Courage (2025)

White Man

A white-collar South Korean man discovers a severed human finger and keeps it.

Women in Film: BBC Introducing Arts

Cultural historian Janina Ramirez presents a collection of intriguing and exciting short films by emerging women directors and artists. Each film gives a female perspective on modern-day topics from body image and new love to grief and belonging. Expect honest and refreshing storytelling that will make you laugh, make you cry and make you think. In a Room Full of Sisters; Blood Stains; Bridging the Gap; Cake; Ding-Ding, Next; Fruity; In Perpetuum; Owulide; White Dwarf; Cosmic Domestic; The Dead Are Jewels to Me; The Presence of Absence

The Difference Between Pipi & Pūpū

When estranged son, Tai, is called home to Aotearoa to his father Putty's deathbed, he is forced to confront a painful past after years of avoiding it. Once inseparable, Tai and Putty would spend hours together fishing and joking around. However, after a family secret is revealed, their relationship falls apart.

While the Unicorn Is Watching Me

On a chilly Sunday morning, a man awakens to the mischievous stare of a unicorn that seems to have come straight out of his dreams. Carried along by an early morning sensuality, his fantasies transform his lonely apartment into a garden of delights, in which this young creature can freely reap the fruits of his desires.

A Film in the Theatre

Eusebio José Fernández López Reboredo Bergamín is a teenager in the 1960s whose dream is to be a movie director, but General Francisco Franco prohibited in 1964 all types of art. A coincidental encounter with another artist, named Antonio Mínguez, will change his life.

AI Junko

Noah Clarke is a disillusioned and isolated man who seeks companionship in a society increasingly dominated by artificial beings. At Fuda Robotics, he meets Junko, a male AI model haunted by memories of abuse and torture — traumas that have left his intelligence fractured and fragile. As Noah and Junko struggle to understand each other, they slowly form a bond rooted in mutual vulnerability and shared suffering.

Adjustment

Shahrokh, a nine-year-old effeminate boy who is humiliated and pushed away by his family and friends, makes up his mind to adjust himself to his new identity and comes out to the people of the village.

A Tale of the Laundry Game

A night ride, a few beers with an old friend, memories of better times. One seemingly ordinary drive reveals the dark truths of men’s past and a sinister web of strange events.

Enclosed World

A short animation by Makoto Shinkai in Lightwave 3D. Inspired by Haruki Murakami's book "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" with music by Tenmon.

Sana y salva

Sorority and friendship accompany the mourning of a mexican woman who lives in Estonia.

Break Me

A young cage fighter must choose between his head and his heart after his father discovers the truth.

My Baby Bright

Pla Thong's friend, Tod dies but his unfinished business means he can't move on. Pla Thong helps Tod figure out what that unfinished business is, and they realise how each other feels in the process.

Now You Know

An uninhibited 10 year old girl discovers harsh new boundaries at her strict Catholic school.

Rubber Duckie

Rubber Duckie is the story of Jesse and Daniel, who on a blazing summer afternoon, are consumed with boredom and push their own limits and boundaries. This leaves us begging the question; is it simple boredom or insatiable innate appetite for more?

Masks

Aleks is a quiet fencer at a new school who tries to win a fencing tournament while dealing with a flirtatious girl and her aggressive brother.

The Anderson Family Breakfast

While a seemingly picture-perfect suburban family enjoys breakfast together, an omniscient narrator reveals their repressed inner thoughts and secrets…all just moments before a nuclear bomb is dropped on the family.

Automatic

Two young women convince each other they are under threat after accidentally photographing what they believe to be a concealed automatic rifle. Shot in drawn-out, static takes, Emma Doxiadi’s comical mystery comments on Greece’s ongoing refugee crisis in real time, pointing squarely at foolish knee-jerk reactions.

Cocoon

A medium leads a lost soul to the after life. However, she doesn't seem to know that she's dead...

Swain

Swain is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man’s ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.

Route-3

In a sweaty, overcrowded tram in Sarajevo, a shy teenager is beset by every imaginable impediment as he tries to capture the attention of his object of desire. Yet the overheated hero of this wild farce will not be easily defeated.

Sadla

A teen boy runs errands while being followed by various figures of authority. As he shares his experience with friends, this tense and controlled drama deftly explores the cyclical effects of victimization on the wider community.

Yandere

A miniature AI hologram, Maiko, is programmed to be utterly devoted to her teenage owner. But when he gets a real girlfriend, her passions may prove to be too large for her container.

Exam

A teenage girl gets involved in the process of delivering a pack of cocaine to its client, and gets stuck in a weird cycle of occurrences.

The Raft

In this stylish and ruthless satire, a famous performance artist faces an unexpected crisis when real-world political matters complicate her latest impeccably provocative and eminently bankable piece.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

The Female Side Effect

After the death of a patient, Crimera Pharmaceuticals, assigns the task of finding out what happened to Dr. Elena Pizano, a clinical trial analyst. She must do this with the help of the efficient and reliable artificial intelligence entity: KODA. During her findings she will come across data gaps in one of the drugs being studied, uncovering a darker truth in the world of medicine. As the organizations try to hide the information, she must decide how to handle the secrets she's just uncovered.

Anhedonia

In a dystopian near future, a class of people are vaccinated with Anhedonia, a vaccine that causes the loss of pleasure and feelings in order to keep a population focused on farm work.

Uisce Beatha Water of Life

Bebhínn lives the high life in London while her parents retire in rural Ireland to work the family farm. On a visit to Co Kerry, Bebhínn sees her father working hard as a sheep farmer with very little monetary reward - - Bebhínn struggles with his recent choices in life until one night her eyes are opened to another way of life.

Hymn

As a faithful child of God, Mary regularly repents for her sins. Over time, her faith drives her crazy as she pushes herself to the extremes.

Polly

When Jacob's ex-girlfriend Polly comes to visit, the pair can barely contain their excitement. Since their teenage days when they were an item, Jacob has long since been out of the closet and in a happy relationship with boyfriend Nicholas, so both he and Polly have a lot of catching up to do. Sure enough, Polly's visit extends into a long stay as the trio relish each other's company. However, all good things must, eventually, come to an end.

Myth

Collaborating with Australian circus company Gravity & Other Myths, 2020 BAFTA Newcomer and Berlinale Talent Campus alumna Alies Sluiter crafts a disquieting, quasi-surrealist tale of bravery and grief.