Amarena (2025)

The Edukators

Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.

The Great Escapades of Restriction

5 Scenes displaying the varying effects of restriction. One talks senselessly under the pretense of being understood. One discovers the monsters under the bed. One finds his voice. One can't escape an ever-shrinking room. One hears voices of his own creation.

When Jeff Tried to Save the World

When Jeff discovers that the bowling alley he manages is being sold, he must do everything he can to save the place he's come to call home. This is the original / short.

Cycles

CYCLES is a playful, sweetheart choreography, circling through the madness of grief.

Tsotsi

A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.

Exposure

Camille, an assistant at an art gallery, hosts Masato Kimura, a Japanese video game designer who has come to France to promote his latest creation. Indifferent to his world, Camille finds the man inscrutable until Masato asks to use her face in his next game.

Robot & Scarecrow

A love story between a robot and a scarecrow who meet and fall for each other at a summer music festival.

TRIPLE TIMe

A theoretical physicist discovers his life is in danger when he comes home to find two future versions of himself.

Summer

A leather-clad biker and a pink-haired escort meet on the streets of downtown Guadalajara.

In the Box

A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.

Our Secret

A lonely woman seizes an opportunity for intimacy when her epileptic neighbor comes knocking on her door.

Eden

In this short story, João and Pedro live in this garden. What João wants the most is for Pedro to be happy and the only way he found to make that happen is to support him in his escape with Sara. On the other hand, Pedro learned how to love João and does not want to leave the garden. But one of them ate the forbidden fruit.

Diwa

An unflinching look at the plight of immigrants victimized by violent crimes and the obstacles they face as they seek justice - told thru the eyes of one victim.

The Man Who Would Be King

Tired of life as soldiers, Peachy Carnehan and Danny Dravot travel to the isolated land of Kafiristan, where they are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. After a series of misunderstandings, the natives come to believe that Dravot is a god, but he and Carnehan can't keep up their deception forever.

The Quiet

In the midst of a deadly outbreak, a man returns home in search of family.

La Jetée

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

Ben-Hur

In 26 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Two jobless Americans convince a prospector to travel to the mountains of Mexico with them in search of gold. But the hostile wilderness, local bandits, and greed all get in the way of their journey.

Sycorax

Who is Sycorax? The first character in Shakespeare's "Tempest" to set foot on the island. The problem is that she has no voice. She is barely mentioned by Prospero as a crooked, old, wicked witch who vilely locked Ariel, the spirit of the air, in a tree. But why would she do that? Here, we wouldn't believe Prospero so much.

The Hands of Orlac

A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.

Buddy

A young man agrees to support his ex lover during an HIV test. What starts out as an awkward reunion, soon becomes something more tender. Is there still hope for reconciliation?

All These Days When I'm Foreign

Two northeastern brothers live and work as waiters in Baixada Fluminense. The duo tries to balance themselves in an underworld permeated by financial difficulties, prostitution and urban violence. Antônio feels out of place.

Una tarde en la vida de dos niños kelpers

Alex and Dani, two Kelper children living in Stanley, Falkland Islands, skip school to play in the fields, as they usually do every day. One afternoon, when they discover a black, viscous liquid they believe to be oil, their historical differences come to light.

El grito que nunca dimos

At the news that his best friend is going to move, Luis debates whether or not to confess his feelings towards her. Meanwhile the silence seems to distance them more and more.

Crimes of Diogo Alves

Diogo Alves is a Spanish fugitive that comes to the Portuguese capital terrorizing the inhabitants by his cut-throat methods against rich and poor people alike. He attacks the women launderers on the Lisbon Aqueduct and throws the bodies over the high wall, and assaults homes with his large band of criminals. Eventually arrested, he, his female companion and his henchmen are condemned to death by the court.

Ruins

Two boys run away in order to try to face their feelings. In the hollow of the night, alone, their pains and their fears catch up with them.

Girl, Interrupted

Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.

Carried by the Waves

Loïs, 22 years old, wakes up on the beach after a drunken night. In his distress, he approaches Killian, 20, who is jogging and falls for him at first sight.

Safe Word

Cesar, an emotionally stunted masochist, must confront his self-loathing after his dissatisfied-yet-caring Dom, Bear, reinterprets the rules of their game. They arrive at a paradigm-shifting result neither one of them expects.

In Vitro

Amanda creates a reality where her child is not a product of rape, but is in fact, immaculately conceived.

An Entire Future Together

Two men at the bar. They work in banking and have sold preferred securities in an undetermined amount. One of them, the general manager, is being harassed at his home. After several days of harassment, he finally has a revelation.

Neon Boys

Unable to find a job after spending time in prison, Shawn takes work as an erotic dancer to support his daughter and falls in love with a man for the first time.

All About My Mother

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Boys Don't Cry

A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.

Antoine and Colette

Now aged 17, Antoine Doinel works in a factory which makes records. At a music concert, he meets a girl his own age, Colette, and falls in love with her. Later, Antoine goes to extraordinary lengths to please his new girlfriend and her parents, but Colette still only regards him as a casual friend. First segment of “Love at Twenty” (1962).

Panda Syndrome

A young boy, Bjørn, discovers on his 17th birthday that his problems with the girls might not be self-inflicted.

Terrifier 3

Five years after surviving Art the Clown's Halloween massacre, Sienna and Jonathan are still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they're safe, Art returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.

9th Floor to the Right

One evening, in his apartment in Paris, Lorenzo is getting ready to receive Marvin for the first time, a boy he really likes. Marvin shows up at the door with Thomas, a homeless man he met on the street in need of a shower. Lorenzo doesn’t dare say no.

Sweet Water

João and Pedro are cousins who meet for the first time since their childhood. They're dealing with the inheritance of their grandfather's farm, which is about to be sold to an industrial sugar mill. While they sort out the matter, forces of nature beyond their control will unravel unfinished issues between the pair.

Hora Petrolera

Alberto, a collective taxi driver, observes through the lives that pass through his car, the beauty hidden in the decadence of the oil city where he works.

Bathed in Light

Two teenage couples are spending a weekend together in a house by the sea. When new feelings develop, the dynamic quickly changes.

House of Demons

Four estranged friends reunite and spend the night in a remote country house that was once home to a Manson Family like cult. As the night goes on, the strange rituals in the house's past open connections between the past, the present and the subconscious, forcing all the characters to confront their deepest secrets and darkest demons, or be destroyed by them.

Retouch

Maryam is faced with an important decision in this black comedy from Iran.

A.

Having lost her memory, A. could barely recall glimpses of her childhood in Argentina. After her death, her son visits the empty house for the last time. A sensory journey through a house without objects but filled with memory.

Striptease

Bounced from her job, Erin Grant needs money if she's to have any chance of winning back custody of her child. But, eventually, she must confront the naked truth: to take on the system, she'll have to take it all off. Erin strips to conquer, but she faces unintended circumstances when a hound dog of a Congressman zeroes in on her and sharpens the shady tools at his fingertips, including blackmail and murder.

Stranger Than Fiction

Nothing is as it seems when four friends agree to cover up a killing. When they begin to doubt who among them is telling the truth, they find that life can be stranger than fiction.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Four best friends (Tibby, Lena, Carmen & Bridget) who buy a mysterious pair of pants that fits each of them, despite their differing sizes, and makes whoever wears them feel fabulous. When faced with the prospect of spending their first summer apart, the pals decide they'll swap the pants so that each girl in turn can enjoy the magic.

An Urban Allegory

A ballet dancer is late for an audition for a show inspired by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. She arrives with her seven-year-old son, Jay, and begs the director to give her a chance.

The Dreamlife of Angels

Isa and Marie bond while working in a French sweatshop and soon begin sharing an apartment that Marie is watching for a hospitalized mother and daughter. Marie, hoping to avoid a life of struggle and poverty, takes up with Chriss, a nightclub owner whose most attractive asset is his money. Isa recognizes the ultimate futility of the relationship and tries to keep Marie away from him, but her interference puts their friendship at risk.

Angst & Flesh

Elena loves Abel, she is drowning on the anguish of being, her subconscious manifests her urges; during the funeral misfortune sets in. Laceration and calm, devotion and fear, angst and flesh.

Topeka

A young businessman from New York (Layne Edelman) visits a diner in Topeka while on a business trip through the Midwest. Layne quickly notices something 'unusual' about this diner as he eavesdrops on the townsfolk conversations. When he returns to his table to find his belongings stolen, Layne's 'small town experience' spins mercilessly out of control.

Very Bad Things

Kyle Fisher has one last night to celebrate life as a single man before marrying Laura, so he sets out to Vegas with four of his best buddies. But a drug and alcohol filled night on the town with a stripper who goes all the way, turns into a cold night in the desert with shovels when the stripper goes all the way into a body bag after dying in their bathroom. And that's just the first of the bodies to pile up before Kyle can walk down the aisle...

The Right Words

Kenza 15 years old and her little brother Mahdi 13 years old regularly humiliate one another on social media in cruel ways. Today, as they travel by bus, Kenza puts her naive and romantic little brother to the test: to profess his love for Jada; a girl that Mahdi loves but that does not know him. Placed under pressure by his sister, Mahdi ends up confessing.

Leave

Billy the Marine's last day home before going back to Iraq. Realizing he may never come back, he tries to make amends with various people in his life. For Billy, the real battle may be on the home front rather than the front lines. LEAVE is an entirely improvised drama that was shot over the course of one day in Arlington, Texas, using both actors and non actors, both family and friends of the director, all from a one page outline. The story ultimately describes the different ways people express their love to one another, and how these ways of communicating love are sometimes lost.

Shadow / Self

Shadow / Self is a film project that combines dance, fashion and music to explore the darker side of the feminine psyche. A story of human struggle told with movement, beauty and light.