Rhythmic gymnastics is considered to be one of the most beautiful female sports. What we see is that young, gorgeous girls in their glittering leotards move lightly on a big carpet, with a smile on their faces. Behind the mask of perfection, however, there is eternal self-dissatisfaction and endless internal struggles in the group. Through the eyes of a competitor, we follow the journey of the entire national team from a training session to the competition mat and observe how their intrigue ends up.

The Hungarian animation director, Anna Tőkés studied animation at Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design. She has worked in the industry since 2018. She feels comfortable in several different animation roles such as art directing, animating, or production managing. Her first film as a director, the animation short titled THE LAST DROP (2024) has been selected for Sarajevo FF. ​​​

Panna and Atus live in timelessness, while the grass just withers around them. But can this last at least until the end of the allergy season?

Although my experiences inspired me to try myself out in filmmaking, my life has been full of twists and turns. After I finished my studies in history and art history in Budapest, I left for China to start a new chapter in my career. In Shanghai, I tried to absorb everything that being a foreigner and traveling in Asia could give me. I worked in a video art studio as a curator and had the chance to get a glimpse at filmmaking, helping to create performance art pieces. After I started publishing my short stories back in Hungary, I made my first short film. It was then I realized I truly arrived home...

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Bombs fall down while a mother sings to her daughters. Nature shivers. Houses become empty. 9-year-old Emilia is about to learn that the war around her is not a game anymore. ​

Carmen Pedrero (Madrid, 1996) is a film director, screenwriter and poet. After graduating from ECAM, her thesis short film “Winds of Springtime” had its premiere in the Future Frames’ program at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and won the Danzante Award for Best Opera Prima at Huesca International Film Festival. During the last two years, Carmen was part of multiple artistic labs such as Novos Cinemas’, INPUT (S8), Málaga Talent, or Cannes’ Focus Script, where she had the opportunity to continue working on her projects. At the same time, Carmen took her first steps on poetry, winning in 2022 the Biennial Young Poetry Award of La Laguna’s Ateneo with her book “No one knows how a cat feels when it licks its paws”. Last summer, she filmed “The idea of an Island”, her last short film, supported by ICAA, Junta de Extremadura and WOS Fabrique. Carmen is currently living in Boston on a full scholarship, where she’s pursuing a master’s program focused on film pedagogy.

How can two lost people help each other move on to the next stage of their lives, leaving their past behind? The film is about empathy, consideration for each other, and the immense power of small gestures - which can change both their own lives and the lives of others.

Fanni Potonyecz is a Hungarian director, actress, and emerging producer. She holds a master’s degree in film directing from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, an acting diploma from Kaposvár University, and a BA in cultural anthropology from the University of Miskolc. As a freelancer, she has worked on many film productions. She developed the documentary series The Murderers of Labancz Anna as a producer during the Ex Oriente international workshop from 2023 to 2024, and the project was selected among the top 10 projects at NEM Zagreb. From 2021 to 2023, she worked as a cultural manager at the Budapest International Documentary Film Festival, where she also coordinated the short film section. Her short film Next Stop, which she wrote and directed, was awarded production funding by the National Film Institute in 2023. ​