E-Catalogue 2026

The contest is called “Payday,” and Chantal is in a rush because she clearly has a lot to say on the subject. For once, she ticks all the boxes: director, woman… She’s ready to start taking notes, drawing… But very quickly, her everyday reality comes rushing back. Will she manage to finish this project?

When the last remaining hair at the front of a man’s thinning hairline decides to quit and explore the world beyond the scalp, he’s pulled into a darkly comic showdown with the scalp’s desperate head of HR, who believes this single resignation will trigger total follicular collapse and the end of everything he’s worked for.

A film about the impossibility of making a decision. A world filled with possibilities and a lost woman who may not want to choose at all.

In the face of her body fading into stardust, Shari realizes what truly matters to her.

Isabella becomes deeply concerned when she is unable to reach her best friend, who recently shared dark thoughts about suicide. In desperation, Isabella calls the emergency services, but receives little to no help. Determined to save her friend, she sets out to find her, hoping to reach her before it’s too late.

It’s 1981 in suburban Long Island, New York. The mullets are long, the metal is heavy and 14-year-old Douglas gets a birthday surprise that will change life forever. “1981” is a coming-of-age story that captures the beauty and terror of teenage desire.

As flight 7836 reaches cruising speed above the Atlantic Ocean, the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendant are startled by unexpected knock at the door. Should they open the door, or not?

The events of the movie unfold in modern Ukraine. A child is born into a poor family, the parents do everything possible to survive, but just when the crisis reaches its peak, a new danger flares up.

Deep underground, embedded in old muddy rock, the oracle is waiting. A big bright square tells the story of our present day on repeat. Slowly it descends over small motionless people stuck in the middle of a world consuming itself. How do you want to be forgotten?

People are enjoying a beautiful summer’s day, surrounded by nature at their local park. However, they quickly learn that everything isn’t as it seems…

A young swimmer’s life changes drastically when she begins to suspect that what she loves most is actually her greatest threat. A dark tale of what lies beneath the surface.

Piet, an elderly man in a nursing home, finds himself limited in his actions when he suddenly begins to transform into a bird. Although he is still accepted within the group, he feels that it’s time to join a new flock.

While dealing with a strange being that lives inside her, a woman seeks to reconcile with her sister over an incident from their adolescence. By exploring the experiences they share through their bodies, she manages to confront the nature of what inhabits her.

FLY TRAIN uses shadow play and experimental visuals to explore time and memory. During an ordinary journey, thoughts drift between scenery and fragmented memories, caught in dreams. Everyday silhouettes transform into the surreal, diving into a poetic stream of consciousness.

In an infinite night, the Great One, a buffalo goddess, meets the Little One, a goat goddess. A friendship is born and with it a new world: the stars, the sun, the earth and living beings. Animals emerge from the waters, grow, and a lush forest flourishes. As the world evolves, the two goddesses are overwhelmed by their power of creation.

In this experimental animated film, a woman explores the layers of her own body and inner world. Through a symbolic depiction of separation and reconnection with herself, the film examines the dynamics of roughness and tenderness in self-perception. An intimate journey that delves into the complexity of self-acceptance and inner harmony.

A tough, no-nonsense Buffalo has always seen himself as strong and fearless. But when his dream of fatherhood comes true, he’s suddenly awkward, overwhelmed, and under constant judgment. Can he become the father he always imagined, or will his fears hold him back?

After a long absence, Stasya returns to her hometown. She missed her father’s funeral and has a hard time meeting her elder sister. While sorting out family issues, Stasya meets different local strangers on the way who take her on a strange night trip.

Two strange birds get to know each other over dinner. The owl, a perfect hostess, serves one course after the other. The oystercatcher is in for a long evening filled with awkward moments and unbearable silence.

“If it keeps starting over, it must be forever”, says the white moth. But a gentle whisper breathes in each dawn, “one day, all days will be gone”. PLOO blends attributes of vector graphics and screen display technology with the human condition.

Welcome to a place where the houses have holes, tomatoes are ticking time bombs and snails wander the streets in search of a safe space. In PARADAÏZ, Sarajevo-born artist Matea Radic uses absurdist animation, archival images and her own slippery childhood memories to explore the real meaning of home.

After another night of insomnia, a socially frustrated man comes across an eerie community that lives in his building. As a way of breaking the boredom he decides to pay them a visit and it quickly turns into a bizarre experience that will make him question if what’s happening is real.

TIME is a dystopian and darkly whimsical animated short, unfolding in fragmented vignettes where characters collide — each caught in their own rhythm of time. From the seemingly endless drift of an hourglass to the frantic pulse of a multitasking worker, the film paints a surreal mosaic of how time is perceived, stretched and fractured.

For Hugo, visiting the forbidden area of Chernobyl is not a commemorative trip. If this young tourist wanders through radioactive ruins, it is mainly to feed his Instagram account. This absurd quest will lead him to discover the history that haunts The Zone…

Growing thorns requires several steps: Sowing, rain, patience, and harvesting. A Hat-Man scatters the fruits of his gathering under the soles of passersby. Ouch! Ow! Owie! One day, a storm breaks out and wreaks havoc on his meticulously planned orchestration.

The complexities of a past shared by two identical twins: Omar and Wesam. A split narrative retells the two sides of their memories – from the instant they were fused together in their mother’s womb to the moment they are seperated by the tragic death of one of them.

During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.

Exploration in the unconscious where everything is connected, nothing is determined and the emphasis is on the ever-changing. In a naturally altered state of consciousness, the boundaries of time and space dissolve. Sounds become visible, forms audible. Deeper focus offers more: connections of tones and undertones linked to visible forms and their mirrored reflections – periodically interacting with each other.

One saturday afternoon, in a furniture store, Jeanne and Jean Jean wonder if they are really meant to live together.

A woman who lives alone in a house in the middle of the sea, makes herself a little girl from her own hair. One day, a ship appears, attracting the child’s attention and upsetting the harmony. Out of jealousy and concern, the woman resorts to measures that increasingly restrict the girl’s life as she becomes more drawn to the outside world.

On an ordinary summer afternoon in the countryside, three siblings bored at their grandma’s house, decide to go to the bakery to get snacks.

On a split screen two parallel and contrasting narratives unfold. The world of art and the realm of the everyday are integrally connected and yet hugely disparate. A pair of hands working relentlessly inside a home fade away; while a painting hanging quietly in a museum gains fame.

A daughter comes to realize that her father is struggling with a mental illness. Isolated and rejected by society, he lives alone in a dark apartment, drifting like a balloon. She searches for a way to reconnect and to bring him back to solid ground.

On his way home from school, a 12-year-old boy works up the courage to ask his neighbour, if she would spend time with him. His head is filled with vivid fantasies about their time together, but as he settles in his bed, ready to wander off into his daydreams, a firefighter bursts in through his window. Something is happening outside.

In a world of papers and diary-like drawings, 12 year old Amelia enters seventh grade. Her illusion is shattered when she finds things are no longer the same. She begins to tear away parts of herself as she adapts to new social norms, feeling her traits are not “as they should be”.

A story of five atoms, once bound by love and longing to reunite on Earth, only to forget, ridicule, and reject each other. When they meet again in the sea, their love has turned into hatred.

A lyrical film about a boy and an elephant, featuring emotions familiar to both children and adults. It combines analog pastel animation with improvised original music and gentleness with liveliness. The fluid transitions of a growing labyrinth convey the intense feeling of being separated from a loved one.

Gaïa is a living planet whose body is inhabited by a human civilization. As its resources begin to diminish, her inhabitants attempt to impregnate her in order to create another planet – a new habitat. But Gaïa intervenes and prevents their attempt at fertilization.

A cautious and curious thirteen-year-old Lola befriends a mysterious sea creature on the shore of her new hometown. Their time together at the fun fair reminds her of her father back in Mexico. Throughout the day, she confronts mixed feelings of longing and belonging as she invites her new friend into the place she now calls home.

Set in Lisbon’s vibrant LGBTQ+ art scene, this animated documentary layers voices, textures, and colours to explore femininity beyond the binary. Built through interviews and collaborative workshops, the film becomes a living collage — where femininity is not fixed, but fluid, reimagined through community, creativity, and playful mixed-media animation.

Ping faces conflict with her girlfriend Lala’s homophobic and aggressive father. As tensions escalate, Ping is forced to take action to save herself and kills him. Then she makes him into a cake. This act becomes a ritual of transformation – a severing of ties, a step into a new phase of life.

A yellow and blue day in the life of a little child.

A day in the life of a woman who is busy taking care of her obese dog. Her lovely show of affection towards the animal is interrupted by the arrival of her partner, who, in need of the woman’s attention, affects the cozy atmosphere of the house.

After a flat tire leaves her stranded in the woods, a woman revisits haunting memories of her self-destructive tendencies on the finger nails. As she peels the skin from her fingers, each strip draws her deeper into the past, urging her to step closer to the hidden child within herself.

This stop-motion animation presents the filmmakers experiences through an abstract, experimental approach. The characters navigate one significant life stage after another, with their journey of growth steadily unfolding.

In order to become human, Salome abandons his merman identity – an act that ultimately leads to his tragic fate.

Boobs grow, gazes change but in the mirror, the reflection is distorted. A CLEAVAGE STORY is a spontaneous and sincere testimony about heavy breast and judgements.

As she boards a bus, a woman is approached by a strange figure. Her life is permanently changed when she is touched without her consent. MOUTH-FULL explores themes of sexual harassment and its lasting impact on a girl’s life, society’s reaction to it as well as the event itself: unpredictable, strange, and inhumane.

In a quiet conversation between a daughter and her mother, the film reveals the bonds and worries that pass through three generations. The mother is torn between her love for her children and her duty to her own mother, gradually losing space for her own life in the process. This personal animated documentary opens questions about closeness, love, and the quiet confinement within family bonds.

Softly, slugs trace their way across wet lips. Snakes glide gently through fingers, while a bear embraces a woman’s body with a loving hug. SENSUAL offers an unusual, subjective, and deeply intimate perspective on the feeling of physical closeness and tenderness.

The narrator gathers things for their detained friends, who were protesting against the war – books, plush toys, food. Once, twice. When the list never ends, and they start gathering their own things.

It’s the long-awaited end-of-year show at the Youth Cultural Center. Some mumble their lines in the toilets, others manage their stage fright as best they can. Two pebbles find themselves stuck outside the theatre hall. This wouldn’t have bothered anyone if these two pebbles weren’t the stars of the play: ‘Pebble to Pebble’.

Investigating the mechanisms at the heart of cinema and animation, an Israeli animator seeks to convince her mind to embrace the illusion of hope – just as it embraces the illusion of movement.

In Algiers, 25-year-old Ahlam avoids her mother’s questions by escaping to the roof-top terrace. Safe from the gaze of others, she allows buried memories of a forbidden love to resurface.

A group of furniture pieces is forced to bid farewell to the clothes that carry the memories of the owner who once lived with them. However, Wardrobe is unprepared to let go of its memories. With the help of the other furniture pieces, Wardrobe begins to understand the passing of time and the pain carried by the owner.

In a southern Italian village, the ‘Wedding of the Trees’, an ancient agrarian rite of pre-Christian origin, is being celebrated. Among the crowd is also Antonio, a child who, playing with ants, takes part in the ceremony in his very own way.

Memories of school days shaped by stark images: identical buildings, repeated rituals, and omnipresent symbols of power. Only with distance, in a new setting, does it become apparent how strongly these experiences influence one’s sense of freedom and responsibility. Voting becomes a symbol of a new beginning and a crucial lesson in democracy.

A journey through the pages of an old Chinese-English dictionary, featuring tigers, socialists and roundabouts. Combining ink drawings on paper with direct animation on 35mm film, various definitions of the Chinese character for ‘walk’ take on different meanings: literal, historical, personal and abstract.

A young Russian couple, feeling helplessness and sadness over the war, decides to leave their home for good. Their journey to Georgia becomes a surrealist nightmare. Their greatest fear, being separated at the border, catches up with them in an unexpected way.

At “Hotel les pieds dans l’eau”, Rosa, a cleaning lady overwhelmed by her stressed-out manager, tries to briefly escape a reality where the exhausted staff take care of the resting guests.

A lonely young man behind a smiling mask confronts his memories and his inner collapse, realising that freedom only comes when he lets himself fall and faces his true self.

Lost on the side of a deserted road, someone walks painfully through gusts of wind and rain. Affected by the discovery of a lifeless body of a squirrel, he decides to enter the forest.

From the warm memories of childhood to the cold moments experienced on the street, an observation of the different places people call home.

A seemingly ordinary childhood seen through the eyes of a little boy. Hand-drawn charcoal animation and intense sound design reveal the fear of home that forces the boy to be constantly on alert and ready to flee. The film conveys the child’s bodily experience on screen, drawing inspiration from the real childhood memories of four adults.

A storm rages over the city while a woman sits alone in a bar, having just watched a Bollywood film. Empty glasses pile up in front of her as the vivid images linger in her mind. In this blur of reality and fantasy, she begins to wonder whether her life could follow a different storyline.

A gifted musician’s pursuit of fame traps him in the audience’s demands – until a broken violin forces him to choose between hollow applause and true artistic freedom.

Stringed along by frameworks of a hard to grasp outside world, WEATHERED follows a life sized puppet who longs to connect to their own rhythm.

Two people spend a evening on the beach. After the sunset, one of them disappears, leaving a little black box where they once stood. The other one picks up the box and searches for a place to leave it.

Following the sudden passing of her parents, Fawn is forced to return to a house she hasn’t called home in a very long time. As painful memories begin to seep through, Fawn is thrown onto the difficult path of reconnecting with a past she thought she had left behind.

A 60-year-old postman begins his last round of deliveries across the surrealist archipelago that he explored his entire career. As his retirement approaches closer and closer with each delivery, his emotions surface, dragging him into a melancholic exploration of his memories.

When Karl tries to impress his girlfriend Philly, everything goes wrong! Karl feels totally embarrassed and runs away. And then a strange creature appears at Karl’s house, which he can’t shake off and which keeps getting bigger and bigger. Luckily, Grandma knows the best way to deal with such sorrow!

Malu and Clara are two children who in a chance encounter create a genuine friendship full of creativity and energy – until it’s time to go home.

For Cinelli, a perfectionist ladybird girl, beauty is the most important thing in the world. Her clumsy neighbour Peri, a cockroach, doesn’t fit into this picture. Peri is hurt that the others do not accept him and steals Cinelli’s dazzling red shell so that he can feel beautiful for once. Without her wings, Cinelli falls into depression and Peri discovers how difficult it is to maintain such a flawless life. Both realise that their true value goes far beyond appearances.

When a lonely polar bear can’t find a friend… he makes one. Set in a rapidly changing world, SNOW BEAR tells the story of a polar bear in an unforgiving environment on his quest to find a friend. 

Leo is a robot and lives with his cat in their cosy rusty house. One fine day, Lilleliisu comes to visit him, his first guest ever. For this special event he starts to make preparations – the table needs to be set! The closer the guest gets, the greater Leo’s anxiety grows.

On a quiet morning, an old sand creature named Sandy is enjoying the peace of the endless dunes he calls home. That peace doesn’t last long though, as a noisy flock of seagulls drops its lunch right on Sandy’s lap: a helpless baby sea turtle named Bo. Together they set off on a journey to the ocean where they both learn what it is like to be part of each other’s worlds.

In India’s Deccan region, people have a deep cultural and spiritual connection to their land, their sheep, and their wool. This animated musical about Balu Mama and his flock tells the story of traditional sheep farming and the Deccani wool industry, with characters made entirely of wool.

A fox begins to read illustrated books and catches a glimpse of the human mind. It discovers a reality that stretches far beyond the forest and its own understanding.

PORRIDGE MONSTER is a tender and imaginative animation about a child’s difficult emotions that emerge after a morning quarrel between the parents. Thanks to the mother, a writer of fairy tales, an ordinary bowl of porridge transforms into an exciting journey toward greater understanding — because all sorts of strange people live in porridge.

Since the death of his dog, 16-year-old Paul has given up drawing the fantastic adventures in which they were heroes. But his little sister insists that he completes an unfinished drawing.

Did you know that from the top of a pineapple you can grow a new pineapple – and so on, forever?
Funny Sri Lankan animal friends grow a pineapple and dance. A bright and colourful reflection on the infinity of nature.

When grandma’s dog dies, Luna helps with the burial. But what happens when you’re dead and buried underground? Grandma evades the answer, so Luna is tempted to see for herself what’s going on down there.

A fearless bunch of kids, fighting for their health, meet in hospital among the beeping machines. With the power of child imagination, gentle humour, and clever metaphors, they create an uplifting and inspiring narrative. “Show the world that bald is cool”, sing our heroes who never have a bad hair day!

Éiru is the smallest child of an Iron-Age clan. All she wants is to be a mighty warrior who is taken seriously by her kinfolk. But when the village’s well mysteriously dries up, only she is small enough to descend into the belly of the earth to investigate and bring the water of life back to her people.

The three captains argue about who has to clean the ship. There’s only one way to solve this problem: they steal the crown of the Queen of England! Because whoever has the crown, is in charge.

The Chipmunk learns that the Squirrel is moving in across from its home. Curious and excited to befriend the newcomer, the Chipmunk approaches with a small gift. But the Squirrel only responds with an unreadable expression and a curt attitude. Still, the Chipmunk doesn’t give up and keeps finding ways to express its feelings.

Samson, a dragon bullied by the other inhabitants of Dragonville, is forced to enter Humanville. There he meets Simon, a little boy who helps him face all the difficulties. Samson discovers a new world and, above all, a taste of friendship.

A story about bullying and about the friendship between two outcast little creatures – a clumsy caterpillar boy and an unpopular beetle girl. How their friendship helps them resist bullying, gain the wings and become who they are: a beautiful butterfly and a bright firefly.

Two siblings discover magical dream globes and dive into Sorbian legends full of adventure and myth. In this episode Kito and Maja reenact the story of how the millers of Lusatia were saved by a mysterious lone wanderer.

A mischievous little penguin, misbehaving at the dinner table, is sent off to the naughty seat – and it’s not long before he has company!

Bertil is lonely and bored at home, when his parents go to work. One day, Nils Karlsson Pussling, a little thumb size boy, appears under his bed! The two boys bond right away and Nils shows Bertil a fascinating magical world right inside his bedroom walls.

Atlas is burdened with an enormous responsibility: supporting the vault of heaven. While he must remain perfectly still, an entire world, indifferent to his efforts, swarms at his feet. He too would like to live a free life like everyone else, like the petulant bird fluttering around him.

Polo leaves the Big City and moves above the hospital where his mother has been transferred for work. All Polo can think about is moving back home. But his new friendship with Juliette makes him reconsider. Juliette lives at the hospital too, but for a very different reason: she has a toad in her heart.

Pingu and Baer are going on an adventure. After pushing their bicycle up a neverending mountain, they prepare for the greatest downslope of all times.

Six-year-old Alma won’t accept her Grandpa’s endless sleep, so she takes him out for one last adventure together.

The squirrel’s nest is warmly padded for the cold winter with all kinds of stolen goods. But then a flood breaks out and forest animals flee to Lena’s farm. The squirrel would like to help them…

An oversized, cheeky rat has moved in with our protagonist. She whistles along with the radio, sits in the fridge, splashes in the tub, and is simply everywhere – loud, pesky, full of life. When she suddenly disappears, he realizes: it’s never been this quiet – or this empty.

Plunged into the warm darkness of a summer night, the streetlights of Ottignies illuminate cars floating in the air. The next morning, a crop circle in the shape of an hourglass appears on the Place du Centre, now a parking lot. Two teams of pelota ball, a local sport driven out by cars more than 30 years ago, confront each other, causing the traffic to stop.

We find ourselves scrolling through a regular social media feed – except it’s the year 2034. And humans just invented a possible way to deal with climate change: Growth Project, a technology that allows us to grow forests in a matter of minutes. People are voting and sharing their opinions whether the Growth Project should be put into practice or not…

Ziki is a Congolese boy living in a village with his mother. One day, while the two are playing, Ziki discovers a mysterious tunnel winding beneath the kitchen floor. Curious, he decides to venture in, but as he walks, he slips and falls to the bottom of the tunnel. As he travels through it, he discovers a world built on exploitation and war in his homeland.

On his honeymoon, the filmmaker stops at a campsite in Tennessee and witnesses the peak of the brief season where fireflies blink synchronously. Based on this memory, the animation was created from 81 ink on paper drawings, manipulated with code. The sound is made with pencils, brushes and paper.

The goddess of creation Timbehes created the earth and humans by fertilising herself with a banana. Her creation is marvellous and idyllic. But the more people there are, the greater their hunger for bananas becomes. A critical look at our approach to consumption based on the most consumed fruit in Europe.

Jung Myung Kim, a photographer who has dedicated over 40 years to capturing wildflowers in Korea, shares his story of pursuing this passion. Kim finds meaning and happiness in reflecting on his body of work, and his desire to take more pictures keeps him going as he battles an illness.

Anton observes. Alone. A phosphorescent glow flickers through the streets. Anton sees a bee dying, then another. No one sees a thing, not even Kata, over there on the roof. Kata and her gang are running, laughing, spray-painting. Anton watches them, especially her. He dreams of joining them.

Ran Bi Wa, a monkey who grows up among humans, follows in his mother’s footsteps and sets off for the Holy Mountain to uncover the secret of “warmth.” After a dangerous journey, he finds a fire stone—and undergoes a miraculous transformation. The film is based on a legend of the Qiang people from the mountains of southwest China and tells the story through poetic images in the style of traditional Chinese ink painting.

Lao Zha, a quiet laborer, keeps the rundown film set of East West Studios going with odd jobs. When he receives a VR headset instead of wages, he immerses himself in a virtual world — and encounters a woman who touches his heart. But his hope for a new life leads him into a deceptively realistic illusion. Set amid crumbling film sets and digital dreams, Light Pillar tells a story of loneliness, longing, and the power of imagination.

Amélie grows up in Japan as daughter of Belgian parents—and experiences the world with the amazed intensity of a small child. Between gardens, water, and summer rain, she gradually discovers her feelings, her imagination, and her own voice. What seems mundane to adults becomes a great adventure for Amélie. A poetic animated film for adults about childhood, perception, and the charm of first memories.

In search of his aunt, young Birahima must navigate the turmoil of West Africa’s civil wars on his own. On his journey, he finds himself caught between rebels, soldiers, and ruthless warlords—and eventually becomes a child soldier himself. With dry humor and blunt language, he tells his story and tries to find his own path in a world filled with violence. A powerful film about loss, survival, and a child’s perspective on war.

After her parents’ death, little Violette moves in with her uncle in Versailles. In her new environment, she must learn to cope with her grief and adjust to an unfamiliar daily routine. With imagination, humor, and the support of new friends, she slowly begins to find her footing again. The film sensitively explores loss, new beginnings, and the power of friendship.

German live voiceover.

Moroccan filmmaker Bouchra lives in New York and is going through a creative crisis. A phone call with her mother stirs up repressed conversations about her heritage, sexuality, and family. They lead her to produce a film within the film, playfully blurring the lines between reality and fiction. A humorous as well as touching glimpse into the complexity of family and society.

One apartment, many stories: Witness turning points in the lives of the inhabitants of an apartment in Berlin over the course of a whole century.

Germany, 1956. The war is over, but justice is not served. Former Nazis walk free, while their victims lie in unmarked graves. As a prosecutor, you’ll unearth long-buried evidence, confront witnesses, and hunt down perpetrators. Will you have the courage to bring these “ordinary men” to court?

Constance is a 2D hand-drawn action adventure featuring a paintbrush-wielding artist, striving to escape from a colorful but decaying inner-world, created by her declining mental health.

SPINDLE is an old-school action-adventure about death and the many ways we choose to deal with it. With your trusty Pig by your side, you form a most curious team, embarking on a quest to learn what it truly means to be Death.

Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this ambient narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cosy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.

German Version, Screening exclusively for School Classes

When the police turn up at the door, everything changes for twelve-year-old Olivia, her little brother Tim and their mother: They are suddenly thrown out of their apartment. To protect Tim from the harsh reality, Olivia passes the situation off as a movie shoot with him in the lead role. In the new neighborhood, the mother falls into deep mourning and Olivia suddenly has to take responsibility. The stop-motion film, animated from plasticine, sensitively captures both sad and light-hearted moments. A touching story about poverty, emotional crises and the courage to be there for each other – and a strong plea for solidarity and hope in difficult times.

In cooperation with Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg (LPB).

Every night, a boy, a girl, and an old projectionist meet in an abandoned movie theater. With great imagination and simple means, they continue to bring new stories to life.

In cooperation with Französische Filmtage Tübingen | Stuttgart

It is not Walt Disney – as is often claimed – whom we have to thank for the first feature-length animated film in history, but the German film artist Lotte Reiniger. In 1926 this virtuoso of the art of silhouette film worked her magic and brought “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” to the silent film screen. She had invented a new kind of artistic film somewhere between the aestheticism of Jugendstil, expressionism and magical fairytales. This documentary recounts the artist’s life experiences and work, and the influence her works continue to have today.

The animated silhouette film “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” by Lotte Reiniger tells the breathtakingly beautiful fairy tale based on themes from One Thousand and One Nights. A wicked sorcerer tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse. The heroic prince is able to subdue the magical horse, which he uses to fly off to many adventures. While travelling, he falls in love with the beautiful Princess Pari Banu, and must defeat an army of demons to win her heart.

In a housing complex in Sendai, a boy lives quietly and is bullied by his peers. One day, a chance encounter with a transfer student leads him to follow in his father’s footsteps and dream of becoming an idol. Against the backdrop of contemporary social issues, the film portrays the beautiful yet sorrowful life of someone, who unintentionally rises to fame.

In cooperation with Fantasy Filmfest

Three kids spend the night at their grandpa’s house. To fill the silence after losing their grandma, the family’s storyteller, they create their own stories and discover the power of imagination. This uplifting stop-motion film celebrates creativity and its healing magic.

German live voiceover

During a stormy beach trip, eleven-year-old Omul and his younger sister Kimi are swept into the sea where Kimi’s soul is threatened by a mysterious creature. Kimi falls into a coma after being rescued by a whale. Gifted with the ability to speak to animals, Omul must join his brother and faithful dog on a dangerous expedition to save his sister.

German live voiceover.

In 1811, the inquisitive and tenacious twelve-year-old Mary Anning spends her days searching for fossils. Her father passed on this passion to her, but her life suddenly changes when he disappears, leaving behind a mysterious drawing and a struggling family. Determined to help her mother and brother, Mary tries to uncover the secret of the drawing and discovers so much more than just fossils: friendships, adventures, and the very start of palaeontology.

Sardinia, Italy, 1940. On the eve of World War II the two friends, Ventura (11) and Michele (14) cannot stand their sanctimonious society anymore. They decide to steal all horses of a military stud in the mountains, only to set them free. They succeed, but on the way back they are caught by the local militia.

In cooperation with Sardischer Kulturverein „Su Nuraghe“ Stuttgart & Istituto Italiano di Cultura Stuttgart. Under the patronage of the Region of Sardinia.

An animated documentary that tells the story of the director’s mother, Fatima Jam. Accompanied by a conversation between mother and son, it follows Fatima through her childhood and formative years in South Lebanon from 1978 to 1990, which is shook by the Israeli Invasion and Occupation. Years filled with sorrow and despair, but also moments of beauty and hope.

Keeper Clive is running out of supplies on his lighthouse somewhere in the Northern Seas. In his despair, he plays a sad tune on his horn, when a large whale notices him. As his supply ship sinks in a violent thunderstorm and his lighthouse buoy springs a leak, he has to expect the worst – if it weren’t for the great whale….

Reflecting on the famous social experiment in Peckham, London, the film is a short visual experiment on shifting perspectives. At the same time, it is a love letter to a south London neighbourhood.

An old Beirut resident checks the obituaries page and attends funerals daily. His “mourning” routine reveals a journey of grieving and accepting the loss of a loved one, a home and a city.

What a beautiful day to watch the world fall apart. It feels like any other day. Waking up, cigarettes on the balcony. Two friends smoking together. Conversations about nothing, while, in the distance, an unknown chaos rises. What do they see?

When a fruit fly flies into her eye, she asks her roommate for help removing it. But the search for the tiny intruder quickly spirals into a nightmarish journey through her own brain.

In “Chrysanthemum”, Jingyuan Luo approaches the case of a Chinese “suicide jumper,” living and reliving the trauma of a death made invisible by the state that had caused it. Like the eponymous flower of mourning, her contemplation is beautiful in its harrowing sadness.

Inspired by a true story, a widowed air raid warden in the midst of World War II struggles to overcome grief and rediscover joy in her life—until she finds a dying sparrow she hopes to save.

“Dr. Dr. Themefart, Frustrating Himself, Posed As Gay Old Nazi SS” is ananagrammatic exorcism of David Bowie’s album title “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”. This film explores the aesthetic possibilities and joys of metamorphosis via Artificial Intelligence – right along the lines of the Sound of Money’s liquifying play with the musical language of Rock’n Roll, and in the vein of the master metamorphician of Pop himself.

Two construction workers are arguing about braking distances, and a couple is talking about disaster films, in which humanity only has one week left to live. At least that much.

Two creatures meet on a tree. Their encounter goes deep down to the roots and beyond.

Zau loves music and nature. However, he encounters a world in which his values are worthless and allows himself to be drawn into it. Will Zau be broken by it? Based on Goethe’s Zauberlehrling, “Zau” questions current social developments and addresses the conflict between material growth, economic constraints, overproduction, and humanitarian values.

While gossiping about their neighbour, a frustrated couple carelessly asks a question to the universe. When the universe answers, it has unexpected consequences. A journey through a rather unconventional furniture store begins, reawakening long-forgotten desires.

Based on the historical land survey by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Christian Ludwig Gerling, ‘Maps of Wilderness’ explores the limits of measurability. Precise tools encounter weather, distance and that which cannot be fully captured. Analogue animation techniques and a text by Daniela Danz are the starting points for new perspectives by seven female artists.

“The river, an autonomous, natural creature, a living world composed of billions of micro and macro-organisms who are sensitive and yet exposed with no protection against the human economy.” – Erika S Dos Santos. 

Without sex, none of us would be here. So why is it so difficult to talk about sex? And what do people with disabilities have to say about it? Based on a two-year collaboration between the director and seven artists from Thikwa Werkstatt, the film “Sexability” attempts to answer these questions, only to raise even more.

A short animation film diving into the mind of one or more people that are dealing with different forms of anxiety.

Is it art or can it be thrown away? A pair of twins talk about a dress they found belonging to a Polly Pocket doll. The twins plan to take the dress to a museum. Since it is very tiny, the dress will be projected in giant size. The dress takes on a meta level, like the emperor’s new, invisible clothes. The twins’ checked shirts and their own gender identity also come into focus.

A man is being robbed and stabbed by a junkie and in that last second before he dies, a youth friendship flashes before his eyes. He and his best friend grew apart, when the latter was being drawn more and more into a misty world of drugs and criminality under influence of a lowlife dealer who lives with his father on the junkyard in their neighbourhood.

An authorized documentary on the late musician Kurt Cobain, from his early days in Aberdeen, Washington to his success and downfall with the grunge band Nirvana.

Hisko Hulsing and his team made large animated sequences forKurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the highly anticipated HBO/Universal Pictures film by Brett Morgen. Hisko Hulsing made 55 large oilpaintings on canvas that serve as backgrounds for the animation, while together with his crew, they produced 6000 drawings..

Hisko Hulsing directed and production designed the only animated episode of the series The Sandman called: A Dream of a Thousand Cats, a Netflix/WarnerBros/DCcomics production.

Hisko Hulsing worked with a team of about 70 painters, animators and compositors at Submarine Studio in Amsterdam and with a team of 3D animators at Untold Studios in London, where he also directed the live action shoots with people.

“Undone” is a half-hour, genre-bending, animated series that explores the elastic nature of reality through its central character Alma, a twenty-eight-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas. After getting into a car accident and nearly dying, Alma finds she has a new relationship to time. She develops this new ability in order to find out the truth about her father’s death.

Hisko Hulsing directed and production designed all 16 episodes of the Amazon Prime animated series. The style is determined by rotoscoping, oilpaintings, 2D and 3D animation created by two hundred artists and producers.

Our body remembers more than we can expect and imagine. It remembers also the sorrow and pain of the predecessors, sustaining the stories of our parents and grandparents as well as their ancestors. But how far back is it possible to go in the memory of the body?

Watchmaker controls the time, but the mouse living in the watchmaker’s workshop controls the clocks… This is a film about time and its ephemeral nature.

Empty Space invokes a past memory, an apartment that once existed, and a small girl dwelling and playing there. It presents a story forged in the dreams of the father hiding from Soviet terror. Empty Space is a reconstruction of a vision on the backdrop of the anxieties of the 1950s in Soviet Union.

A story of a mother and son and the race againsta turtle where you always lose.

This is a story about an elderly woman whose destiny has taken her far away from her home island. She is finally able to return, only to find out that strangers have been living in her house.

Sewing Machine is a film about the town of Pechory (Petseri) and its people, told through the life story of the director’s great-grandmother, and her newborn baby who had to be hidden in a sewing machine box.

Ex-wives, offspring, mother-in-laws, stepchildren and other loosely related people and close ones. Norms, jealousy, frustration and love… A number of individuals tell stories – big or small – about their own “Family Circus”. Seven stories from everyday life, about family.

‘It says that very soon, if God does not intervene, we women will have to go to war’ is the first verse of an old song that haunts Inés when she hears it in the voice of her grandmother Esperanza. A search full of women in whom Inés recognises her grandmother’s presence.

In a quiet conversation between a daughter and her mother, the film reveals the bonds and worries that pass through three generations. The mother is torn between her love for her children and her duty to her own mother, gradually losing space for her own life in the process. This personal animated documentary opens questions about closeness, love, and the quiet confinement within family bonds.

We want to belong to families but how can you define one? The film ponders the difficulty of defining things and at the same time demands to find the answers. An inner dialogue and its surroundings meet in a world of fragile cutouts and tactile clay.

An animated documentary that delves into the stories of six incredible women, each with their own unique and somewhat unconventional experiences with motherhood. Their stories challenge traditional notions of motherhood and are an invitation to reflect, unlearn and re-think motherhood as a concept that can be more diverse and inclusive.

Marie was born at the age of 8. She has no memory of her childhood before that. As she questions her family about those forgotten years, she discovers her past obsession with a film that eerily resonates with her amnesia.

An animated documentary revealing the emotional landscape of home for international people. Through the perspective of people aged 5-50, the film navigates the fluidity of identity, memory, and belonging across borders.

A documentary short about how the LGBTQIA+ community has been reinventing funerary and remembrance rituals to better support and reflect the way people live in community. Looking at some of the issues of common mourning practices across Euro-American countries, this film shares how the Queer community have been instinctively reinventing their grieving and celebration ceremonies for late loved ones.

After digging up his dead brother, David journeys up a mountain in pursuit of their childhood dream. After facing his grief, will they finally both be at peace?

As a demon gets summoned one dreary night, he is met with an unexpected task…

A body is found brutally torn apart. Three enigmatic witnesses recount fragmented memories of its soul, their testimonies unraveling a surreal trial where reality dissolves into nightmare, each note deepening the descent into darkness.

This is a story about the death of Fles.

In a world where breaking the silence will get you killed, Ethan discovers the healing power of music.

Marcel Duchamp sets a urinal on fire – a flame without temperature. Mustaches bang their heads against the frames of standards until those frames laugh at seriousness. A bicycle wheel spins without direction, while reality crumbles like dust upon forgotten ideas. From the shadow of marble rises David. He kicks the urinal – not out of hatred, but because formless thoughts are denied recognition. The urinal flies into the Hemisphere of Rotation, where there is neither top nor bottom – only ideas that refuse to become objects.

Choucroute (Sauerkraut) is lonely and bored. A hungry duck flies past. Choucroute sees the duck as a remedy for his loneliness. The duck sees Choucroute as a meal. The story of an impossible love between a duck and a sauerkraut.

Gaëlle sees her dreams crumble after learning that she hasn’t been chosen to become the new guitarist for her favorite metal band. Just as she’s ready to give up her passion, a spider appears and encourages her to pick up her instrument again, forever redefining her connection to music.

A daughter comes to realize that her father is struggling with a mental illness. Isolated and rejected by society, he lives alone in a dark apartment, drifting like a balloon. She searches for a way to reconnect and to bring him back to solid ground.

The film follows a woman and the bird which lives inside of her, and how their inability to co-live together leads to physical wounds to her body.

What if the weird behavior of cats had a supernatural explanation? “Schroedinger’s Cat” is a 2D-animated short film, crafted in a monochrome style. In a whimsical and heartwarming narrative, it dives into the mysterious and quirky natures of our favorite feline companions.

A glacier witnesses a trail runner’s death, but no one seems to notice its own slow demise.

Linda, a female praying mantis, wants to find the one for her but runs into a snag when her primal instincts keep prematurely ending her relationships. After one too many failed dates she’s about to give up when she realizes maybe she had been looking for love in the wrong place the whole time.

Once upon a time, there was a tiny, green, wide-mouthed frog, that was very curious to know what the other animals were and what they ate.

A tribute to the traditional art Southeast Asian art form of Wayang Kulit, celebrating the spirit of the sea.

This short film, made after the closure of the largest archive of victims of Stalinism and the Soviet dictatorship, explores the painful chapters of Russian history through the personal experiences of the director’s family. From World War I to the Civil War and on to Stalinist repression, these stories exist not only on the pages of books but continue to affect families to this day.

Cave drawings come to life, chasing for the prey.

Before everything there was nothing. No sea and no shore. In this emptiness the three first gods, Odin, Vile and Ve built a world from the remains of a giant. An action which sparked a search for revenge that will not stop before the end of time.
This traditional cut-out animation tells the story from Norse Mythology of how the world was created. The tale of magic and revenge takes place in landscapes and skies made entirely out of paper, light and silhouettes.

Stylised silhouette animation and propaganda poster art clash heroically in a clever anti-war film.

The film portrays the crazy encounters you can experience every day in the big city. Everyone thinks and says what they want, which on the one hand is fascinating, but can also be unpredictable. A bike messenger, a woman wearing a gas mask, a monk and three boys try to cope with their everyday lives without realising that they are part of the madness that surrounds them. Three stories unfold in an inevitable catastrophe, giving the city a brief moment of peace.