ESPRITS LIBRES (2024)

Life of a Mutt

Through seven scenes, the film follows the life and destinies of stray dogs from the margins of our society, leading us to reconsider our attitude towards them. Through the seven “wandering” characters that we follow at different ages, from birth to old age, we witness their dignified struggle for survival. At the cemetery, in an abandoned factory, in an asylum, in a landfill, in places full of sorrow, our heroes search for love and togetherness. By combining documentary material, animation and acting interpretation of the thoughts of our heroes, we get to know lives between disappointment and hope, quite similar to ours.

Mantovani, the King of Strings

Known for his unmistakable cascading strings and recordings such as Charmaine, Mantovani enthralled the world with his sublime arrangements. This is the story of the man and his music.

'R Xmas

A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.

Suzy Q

A weekend in the life of a bizarre family in the sixties. Their lives will never be the same after it.

Sickies Making Films

A love letter to film history, Sickies Making Films looks at our urge to censor movies and asks, Why? By focusing on the Maryland Board of Censors, the nation's longest lasting censor board, we discover reasons both absurd and surprisingly understandable.

Hercules and the Circle of Fire

When all the earth's fire begins to go out, Hercules and Deianeira must go in search for fire to stop the world from cold. "Hercules and the Circle of Fire" is the third movie-length pilot episode of the television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead

A meeting in a London bus with jewel thief Lady Christina takes a turn for the worse for the Doctor when the bus takes a detour to a desert-like planet, where the deadly Swarm awaits.

Ashes in the Sky

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Neus Català returns to France, where she recalls her life under the Nazi yoke.

The United Monster Talent Agency

A short comedy spoof about Universal Monsters and their everyday unconventional work done at their very own talent agency for their movies.

Bosco

Based on the true story of Quawntay “Bosco” Adams. Sentenced to 35 years for attempted possession of marijuana, Adams miraculously escaped from a Federal maximum-security prison while under 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement with the help of an older woman he met through a lonely-hearts ad.

Ezra

Stand-up comedian Max Bernal lives with his father Stan while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra with his ex-wife. When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son's future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives.

Crimson Forest

Upon waking up in a strange forest, a young man questions whether or not the environment around him is real or a figment of his imagination.

Florence Fight Club

Intertwined stories from the gladiator/athletes participating to the Calcio Storico Fiorentino yearly championship.

The Surfer

A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.

Mister Twister Goes Camping

Class 6b is going camping, led by Mees Kees and Principal Dreus. But after Dreus strains her back all responsibility suddenly rests on the shoulders of Kees. When things go wrong, he begins to doubt himself. But he soon learns that it is not about making mistakes, but about how to solve them.

Sabrina, Down Under

Sabrina travels to Australia's Great Barrier Reef with her best friend Gwen, a fellow witch from England, for a week-long vacation where they try to help protect a hidden mermaid colony whose habitat is threatened by ocean pollution, and by a local marine biologist determined to find the colony as his claim to fame. While Sabrina finds romance with a "merman" from the mermaid colony, Salem the cat finds a possible romance with another witch-turned-into-a-cat, named Hilary, but finds Sabrina's problems interfering with his plans.

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins

In 1889, seventeen men die under mysterious circumstances, and spooked by recent events, the miners who populate the town leave in droves until there's nothing left but a shell of a community.

Rosario

Wall Street stockbroker Rosario Fuentes returns to her grandmother's apartment after her sudden death. While sorting through her belongings, Rosario discovers a hidden chamber that's filled with occult artifacts tied to dark generational rituals. As supernatural occurrences begin to plague her, she must confront her family's buried secrets and face the truth about the sacrifices and choices they made.

The Common Man

Georges Lajoie is a Parisian café owner. As every summer, Georges, his wife Ginette and grown-up son Léon go on holiday to Loulou's campsite, where they meet up with the Schumacher family (whose father is a bailiff) and the Colin family (who sells bras in the markets). This year, their peace is slightly disturbed by the proximity of a construction site where foreign workers are employed. Xenophobic comments are made. One evening at the ball, a fight breaks out between Lajoie, Albert Schumacher and two algerian immigrant workers...

Q & A

A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.

The Night Before Christmas

It's snowy and cold outside, and warm inside where Jerry squeezes past a mousetrap to cavort under a present-laden Christmas tree. Mistaking the sleeping Tom for a plush toy, Jerry wakes him and a mad chase ensues.

Mantra Warrior: The Legend of The Eight Moons

A story inspired by the original RAMAYANA, retold in a futuristic universe, involving brave warriors who possess ancient powers from another dimension.

Killer of Men

A man lurks the night alleys, killing people at random, he feels nothing, no emotion, and no pain; when he meets a graceful widow he must confront what it means to be human.

6-Headed Shark Attack

What is supposed to be a marriage boot camp on a remote island turns into the ultimate test for survival when a 6-headed shark starts attacking the beach. Trapped with minimal weapons they try to fight off the shark, but quickly discover that no one is safe in the water or on land.

Trailer Horn

Donald and the chipmunks, Chip and Dale, are after each other again, this time when they come upon Donald vacationing in a trailer. When he goes swimming, they fool him by moving the diving board and end up wrecking his car.

Knock Off

A fashion designer and his CIA agent business partner must join forces to stop a group of terrorists from smuggling explosives in counterfeit jeans during the handover of Hong Kong.

Skin. Like. Sun.

Real-life young couple Wim and Floor spend an afternoon in the sunwashed rooms of a crumbling home in Belgium. In a unique twist, this artistic erotic documentary is edited in nearly real-time. In the slowness, we get the build, the sweetness, and the sexiness. Forget about fingersnapping fast editing. Slow is where it’s at.

Silver Haze

23-year-old Franky is a nurse who lives with her large family in an East London borough. Obsessed with a thirst for revenge and a need to assign guilt for a traumatic event that happened 15 years before, she is unable to build any meaningful relationship until she falls in love with one of her patients – Florence. They escape to the coast where Florence lives with her more open-minded patchwork family. There, Franky finds the emotional shelter to deal with the grudges of the past.

Kraken

A Russian missile submarine disappears without trace during a secret mission in the Greenland Sea. A vessel is deployed to search for it, captained by the brother of the missing submarine’s commander. The search crew is tasked with locating the submarine and preventing a top-secret weapon from falling into enemy hands. Meanwhile, a geological research operation at the North Pole awakens the Kraken, a giant deep-water monster with an incredible ability to camouflage and an uncanny intelligence. As the search party narrows in on the missing submarine, they will encounter the legendary creature of the deep.

Comedy Fight Club Live

The biggest up-and-coming talents on the Danish comedy scene compete to win the title of ZULU Comedian of the Year! The concept is simple: Simon Talbot, Torben Chris, Nikolaj Stokholm, and several others you know hook up with the new talents and decide what they should be funny about.

Una mano bajo la nieve y otras historias

An anthology of 7 Mexican short films, all created by 5 up-and-coming independent filmmakers, with a common thread: to explore themes of human relationships. In order, A Hand Beneath the Snow (Una mano bajo la nieve), Friendship (Amistad), The View from Up Above (La vista desde arriba), The Short Film (El cortometraje), Silvestre (Silvestre), Cocktails For Two (Cóctel para dos) and When I Hear You Sing, I Forget (Cuando te escucho cantar, olvido).

Omniscient

Ravi, a progressive schoolteacher in a small village helps fight an epidemic by getting his students inoculated. He incurs the wrath of local witchdoctor in the process.

Ruth

The year 2000. Maya, a young Londoner, goes to the small village of her Spanish girlfriend, Ruth, who has just died in an accident. She wants to say goodbye, but the shock and anxiety of presenting herself as the “foreign girlfriend” to family and friends she doesn't know and who speak a different language, is compounded by the perplexity of discovering that nobody knows who she is.

On Way Ginette

Ginette dreams of becoming an actress and sees an opportunity when she hears about Louis’ project, a young filmmaker who wants to shoot a tender cannibal romance. Louis spots Virgile, a young butcher, to play the lead role, unaware that he is also Ginette’s casual lover. When the three meet on set, things don’t go as planned, blurring the lines between reality and fiction, and turning the shoot into unexpected chaos.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The classic tale of a loveable, outcast hunchback and the gypsy girl he adores is transformed into a musical, warmhearted animated classic in this delightfully updated version of a stirring masterpiece.

Pardes

Tom is a teenager who lives with his single mom in a small southern Kibbutz, and deals with his (and other’s) sexuality.

Automagic

On his return home, androgynous-looking Madhu attempts to seduce Ratnakar, his rickshaw driver, who is practicing celibacy in preparation for a religious pilgrimage.

Next of Kin

Fred is a drag queen performing on a cabaret stage when he learns that his father, Jean, has died. In the emergency room, he comes face to face with his ghost. Over the three days following this event, Fred and his sister Cassandre try to organize Jean's funeral while Fred seems to be the only one to see him.

PALOMA

Paloma is a young adult who finds herself living in automatic mode, following every imposed social norm, already working in an office and living alone in a studio apartment. Her daily life passes fleetingly and with little taste, until one night, after a long day of work, she receives an email titled FOR MY FUTURE SELF, which prompts her to change her life.

Neutre

Six soldiers and their lieutenant are on an exploratory mission a few days before the end of a training course. Unfortunately, due to a mistake, the group gets lost and accidentally ends up on French territory. The lieutenant is then faced with a real dilemma: returning to Switzerland via the nearest customs post means accepting the legal consequences—in fact, any Swiss national who crosses the border with an assault rifle is automatically considered a deserter—or returning to the country illegally through the forest, which is foreign territory and sometimes dangerous.

Born In Summer

A filmmaker plays with diary-docu and fiction as his camera joins his ventures into a phone dating club. Bored to death, hormones running, and desperately wanting to talk to someone his own age (preferably a girl), he walks into a local phone dating club. Can he hook up with someone? Borrowing the form of a diary-movie, the director unfurls an unpredictable and imaginative look into his own persona. 8mm experimental film by Murakami Kenji, the film that made his name.

The Fishbowl Girl

Wei, a young lesbian, goes to Thailand on a graduation trip. After witnessing an intimate interaction between the girl she fancies and a male friend, she goes to a Thai massage parlour, but the experience isn't as beautiful as she envisioned.

24h01

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Skai Blue

Tom meets Simon, a Cameroon refugee on a dating app. They have a short, but passionate relationship and both hope to find a better life, happiness and love. However, Tom realizes that this relationship has a huge impact on his own life and is forced to make a difficult choice...

The Letter Men

"The Letter Men" is based on the real love letters written by Gilbert Bradley to his sweetheart, Gordon Bowsher during WWII. Exchanged between 1938 and 1941, the letters were uncovered in 2017 and represent the largest known collection LGBTQ love letters from that time period. Using text from the actual letters, "The Letter Men" follows the two men as their fight to keep their love alive in the face of war and loss.

The Daughter of the Lawyer

In Recife, Dr. Paulo is an important lawyer that has a daughter, Heloísa, with his paramour and living in the country. A few days before traveling to Europe, Dr. Paulo asks to a close friend to bring Heloísa to Recife. Meanwhile, his bohemian and irresponsible son Helvécio meets Heloísa, and without knowing that she is his sister, he tries to rape her, and she kills him. Heloísa is arrested and goes to trial without any evidence to prove that she self-defended her honor.

Second souffle

At 16, Gabriel takes over the camera of his deceased older brother and films his daily life with his little sister who is growing up, his mother who is sinking into madness and a boy from his neighborhood. An unexpected encounter will lead Gabriel to film a first love.

Gallop

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Trop Tard

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The Heretics

Four couples in crisis attend a multi-faith Conjugal Love retreat. Each participant carries a very clear idea of what she hopes to achieve. However, the strange tasks ordered by the monitors continually disrupt personal plans. The confusion increases when the same monitors stop hiding their conflicts, forcing each participant to assume an unexpected responsibility despite the consequences.

Lapse

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AfterSex

Bathed in the gentle embrace of a rainstorm, Nathan, stirred by an intimate moment with Alex, finds himself compelled to voice the currents of his inner discontent. Amidst the flickering city lights, their souls diverge—one yearning for a love that transcends the physical, the other finding solace in the realm of corporeal passion. Can they navigate the intricate labyrinth of their desires and break free from this cyclical discord, or are they fated to bring a sorrowful conclusion to their tumultuous relationship?

FELIPE

The Argentine crisis of 2001 is about to explode. Felipe, 13, sees how his family environment is cracking due to the economic and political pressures. Misunderstood, he falls in love with Lucía, the neighbor next door and for a moment he stops feeling alone. But when external violence becomes a real danger, Felipe escapes with her, fed up with the lies of his parents, leaving behind his innocence.

Two Night Owls in Paris

Near the oldest bridge in Paris, the Pont-Neuf, Camille, a second-hand bookseller, crosses paths with Paul, an Eiffel Tower trinket seller. Over the course of one night, these two young souls give in to the captivating rhythm of the City of Light.

Jacques

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Pamplemousse

Cléo and Oscar are a couple that seems perfect in every way. During an evening with friends, the lovers end up committing an irreparable crime. They will have to maintain their appearances to face the consequences of their actions.

Em Segundo Plano

A couple's relationship is challenged by their routine and the various frustrations it brings. In the middle of misunderstandings and a lack of communication, they struggle to stay together and remain devoted to one another.

The light years

An astrophysicist (Marion) and an extraterrestrial (Thomas) are in love. Tomorrow, they must say goodbye. It's the price they must pay to free Thomas from the horrible affliction he is suffering from on Earth. Thomas will leave our world and return to his planet. Marion accompanies him to the point of no return.

Imani

2030. In response to climate migration, the government has set up a program to receive refugees. Imani, originally from the sunken island of Sao Tome and who is stateless and traumatized, is recognized as a climate refugee in Seine-Saint-Denis. She joins the Green Fugees program, which will enable her to obtain French nationality provided she overcomes her trauma: will she manage to swim again?

Punk à chien

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Talvez o Vento Saiba seu Nome

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Big Boys Don't Cry

It's summer for Lucas and his band of friends in their village near Marseille. Hicham returns after a three-year absence and military training. They get together to organize a friend's bachelor party and enjoy one evening at the seaside after another. But Hicham's return rekindles raw emotions in these men parched by summer.

De Dana Dan

Lakshya, a police constable gets some extra ordinary powers in his body after he is saved from a blast.

Bad Bear

Noah Holiday lives his life being constantly reminded of a tragic event that occurred while he was a baby in 2004. During his rough times alone, Noah rediscovers his long lost childhood teddy bear; however, what once brought him great joy now has a mind of his own and has sinister plans in store for him.

Jan Kounen - Intégrale courts métrages

All Shorts film of Jan Kounen Director

Mad Dog

Johanie, the single mother of a dysfunctional family, takes a dim view of the arrival of Ian and his dog in the neighborhood. Like a trench dividing the two camps, the back alley becomes the witness of a rivalry where prejudice, fascination and frustration mingle slyly with the sound of barking.

Zabardast

Pushkar finds a magic coat that fulfils wishes once someone wears it. Using it, he decides to impress the girl he loves and enter a dance reality show with her.