Play / Ground (2019)

A Regular Thing

Love has a price in this quirky sex comedy. Sten is a 30- year-old librarian. Over a book he meets supersexy Katja, the woman of his dreams, and they soon end up in bed together. It's love at first sight, but the next thing he knows, Katja wants money every time they make love. Otherwise their relationship will become trivial, she says. Reluctantly Sten agrees, but then Katja puts up the price.

The Idyll

A modern adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story about a man and a woman sharing an unexpected encounter on a train as it travels through a beautiful and surreal landscape.

Six Shooter

Overwhelmed by grief following the death of his wife, Donnelly shares a train carriage home with a troubled young man identified only as the 'Kid'. As the Kid becomes more agitated and foul-mouthed, the journey takes on a violent and dangerous hue – for the bereaved Donnelly and for other hapless passengers on the train. Academy Award Winner: Best Live Action Short Film – 2005

We Die Alone

A chance encounter dangerously intertwines the lives of three people with differing perspectives on love.

The Villain Who I Love

One day, high school freshman Minzy finds a photo of herself changing clothes in the school locker room. Class leader Hyejin, who is not close to minzy, points out that the new teacher is the suspect to her. Minzy and Hyejin collect evidences to prove that the teacher takes pictures of high school girls secretly. When Minzy and Hyejin report the teacher's behavior to another teacher, Minzy realizes something unexpected.

The Dream

Struggling writer, Amy, begins to have strange dreams about a girl.

Im Bären

An italian girl is looking for a room to stay in Berlin. In the process she will have to undergo a series of casting sessions in which she will lose herself in the big city.

The Summer House

A young girl flees to France to forget her boyfriend; first his letters pursue her, then he himself follows her there. During a party to celebrate the moon landing she takes her own small step...

A Tale of Yearning

This is a sad tale of a noble lady who is entranced by an opera singer. Hoping to get closer to the singer, the lady takes up lessons with her. Despite their affection, they must face obstacles.

A Search Through Nine Lifetimes

For love to travel for thousands of years, they will eventually meet.

The Fox Spirit Repays a Debt

A wife and a concubine seek freedom. In a game of seduction, together they join forces to defeat their oppressors.

Misfits

When they learn their friend has kidnapped a cop on the night of MLK Jr.’s assassination, two sisters and leaders of the Black Panther Party must set aside their differences to navigate one of the most turbulent nights in history.

Reverie

A father comes to terms with his son's terminal illness.

Islands

A sexual reverie unfolds over the course of one ethereal night. Characters wander through an erotic maze of love and lust, blurring the lines between wet dream and lucid nightmare as a macabre, erotic stage performance sends a ripple of lustful desires through its audience and performers.

Bad Bunny

Wayward boy punishes his mother’s lover. Beauty and horror fondle each other. Young gods callously abjure conventional morality. Death goes whoring in child’s guise.

Requited

Nicolas, a young man in his mid 20s, struggles to decide whether or not to go to the wedding of his best friend from high school, Aaron, who he's always been quietly in love with. The two had a falling out years earlier after Nicolas inexplicably kissed Aaron's girlfriend. Nicolas clings to an idealized image of his former friend, unconsciously sabotaging his own happiness in the process. The film is a realistic slice-of-life that poses the question "How do you get over something you never had?"

Boys Like You

A young man struggles with the boundaries of friendship when he finds himself in an intimate situation

Revolution

A coming-of-age story about Jack, a 16-year old Iranian boy growing up in 1989 Los Angeles. With the 1979 Iranian Revolution a distant memory, the AIDS movement as a backdrop, and a haunting score by Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Jack learns how to stage his own much smaller revolution within the confines of his traditional family.

The In-Between

The story or two men who fall in love and move in together.

Frozen Roads

Balthazar and siblings Christian and Lyla have been friends since childhood. As the trio struggles with coming of age in a rural, conservative Canadian town, they must confront escalating desires for one another that threaten to destroy their delicate bond.

Black Mist

Black drops fall from the water faucets, peek through the drains, and flood the city. Sisters Paula and Teresa, cornered in their apartment, can do nothing but observe as that strange substance takes hold of their lives. Hypnotized, with nowhere to go, they come into contact with the liquid. Gradually, reality begins to distort and they get lost in it.

Textiles

Michel is a funny boy, a kind of intellectual. With Pauline, a very beautiful girl he met on the beach, they are going to get naked and discuss surrealism, sincerely and without trickery. But who are they really?

We Are Not Here

We Are Not Here is a short film about a small derelict town, waiting for a road. Through a series of vignettes we take a glimpse into the life of the town and its residents.

Millimeterle

Measuring their power and proving themselves is part of the boys’ everyday life. Even for the 13-year-old gentle-natured Yannik. Until his best friend’s upcoming sexual curiosity suddenly puts him in a threatening situation. Where is the line between game and reality and what happens if that line is crossed?

A Particular Friend

When Father Matthew discovers an intimacy between two of the other priests at a remote conversion-therapy centre in Northern Ireland, his attempt to do the right thing leads to a crisis of faith and feeling.

PITFALL

Amidst the horror and chaos of war, two enemies are forced into an unholy alliance in the battle for survival.

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).

Spoiled Milk

When an emotionally abusive father reneges on a lifelong promise, a determined millennial is forced to choose between fighting for her relationship with her father or her freedom. 'Spoiled Milk' is about what it means to have an expiration date as a daughter and the invisible scars of emotional abuse.

What Did They Say?

A 1-minute film about the experience of young immigrant children having to translate for their parents. Presented by NextShark.

Angst and Treason

During an awkward family gathering, María, a young lady going through a love crisis, discovers a secret that will transform her reality.

Shadows

In Manila, a solitary man from a far-away province lives in poverty. The only thing he has is a camera, and he stays at churches hoping people will hire him to take their photographs. During one day, he has three encounters that change his life: the first, with a smooth-talking young man who's standing by the church door who berates him for wasting his life in church, the second with a boy who offers to take his picture, and the third with a Mercedes-driving man who's been stuck in traffic and has no patience left. Is there any deliverance from the soullessness of the city?

Helium

A young boy, Alfred, is dying, but through the stories about Helium, a magical fantasy world, told by the hospital's eccentric janitor, Enzo, Alfred regains the joy and happiness of his life, and finds a safe haven away from daily life.

Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?

A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it's best to take care of everything herself.

Canvas

After a heartbreaking loss, a grandfather struggling to reclaim his passion for painting finds the inspiration to create again.

The Year of the Radio

Mexico in the 90s. Alex, a 7 year-old boy and his little siblings are left in the care of senile Aunt Lola while their mother works as a host on a radio station. Alex misses his mother and along with his siblings, they listen to his mother’s show every night, building strange imaginary worlds through the stories they hear, the news, the radio soap operas and the religious influence of his great-aunt.

The Glutton

Gulosus (the glutton), is an alluring yet disturbing view of gluttony in contemporary culture. The film is in stop motion, with one photo being taken every 6 seconds, and contains over 130 individual sound effects and foley sounds. The piece draws from the compositions of traditional vanitas paintings and photography. It was also heavily influenced by a genre of youtube called 'Mukbang' (korean for 'eating show'), where people consume mass amounts of unhealthy and idealistic foods for viewers to watch. All of these elements came together to form an opinion on greed and vanity through a relatable but confronting menu. Influencing artists: PES Jan Svankmajer Reynold Reynolds Chen Fei Achievements: BUFTA Bond University awards - nominated best overall film - nominated best director - winner best experimental - winner best sound design Artexpress exhibitions at - Margaret Whitlam gallery - virtual gallery VX - Maitland regional art gallery

Lioness

When the temperamental Sylvie (17) is told that she has to give up her child when it’s born, she decides to escape the youth institution where she’s placed. In her eyes it’s the only solution to prevent that her child will have the same institutionalized youth as she endured.

Second Thought

Chris and Art lead parallel lives, starting their day with similar routines in different locations. Both go to Provincetown, a welcoming haven for the LGBTQ+ community, where their paths cross on a dating app. A steamy encounter follows their first meeting, but a dramatic turn occurs when one blocks the other the next day.

Równonoc

Plot unavailable

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.

One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand

Nearly one in ten Czechs over the age of 15 face some form of distraint, under which their property is seized because of money they owe. Every day, more and more people fall into the debt trap, but Karel is on the other side of the barricade – it is his job to collect their debts.

Jeremiah

An Asian-American high school football player is forced to confront his deepest fears after a strange encounter with a mysterious figure.

Adam

Tired of his turbulent family life, Adam seeks out an alternative arrangement in hopes of finding his place.