Checkmate (2024)

Those Who Wander

What are they? What do they seek? When all the lights go out, they will wander. And you will never see them.

Monsters

Jenn lives in an underground bunker, protected from the monsters that now ravage the world. This is the day that she goes outside...

The Bathtub

Ramon Riera is taking a well-deserved bath when his cell phone suddenly rings. On the other side of the line is Clara, a girl who insistently tries to sell him a life insurance.

The Intimate Touch

At a romantic restaurant, a feminist reporter and a Muslim refugee meet for dinner.

La señora de la casa

Plot unavailable

Lost Parents

Luuk is the only survivor of a plane crash. He tries to process his loss through art.

Salvaje

Plot unavailable

Vaca

A woman who is trapped in a boring routine working in a slaughterhouse finds an unexpected opportunity to change her life. Marta Bayarri and Pepo Blasco star in this short film. Directed and written by Marta Bayarri.

En passant

Andor is a young chess player, who even calls his pet turtle Kasparov. “Do you think I will succeed? - the boy asks her before the decisive tournament. "If I win, he will never come back." Who is Andor talking about and why is he either afraid of this return, or wants it?

Not Today

Handling two homes, three kids and her mother with Alzheimer's; Meryem, a single mother nanny, gets hooked on middle class' discourse of self-help. Going over her priorities, she decides to step up for herself on the worst day possible.

Ninety-Five Senses

A heartfelt depiction of a man facing his own mortality while reflecting on the grave mistakes of his youth.

Angel

Twenty-something-year-old Angelo is suffering heartbreak after his longtime girlfriend leaves him for another man. Angel is forced to find a new version of his life without her in a big and new city. When he thinks all hope is gone, a sexual encounter with an old school friend reawakens him and forces him to question everything he thought he knew about himself.

Shadows

Plot unavailable

Bree and Drew (Me & You)

Bree and Drew just broke up. Panicking to pack up their stuff before the movers arrive, they fall back on witty repartee to mask their true feels as Drew tries to force Bree to take back the ring she never wanted.

Suicide by Sunlight

Valentina, a day-walking Black vampire protected from the sun by her melanin, finds it difficult to suppress her bloodlust when a new woman is introduced to her estranged twin daughters.

Devil's Tribulation

Liu Ming and Jia Lan are childhood sweethearts. Liu Ming devotes herself to cultivation every day, and Jia Lan always waits quietly, accompanying Liu Ming. Ye Tian Mei has admired Liu Ming for a long time, but hates that Jia Lan is always by Liu Ming's side. One day, when Jia Lan is playing in a lake, Ye Tian Mei hypnotises her, swaps their souls, and imprisons Jia Lan's...

Hangman

Nick slowly loses his mind while too afraid to leave his house.

Les Femmes

A young woman guides a man through a mysterious forest. In his eyes, everything seems normal, until he comes across two women waiting for him in a macabre ritual.

The Wrong Side of Town

Jacob, Tony, and Brandon are on a night drive through the wooded outskirts of an unknown city. While his friends sleep, Jacob remembers where he's seen the upcoming overpass, the man standing on the other side of it, and the abandoned parking garage sitting above the road.

The Lamb of God

The summer festivities of a Portuguese village are suffused with sensuality and violence in this enigmatic portrait of a tightly knit family.

Mountain Cat

A troubled teenage girl is coerced into seeing a local shaman in search of spiritual healing. Trapped by ancient beliefs that serve only to pacify her mother, she finds peace in the physical realm by unleashing her repressed, youthful spirit on the unsuspecting shaman when she realises his true identity.

Teluki

Based on a Tutong story about the ghost Teluki that eats children in 1992.

Louise From 9 to 5

Louise works as a human resources advisor. She operates in a tense work environment in which power dynamics take many forms. Trying to manage a conflict between the interests of the company and those of the employees, Louise will be confronted with various means of pressure oscillating between contempt and violence. Her choice will have serious repercussions.

N.I.

A romantic encounter that goes horribly wrong...or is it?

Demaquillage

Two actresses see each other again at the premiere of a new stageplay after a sensual summer. The encounter is hopeful for one of them, less pleasant for the other.

Shadow Puppets

Set in Israel during the 80's, a young boy's role model uncle - a shadow puppet artist - is slowly losing his mind, drawn ever deeper into a web of Local folklore, Israeli Ethos, and unearthly puppetry.

From the Bottom of the Vortex

Kiko, who is pessimistic about herself being a lesbian, spends her days worried because she cannot convey her feelings to her best friend. A story about the conflicts and decisions of lesbian women.

The silent cry of the trees

To protest the construction of a new car lot, a young guy named Bernat comes to the vacant lot in order to tie himself to the only left living tree. Upon arrival, Bernat finds Joel, an unknown young man who also has decided to tie himself up.

The Human Voice

Short based on the Jean Cocteau play following a final telephone conversation between a couple.

Nha Sunhu

Issa, a footballer from Guinea-Bissau who plays in Portugal, is contacted by two filmmakers who want to know more about his life and make a documentary. Exposing the voices behind the camera, Nha Sunhu is a reflection on the gaze, bias, and representation of the other.

Fragment of Seeking

A young man desperately seeks out the fleeting image of a female companion, and though he never quite catches her, he discovers much more through the surreal explorations of his own sexuality. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Before

In a hidden paradise somewhere in the Philippines, two brothers share a simple but sufficient life. Things change when an unexpected visitor brings a new-found attention to their island home. With their idyllic island now on the tourism spotlight, they're now forced to cope with the perils of uncontrolled urbanization.

Two Nights

Over two nights, a young Chinese immigrant has sexual encounters with two very different men. Consequently, he has to choose between the one he wants or the who wants him.

Baliko

Mara, a once renowned photographer, journeys deep into the mountains in search of a mythical beast never photographed before.

The Heart of the Forest

On a hunting trip in the forest, a mother and daughter come across a man who intends to commit suicide.

Walls

A teenage boy named David is afraid of being transparent. When David's best friend, Johnathan, notices his abuse at home, David must overcome his fear of rejection in order to embrace his friend's support.

The Room

Mariana must sacrifice her dog Frida after violently beating it for having destroyed her recently deceased son's toys. The pet's death helps Mariana accept and overcome the loss of her son.

Absence

Carlos, a man haunted by his past, plunges into an existential crisis that leads him to day-to-day apathy due to the loss of a child, an act that condemns a declining marriage and continuous desolation.

The Kiln

At her young age, Juana has two great responsibilities: preventing her older sister from fleeing the house and passing on the secret of making bricks to her younger sister.