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Browse through the detailed list of the official nominations of the 7th Santorini Film Festival edition.
Auxiliaire
During a night of doubt, Marc, a carer dreaming of becoming a chef, has to admit to Quentin, his friend with a motor disability whom he has been taking care of on a daily basis for years, that he will surely not return to work on the following day.
Lucas Bacle
Bad Kids with Saint Names
Michalis, an impulsive teenager, lives through the last day of his freedom with his friends before his domineering stepfather takes him away for the entire summer. Their day begins as an ordinary one, but as time passes, the kids immerse themselves deeper into an atmosphere of bliss, where every moment feels like a dream. However, their happiness is abruptly interrupted when an unfortunate event forces Michalis to confront his fears.
Vicky Anastasiadou
Bark Bus
In this non-narrative documentary, Linval Stewart hurtles down the highway in an old school bus with no seats but full of barking German Shepherds and faces logistical hurdles as he meets with someone to sell a dog crate and visits his veterinarian in downtown Oakville.
Graeme Bachiu
Captain Carnival
Since 150 years, the giant allegoric carnival floats of Viareggio, Tuscany, parade along the promenade, higher than the highest art nouveau buildings of the city. In the Covid-19 age, the carristi appear just like captains of a ship – the float – that must be brought at all costs, and maybe for the last time, to destination. And no one remembers why.
Alessandro Soetje
Chkara
The young courier Luka has money problems. He gets a call from the bank every day, but he doesn't want to think about debt. Making the delivery, he gets into the apartment of the customer, who falls asleep in front of his eyes. The apartment is now at Luka's disposal and he can do whatever he wants…
David Kvirkvelia
Concrete Heart
In a city in the suburbs of the Paris region, Kenza, a shy and secretive teenager, does not dare to admit to her friends that she is going to take part in the rap workshop of Oréade, a young queer rapper whose friends make fun of her. In contact with Oreade, Kenza, the only girl in the group, will reveal her talent and awaken her desires buried as high and as strong as she can.
Enrika Panero
Confessions
An affluent family in Mexico City is shaken by the kidnapping of their young daughter. At night, hours after her disappearance, one of the kidnappers comes calling at the family house. He has come for the ransom… but what he wants is not money, rather a confession. Someone in the family is hiding an atrocity, and the kidnapper will force them to reveal the most terrible things each has done in their lives.
Carlos Carrera
Cutting the Line
Cutting the Line follows a husband and wife team, Naude and Katja Dreyer, as they embark on a mission to rescue entangled seals along their home along the Namibian coastline and raise urgent awareness about ocean plastic pollution. What begins as a few spur-of-the-moment rescues quickly evolves into an environmental organization that finds itself pitted against this mounting global crisis. Cutting the Line powerfully reveals the disconnect between the global fishing industry practices and local communities actively working to mitigate its detrimental impact. The film serves as an inspirational clarion call to advocate for global policies to support communities actively fighting to end the harm caused by plastic pollution.
William Bendix
Danny’s Diner
Two young women have been trapped working at Danny’s Diner for most of their young lives and they cannot take the abysmal conditions any longer. But just as they are about to set the place ablaze, in walks a mysterious, delirious and hungry stranger. This man sees Danny’s as a Mecca, a beacon of hope, beauty and deliciousness, and he won’t take “we’re closed” for an answer. Tonight the fate of this diner, an enchanting family restaurant or a cesspool, a heaven or a hell, hangs in the balance.
Ellie Gravitte
Essence, Nature, Universe (by Neermukile)
A Painter(HE) who lives in the woods and a Dancer (SHE) who belongs to the masses are on their search for the truth about Reality. While the Painter draws undistracted inspiration from Mother Nature, the Dancer has to persevere through the noises around her and the blockers inside her to fulfil her quest. As both approach an awakening to the Ultimate Truth, they also become increasingly aware of each other's existence. Do they find each other ? Can they accept what they learn ?
Unnee Udayakumar
Ethel
Ethel discovers boxes with glittering clothes of her late mother, who was a figure skater. In the snowy forest she searches for the idyllic pond where her mother once taught her to skate. She wants to relive those memories, attempts to understand her mother’s passion. On the frozen pond Ethel, however, encounters the Bone Ice Princess, who challenges her to a dangerous dance on thin ice. Will Ethel survive this contest in one piece? A tale of letting go and growing up.
Beatrice Jäggi
Fairplay
A teenager in search of recognition, a worker ready to do anything to hit the jackpot, a senior executive at the end of his career who wants to prove to himself that he is still alive. Three characters who are losing speed on the competition highway…
Zoel Aeschbacher
Fake Baseball – Big Guy
A couple struggling to make ends meet scrounge up a bottle of wine. Music video for the song “Big Guy” by the band Fake Baseball.
Nick Rohr
Forty Elephants
Caught between her love for her fiancé Edvard and her obligations to her gang, the "Forty Elephants", Marie Britain is confronted with the consequences of being an emancipated woman in the 1920s. Edvard's rejection of the reverse role model within their relationship forces her to make a final decision. The film is based on true events of the London women's gang "Forty Elephants".
Paul Maximilian Schilling
Grey at Night
As an outsider, a wolf observes the people in the forests of Barcelona during their tender moments. But after a blood moon, the gates to humanity are open to him.
Carlos Llaó
Gutterball
Roland is a loner in the bowling alley where he works. However, as the only witness of a tragic accident, he finds sudden confirmation from his colleagues by telling them the horrifying details. Slowly he starts embellishing the story.
Terji Mohr
La Soglia
A serial killer, taking refuge in a hotel after being identified by the police, faces his inner demon, a bloodthirsty snake who reclaims a new victim. The tempting reptile try to persuade the man to reap another soul making him face the trauma that made him a ruthless killer.
Nicolò Tonani, Sofia Gasparetti, Simone Colombo
Look At The Stars
In the twilight of his life, an elderly man revisits a bittersweet memory and reshapes it in the way he would have liked to have lived it.
Aris Kouvaras
Mad Props
A handsome nerd journeys the globe to turn the conventional art world on its head, set to prove to historians and critics alike that movie props are as important an art form as the greatest paintings and sculptures in history.
Juan Pablo Reinoso
Mykonian Pastoral
“Mykonian Pastoral” is a real Noah’s Ark, where the last true natives of one of the most cosmopolitan islands in the world seek shelter, along with their animals, from the relentless wave of development that threatens to swallow them whole. Holding on to traditions rooted in the distant past, their lifestyle harkens back to a simpler, slower time when even the most trivial menial task was full of meaning and intention. Shot in and around Maou, the last agricultural stronghold of the island, we meet a cast of born and bred Mykonians who shed light on a little-known side of the island, closely resembling a lost utopia: a serene place that largely exists outside of time, where simple everyday pleasures are worth their weight in gold. But does that place really exist or is it just a figment of their imaginations?
Eliana Abravanel
Night Ride from LA
‘Night Ride from LA’ is based on a real car ride at night from downtown LA to the desert near Palm Springs a few years ago. The footage was taken from the car by continually shooting single long exposure photos to document the ride of about two hours without any break. This technique condensed the whole trip to a flickering twirl of time-stretched movements and night light graffiti causing a kind of psychedelic trance. A love letter to the energy and vibe of the Californian way of life.
Martin Gerigk
Quasi Perfetto
In 1969, Switzerland's image of perfection was undermined by a clumsy television operator who mistakenly deleted the official commentary of the Apollo 11 Mission. Journalists Marco Blaser and Eugenio Bigatto will return to the studio of forty years earlier to correct the mistake. But it won't be that simple.
Federico Frefel
Ruby, Alia, Ritchy
The summer of 2020 confronts young roommates between the prohibitions and excess, Alia faces the mourning of a close friend.
Mika Baudoux
Short Draft
A man hijacks a taxi when the taxi driver refuses to take him where he wants. Two men will share a ride where everything will go wrong and a girl will change their way, where the end will be a mystery even for the heroes of Short Draft
Spyridon Papaspyrou
Sideways for Attention
In September of 2001, Chloe, a college senior at a school in lower Manhattan, tests positive for HIV. Over the weeks that follow, she struggles to deal with her diagnosis, past trauma, and an uncertain future. As her estranged stepfather Doug attempts to reconnect and classmate Trevor shyly tries to gain her affection, Chloe pulls further away until making a terrifying discovery about one of her classmates.
Brady Bryson
Skewered
Opposing sexual appetites and dietary ethics bring a stagnant relationship to a theatrical and surprising crescendo as a heartfelt revelation confronts the elephant in the room.
Nick Ray Rutter
Sugar
Sugar is a music video that tells a story based off of Julian Daniel's upcoming EP of the same name, the music works as a soundtrack to the film and helps drive the story. Our protagonist is Julian, he’s a small-time criminal in the SouthWest. He wants to make enough money to get out of his small town with his girlfriend Wendy and is willing to do whatever it takes. This includes robbing local stores and convincing Wendy to be his accomplice in an attempt for a better future. After their biggest score yet they go out to celebrate and meet a mysterious new friend who later helps Julian move on after losing what he loves most.
Luca Cianfarani
Terroir of Taiwan
For those who live far away from their place of birth, their hometown always holds a special and sentimental significance. It's not only because their loved ones still reside there, but also because the essence of their hometown is irreplaceable. Xie Yuwei, a famous Hakka singer, recently returned to his roots and embarked on a captivating journey called the "Terroir of Taiwan." He set out to explore the flavors that defined his childhood in Xinwu Township, uncovering the profound connection between taste and memory. For many people, taste goes beyond just the sense of smell; it encompasses other senses like hearing and sight. Through the eyes of Xie Yuwei, this film takes us on a profound search for more than just aromas; it dives into the depths of our five senses and how they intertwine with cherished memories. It's an expedition filled with nostalgia, savoring the moments and impressions that have shaped us and continue to energize us in the present.
Michael Chih-liang Cheng
That Breath
At the age of eighty-eight, my grandfather Fernando suggests we make a film together. His idea comes when I tell him I am moving out of his house. That is how we start filming; he carries his camera, I carry mine. Although we have lived together for more than 20 years, it is through the camera that we see each other in a way we have never done before. “That Breath” is an intimate recording of our bond, love, and loss, in an attempt to understand the meaning of being alive.
Valentina Baracco Pena
The Balloon
A young delivery biker imagine being in a contest call “The fortune balloon”. His goal is that the balloon does not explode. Actually the contest it is just his daily routine working as a delivery biker to earn a salary. Will he win the prize?
Hugo Suárez
The Date
A boy goes to a sketchy neighborhood for a date with a girl, however the overprotective and controlling neighbors don't take it well.
Levan Birkadze
The Father’s Place
Antonio, after many years of separation, lives with his father, Rosario, a well-known boss of the Neapolitan underworld who has recently been freed after 30 years in jail. The two try to get to know each other. Father and son confront each other between the shadows of the past and the hopes for a future together.
Francesco D'Ascenzo
The Firefighter’s Ball
This evening, for the summer ball, three friends have the brilliant idea of “dressing up” as firefighters to flirt with girls. But their stupid project takes another turn when Joseph, already uncomfortable on the dance floor, finds himself embarked despite himself in a real firefighters’ intervention…
Baptiste Drapeau
The Last Biscuit
Trudy’s life revolves around plain biscuits. But when her favourite snack is discontinued, she falls into the Biscoms factory, a crazy world of flavour and excitement. But Trudy doesn’t want excitement. She just wants a digestive and for the workers at Biscoms, that is a problem…
Amy Fitzpatrick
The Pirate – Memories from Spoon River
In an unknown and immutable microcosm of a southern Italian province, the Pirate, a solitary and blind artist, spies on the life of his fellow citizens who pass in front of his door. They are bizarre characters, left on the margins of our cybernetic and too fast society. They find meaning in their circumscribed universe, accepting with sweet melancholy that inexorable, but salvific, immobility.
Cristiano Ciliberti
Then Comes The Body
THEN COMES THE BODY is a short documentary about underdogs, globalism, and dance. It starts with Daniel Ajala, a self-taught ballet dancer who discovers the European dance form in the American movie SAVE THE LAST DANCE. With no ballet schools in Nigeria, he opens Leap of Dance Academy in his front yard: humble, rigorous, and free to anyone with dedication. Then in 2020 — while the pandemic rages around the world — Ajala uploads a video of his students dancing on cement in the rain. The feel-good video goes viral, putting this unlikely dance school on the map. With the attention comes new opportunities for the students — but in the sandy streets of Ajangbadi, nothing comes easily. As top students compete for international scholarships and begin to leave home, Ajala realizes the best thing he can do is be a bridge for the next generation.
Jacob Krupnick
Tomorrow if All Goes Well
Gio’s life has been a series of disappointments which little by little affected his morale, health, and above all, his relationship with Cindy, his daughter. So, when gio calls her to announce that he is going to get a heart transplant, Cindy hesitates: they have not seen each other for five years. She no longer belongs to his world. But facing what could be their last trip, she yields and agrees to join him in the ambulance.
Ivan Goldschmidt
Upsidedown
On the day that Randa Shaarawi tells her family that she doesn't want to go to college so she can "find herself," an esteemed food critic comes to review her family's restaurant and turns everyone's day upside down.
Razan Ghalayini
Visioned
As night falls, someone looks out over the city. Lights flicker, people go home and a tram passes by until in a frame life stops.
Manuel Román Sierra
Wanderer (by Dario Lessing)
Some wander to get lost and some wander to find themselves.
Philip Haucke
Without Skin
A young woman wakes up on a snowy slope and descends towards a Lagoon. Along the way, he is immersed in a whirlwind of warm memories with his partner, moments that now only accentuate his tragic end. Without Skin offers us an honest and moving insight into human feelings and the emotions we experience in life. It invites us to reflect on love, loneliness, pain, and our fundamental need to be loved and cared for.
Diego Pezo Paz
Womb
A middle – aged man (Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos), on a break from a normal day, is speaking with his mother on the phone when a stranger (Aris Troupakis) appears and announces to him some unexpected and terrible news that will change him and his sense of reality in a tragicomic way.
Themos Skandamis