submissions - bluedanube

A single mother’s adventure by the seaside leads her to recognise her unnecessary martyrdom for her disabled teenage daughter.

Anna Gyimesi was born in 1985, in Budapest. After receiving her degree in medicine in 2011, she turned to filmmaking. She graduated from the film directing program of the University of Theater and Film Arts in 2019 and from documentary film directing in the Docnomads Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Course in 2021. Her interests are taboo social dilemmas represented through personal dramas, especially connected to motherhood, womanhood, and social marginalization. With Affricate she won Cinelink-award for the best pitch at Talent Sarajevo Pack&Pitch 2020 and took part in European Short Pitch Works-In-Progress Co-Production Forum in 2022. Recently she is developing her first feature.

Turquoise Mermaid

Vienna - 20 Wed, 18.00

Bratislava - 23 Sat, 19.00

Budapest - 30 Sat, 19.00

After his unexpected passing, a feisty young ghost tries everything in his power to escape Death herself.

Klára Fedora Homzová is a young animator and short film director from Bratislava – Slovakia, where she recently graduated from studying animation at the Academy Of Performing Arts. During her time at university, she directed her first short film ‘Lunate’ (2020) - which has been a part of several festival selections- and her graduation short film ‘I don’t want to go yet’ (2022). Since 2018 she has cooperated with Plutoon studio in Bratislava, where she worked as a storyboard artist and 2D animator on their feature film ‘Journey to Yourland’ (2022) and where she is currently based, working on both studio and freelance animation and art projects. She is hoping to soon direct her first short animation film outside of school and to explore everything the magical and fascinating world of animation has to offer.

Azure Mermaid

Vienna - 21 Thu, 20.00

Bratislava - 24 Sun, 19.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 19.00

Following the path of a deceased stranger, the young night watchwoman Zahra ends up finding a way to cope with her trauma.

Elena Pilar Nyffeler is a Swiss American director and actor. Born in Boston MA USA and raised in Zurich. Nyffeler worked in Theater for several years after graduating from drama school at HFS Ernst Busch in Berlin in 2013. In 2022 she completed a master degree in film directing at Hamburg Media School...

Azure Mermaid

Vienna - 21 Thu, 20.00

Bratislava - 24 Sun, 19.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 19.00

Southern Slovakia, hot summer days, a family of three generations meets under one roof. An unexpected visit from Zoja, the granddaughter, stirs up the peaceful routine. Within a quiet presence of God and alcohol, the family untails it’s tragicomical past and a few (almost) unsaid secrets.

Alica Bednáriková (1999) comes from Žilina, Slovakia. She studied at a bilingual gymnasium in Sučany and afterwards pursued her film-directing studies at The Academy of Performing Arts. During this time, she has written and directed several short films, including Boredom which was screened at several festivals. She also writes poetry and short stories.

Turquoise Mermaid

Vienna - 20 Wed, 18.00

Bratislava - 23 Sat, 19.00

Budapest - 30 Sat, 19.00

In her desperate search for sleep seventeen-year-old Eva does everything to stay the night at other peoples houses where she watches others sleep. When Eva is awake at night, she takes us to the darker side of normal life while forcing her family and friends to develop a different perspective on what they consider "normal".

Director and screenwriter based in Vienna & Berlin, schooled at the Austrian State School of Film and Television – Filmakademie Wien, where she learnt from Jessica Hausner or Michael Haneke. Her films traveled to numerous international festivals and won quite a few awards including the FIRST STEPS AWARD – the most important newcomer award in the German speaking countries. Years of experience in contemporary dance and physical theatre complete her methods of working with professional and unprofessional actors...

Azure Mermaid

Vienna - 21 Thu, 20.00

Bratislava - 24 Sun, 19.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 19.00

"Post Socialist Bodies" is a 17-minute experimental documentary film, which explores the experience of abortion in contrasting political systems with abstract imagery and dance. Using methods of artistic research, the director and researcher in the field of visual-culture, Laura Lintner sheds light on her insights of the female experience and body politics in post-socialist Belgrade. Two dancers, one from Vienna (L. Lintner) one from Belgrade (O. Uzikaeva) embark together on a journey of movement research...

Laura Lintner was born in 1995 in Graz, Austria, and currently resides in Lisbon. She completed her studies in psychology and visual culture at AAU Klagenfurt, with a focus on artistic research, socio-psychology, and body culture. Laura has worked for several years in psychiatry and also served as the chairwoman for the Corpo Colectivo dance collective, whose primary goal is to encourage and execute artistic projects, particularly in the field of urban contemporary dance and audiovisual media...

Aquamarine Mermaid

Vienna - 22 Fri, 18.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 18.00

In a dystopian world, flowers have become the only source of energy. This comes at the cost of massive shortages, and only the owners of expensive energy bonds can enjoy power supply. Eva R., an employee of the Garden power station, relinquishes her most precious belonging – three fragile snowdrops – in exchange for the privilege of government-assisted suicide. Though even a smooth exit from this joyless world proves too much to hope for.

Galina D. Georgieva is a Sofia-based film director, screenwriter and playwright. She was a participant in Transilvania Pitch Stop, Sarajevo Talent Campus, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market; In the Palace, a workshop, organized by Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, etc. Her short film French Cinema was part of the selection of the 23th Shanghai International Film Festival (A category) and other prestigious festivals...

Aquamarine Mermaid

Vienna - 22 Fri, 18.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 18.00

Željka is a 40-year-old woman, living a quiet life in an isolated village. An unexpected visit will take her back to the past, shaking up her daily routine.

Lana Barić was born in Split, Croatia. In 2005 she earned her acting degree from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. Since 2011 she has been a member of the drama ensemble at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. She has acted in more than forty stage productions and in as many films and TV series, receiving numerous awards and accolades.

Azure Mermaid

Vienna - 21 Thu, 20.00

Bratislava - 24 Sun, 19.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 19.00

In her efforts to obtain accommodation and thus a residence permit in Austria, Marinela, an overburdened single Romanian mother, relies on her daughter Ilinca as a mediator and translator. The 8-year-old, however, has other plans.

Brigitta Kanyaro is a Romanian actress and filmmaker based in Vienna. After graduating from acting school, she worked in various positions both in front of and behind the camera. 2017 she produced her first short film "Liniste" which premiered at Transylvania IFF. In 2020 she was nominated for the "ROMY" young talent award for her first leading role in the national broadcaster ORF for the series "Last Will". In 2019, she made her directorial debut with the short film "Annamalai", which won the Austrian award at Linz ISFF. Kanyaro was selected for the 2021 artist residency "FEMART" in Bucharest with her debut feature film project, where she won the main prize.

Turquoise Mermaid

Vienna - 20 Wed, 18.00

Bratislava - 23 Sat, 19.00

Budapest - 30 Sat, 19.00

The short film "What do you think?" tells the story of Alex and Ana, two young lovers who hitchhike from Chisinau to Grigoriopol. The car they randomly stop is driven by Victor who turns out to be a rather uncomfortable man. The tension of the film rises due to the unexpected situations that arise along the way. There are millions of ways the story could end. We chose one of them. Which one? What do you think?

Ioana Vatamanu-Mărgineanu, born in 2000 in Chisinau, Moldova. In 2020, she became editor-host at Radio Moldova Youth. In 2021 she became the host of "Erudit Cafe", an Intellectual Game Show at the National Television of Moldova. During the same year, she made her debut in cinematography with the movie ”What do you think?”.

Aquamarine Mermaid

Vienna - 22 Fri, 18.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 18.00

Incarcerated participants in a mental health experiment watch videos of sunset-soaked beaches, wildflowers, and forests on loop, prompting them to reflect on isolation and wilderness.

Merete Mueller is a writer and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work explores our relationships with built and natural environments, and has included in-depth reporting on climate change and infrastructure, as well as intimate stories about body image, homes, and belonging. Merete's short and feature-length films have screened at SXSW, Hot Docs, DOC NYC, The Brooklyn Museum, and via Netflix, The New York Times' Op-Docs series, and The New Yorker.

Docu

Vienna - 21 Thu, 16.00

Budapest - 27 Wed, 19.00

Shaped by mysticism, resistance, and the voice of revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral, we take a personal and poetic journey through the anti-colonial past and present of Guinea-Bissau...

Welket Bungué born in Guinea-Bissau in 1988. He descends from the Balanta ethnicity, and he's based in Berlin since 2019. Bungué is a transdisciplinary artist with a focus on performance and video. His cross-cultural education, from Africa, Europe, and Brazil, made himself a cross-national multitalented artist...

Docu+Super Short

Vienna - 22, Fri, 17.30

Budapest - 26 Tue, 19.00

How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Douwe Dijkstra (1984) is a filmmaker and visual artist from the Netherlands. He studied Illustration Design at the ArtEZ University of the Arts. His work is a mixture of video, animation and VFX, and can be described as both humorous and socially engaged. His projects range from short films and documentaries to video installations and theatre performances.

Docu+Super Short

Vienna - 22, Fri, 17.30

Budapest - 26 Tue, 19.00

The account has fallen asleep on her desk. The waiter sleeps behind the cash register. The guard is dreaming, slumbering on his chair outside the bank. Powernapper’s Paradise explores life and the people in the Philippines, where it seems okay to sleep at work.

Samir is a writer/director born in Iran, 1986 and raised in Sweden. In 2010 he graduated witha degree in Film and Screen Production from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Samir has made several short films that have travelled to festivals around the world.

Docu

Vienna - 21 Thu, 16.00

Budapest - 27 Wed, 19.00

The hungarian state system of social founds is often unable to help those in need, letting many fall through the cracks, having to deal with poverty and old age on their own. This is why the work of NGOs’, such as the From Streets to Homes Association serve as an important supplement to the Hungarian welfare system. Within this organization, the work of social workers is especially important, as they are the ones helping manage the everyday lives of those in need, often going past their personal and emotional limits during their workweek...

Tibor Albert Kapás is a student of the Department of Film at ELTE. Shards is the first documentary in which he functioned both as a director and as a cinematographer. The preservation of Hungarian film culture is one of his main missions in life, therefore, he is an active member of the Hungarian Independent Film and Video Association (MAFSZ) and the Hungarian Documentary Filmmakers Association (MADOKE). He is also the organiser of the National Independent Film Festival.

Docu

Vienna - 21 Thu, 16.00

Budapest - 27 Wed, 19.00

A found footage examination of what happened at the lake today. Where were you? An exquisite corpse by Non Films. Images randomly selected from found footage; poem written without images; music written without images or words.

Brian Ratigan is an award-winning animator and director who is a champion of independent film. He is the founder of Non Films, a label for ephemeral animation and experimental cinema in New York City. Ratigan is established in the film festival circuit as a programmer and jury for Slamdance Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and the London Indie Festival, among others. Ratigan serves as Director of Animation for Kumar Pictures and co-manages Chaotic Cinema.

Docu+Super Short

Vienna - 22, Fri, 17.30

Budapest - 26 Tue, 19.00

A Carousel in the Rain is a short film about finding happiness in being by yourself through difficult times and looking for a glimmer of hope in finding your love and sharing true happiness.

Jaro Jääskeläinen was born in 1989 in Finland. First steps in filmmaking he took in 2002 when he started experimenting creative ways of capturing moving images on his family video camera. Over the years he has participated in various film productions, in which he has had diverse roles. By compelling storytelling through different genres his vision is to positively affect the way that people are experiencing films. Since 2010 he is producing new film projects through his production company TALJA Films. He currently divides his time between his home country Finland and Hungary.

Docu+Super Short

Vienna - 22, Fri, 17.30

Budapest - 26 Tue, 19.00

Thoughts ripple over the pages of a personal notebook, kept during a stay at different science labs in Zürich. They float from one to another, like a mind map of unfinished ideas on memory, medical imaging, cells, and aging.

Soetkin Verstegen is an independent film maker and animator from Brussels. Her films Mr Sand (2016) and Freeze frame (2019) travelled to numerous festivals and received jury awards at Clermont-Ferrand, Ann Arbor, Annecy, Fantoche and Animafest Zagreb. She was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, ZHdK's a-i-l programm, Saari residence and AniDox:Residency. She freelances as a stop motion animator and is a guest professor at LUCA School of Arts, Brussels.

Docu+Super Short

Vienna - 22, Fri, 17.30

Budapest - 26 Tue, 19.00

In the presence of natural elements, in front of their mysterious and changing power, we face earth and water as precious enigmas of vision, able to transcend the visible reality and push elsewhere, between the sublime and the imponderable. Thinking of the archive as a deposit of signs left in space and traced in time. Drawings of time stratified by the destiny of men and other species. Through the selection and re-elaboration of disparate materials present in the Aamod archive, the work explores the concept of absence-presence. Absence itself becomes presence as a compensation (real or imagined) of absence and in this indefiniteness it draws its "altered" perspective. The materialization of sound and image leads to a slow further appearance and display of environments initially concealed, capable of creating semi-dark places of drowsiness that would like to describe incorporeal emotional states. Bewildered melodies draw the contours of an amorphous environment, which is and slowly evolves.

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

Amnion (the innermost membrane enclosing an embryo) is an experimental short film on the essence of waste. Landfills on the fringes of cities function as complex and hidden anthropological archives, revealing everything about our culture, habits, fears and dreams. They brim with outdated fashion, leftovers sealed inside eternal plastic, discarded welfare and abandoned cheap labor...

Saara Ekström works in film, photography, text and installation. Chronotopes where time and place densify, time that nurtures and erodes, the ambivalent desire to both remember and forget are at the core of her art. Ekström’s work has been shown extensively in various museums and festivals in Europe, the Americas and Asia. She received the Finnish media art prize AVEK-award in 2018 and the prizes of SW Finland in 2017, Finnish Art Society in 1995 and the Aboa prize in 1994. She has been the Helsinki Festival Artist in 2005 and was nominated for both Ars Fennica and Carnegie Art Award prizes in 2010.

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

A recently discovered monarch butterfly subespecies (scientifically named "Danaus plexippus eclipsis") possesses strange toxins in its scales that cause powerful sensorial alterations in its predators. Intertwining vivid colors and textures of microscopic footage with the sway of the human body, this is a sci-fi speculation about what would happen to human beings if they came across the Eclipsis butterfly in the midst of our hurting world.

De-indiginezed filmmaker born in México City. Through a poetic, ludic and sensory approach, her work explores questions of territory, nature, legacy and identity that traverse her Brown body and her intimate sphere. Titixe (2018), her first feature documentary in which she holds directing, editing, producing and cinematography credits, has been selected in more than forty international film festivals and collected several awards...

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

At a butcher shop in Jeromesville, Ohio, four meat processors situate their labor within their own minds and bodies.

Lydia Cornett (she/her/hers) is filmmaker based between Columbus, Ohio and Brooklyn, New York. As a former musician turned filmmaker, she makes work that unites the restraint of observational storytelling with the physicality and connective qualities she associates with music-making. Her work has screened at AFI Fest, BAMCinemaFest, Sheffield Doc Fest, AspenShortsFest, Hamptons International Film Festival, and DOC NYC, where she received a Special Jury Mention for her film Yves & Variation...

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

Museum Closed is an audio-visual phenomenological interference pattern.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1951 Brice Bowman grew up in California in the San Francisco Bay Area after having moved there at age of 8. His family was so poor he did not start school until the second grade where he learned how to draw, which he did for hours each day. At school he also discovery the library where he read art history books. In the art books he copied the paintings teaching himself how to do them himself. He did not think of Art as “profession”, rather as a tool to explore feelings; how to “visualize” what he was experiencing in a phenomenological sense...

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

n the strange and rugged landscapes of Lanzarote, Ponç, a 14 year old adolescent, tells his story that oscillates between memories of ancient times and his everyday life. He speaks about the arrival of the dromedaries to the Canary Islands, about how they were taken away from the Sahara by the colonizers to be exploited, and he says he is sure he was one of them. He raps it, he narrates is as a tale, he repeats it continuously. Sahara, Sahara, Sahara. The story mixes up with playstation games, talks about female bodies and desire, reggaeton, junk food, and other peoples acceptation.

LUCIA LALOR (Buenos Aires, 1993) wrote and directed the short films : “Igneous Journal” (2022- shot during the eruption of the volcano in La Palma), “Notes from a Dromedary” (2022) done with the mentorship of Werner Herzog, and "Cambie las Ventanas de mi Casa" (2022- screened at the Pompidou Museum in Paris), “Paulina” (2017) and “Azul” (2019- Bafici)...

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

THE BIRTH OF THE A KINGDOM is a fairy tale set in a fantastical world. The main character is a girl on the cusp of adolescence. She is tasked with saving an ancient kingdom that is on the verge of disappearing. She dons the clothing of the legendary wolf-warrior, venturing into the forest in search of the lost flower-maiden. THE BIRTH OF A KINGDOM is a hymn to the mystery of fertility. The fertility of the earth, original and inexorable. The fertility of human beings, animalistic and ritualistic. The fertility of the image, which possess the power to make stories bloom and create kingdoms.

Experimental

Vienna - 22 Fri, 20.30

Esztergom - 24 Sun, 16.00

Budapest - 26 Tue, 20.30

Hardly Working sheds a limelight on the very characters that normally remain in the background of video games: NPCs. They are non-player characters that populate the digital world as extras to create the appearance of normality. A laundress, a stable boy, a street sweeper and a carpenter are observed with ethnographic precision. They are Sisyphus machines, whose labour routines, activity patterns as well as bugs and malfunctions paint a vivid analogy for work under capitalism.

The pseudo-marxist media guerilla Total Refusal explores and practices strategies for artistic intervention in contemporary computer games. It works with tools of appropriation and rededication of game resources. Their films and performances were presented among others at Berlinale ‘20 and at the MoMA in NYC and they recently received the award for the best Austrian short documentary (Diagonale’20, Graz).

Total Refusal currently are: Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf

Animation

Vienna - 20 Wed, 20.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 20.30

In Bogota, a bird-girl leaves behind the family home, her domineering mother and faithful dog to go and explore her sexuality.

Carla Melo Gampert (1993, Bogotá) is a visual artist who graduated from the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and from the Film program at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires. Her graduate thesis, the animated short film POR AHORA UN CUENTO, had its international premiere at the Annecy Festival before travelling to Dok Leipzig, FicValdivia, Curta Kinoforum and São Paulo, among others. In addition to her work as a director, she curates audiovisual exhibitions such as Animación Porosa (Cinemateca de Bogotá, 2022). In LA PERRA, her first professional animated short, she continues her exploration about body and femininity.

Animation

Budapest - 28 Thu, 20.30

...ONLY IN BUDAPEST PROGRAM...

A natural history fantasy film, following the dramatic life cycle of the wild salmon in human form. Narrated by Marianne Faithfull.

Bafta nominated directing duo Karni and Saul, an Israeli British male female couple , Create mixed media films, commercials and music videos. Together they make "casual fantasy” films, a merging of beautiful photography and film with high-end animation and magical elements. In their art, Visual pleasure and emotional narrative are key. In 2010 Karni & Saul showcased their short film ”Turning”, for BBC, which was nominated for a BAFTA. Their second short film “Flytopia” was commissioned by Film4 as part of the short-to-feature scheme, It has toured the festival's circuit and been screened worldwide. Karni and Saul's films have won awards at Annecy, British animation awards, and Clermont Ferrand festivals among many others. Karni and Saul have recently completed an epic two-year mixed media short film commission for Bfi called WILD SUMMON, a natural history fantasy.

Animation

Vienna - 20 Wed, 20.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 20.30

Rosemary, a young fairy, leads a boring life at the fairytale castle. She’d rather be a witch so she can scream and get really messy. Her mother doesn’t like the sound of that, so Rosemary takes her stuff and sets off to the witch forest.

Cedric Igodt is a graduate from the Belgian Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound. In 2006 he joined the animation studio nWave Pictures. In 2011 he set up his own studio where he became a director of animated short films for theme parks, such as Meet the Dinos and Little Dolphin. Witchfairy is his first animated narrative short film to be presented on a film festival.

Animation

Vienna - 20 Wed, 20.00

Budapest - 28 Thu, 20.30

On a Boeing-737 a 39-y.o. flight attendant, Vanina, tries hard to hide her, obvious, discomfort. Everyone seems genuinely worried about her while she goes on complaining about her new braces. She blames her mother for not taking care of her teeth when she should. However, her colleagues know; this plane carries her mother's dead body to her hometown. When the turbulence become threatening, Vanina faces an urgent need to see her mother in what proves to be a last chance for reconciliation.

Thanasis Neofotistos is a Film Director, Writer & Architect from Greece. Member of European Film Academy (EFA), Berlinale & Sarajevo Talents alumnus and Head Programmer of Student Int’l Competition of Drama Int. Short Film Festival. But most importantly, member of the LGBTQI+ community! His new short film AIRHOSTESS-737 (16'-2022) premiered in 75th Locarno IFF 2022 and then at 47th TIFF Toronto Film Festival!...

Linen Short

Vienna - 20 Wed, 16.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 21.00

Ádám lives the calm life of a small-time pot dealer in his late grandma’s prefab apartment in the outskirts of Budapest. Since he left home, he created himself a low-key but functional life, which no one can really disturb. No one but perhaps Bence, his 14 year old half-brother who just left home and is looking for refuge at Ádám’s place.

Márk Beleznai is a Budapest based 29 year old director and is currently a student specialized in filmmaking. He also works as a projectionist in a small art-house cinema called Cirko-Gejzír. His main focus is directing, but he also studies editing, cinematography and scriptwriting. His first notable short film, Agapé, which was made with fellow students at Budapest Metropolitan University, has been accepted for various festivals, such as the Cinéfondation selection of Festival de Cannes, and won several awards.

Wool Short

Vienna - 21 Thu, 18.00

Budapest - 30 Sat, 21.00

Maya takes her parents and sister to the desert in order to film them for an additional scene in her film. But the day of filming turns into a never-ending family argument, and it becomes unclear whether they will even manage to cooperate and become a team.

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 8.4.92. From 2009 – 2010 she studied cinema in ”Hadarim high school” and worked on many film sets. From 2014 – 2019 she was a student in “Minshar school of art” in Tel Aviv. Since 2014 she has been working as a freelance editor. Most of her films she writes are about her family and in which she plays along with her real family members... In 2022 she directed and wrote the short film “Killing ourselves”, sponsored by “Gesher Film Foundation” and premiered at “Jerusalem film festival “ and won the Best Live Action Film...

Silk Short

Vienna - 22 Fri, 16.00

Budapest - 27 Wed, 21.00

It’s Christmas Eve, and Synnøve is searching for her drug-addicted daughter Michelle in an almost desolated city. (Synnøve and Michelle are mother and daughter in real life and play versions of themselves in a story that is very close to their own lives.)

Aslak Danbolt is a Norwegian filmmaker from Bergen, who lives and works out of Oslo, Norway. He studied Documentary Directing at Lillehammer University College and graduated with «Martin-the Ghost» in 2009, which premiered in competition at IDFA that year. In 2010 he was selected for The Berlinale Talent Campus. From 2011 to 2014 he attended The London Film School, where he focused on writing and directing fiction. His grad film from the MA program “Last Base”, was selected for more than 120 festivals (including Tribeca, Chicago & Slamdance) and won numerous awards...

Linen Short

Vienna - 20 Wed, 16.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 21.00

A 13-year-old girl and a 30-something man are brought to a police station in Mumbai in the middle of the night by two strangers. Amidst questionable motives and unreliable narrators, a frustrated female constable investigates what happened that night, and what could’ve happened.

Reema Maya aka Reema Sengupta is an award-winning filmmaker, known for her socially relevant independent work and eclectic commercial work. Reema’s short film Counterfeit Kunkoo had its world premier at the Sundance Film Festival 2018, where it was the first Indian fiction short to be nominated in 16 years...

Silk Short

Vienna - 22 Fri, 16.00

Budapest - 27 Wed, 21.00

In research on the religiosity of Poles conducted in the 1990s by OBOP, the percentage of believers has always fluctuated around 95%. At the same time, the unemployment rates also reached record values. The crisis strengthened the society's need for spirituality, which allowed things not necessarily possible to happen in other times .

Jan Bujnowski (born 18.11.1994, Białystok) Student of Film Direction at National Film School in Łódź. He also studied journalism and history of art at University of Warsaw. His short films ”Time machine”, ”The Crossword”, ”The Olympian” and "The Devil" were screened at over 60 film festivals in the world.

Wool Short

Vienna - 21 Thu, 18.00

Budapest - 30 Sat, 21.00

How can we experience intimacy if we are unable to express love? Adél, a Generation Z teenager, pushes her boundaries in search of her own identity. Her boyfriend, a typical man-child, drives her into more self-destructive behaviour. Can she feel free without knowing what it means?

Jakob Ladányi Jancsó was born in Hamburg in 1989. He got his degree in psychology at the Freie Universitat Berlin, then he studied film directing at the University of Theatrical and Film Arts in Budapest. He finishes his master studies as film director in 2022 at the Filmakademie Wien.

Linen Short

Vienna - 20 Wed, 16.00

Budapest - 29 Fri, 21.00

Except for mountain landscapes, magical rocks, and a few other kids, the village where Xiaohui lives with his grandfather and two cows has nothing to offer. The nine-year-old sorely misses his parents who work in the city. When grandpa has to sell a calf, the clever grandson tries everything to prevent the separation of mother and child. A soulful cry for love in times of capitalism.

Xinying Lao was born in Guangxi, China in 1997. Xinying Lao is a Chinese filmmaker and a third-year Graduate Film student at New York University. She is a director, writer, and editor. She has made several doc shorts and narrative shorts. She studied journalism as an undergraduate, which brought her into contact with people from different classes in society. In her films, she is dedicated to conveying the vulnerability that people are afraid to express in reality. Xiaohui and His Cows is her second-year film project at NYU.

Silk Short

Budapest - 27 Wed, 21.00

...ONLY IN BUDAPEST PROGRAM...

The Official Selection (54 films) will be screened in Vienna, Budapest and some of them in Bratislava and Esztergom.

In Vienna (Amerling Cultural Center), Budapest (Cirko-Gejzir Cinema), Bratislava (Pivnica, Klubová scéna pre Devín) and Esztergom (Kaleidoszkóp Ház) you can watch movies in a pleasant, friendly environment. In Vienna and Bratislava free donation, free tee, coffee, soft drinks, fruits, cookies etc. for movie viewers).

The films will be screened with English subtitles.

Screenings dates and venues:

20-22 September, Kulturzentrum Spittelberg im Amerlinghaus - Stiftgasse 8., Vienna

23-24 September, Pivnica, Klubová scéna pre Devín - Kremeľská 36, Bratislava

24 September, Kaleidoszkóp Ház, Esztergom

26-30 September, Cirko-Gejzir Cinema - Budapest, Balassi B. u. 15-17., Budapest

The detailed program is coming soon...

THE FILMS OF THE FESTIVAL

The Official Selection (54 films) will be screened in Vienna, Budapest and some of them in Bratislava and Esztergom. In Vienna (Amerling Cultural Center), Budapest (Cirko-Gejzir Cinema), Bratislava (Pivnica, Klubová scéna pre Devín) and Esztergom (Kaleidoszkóp Ház) you can watch movies in a pleasant, friendly environment. In Vienna and Bratislava free donation, free tee, coffee, soft drinks, fruits, cookies etc. for movie viewers).

The films will be screened with English subtitles.

Screenings dates and venues:

20-22 September, Kulturzentrum Spittelberg im Amerlinghaus - Stiftgasse 8., Vienna

20 - Wednesday

16.00 Linen Short

18.00 Turquoise Mermaid

20.00 Animation

21 - Thursday

16.00 Docu

18.00 Wool Short

20.00 Azure Mermaid

22 - Friday

16.00 Silk Short

17.30 Docu+Super Short

19.00 Aquamarine Mermaid

20.30 Experimental

23-24 September, Pivnica, Klubová scéna pre Devín - Kremeľská 36, Bratislava

23 - Saturday

19.00 Turquoise Mermaid

24 - Sunday

19.00 Azure Mermaid

24 September, Kaleidoszkóp Ház, Esztergom

24 - Sunday

16.00 Experimental

26-30 September, Cirko-Gejzir Cinema - Budapest, Balassi B. u. 15-17., Budapest

26 - Tuesday

19.00 Docu+Super Short

20.30 Experimental

27 - Wednesday

19.00 Docu

21.00 Silk Short

28 - Thursday

19.00 Aquamarine Mermaid

20.30 Animation

29 - Friday

19.00 Azure Mermaid

21.00 Linen Short

30 - Saturday

19.00 Turquoise Mermaid

21.00 Wool Short

THE FILMS OF THE FESTIVAL

submissions 2022

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023 - DANUBE MERMAID

AFFRICATEAnna Gyimesi

Hungary, 202225'00"Danube Mermaid

DREAMING BODIESVivian Bausch, Ella Knorz

Austria, 20224'16"Danube Mermaid

I DON'T WANT TO GO YETKlára Fedora Homzová

Slovakia, 20226'43"Danube Mermaid

IT'S A DATENadia Parfan

Ukraine, 20234'53"Danube Mermaid

LINECROSSERElene Pilar Nyffeler

Germany, 202227'32"Danube Mermaid

LIQUID BREADAlica Bednáriková

Slovakia, 202125'30"Danube Mermaid

LULLABYMagdalena Chmielewska

Austria, 202221'00"Danube Mermaid

POST SOCIALIST BODIESLaura Teresa Lintner

Serbia, 202215'00"Danube Mermaid

RESTING FOGNikolett Fábián

Hungary, 20225'12"Danube Mermaid

SNOWDROPS AT THE END OF THE TRAINGalina D. Georgieva

Bulgaria, 202226'00"Danube Mermaid

SNOW WHITELana Baric

Croatia, 202214'40"Danube Mermaid

STILLE POST (INBETWEEN HOME)Brigitta Kanyaró

Romania, 202117'00"Danube Mermaid

WHAT DO YOU THINK?Ioana Vatamanu-Margineanu

Moldova, Republic of, 202121'50"Danube Mermaid

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023 - DOCUMENTARY

A MEDICAlizhan Nasirov

Kyrgyzstan, 202324'00"Documentary

BLUE ROOMMerete Mueller

United States, 202211'30"Documentary

CALLING CABRALWelket Bungué

Portugal, 202218'16"Documentary

INSIGHTEmma Braun

Austria, 202220'00"Documentary

NEIGHBOUR ABDIDouwe Dijkstra

Netherlands, 202229'00"Documentary

POWERNAPPER'S PARADISESamir Arabzadeh

Sweden, 202214'30"Documentary

SHARDSTibor Albert Kapás

Hungary, 202211'30"Documentary

THE GHOST FROM MARIUPOLMarie Chemin

Switzerland, 202210'39"Documentary

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023 - SUPER SHORT

A BODY APPERAED AT THE LAKE TODAYBrian Ratigan

United States, 20224'44"Super Short

A CAROUSEL IN THE RAINJaro Jääskeläinen

Finland, 20223'18"Super Short

BEAUTIFUL FIGURESSoetkin Verstegen

Belgium, 20224'00"Super Short

TWO SUNS IN THE SUNSETGentian Gjikopulli

Albania, 20214'30"Super Short

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023 - EXPERIMENTAL

ALLEGORY OF EARTH AND WATERSalvatore Insana

Italy, 202220'00"Experimental

AMNIONSaara Ekström

Finland, 20236'50"Experimental

ECLIPSISTania Hernández Velasco

Mexico, 202215'00"Experimental

FLESHWORKLydia Cornett

United States, 20227'03"Experimental

HAPPY DOOMBilly Roisz

Austria, 20233'30"Experimental

MUSEUM CLOSEDBrice Bowman

United States, 20235'28"Experimental

NOTES ON A DROMEDARYLucia Lalor

Spain, 20228'35"Experimental

THE BIRTH OF A KINGDOMMarco Piccarreda, Gaia Formenti

Italy, 202130'00"Experimental

THE GIRL WHO ISSara Sowell

United States, 20216'16"Experimental

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023 - animation

FOX TOSSINGZénó Mira

Hungary, 20237'48"Animation

GARRANOVasco Sá, David Doutel

Portuga,l 202214'08"Animation

HARDLY WORKINGTotal Refusal

Austria, 202220'00"Animation

AFFRICATE
Anna Gyimesi

Hungary, 2022
25'00"
Danube Mermaid

DREAMING BODIES
Vivian Bausch, Ella Knorz

Austria, 2022
4'16"
Danube Mermaid

I DON'T WANT TO GO YET
Klára Fedora Homzová

Slovakia, 2022
6'43"
Danube Mermaid

IT'S A DATE
Nadia Parfan

Ukraine, 2023
4'53"
Danube Mermaid

LINECROSSER
Elene Pilar Nyffeler

Germany, 2022
27'32"
Danube Mermaid

LIQUID BREAD
Alica Bednáriková

Slovakia, 2021
25'30"
Danube Mermaid

LULLABY
Magdalena Chmielewska

Austria, 2022
21'00"
Danube Mermaid

POST SOCIALIST BODIES
Laura Teresa Lintner

Serbia, 2022
15'00"
Danube Mermaid

RESTING FOG
Nikolett Fábián

Hungary, 2022
5'12"
Danube Mermaid

SNOWDROPS AT THE END OF THE TRAIN
Galina D. Georgieva

Bulgaria, 2022
26'00"
Danube Mermaid

SNOW WHITE
Lana Baric

Croatia, 2022
14'40"
Danube Mermaid

STILLE POST (INBETWEEN HOME)
Brigitta Kanyaró

Romania, 2021
17'00"
Danube Mermaid

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Ioana Vatamanu-Margineanu

Moldova, Republic of, 2021
21'50"
Danube Mermaid

A MEDIC
Alizhan Nasirov

Kyrgyzstan, 2023
24'00"
Documentary

BLUE ROOM
Merete Mueller

United States, 2022
11'30"
Documentary

CALLING CABRAL
Welket Bungué

Portugal, 2022
18'16"
Documentary

INSIGHT
Emma Braun

Austria, 2022
20'00"
Documentary

NEIGHBOUR ABDI
Douwe Dijkstra

Netherlands, 2022
29'00"
Documentary

POWERNAPPER'S PARADISE
Samir Arabzadeh

Sweden, 2022
14'30"
Documentary

SHARDS
Tibor Albert Kapás

Hungary, 2022
11'30"
Documentary

THE GHOST FROM MARIUPOL
Marie Chemin

Switzerland, 2022
10'39"
Documentary

A BODY APPERAED AT THE LAKE TODAY
Brian Ratigan

United States, 2022
4'44"
Super Short

A CAROUSEL IN THE RAIN
Jaro Jääskeläinen

Finland, 2022
3'18"
Super Short

BEAUTIFUL FIGURES
Soetkin Verstegen

Belgium, 2022
4'00"
Super Short

TWO SUNS IN THE SUNSET
Gentian Gjikopulli

Albania, 2021
4'30"
Super Short

ALLEGORY OF EARTH AND WATER
Salvatore Insana

Italy, 2022
20'00"
Experimental

AMNION
Saara Ekström

Finland, 2023
6'50"
Experimental

ECLIPSIS
Tania Hernández Velasco

Mexico, 2022
15'00"
Experimental

FLESHWORK
Lydia Cornett

United States, 2022
7'03"
Experimental

HAPPY DOOM
Billy Roisz

Austria, 2023
3'30"
Experimental

MUSEUM CLOSED
Brice Bowman

United States, 2023
5'28"
Experimental

NOTES ON A DROMEDARY
Lucia Lalor

Spain, 2022
8'35"
Experimental

THE BIRTH OF A KINGDOM
Marco Piccarreda, Gaia Formenti

Italy, 2021
30'00"
Experimental

THE GIRL WHO IS
Sara Sowell

United States, 2021
6'16"
Experimental

FOX TOSSING
Zénó Mira

Hungary, 2023
7'48"
Animation

GARRANO
Vasco Sá, David Doutel

Portuga,l 2022
14'08"
Animation

HARDLY WORKING
Total Refusal

Austria, 2022
20'00"
Animation

IN THE UPPER ROOM
Alexander Gratzer

Hungary, 2023
8'09"
Animation

LA PERRA
Carlo Melo Gampert

France, 2023
14'05"
Animation

THE QUEEN OF THE FOXES
Marina Rosset

Switzerland, 2022
8'50"
Animation