Works from universities and film schools selected by the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival to participate in a competition parallel to the next festival of "Le giornate della luce" in Spilimbergo
Director: Roman Baranov
Russian Federation, 21’
Moscow Film School
Synopsis: A thirty-year-old returns to his home to sell it and meets a forgotten imaginary friend: a brave Knight. The Knight is not ready to put up with the adult who has become his friend.
Profiles: Roman Baranov was born in 1992 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. In 2022 he graduated from the Moscow Film School. Currently he works as a creative screenwriter in the video production of the DT group.
Director: Hera Khanmirzaei, Amirhosein Saqafi
Islamic Republic of Iran, 12’48”
Tehran University of Art
Synopsis: A family lives in a house for a long time. A mother, a father and a son. The war took away the son, the heart of this family.
Profiles: Hera Khanmirzaei is an Iranian film student at Tehran University of Art. Her main interest is cinematography and she works as a screenwriter, director and editor. So far she has directed short films and documentaries. Amirhosein Saqafi was born in 1994 in Tehran and has been studying and practicing acting since 2013, in films presented at film festivals worldwide. He is active in film production and editing.
Director: Leila Basma
Lebanon/ Czech Republic, 18’
Famu
Synopsis: Summer is coming to an end and Nayla, a Lebanese teenager who is experiencing independence for the first time, has to make decisions that will change her life.
Profiles: Leila Basma is a Lebanese filmmaker and photographer who currently lives between Beirut and Prague, where she is completing her master's degree in film directing at FAMU. His sophomore short documentary The Adam Basma Project was shortlisted for the 48th Student Academy Awards after making several international documentaries.
Directed by: Chaman Ramesh Kishan
India, 12’57”
Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University
Synopsis: Set in the 1990s in North India, a young man returns to his home village and recalls his childhood through the memories of a conversation with his mother. In the process, the young man discovers how a once silent village, far from the hustle and bustle of city life, is gradually transforming into an urban-like reality.
Profiles: Chaman Ramesh Kishan, originally from Delhi, holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Hans Raj College, University of Delhi and is currently studying film at Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts in Rohtak, Haryana, India.
Directed by: Platon Ogarev
Poland, 16’31”
Łódź Film School
Synopsis: Aniela goes to visit her sister in Berlin. On her way back to Poland, she gets off the train at one of Berlin’s stations. A night journey through a colorful, dangerous and fascinating Berlin will prove to be a lesson in growing up for the teenager Aniela.
Profiles: A fifth-year student at the Department of Cinematography at PWSFTviT, he has extensive experience working as a cinematographer on various projects, including feature films, documentaries and commercials. He has also directed and shot seven short films. The documentary Crew (2020) was presented at Polish and international festivals. He later worked as a cinematographer on a documentary project in Berlin. The insights and experiences gained during this project were an important source of inspiration for his short film Dancing Cloud.
Director: Alicia Hernanpérez Hidalgo
Spain, 14’
Ecam
Synopsis: Samantha and David are in the car, looking at the sea. They are about to scatter their mother’s ashes on the beach of their childhood, but nothing goes as planned. The sister and brother will have to face their respective truths about that maternal figure.
Profiles: Graduated in Journalism and Audiovisual Communication from the Rey Juan Carlos University and recently graduated in Film Directing from ECAM. She directed the short film Anemone, currently being distributed. She has also directed div several short films including The Farewell and Oneiro. He often composes the soundtracks for his own projects.
Director: Yupeng He
China /USA, 20’
Columbia University in the City of New York
Synopsis: The appearance of a girl on a bright sunny day gently changes the life of a young man.
Profiles: Yupeng He was born in Guangzhou, China in 1995. He graduated with a BA from the University of California, Irvine. After graduation, he decided to attend Columbia University School of the Arts to continue exploring his filmmaking path. In 2021, she began directing her first short film Love me tender, which was invited to participate in several film festivals, including the Durban International Film Festival, the Scottish Queer International Film Festival, the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival and the International Short Film Festival Canton. In 2023, her short film A Bright Sunny Day was selected for La Cinef at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
Director: Sarangi Smitha Krishnakumar
India, 18’16”
Whistling Woods International
Synopsis: When Naina’s daughter disappears after a night out, she sets out to find her, with nightmarish fears that end up leading her into another reality she didn’t expect.
Profiles: Born in Kerala but moved to Saudi Arabia at the age of two months, Sarangi grew up with multicultural exposure from childhood. Subsequent cultural exploration through fictional films and novels sparked a deep interest in storytelling, which led her to decide to pursue a career in filmmaking. Sarangi holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Christ College, Bangalore and a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. She has made three short films.
