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OKO SHORT 2025
[Ukrainian and Bulgarian Short Films]
A Fairy Tale in Embroidery, 2024
Director: Veselin Dochev
Country: PBulgaria
Inspired by Bulgarian folklore, this tale intertwines mythical creatures, a love beyond time, and magical music that can transform the world—reminding us of the delicate balance between reality and imagination.
A Pike is No Fish, 2024
Director: Yelyzaveta Sherstnova
Country: Ukraine
Dmytro, a potter and frontman of the folk band "Shchuka Ryba", reflects: “Can there be a future without knowing history, culture, and tradition?” He strives to weave Ukrainian culture into Kyiv’s daily life, but reality stands in stark contrast to his ideal.
Beware of a Good Dog, 2024
Director: Adelina Borets
Country: Poland, Ukraine
Stepan adopts old shelter dogs, giving them peace in their final days—a quiet way of coming to terms with his own mortality. But that peace is shattered by young boy Gogo. One night, they meet in a cemetery—enemies, yet deeply alike.
Chop Chop!, 2024
Director: Ievgen Koshyn
Country: UK, Ukraine, Portugal, Estonia, Ireland
A Scottish-Pakistani father’s life begins to unravel when his conservative father issues an ultimatum: his young son must be circumcised. Caught between cultures and generations, he struggles to protect his child while preserving family ties.
Ever After, 2025
Director: Kateryna Molokopeieva
Country: Ukraine
This short film portrays a war without a frontline, trenches, or weapons. As in medicine, where the term describes effects that appear years later, here the war is shown through a psychological and human lens — through what it leaves behind.
I Died in Irpin, 2024
Director: Anastasiia Falileieva
Country: Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic
On the morning of February 24th my boyfriend and I went from Kyiv to Irpin to see his parents. It’s hard to recall the chronology—my mind blocks and erases memories—but one thing is clear: with each passing day everything around us rapidly grew worse.
Lessons of Happiness, 2025
Director: Oleksii Yeroshenko
Country: Ukraine
As Ukraine enters its third school year under full-scale war, teacher Natalia tries to shield her fifth-graders from the horrors outside. “No one will ever stop us from celebrating the Day of Knowledge!” she insists—until war reaches her classroom door.
Mermaid Cow Saga, 2024
Director: Sashko Danylenkoм
Country: USA, Ukraine, Iceland
An animadoc about a cow that escapes a slaughterhouse in Iceland, runs toward the sea, and swims across a fjord. Its desperate journey becomes a quiet act of resistance and a search for the afterlife.
My Closet, 2025
Director: Iuliia Kotsiuba
Country: Ukraine
Amid tragic circumstances, a young woman is forced to part from her husband. Clinging to daily routines and a distant lover, she strives to overcome fear and despair—until that fragile connection slips away, compelling her to confront her deepest emotions.
My Morning Routine, 2024
Director: Vadym Adamov
Country: Ukraine
Can a 19-year-old soldier with a GoPro shift how we see the bloody battles in Bakhmut? Filmed from within, the documentary contrasts the routine idealised by the young man with the harsh, chaotic reality of life on the front line.
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, 2024
Director: Nebojša Slijepčević
Country: Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia
In 1993, paramilitary forces halt a passenger train from Belgrade to Bar in an ethnic cleansing operation. As they remove innocent civilians, only one man dares to speak out. Based on the true story of someone who could not remain silent.
Uncle Tolya, 2024
Director: Bohdan Adamenko
Country: Ukraine
After his home village is liberated, a Ukrainian soldier with the call sign “Kid” and his comrade visit the uncle who raised him. Seven years earlier “Kid” left to pursue his dreams, but longing for family brings him back—only to find his uncle hiding a secret.
Under the Skins, 2025
Director: Petar Penev
Country: Bulgaria
Dimitar’s decades-long struggle against envy, laziness, and prejudice to preserve the kukeri tradition in his region proves successful. But with time, it becomes clear that the real journey was inward—toward finding, and holding onto, his own peace.
[International Fiction Short Films]
A Bear Remembers, 2025
Director: Linden Feng, Hannah Palumbo
Country: UK
A mysterious metallic sound echoes from the hills above a rural village, unsettling its quiet life. Drawn together by curiosity, a lonely boy and an elderly woman set out to uncover its source—and confront something deeper within themselves.
Across the Waters, 2024
Director: Viv Li
Country: France
A sandstorm sweeps across a parched land, where water is worth its weight in gold. In a remote mining town cut off from radio signals, a quirky teenage girl grows curious about a mysterious truck driver passing through.
Almost Certainly False, 2024
Director: Cansu Baydar
Country: Turkey
Having fled the war in Syria, Hanna and her younger brother Nader find themselves in a run-down district of Istanbul, where they try to start a new life. Yet Hanna’s dreams clash with her identity when she meets Ibo.
Blue Heart, 2025
Director: Samuel Frantz Suffren
Country: Haiti, France
Marianne and Pétion live in Haiti, anxiously awaiting a call from their son who left for the USA. As days pass in silence, the promise of the American dream drifts farther away, and the line between hope and reality becomes increasingly blurred.
Even Though It's Night, 2023
Director: Guillermo Galoe
Country: Spain, France
La Cañada Real, Europe’s largest slum on the outskirts of Madrid, has lacked electricity for over a year. Thirteen-year-old Toni and his best friend Nasser have made it their playground. One day, Nasser tells Toni he’s leaving for France with his family.
If the Sun Drowned Into an Ocean of Clouds, 2023
Director: Wissam Charaf
Country: France, Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon. On the waterfront construction site, security agent Raed must prevent walkers from reaching the seaside. Yet as the horizon grows more stifled by the construction each day, Raed has peculiar encounters—mere dreams, or symbols of his desires?
La Durmiente, 2025
Director: Maria Inês Gonçalves
Country: Portugal, Spain
Through fabulation and children’s imagination, the film explores the story of Infanta Beatriz of Portugal. Shot entirely at the Monastery of Sancti Spiritus in Toro, it revives a figure erased from history yet central to the 1383 dynastic crisis.
Pasta Negra, 2025
Director: Jorge Thielen Armand
Country: Venezuela, Colombia, Canada, Italy
Three generations of women and a baby journey through the lush Venezuelan wilderness to Colombia in search of black paste. With money for only two to cross the border, one of them remains behind with the child, waiting patiently for her family’s safe return.
Rock Paper Scissors, 2024
Director: Franz Böhm
Country: UK
Bohdan and his son Ivan, operating a small hospital at the frontline, are tested when a platoon of Russian soldiers approach their building, forcing them to make a difficult decision in order to protect their patients and their own lives.
The Tie, 2024
Director: Çamran Azizoğlu
Country: Turkey
On his way to an important trial in the city center, Prosecutor Cengiz’s car suddenly breaks down in the middle of a deserted road across the plain. The only vehicle passing by that could help is a prison bus carrying inmates.
Three Keenings, 2024
Director: Oliver McGoldrick
Country: UK, Ireland, USA
Ian is a struggling actor who finds himself in the unconventional role of a professional mourner. As he tours the Northern Irish countryside, his practiced mask of apathy begins to slip amongst the humour and heartache of the local funeral circuit.
Amarela, 2024
Director: André Hayato Saito
Country: Brazil
On the day of the World Cup final between Brazil and France, Erika Oguihara, a Japanese-Brazilian teenager who rejects her family traditions, experiences a violence that seems invisible and plunges into a painful sea of emotions.
[International Non-Fiction Short Films]
A Spectre Is Haunting the City, 2025
Director: Karl Kaisel
Country: Estonia
A spectre is haunting the city — a spectre of a cryptic ghost. In the liminal, neglected areas of Ljubljana, lurks the spectre of a striped hyena — a ghost of an animal that fled from the travelling menagerie in 1898.
Bazaar Bus, 2024
Director: Magnus Lorenz
Country: Germany, Georgia
Every Saturday morning, locals of a remote village in Georgia’s mountainous region of Racha take a bus to the weekly bazaar in the nearest larger town to sell their goods and make purchases. An observational short follows villagers on their long summer day.
Circle of Truth, 2024
Director: Nicola Hawkins
Country: Canada
On Newfoundland, a man alone in his rural home awaits the spring thaw. As plants, insects, and birds return, he builds and harvests a circular garden with seaweed and fish from the shore—living a purposeful life rooted in labour, solitude, and the land.
One More Cup of Coffee for Ambe', 2024
Director: Shinta Retnani
Country: UK, Indonesia
The Torajan people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, see death not as an end but as a continuation of life. The film quietly observes love, loss, and the tension between traditional Aluk To Dolo beliefs and Christian practices in contemporary Indonesia.
Placekeepers, 2025
Director: Robert Hope
Country: Georgia, USA
When the only road to Georgia’s region of Tusheti closes for seven months each winter, only a few stay behind. Cut off from modern systems, they face generational rifts, Soviet legacies, and an uncertain future as a small, interdependent community.
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, 2024
Director: Theo Panagopoulos
Country: UK
A Greek-Lebanese-Palestinian filmmaker and PhD researcher unearths a rare Scottish archive of Palestinian wild flowers. Reclaiming the footage, his tender film essay questions image-making as both testimony and violence in the relationship of people and land.
Through the Window, 2025
Director: Daniel Stopa
Country: Poland
They come for cigarettes, newspapers, or just to talk. Through the kiosk window, an empathetic saleswoman witnesses a quiet parade of lives: a tired mother, a girl with a sick cat, a lonely old man. Each visit reveals a story worth hearing.
We Beg to Differ, 2024
Director: Ruairi Bradley
Country: Ireland, UK
Film explores Northern Ireland's underground car community amidst a mental health crisis. The documentary showcases the community's deep bonds, passion for cars as an outlet for personal struggles, and daring spirit all while evading the law.
We Were the Scenery, 2025
Director: Christopher Radcliff
Country: USA
In 1975, Hoa Thi Lê and Hue Nguyên Chế fled the Vietnam War and arrived in the Philippines, where they became background extras in “Apocalypse Now.” Their real-life escape intersected with Hollywood fiction, blurring the lines between survival and cinema.
Who Loves the Sun, 2024
Director: Arshia Shakiba
Country: Canada
In war-torn northern Syria, where uprisings against Assad became civil war and the oil industry collapsed, Mahmood works in dangerous makeshift refineries. Amid harsh conditions and shifting powers, his story reveals the human cost of survival in a ravaged land.
[International Animated Short Films]
Criss Cross, 2023
Director: Nina Rybárová, Tomáš Rybár
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic
A short cross-stitched story about friendship and treason between a birdie, a baby goat and a fox inspired by a folk proverb “A friend in need is a friend indeed”.
Freeride in C, 2024
Director: Edmunds Jansons
Country: Latvia
The white tranquillity of the mountains is disrupted by a surge of colourful winter sports enthusiasts. This short film captures an abstract dance of motion and light—an audiovisual meditation that reflects joy and the fragility of being.
Hello Summer, 2024
Director: Martin Smatana, Veronika Zacharová
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, France
Sea, sun, beaches — a perfect family holiday awaits. But what if the hotel falls short of its promise, the view is unexpectedly risqué, dinner takes an exotic turn, and your luggage goes its own way? A trip where “family first” gets truly tested.
Hush Hush Little Bear, 2022
Director: Māra Liniņa
Country: Latvia
While the parent bears prepare for winter, the playful cubs have fun with a ball of wool. Set to the soothing melody of the Latvian lullaby “Hush Hush Little Bear,” this animated tale captures the charm of childhood mischief.
In the End, 2023
Director: Linda Stūre
Country: Latvia
In the deep countryside of Latgale, Latvia, relatives and neighbours—both near and far—gather to mark the final important ritual of human life. Through a series of moments and details, a layered picture emerges where two eras subtly intertwine.
In the Shadow of the Cypress, 2023
Director: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani
Country: IRI, France
A former sea captain with PTSD lives in isolation with his daughter by the coast. Longing to be a devoted father but unable to bridge the emotional gap, their fragile routine is shaken by an unexpected event that may bring hope—or deepen the burden.
On Weary Wings Go By, 2024
Director: Anu-Laura Tuttelberg
Country: Estonia, Lithuania
A wintry poem about Nordic nature. The sun moves low, days get shorter. Birds fly South, porcelain animals and insects hide from freezing wind and snow. A small porcelain girl wanders an abandoned landscape with no escape.
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