him hear perfectly again, drawing him into a powerful corporation’s secret experiment and threatening his grip on reality.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Screenplay
Director, Writer,Prodcuer // Nayla Al Khaja
Writer//Masoud Amralla Al Ali
Producers//Jude Stephen Walko, Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki
Country of origin // United Arab Emirates
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Feature Narrative
Synopsis //BAAB is a dark fantasy that unfolds through the fractured mind of a woman reeling from the sudden death of her twin sister. Plagued by the eerie hum of tinnitus in her left ear, she is drawn into a surreal world where grief takes on physical form. As she descends through three visceral stages, depression, anger, and bargaining, her reality begins to distort, blurring the line between the living and the dead. Set in an isolated Emirati landscape steeped in myth and memory, BAAB explores the intimate violence of grief and the unspoken bond between twins. What begins as a psychological unraveling soon reveals something more otherworldly, a doorway (“BAAB” in Arabic) that may lead to closure… or something far more sinister.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Feature Narrative
Director, Producer // Svetlozar Petrov Georgiev
Writer// Vanya Koleva Stoyanova
Country of origin // Bulgaria
Season Award #17 Nomination // Best Feature Documentary
Synopsis // If there is one thing that is more interesting than what happens on the stage of a theatre play, it is what happens behind it.
Learning to Fly takes us behind the scenes of what may sound like an impossible endeavor: the creation of a bilingual performance by a group of artists, coming from Japan and Bulgaria, who share little beyond their love for puppet theatre.
Season Awards #17 Shortlist:
Best Feature Documentary
