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A Dance in Vain

A Dance in Vain

Chinese Premiere 
China|Mandarin|2025|Color|86min 
Director:Lee Hong-Chi 
Cast:Cici Wang 

Synopsis:Monkey has spent years working in a theater company. Day after day, her life feels stuck on repeat. In 2020, her boyfriend, Leo, returned to his hometown and took his own life. Since then, his absence has lingered like a shadow, every breath she takes. She tries to reach out, but all she hears is: "You' re already so lucky." 

2025 Venice International Film Festival, Critics' Week

Black Rabbit, White Rabbit

Black Rabbit, White Rabbit

Chinese Premiere 
Tajikistan / United Arab Emirates|Tajiki / Persian / Russian|2025|Color|139min
Director:Shahram Mokri
Cast:Babak Karimi / Hasti Mohammai / Bezhan / Kibriyo Dilyobova

Synopsis:A director is remaking a classic Iranian film in Tajikistan. The studio armorer is worried that the gun they intend to use is not a prop gun. A young woman arrives at the location insisting that she be given an audition. In another part of town, Sara, recently recovered from a car crash, realises her accident was a conspiracy. These people' s destinies inevitably intertwine.

Blue Heron

Blue Heron

Chinese Premiere 
Canada / Hungary | English / Hungarian|2025|Color|90min 
Director:Sophy Romvari 
Cast:Ádám Tompa / Edik Beddoes / Eylul Guven / Amy Zimmer / Iringó Réti / Liam Serg / Preston Drabble 

Synopsis:In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family' s oldest child. 

2025 Locarno International Film Festival, First Feature Award Competition - Best First Feature 
2025 Toronto International Film Festival - Discovery Award 
2025 San Sebastián International Film Festival, Zabaltegi - Special Mention

Brought with the Storm

Brought with the Storm

Asian Premiere
Argentina|Spanish|2025|Color|121min
Director:Miguel de Zuviría
Cast:Jesús Catalino / Carolina Saade / Iván Moschner / Irune Porcel

Synopsis:A film about surviving something that didn' t go as expected. Manuel is going through a breakup with Camila. He has to rethink the whole artistic project. To give Camila space to pack, he leaves for a seaside location, where he continues his preoccupation with recording sounds of all kinds. His inertia about the future will be challenged by something extraordinary on the beach.

2025 IndieLisboa International Film Festival, International Competition

Dry Leaf

Dry Leaf

Chinese Premiere
Germany / Georgia |Georgian|2025|Color|186min
Director:Alexandre Koberidze
Cast:David Koberidze

Synopsis:Nino and Irakli' s daughter, Lisa, vanishes after leaving a letter. Irakli teams up with Levani, Lisa' s close friend to find Lisa. As they journey through Georgia' s vast and varied landscapes, they visit quiet villages. But the further they go, the more elusive she becomes. Just as the search begins to feel hopeless, a mysterious occurrence offers a final clue, rekindling a glimmer of hope.

2025 Locarno International Film Festival - Special Jury Award & FIPRESCI Award
2025 Bangkok International Film Festival - Grand Prix
2025 Pancevo International Film Festival - Best Film Award

Eternal Summer

Eternal Summer

World Premiere
China|Cantonese|2025|Color|100min
Director:Ye Zhenpeng
Cast:Liang Faxuan / Chen Junlin / Wu Xue' er

Synopsis:17-year-old Liang Kefeng was caught off guard by a cruel "coming-of-age ceremony". His father passed away suddenly, his mother was burdened with heavy debts, and he was forced to get involved in a cigarette smuggling ring in the wild town; he encountered a Tanka woman who made the sea her home, drifting like duckweed for life, and witnessed the collapse of his best friend' s family.

Gloaming in Luomu

Gloaming in Luomu

Chinese Premiere
China|Mandarin |2025|Color|98min
Director:Zhang Lu
Cast:Bai Baihe / Liu Dan / Huang Jianxin / Piao Songri

Synopsis:Bai receives a postcard from a small town in southwestern China. It' s from her boyfriend, who disappeared without a word three years earlier. After wrestling with doubt, she decides to go to the town and uncover the truth.

Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)

Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)

Chinese Mainland Premiere
USA |English / Spanish|2025|Color|101min
Director:Joel Alfonso Vargas
Cast: Juan Collado / Destiny Checo / Yohanna Florentino / Nathaly Navarro

Synopsis:Rico' s summer is a wild mix of chasing girls and hustling homemade cocktails out of a cooler on Orchard Beach, the Bronx. But when Destiny, his teenage girlfriend, crashes at his place with his family, it' s only a matter of time before his rowdy, carefree days come spiraling down.

2025 Sundance Film Festival, NEXT - Special Jury Award 
2025 Berlin International Film Festival, Perspectives

Mare's Nest

Mare's Nest

Chinese Premiere
UK / France / Canada|English / Catalan |2025|B&W / Color|98min
Director:Ben Rivers
Cast:Moon Guo Barker

Synopsis:Moon travels through a mysterious world free of adults. She meets a sage, and her translator, in a mountain hut, where she tries to understand what is happening. She meets many others who show her different possibilities for living. She observes and moves on into an unknown future.

2025 Locarno International Film Festival, International Competition - Pardo Verde Award
2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Wavelengths
2025 Tokyo International Film Festival

NINO

NINO

Chinese Premiere
France|French |2025|Color|97min
Director:Pauline Loquès
Cast:Théodore Pellerin / Salomé Dewaels / William Lebghil / Jeanne Balibar

Synopsis:In three days, Nino will face a major challenge. But first, his doctors have assigned him two vital tasks. Two missions that will lead the young man on a journey through Paris, compelling him to reconnect with the world and himself.

2025 Cannes Film Festival, Critics' Week - Rising Star Award & Valbonne Audience Award
2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Platform Competition
2025 Rome Film Fest, Progressive Cinema Competition - Jury Grand Prize

Phantoms of July

Phantoms of July

Chinese Premiere
Germany|German / Iranian  |2025|Color|90min
Director: Julian Radlmaier
Cast:Clara Schwinning / Maral Keshavarz

Synopsis:An East German waitress with a broken heart and an Iranian YouTuber with a broken arm dream of another life and end up on a ghost hunt in the mountains.

2025 Locarno International Film Festival
2025 Hamburg Film Fest - Best German Film Award

Short Summer

Short Summer

Chinese Premiere
Gemmany, France, Serbia|Russian |2025|Color|101min
Director: Nastia Korkia
Cast:Maiia Pleshkevich / Yakov Karykhalin / Aleksandr Karpushin

Synopsis:Katya, 8 years old, spends the summer with her grandparents in the Russian countryside. Time stands still, adults remain silent, and a war in the background destroys lives. Meanwhile, kids are growing up and the clouds are flying.

2025 Venice International Film Festival - Lion of the Future Award

The Kidnapping of Arabella

The Kidnapping of Arabella

Chinese Premiere
Italy|English|2025|Color|107min
Director:Carolina Cavalli
Cast:Chris Pine / Benedetta Porcaroli / Milutin Dapcevic / Eva Robin

Synopsis:Holly, 28, has always felt like the wrong version of herself, as if her life had gone off track. When she meets a young girl named Arabella, she becomes convinced she' s found her younger self. Eager to run away from home, Arabella hides her true identity and goes along with Holly' s wish: to go back in time and become someone special.

2025 Venice International Film Festival, Horizons - Best Actress

White Snail

White Snail

Chinese Premiere
Austria / Germany |Russian / Belarus / English / Mandarin|2025|Color|115min
Director:Elsa Kremser / Levin Peter
Cast: Mikhail Senkov / Marya Imbro

Synopsis:A Belarusian model dreaming of a career in China finds herself drawn to a mysterious loner who works the night shift at a morgue. Their encounter unsettles her sense of body, beauty, and mortality. The fragile love story of two outsiders who turn each other' s worlds upside down and discover that they are not alone.

2025 Locarno International Film Festival, International Competition - Special Jury Prize & Best Performance Award
2025 Sarajevo International Film Festival, Feature Film Competition - CICAE Award
2025 Bodrum International Film Festival - Best Film Award

Crossroads

Crossroads

Chinese premiere
Argentina|Spanish|2025|Color|83min
Director:Julián Galay

Synopsis:In a dream I find notes to make a film. I decide to retrace my steps and start at the place where I grew up: the University of Buenos Aires. The history of sciences and cities is founded on a structure of power and bureaucratic violence. How do these institutions see and hear? How is knowledge about nature represented over time?

2025 FID Marseille International Film Festival, First Film Competition - Special Mention
2025 General Pico Film Festival, National Feature Films - Special Mention of the Jury

Hair, Paper, Water...

Hair, Paper, Water...

Chinese Mainland premiere
Belgium / France / Vietnam |Rục / Vietnamese|2025|Color|71min
Director: Nicolas Graux / Trương Minh Quý
Cast: Cao Thị Hậu

Synopsis:Cao Thi Hau was born in a cave more than 60 years ago. Now she lives in a village, with many children and grandchildren to look after. Sometimes, she dreams of her dead mother calling her home to the cave. The film captures fleeting moments of her daily life, its beauties and economic struggles, and the transmission of her people' s language, Ruc, to her grandchildren.

2025 Locarno International Film Festival - Pardo d' Oro (Golden Leopard)

I sing, I love, I exist

I sing, I love, I exist

World Premiere
China |Mandarin|2025|Color|105min
Director:Wang Yu
Cast:Zhang Qianqian

Synopsis:In the mid-1990s, female rock musician Zhang Qianqian rose to fame, only to suddenly disappear overnight. Against the backdrop of China' s 30-year wave of commercialization, her journey—marked by pursuit and resistance, gains and costs—offers a glimpse into the possibility of an alternative way of life.

Searching for Hainan Gibbons

Searching for Hainan Gibbons

World Premiere
China|Mandarin|2025|Color|79min
Director: Fu Jin / Liu Lili

Synopsis:The Hainan gibbon is a rare primate species in the world, with 7 groups and 42 individuals remaining today. The species once faced the danger of becoming extinct. This film, through a collection of oral histories from 21 eyewitnesses and a combination of first-hand materials, recreates the survival and conservation journey of this critically endangered species over more than four decades.

Shifting Baselines

Shifting Baselines

Chinese Mainland Premiere
Canada| English|2025|B&W|100min
Director:Julien Elie

Synopsis:Where the Rio Grande meets the sea, the dunes attract rare sea birds and the last remaining wild ocelots of the USA. But the swamps have been drained, beaches closed and homes bought-out to make room for the new launch facility of SpaceX. Are these visions of a promising future or simply crazed ambitions leading us ever more swiftly to our own demise?

2025 DokuFest - Green DOX Award
2025 Blue Planet Future Festival - Hannarae Blue Planet Award

The Tale of Silyan

The Tale of Silyan

Asian Premiere
North Macedonia|Macedonian |2025|Color|81min
Director:Tamara Kotevska

Synopsis:Oscar-nominated director Tamara Kotevska tells the story of a white stork, Silyan, and a Macedonian farmer, Nikola. Their lives intertwine when Nikola, abandoned by his family, saves the injured bird from a landfill. As Nikola and Silyan form a bond, they find solace and companionship in each other' s solitude.

2025 Venice International Film Festival

āyí

āyí

Asian Premiere
China USA |Mandarin / English|2025|Color|13min
Director:Li Jiayi
Cast:Eleven Lee

Synopsis:In a crowded dormitory in Flushing, NYC, an undocumented housekeeper, ayí, endures exploitation while striving for a better life. Her only escape is Baduanjin, a meditative Tai Chi practice that offers fleeting peace. But as hardships mount, she must choose between silence and resistance.

2025 Tribeca Film Festival - Special Jury Mention for Student Visionary
2025 Mar del Plata International Film Festival, International Short Film Competition - Special Mention
2025 Hawaii International Film Festival

Daria’s Night Flowers

Daria’s Night Flowers

Chinese Premiere
Iran / UK / France| Persian |2025|Color|16min
Director:Maryam Tafakory
Cast: Leila Hatami

Synopsis:Daria has written her first manuscript about falling in love with a mysterious girl called ‘abi’ [blue]. The night flowers in her garden hide the secrets of a country that has turned love stories into routine crime scenes.

2025 FID Marseille International Film Festival - Flash Competition Award
2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Wavelengths
2025 New York Film Festival

L'mina

L'mina

Chinese Mainland Premiere
France / Morocco / Italy / Qatar|Darija (MoroccanArab dialect)|2025|Color|26min
Director: Randa Maroufi
Cast: Amine Mkallech / Laid Erramly

Synopsis:Jerada is a mining town in Morocco where coal extraction, although officially halted in 2001, continues informally to this day. L’mina recreates the current work in informal mining pits using a set design created in collaboration with the town’s residents, who perform in their own roles.

2025 Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Week - Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film

Maturation Station

Maturation Station

Asian Premiere
Belgium| English / Dutch|2025|Color|26min
Director:Melissa Mabesoone
Cast: Arend Pinoy / Melissa Mabesoone / Seppe Decubber / Karlijn Sileghem / Aminata Demba / Lou Van Rafelghem

Synopsis:Theo and her colleagues begin rehearsing speeches about a violent technique that turns female shrimp into blind reproduction machines. While taking care of her sister’s child, Theo starts to question her own place within the systems that surround her. Maturation Station is a feminist, absurdist short film about the fluid boundary between work and private life, care and reproduction.

2025 Blue Water Film Festival - Best Narrative Short
2025 Film by the Sea - Best Short Fiction
2025 Sprouts Film Festival - Best Short Fiction

Medium Close Up

Medium Close Up

Chinese Premiere
Iran |Persian|2025|Color|19min
Director: Sholeh Fallah / Gholamreza Hoseinian
Cast: Karim Ghashghaei / Zahra Hooshmand / Hossein Javaheri

Synopsis:An old man with Alzheimer's and his son wants to abandon him on the street.

No Skate!

No Skate!

Chinese Mainland Premiere
France|French |2025|Color|24min
Director: Guil Sela
Cast:Raïka Hazanavicius / Michael Zindel

Synopsis:Paris, 2024 Olympic Games. Isaac is a sandwich man. Cléo is a sandwich woman. One day, Isaac sees Cléo throw a skateboard into the water.

2025 Cannes Film Festival, Critics' Week, Special screening
2025 Calgary International Film Festival - Live Action Short Film Audience Award
2025 Vancouver International Film Festival - Short Forum Award

Ploo

Ploo

Asian Premiere
Germany|English|2025|Color|15min
Director:Jon Frickey

Synopsis:"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.

2025 Viborg Animation Festival

Short of Breath

Short of Breath

Asian Premiere
France|French|2025|Color|28min
Director: François Goglin
Cast:Julien Goglin / Astrid Adverbe / Marc Susini

Synopsis:In the countryside, in a time that seems to stand still, Jacob, 13, lives with his two parents who no longer love each other.

2025 DETOUR Low-budget & Experimental Cinema

The Sorceress Echo

The Sorceress Echo

Chinese Premiere
Spain / Catalunya|Catalan|2025|Color|24min
Director: Marc Camardons
Cast:Karin Barbeta / Neli Lladó

Synopsis:Cebriana, a lumberjack from a village in the Pre-Pyrenees, sees a strange bonfire on the mountain in the middle of the night. Terrified, she calls emergency services, but in the blink of an eye, everything vanish without a trace. The next morning, she realizes no one else has seen anything. In the village, whispers begin to spread. Only her grandmother, a former herbmistress, listens without scepticism.

2025 Cannes Film Festival - La Cinef
2025 Tirana International Film Festival - Panorama Competition
2025 Uppsala International Short Film Festival - Official Selection

Year of the Dragon

Year of the Dragon

International Premiere
Canada|English / Mandarin|2025|Color|13min
Director: Giran Findlay-Liu
Cast:Fiona Fu/ Daniel Jun

Synopsis:A devoted immigrant mother sets out to deliver a cake for her son' s birthday, but as the day unravels, she is forced to confront the reality of her son' s situation.

2025 Toronto International Film Festival
2025 Vancouver Asian Film Festival - Best Canadian Short & Best Director (Canadian Short) & Best Cinematography (Canadian Short)

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