Melody

Bernard Bellefroid : 2014

28-year-old Melody, a confused child born under the name X, decides to rent out her body in order to get the money she needs to realise her dream of opening a hairdressing salon. To do so, she accepts to carry the child of Emily, a rich English woman, 48 years old, who can no longer have children. To make sure everything goes well and keep an eye on her future child, Emily decides to welcome Melody into her home and stay by her side throughout the pregnancy. Although they first appear to come from completely different worlds, the two women end up adopting each other: Melody finds in Emily the mother she never had, and Emily sees in Melody the daughter she always wanted to have. However, the bonds that emerge during this double maternity will create all kinds of doubts and questions. Bernard Bellefroid's second feature was winner of a joint Best Actress award when it premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2014.

Jenata ot fara

Ana Kitanova : 2014
Lighthouse Woman

Eddie finds out that he has been adopted and starts investigating his mother's mysterious death – she has jumped from the top of the lighthouse. Following the evidence left behind, Eddie begins to suspect that his mother has been murdered. Spending time at the lighthouse helps Eddie to look back on his past, to fit together the parts of the puzzle and to realise the truth. Ana Kitanova's short premiered at Sofia International Film Festival 2014, and screened at International Film Festival Tofifest 2014.

Bloedlink

Joram Lürsen : 2014
Reckless

Two ex-convicts, Victor and Rico, have masterminded a foolproof plan to abduct 25-year-old millionaire's daughter Laura Temming. With the kidnapping they want to make the deal of their lives. When they sweep Laura away in a van in broad daylight and hold her in a flat, negotiations with her father about the ransom soon begin. But gradually the balance of power between Laura and her abductors shifts. Exactly who is the perpetrator and who is the real victim? Joram Lürsen's feature premiered in competition at Nederlands Film Festival 2014.

Triptyque

Robert Lepage & Pedro Pires : 2013
Triptych

A meditation on the influence of language and voices on the destinies of three people. In Québec, Michelle leaves a psychiatric clinic and returns to her work in an antiquarian bookstore which subsequently becomes a space for her inner voices. In London, a German neurologist meets Michelle's sister, Marie, a jazz singer whose ability to speak is jeopardised by a brain tumour. Marie is one of Thomas's last patients. He is suffering from a hand tremor – the result of a taxing marriage. Back home in Montréal, Marie starts a new life together with Thomas. With the aid of dubbing actors and Super-8 footage of her late father, she begins obsessively to retrieve her forgotten memory of his voice. Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2013, and received a Special Mention by the Ecumenical Jury at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Provincia

György Mór Kárpáti : 2014
Province

Otto works as a conveyor for a food store in Budapest. When his van breaks down during a countryside delivery, he finds himself on an archaeological excavation site. Otto spends one day on the excavation. In this unfamiliar location, he seems to awaken: he is out of his element, but really wants to fit in. He also displays a keen interest in the excavation, or maybe he is just trying to impress the archaeologist he meets on site. A reflection on the random nature of fate, on chance encounters that are destined to remain isolated instances – but will they really stay that way? György Mór Kárpáti's third short premiered in competition in the Cinéfondation selection at Festival de Cannes 2014, and screened in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2014.

Cloro

Lamberto Sanfelice : 2015
Chlorine

Seventeen-year-old Jenny lives in Ostia, a seaside town near Rome, and dreams of being a synchronised swimmer. But after her mother's death and her father's ensuing nervous breakdown, her family is forced to relocate to a remote mountain village, where Jenny drops out of school to work as a maid at a nearby ski resort and to support her younger brother. She is unwilling to give up her passion and promises herself and her best friend Flavia that she will be back in Ostia for the next synchro competitions. Sneaking into the hotel pool to train, she clings to some semblance of her dream. But with her father showing no sign of recovery, Jenny's 'temporary' circumstances appear increasingly permanent. Lamberto Sanfelice's feature debut premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

O primeiro verão

Adriano Mendes : 2014
The First Summer

The first summer shapes the first years of our lives: we are freer after our first summer, when we make our first decisions, when we have time to feel in our own terms, without hurrying. Isabel and Miguel meet during a driving lesson. They start hanging out and end up spending the summer together: temporary jobs, taking walks by the river and falling naively in love. Every day they get a little closer. One must know how to look after a summer love: the easiness of summer might not be perpetuated in time and the following season brings new ordeals. In autumn, he travels to visit his family, while she stays and takes care of his dog. When he returns, their love for each other will be tested. Adriano Mendes's feature debut was winner of the award for Best Portuguese Fiction Feature Film when it premiered at IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival 2014, and screened in competition at Moscow International Film Festival 2014.

La vive allure

Gabriela Christen : 2014
Life Returned

Chiara, 30 and fairly reserved, works as an editor. After a night of heavy drinking at an office party, her car crashes in a tunnel. When she awakens at home with a plaster on her temple, she has no recollection of the events. In order to be able to reconstruct the happenings, she begs the police officer present at the scene of the accident to tell her what happened. Gabriela Christen's short premiered at Solothurn Film Festival 2015.

Driften

Karim Patwa : 2015

Twenty-two-year-old Robert, a former driver in illegal races, returns to his hometown Dietikon wanting to start a new life. His addiction to the thrill of speed led him to prison. Having served his sentence, he is determined to put his past behind him and starts an apprenticeship in a repair shop. All goes well until he meets Alice. Robert and the English teacher older than him feel attracted to each other, they are connected by the strong bond of a dark past. To stay with her, Robert is taking English classes. Yet as the relationship gains in intensity, former guilt feelings resurface and Robert's life starts to unravel. Karim Patwa's feature debut premiered at Solothurn Film Festival 2015.

Strangerland

Kim Farrant : 2015

Newcomers to the remote Australian desert town of Nathgari, Catherine and Matthew Parker's lives are flung into crisis when they discover their two teenage kids, Tommy and Lily, have mysteriously disappeared just before a massive dust storm hits. With Nathgari eerily smothered in red dust and darkness, the townsfolk join the search led by local policeman, David Rae. It soon becomes apparent that something terrible may have happened to Tommy and Lily. Suspicions run riot, rumours spread and public opinion turns savagely against the Parkers. With temperatures rising and the chances of survival plummeting with each passing day, Catherine and Matthew find themselves pushed to the brink as they struggle to survive the mystery of their children's fate. Kim Farrant's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

De nærmeste

Anne Sewitsky : 2015
Homesick

When Charlotte, 27, who is longing for family bonds and acceptance, meets her brother Henrik, 35, for the first time as an adult, it becomes an encounter without boundaries, between two people who don't know what a normal family is. How does sibling love manifest itself if you have never experienced it before? An unusual family drama about seeking a family, and breaking every rule to be one. Anne Sewitsky's third feature premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

Volta

Stella Kyriakopoulos : 2014
Stroll

A struggling single mother and her five-year-old daughter start out from central Athens and head to the suburbs. Nina thinks she's going on a walk. The film follows their journey as they travel by foot, bus and train across the city. An ominous yet bittersweet take on the financial meltdown tormenting the country's working classes, via the story of a heartbreakingly tender walk through Athens, all the way to a very unexpected destination in the city's wealthy northern suburbs. Stella Kyriakopoulos's narrative short is her thesis film for the NYU Graduate Film programme. It won a Special Mention when it premiered at the Greek International Film Festival in Drama 2014, and had its US premiere in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

Meurtre à Pacot

Raoul Peck : 2014
Murder in Pacot

Barely a couple of days after the Haitian earthquake destroys most of their villa, a man and his wife are visited by a team of foreign surveyors and given an ultimatum: fix it entirely in a few weeks, or it will be razed to the ground. The newly penniless couple rent the habitable part of the villa to Alex – a relief worker who benefits from the high remuneration granted to foreign humanitarian personnel in Haiti – in order to put his rent payments towards repairs. To their surprise, their new tenant also comes with a Haitian girlfriend, Andrémise, a sassy and enterprising young woman who has renamed herself Jennifer to attract foreign suitors in Port-au-Prince. As the ground rumbles with aftershocks, the once-privileged couple, now destitute and helpless, comes for the first time face-to-face with the stark contradictions of Haitian society. Raoul Peck's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

Waste Land

Pieter van Hees : 2014

Hard-edged and hard-working homicide detective Leo Woeste spends his days confronting the grim criminal underworld of Brussels, and finds solace in his domestic life with partner Kathleen and her five-year-old son. While Leo is working to solve the brutal murder of a young Congolese-Belgian man, he and Kathleen discover that she's unexpectedly pregnant with their first child together. He vows to make this his final homicide case, and follows the trail deep into a bizarre subculture involving the mysterious trade of Congolese idols. When he finds himself drawn to the victim's sexy and enigmatic sister, Leo begins to slip away from the very family life he is trying to protect, and his fears about fatherhood and the nature of evil consume him. His animal instincts take hold, and he spirals into the abyss of his own darkness, haunted by the question of whether he'll be able to claw his way back. Pieter van Hees's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the Cineuropa Prize when it screened in competition at Festival de Cinéma Européen des Arcs 2014.

Princess

Tali Shalom Ezer : 2014

Adar, a bright and sensitive 12-year-old girl, must manoeuvre amid the tempestuous and fiery relationship between Alma, her workaholic mother and Michael, her young stay-at-home stepfather. While her mother is away from home, Adar is left in Michael's care, who gradually turns their strong love and attachment into risky role-playing games. Roaming the city streets, Adar meets Alan, a dreamy boy who keenly resembles her, and brings him into the family. Alan's presence seems to have a positive effect on their lives, until the relationship between Michael, Adar and Alan takes a sinister turn. After failing to enlist her mother's help, Adar finds she has no one to depend upon but Alan, and the two young friends embark on a dark journey between childhood and adolescence, reality and fantasy, which will forever change the rules of the game in the household. Tali Shalom Ezer's second feature was winner of the Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature at Jerusalem Film Festival 2014, and had its international premiere in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

Musarañas

Juanfer Andrés & Esteban Roel : 2014
Shrew's Nest

Spain in the grey 1950s. Montse sacrifices her youth in order to take care of her younger sister, shut up in a sinister apartment in the centre of Madrid. Her mother died in childbirth after which her desperate father fled, leaving both daughters alone. Forced to take on the role of a father, mother and older sister, Montse who suffers from agoraphobia, develops an obsessive and unbalanced temperament. The only thing tying her to reality is the relationship she has with her younger sister. One day, her life is interrupted by an encounter with Carlos, a young and irresponsible neighbour. He has the misfortune of falling down the stairs and seeks help by knocking on the only door he can manage to reach. Someone has entered the shrew's nest – perhaps he'll never leave. This gothic melodrama in which family bonds are tightened to the point of asphyxiation, is a chilling depiction of festering neurosis and repressed desire. Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel's feature debut premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

How to Dance in Ohio

Alexandra Shiva : 2015

In Columbus, Ohio, a group of teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum prepare for an iconic American rite of passage – a spring formal dance. They spend 12 weeks practising their social skills in preparation for the event at a local disco. Working with their psychologist, they take the challenges expressed in their respective therapy groups from one level to the next: picking dates, dresses, and ultimately, a King and Queen of the Prom. We get to know this community through three girls transitioning into adulthood. The film takes us into their group therapy sessions, their relationship to their families, and into their private thoughts, as they navigate and struggle to understand and accept the social rules that surround this universally fraught experience. Through their stories, and a chorus of other young women and men confronting similar issues, these girls reveal the hard work, perseverance and resilience it takes to be a part of contemporary society, along with the extraordinary challenges of being different. Alexandra Shiva's documentary premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015.

A Matter of Interpretation

Lee Kwang-kuk : 2014
Kkum-bo-da hae-mong

A detective who is better at interpreting dreams than at solving murders, and an actress without an audience meet on a bench in the park. The actress has stormed out of a theatre after throwing a fit at her troupe members when no one came to her play. She then meets a suspicious detective who explains how he saw a woman who committed suicide nearby. The detective's tale of the woman who suffocated to death in a car is followed by the actress attempting suicide in a car, and her discovery of the detective locked up in the car boot. Her dream is the starting point of a story-within-a-story, using dream logic to play hide-and-seek with reality. What is real and what is not is a matter of interpretation. Lee Kwang-kuk's second feature received the CGV Movie Collage Award when it premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015.

My Man

Kumakiri Kazuyoshi : 2014
Watashi no Otoko

When 10-year-old Hana is orphaned by the earthquake and tsunami which decimated Okushiri Island, Hokkaido in July 1993, she is adopted by 26-year-old Jungo, a distant relative. Over the next fifteen years the comfort of family they find in each other has them embrace a shared sense of loss, and despite Hana's traumatic past, they live as father and daughter. As they become absolutely dependent upon one another, their relationship slowly turns physical, and when their secret is disclosed, leading to various conflicts with the people around them, they flee Hokkaido in the hope of a new life in Tokyo. Based on Sakuraba Kazuki's controversial Naoki Award-winning novel. Kumakiri Kazuyoshi's feature was winner of the awards for Best Film and Best Actor at Moscow International Film Festival 2014.

The Summer of Sangaile

Alanté Kavaïté : 2015
Sangailė

Seventeen-year-old Sangaïlé is fascinated by stunt planes. Afraid of heights, she has never dared to even enter in one of the cockpits. At a summer aeronautical show, near her parents' lakeside villa, she meets Austé, a local girl of her age, who unlike Sangaïlé, lives her life to the full with creativity and dare. As the two girls become lovers, Sangaïlé allows Austé to discover her most intimate secret, and finds in her teenage love the only person to truly encourage her in flying. A coming-of-age story about personal fulfilment, the act of choosing what you become and the impact it could have on people's lives. Alanté Kavaïté's second feature was winner of the Best Director Award when it premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2015. Her film had its European premiere in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

Los ausentes

Nicolás Pereda : 2014
The Absent

In the south of Mexico, a poor man in his mid-seventies lives alone in a house near the beach. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the deed for this property and another man claims it's his. The old man attends a hearing to resolve the conflict, but nothing gets fixed and he starts losing his mind, with memories of his past beginning to haunt his daily life. When he ends up losing his property and his house is demolished, he embarks on a journey to the mountains in search of people he knew long ago. Throughout the trip he is haunted by a memory of his younger self, whom he meets, but does not recognise. Even though he eventually finds some of his old acquaintances, no one takes him in, so he continues to wander through the forest and into his memories. Nicolás Pereda's feature premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2014, and received an Honourable Mention when it screened in competition at Márgenes Film Festival 2014.

Olya's Love

Kirill Sakharnov : 2014

With two members of the political punk band Pussy Riot in prison and the Russian parliament adopting controversial anti-gay legislation, we follow enthusiastic twenty-something Olya in her unstinting struggle for equal rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people. She organises exhibitions and coming-out events and demonstrates actively on the streets, often right on the front line between demonstrators, riot police and opponents. The film's home-video style underlines the personal nature of this highly politicised issue. Olya learns to use the camera herself so she can film in the intimacy of her apartment – while Galiya, her girlfriend, is fitting a wall socket or they are talking with friends about having children. This private footage is interspersed with material shot by an external cameraman – often rough material from the street, just when something is happening: beatings not only during the demonstrations in front of the Duma, but also on the escalator in the metro, where women are attacked by members of an anti-gay group. By letting the camera into her life, Olya shows us what the price of standing up for your sexuality is in today's Russia. Kirill Sakharnov's first feature-length documentary premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2014, and screened at Riga International Film Festival 2014.

Huba

Anka Sasnal & Wilhelm Sasnal : 2014
Parasite

An old, sick man who bears the scars of a life of factory work. A woman, alone apart from her small baby, who moves in with him. The day-to-day lives of the three of them, their cramped quarters and mutual dependency, thrown back on bare existence. The camera records and stages in equal measure: three bodies at the beginning of life, at its end and somewhere in between. Need, self-sacrifice, decline. And again and again, the inescapable necessity to eat. Along with the infant's cries, the only sounds to pierce their otherwise wordless life together are those of eating, together with the noises of their surrounding environment. Finally, a nocturnal foray out into life, a moment of great intimacy, of tender beauty, and a brief sense of release. Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal's third feature premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2014, and screened at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

Kertu

Ilmar Raag : 2013
Love is Blind

A small village in Estonia. Kertu has lived here for over 30 years under her father's power. He is the reason she has a fear of strangers. Gentle and sensitive by nature, she is considered naive, reclusive and shy by the locals. One day the young woman makes an attempt to change something in her life. She sends a postcard with a poem she has copied to Villu, a handsome but degenerate village drunk and womaniser. She has never expressed feelings for anyone before and he is touched. After the Midsummer's Day celebrations Kertu goes missing without a trace. Her entire family panics because this has never happened before. After a long search she is found trembling under Villu's bed. The judgemental villagers and the family accuse Villu of taking advantage of the woman. But what really happened that night? The slowly unravelling truth is more shocking than anyone could ever imagine. An unusual love story that depicts hidden relationships of people in a small village and one family. Ilmar Raag's feature premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival 2013, and screened at Riga International Film Festival 2014.

Lacrau

João Vladimiro : 2013
Scorpion

If the viper could hear, and the scorpion could see, nobody would escape. The viper is deaf and the scorpion is blind, so it is and so shall it always be, the same way the countryside is peaceful and the city bustling and the human being impossible to satisfy. Lacrau demands the return 'to the curve where man got lost' in a journey from the city towards nature. The escape from the chaos and emotional void we call progress; matter without spirit, without will. The search for the most ancient sensations and relationships of mankind. Bewilderment, the fear of the unknown, the loss of basic comforts, loneliness, the encounter with the other, the other animal, the other plant. A dive in search of a connection with the world. Where beginning and end are the same, but I am not. João Vladimiro's documentary feature was winner of the Mejor Película Portuguesa and Árvore da Vida Award at IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival 2013, and screened in competition at Márgenes Film Festival 2014.

The Move

Marat Sarulu : 2014
Pereezd

In the village, in a small house by the river, an old man lives with his granddaughter. They live a simple life in harmony with the surrounding world. One day, the man's daughter, living in the city and doing everything in order to survive in a hostile social environment, comes home and asks him to sell the house and move in with her. The old man reluctantly agrees and moves with the child to live with his daughter in the city. However, it transpires that the daughter cannot repay a bank loan and soon the family lose their home. Being in a desperate situation, she leads the child to her ex-husband, but he refuses to take her into his house, even temporarily. She then attempts to attach her daughter first to one relative and then another, but all to no avail. Finally, in horror and despair, she places her father in a nursing home, and her child in an orphanage, and leaves for Russia to find work. Unable to bear the separation from his granddaughter, the old man goes to the orphanage to see her. Surrounded by the memories of their lost home, they sadly huddle together. One evening the girl runs away from the orphanage and comes to an urban wasteland. A shepherd passes her and for a long time she watches after him, until the night comes, in which the girl disappears. Marat Sarulu's feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014, and won the award for Best Director at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.

Labour of Love

Aditya Vikram Sengupta : 2014
Asha jaoar majhe

The spiralling recession that hit India peaked a few years ago. Thousands of people lost their jobs without notice. Faced with financial uncertainty, a married couple living in a disintegrating district of Kolkata is under great pressure. They could lose their jobs at any time. Their lives are filled with an endless cycle of shift work and domestic routine, with long stretches of waiting in the silence of an empty house. These are no conditions for love to blossom. They are forced to negotiate between expectations and reality. They try to manifest their love wherever they can, through little acts like fixing a button or cooking for two. How do you trick time to be able to spend it together? Told almost without words, this is a story about two people during an economic crisis. Under constant pressure to sustain their livelihood, they share each other's solitude in pursuit of a distant dream that visits them briefly every morning. Aditya Vikram Sengupta's first feature won the award for Best Director of a Debut Film when it premiered at Venice Days 2014.

Juana a los 12

Martín Shanly : 2014
About Twelve

Twelve-year-old Juana goes to a British school in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where she fails both socially and academically. A week away from the exams that will determine her future in the institution, she is surrounded by the same routine, going to class and trying to pull her social life back together. She is unreachable for the teachers, disconcerting to her mother, indifferent to her schoolmates, and a steady patient of psychologists and other health specialists. Juana is a mystery for those around her. Her almost permanent disconnection from the world is not due to a psychological problem but a conscious choice. The film draws certain parallels with the historical figure of Juana I de Castilla, who in 1500 was falsely diagnosed as insane. Unable to disobey the orders of the dictatorial regime of her father and brother, the young heiress lost the best years of her life imprisoned in loneliness, heartbreak and tremendous injustice. Now, embodied as a pre-teenage victim of an oppressive educational system, Juana is a girl about to start the arduous road to adulthood, facing a hostile world with censorship at every moment. Martín Shanly's feature debut premiered in competition at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2014, and was winner of the Argentine Feature Competition at Festival de Cine Latinoamericano de La Plata 2014.

The Avian Kind

Shin Yeon-shick : 2014
Joryu ingan

A novelist, Kim Jeong-seok has spent years searching for his missing wife. Fifteen years previously, she left him and their young daughter behind and disappeared. He wrote a novel about his experience. When Jeong-seok comes across a young girl, Alice, who read his novel and is also looking for someone who disappeared, she tells him she can help find his wife. Clues start suddenly appearing as to the fates of both women. Along the way they meet various people, but each one is secretly hiding the purpose of their own search. Rumours grow about the fate of the missing people: can they have really changed into another form of life? A road movie that develops thriller material into a fascinating fairy tale in which mythical elements come together to form a multi-layered allegory on the modern-day wish for self-discovery. Shin Yeon-shick's fifth feature premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival 2014.

The Survivalist

Stephen Fingleton : 2015

The dystopian future of 2023: a time of starvation. The Survivalist has been living off the grid before the grid went down. Growing food on a small farm hidden deep in a forest, he protects his land from thieves and foragers with man traps and a shotgun. But the long years alone have taken their toll on him, and he is beginning to lose his grip on reality. His isolation is broken by two visitors, Kathryn and her teenage daughter Milja. They are starving and desperate for food. Initially reluctant to share any, he relents when they offer a night with Milja. The exchange becomes an uneasy ongoing arrangement; as Kathryn schemes to take control of the farm, and Survivalist finds his feelings growing for her daughter. When the farm comes under attack from outsiders, they find they must work together to survive, developing loyalties which will be tested when food runs short. Stephen Fingleton's feature debut received the Best New Narrative Director, Special Jury Mention when it premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2015. His film had its UK premiere at Belfast Film Festival 2015.

The Cut

Fatih Akin : 2014
Kesik

Mardin, 1915: the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire which resulted in the forced migration and diaspora of the Armenian minority. One night, the Turkish police rounds up all the Armenian men in the city, including the young blacksmith, Nazaret Manoogian, who is separated from his family. He becomes a forced labourer and only survives the mass murder by chance and an act of kindness. Years later, he learns that his two daughters may still be alive. He becomes fixated on the idea of finding them and sets off to track them down. His search takes him from the Mesopotamian deserts to the sea, to Havana and the barren and desolate prairies of North Dakota, always looking for clues that might lead him to his children. On this odyssey, he meets all varieties of humanity: angelically good characters, but also the devil in human form. Fatih Akin's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2014.

Traitors

Sean Gullette : 2013

Malika is the leader of the all-female punk rock band Traitors, with a strong vision of the world, her hometown of Tangier, and her place in it. When she needs money to save her family from eviction, and to realise her dreams for the band, Malika agrees to a fast cash proposition: a smuggling run over the mountains for a dangerous drug dealer. But her companion on the road is Amal, a burnt-out young drug mule, who Malika decides to free from her enslavement to the dealers. The challenge will put Malika's rebel ethos to the test, and to survive she will have to call on all her instincts and nerve. Sean Gullette's feature debut premiered at Venice Days 2013, and was winner of the Premio "Rellumes" at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

Amnesia

Nini Bull Robsahm : 2014

A seemingly happy couple, Katherine Odegaard and Thomas Winther, decide to go for a weekend getaway on a secluded Norwegian island. A weekend that should have included good food and wine, lots of laughter and Katherine finishing her book, turns quickly into a bad dream. Katherine discovers she needs to find self-confidence in herself and not always depend on her boyfriend. Thomas on the other hand discovers that he and Katherine don't share the same vision of future together, as he wants a child. This culminates into an argument, which ends with a physical struggle, where Thomas falls and is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up he can't remember anything – not last night, nor the relationship with Katherine. What should Katherine do? Tell the truth or start everything over again, trying to leave the past behind? Nini Bull Robsahm's second feature had its international premiere at Lund Fantastisk Film Festival 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.

Atlántida

Inés María Barrionuevo : 2014
Atlantis

A sweltering summer's day in January 1987 and an expected storm is slowly approaching. In the small rural town of Córdoba, everyone is longing for rain. Two sisters, Lucía, 15, and Elena, 17, have been left alone. Lucía swims laps at the pool early in the morning. Later on she sweats over her books at the kitchen table. She is studying hard because she's determined to go to university in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, her sister Elena lies in bed with her leg in plaster, bored to death. The other teenagers sit out the heat at the pool, messing around. Girls chat about the boys, and vice versa. Who kissed who yesterday? But there are some who aren't interested in any of that, like Andrés, a passionate beekeeper, or Ana, who likes reading books. At one point, Lucía has had enough of her annoying sister and goes out into the countryside with Ana. Here the two girls are left to their own devices. The young people drift along, propelled by their own desires, but they don't really know how to handle them. Some of them just want to get away. And with the night comes the rain they've all been waiting for. Inés María Barrionuevo's feature debut premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014, and screened at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

Motu Maeva

Maureen Fazendeiro : 2014

A journey through the memories of Sonja André, an adventurer from the 20th century who lives in a shelter she built herself on the island of Motu Maeva. Without following a chronological order or a specific route, her memories take shape bringing back major events and small anecdotes, a trip, or a map, following an unceasing movement. From Chad to Indochina to Tahiti; then a short break, a moment of peace, a song, and then off again to a place and a story that took place a few years later, or maybe before. A total freedom, only images captured in Super-8 film between the 1950s and 1970s, and the voice-over of a woman whose civil status and secret wounds we'll never fully know. Maureen Fazendeiro's documentary short premiered at Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille 2014, and screened at Torino Film Festival 2014.

Fuego

Luis Marías : 2014
Fire

The life of Carlos, a policeman in the Basque Countries, changes radically after being the target, together with his family, of an ETA bombing. One day, a bomb explodes in his car: he is not harmed but his wife is killed and his 10-year-old daughter loses her legs. Twelve years later he has moved to Barcelona, found a job in a private security company and his daughter seems to have overcome the traumatic experience, although there are still some traces left. After years of counselling, he appears to be a man who has been given a second chance in life. But nothing could be farther from the truth. In the deepest corner of his heart there is only one feeling which consumes all others: hate. The fires of resentment and vengeance make him develop a Machiavellian plan to return all the damage his family has suffered by taking revenge on the family of his wife's murderer. Luis Marías's second feature was winner of the Audience Award for Best Film in the Official Section when it premiered at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

La huella en la niebla

Emiliano Grieco : 2014
Footprint in the mist

Under the mist covering the río Paraná, Elías is carried away in his canoe. He has committed a murder. Wounded and lost in the fog, Elías returns to his island. The flood took everything and his home lies empty. His father gives him shelter but distrusts him. Different neighbours tell him where to find Lara and his son, who now live with another man and don't want to see him again. Elías insists on returning, yet all his efforts are in vain. He has quit drinking, fixed up the farm where they used to live together, and has found work on a boat. These changes are not enough to get Lara back, the water does not wash away his blood and death goes along with him. And as the pain slowly increases, the nature of the place seems to swallow him more and more. The cursed Elías rows on a murky river, to a quiet estuary, dominated by peace, where time seems to stand still despite its constant movement. Emiliano Grieco's feature debut premiered in competition at Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata 2014.

Nezha

Li Xiaofeng : 2014

A new transfer student, Li Xiaolu, and class president Wang Xiaobing instantly become close friends. They feel a connection right from the start, especially in their rebellious natures. But when they enter different high schools, they start to drift apart. After her parents' divorce and increased discord in the family, Xiaobing becomes even more rebellious and distant, and Xiaolu is no longer a comfort to her. After graduation they go their separate ways, but Xaiolu returns to visit Xaiobing's house, only to find that even her mother doesn't know her whereabouts. A dark portrait of unstable and unfortunate youth, reworking the myth of Nezha to ponder what it means to be a heroine in a country wavering between tradition and modernity. The film depicts changes in society through the changes within the two girls, the changes in their relationship with each other, and also their surrounding environment. Li Xiaofeng's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014.

Thuy

Kim Jae-han : 2013

Thùy, a Vietnamese national, is married to a Korean man and lives with her in-laws in rural Korea. She is sincere to him and his parents, whilst slowly adapting to life in a foreign country. One day, she is informed that her husband has died in a motorcycle accident. Thùy's suspicions are aroused as she knows that her husband, who had lost several fingers, was incapable of riding a motorcycle. When she starts probing into the details of the accident and his death, she is faced with ambivalence and threats. In this rural village patrolled by the villagers themselves, Thùy's struggle to find the truth keeps hitting roadblocks. A police officer from Seoul wants to help her, but he is of no great use in the face of the local police chief's inaction and the villagers' habit of completely ostracising outsiders. Kim Jae-han's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2013, and had its international premiere at Dubai International Film Festival 2013.

Nabat

Elchin Musaoglu : 2014

Nabat and her husband Iskender, an old and sick ex-forestry worker, live in a small isolated house far from the village. The war in the Nagorno-Karabakh has been raging for some time and their son was killed in action in the 1990s. Their sole means of survival is the sale of milk from their only cow that Nabat takes to the village every couple of days. As the shadow of war envelopes the region, the village is slowly deserted by its inhabitants. Following Iskender's death, Nabat is all alone with her memories: memories of her son, and of the way things were. In empty houses, she forages for belongings left behind and sometimes even lights an oil lamp to revive just a little of the village's former vibrancy. Soon, a she-wolf approaches the old farmer's wife and keeps an eye on her. Documentary filmmaker Elchin Musaoglu's second feature premiered in the Orizzonti section at Venice International Film Festival 2014, and screened at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2014.

A Long Story

Jorien van Nes : 2013

Following the death of his French wife, Ward returns to the Netherlands after years of absence. He wants to move back to the village of his birth and hires a Romanian handyman, Doru, to fix up his house. Ward misses his wife and struggles to settle into the local lifestyle. One day Doru doesn't show up, and Ward impulsively takes charge of Doru's mischievous nine-year-old son Mihai. When they can't reach Mihai's mother Alina for the regularly scheduled cellphone call, they decide to drive to Romania. What they don't know is that Alina, who has stayed at home with her other two children, and has gone down to the Black Sea for a few days of vacation, is also frantically trying to reach her husband and son. Their journey brings both Mihai and Ward home, but Ward must now reconcile himself with his past and his future. Jorien van Nes's feature debut premiered at Nederlands Film Festival 2013, and screened at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2014.

Tous les chats sont gris

Savina Dellicour : 2014
All Cats are Grey

Paul watches from afar as Dorothy grows up in a wealthy Brussels milieu. Paul is in his mid-40s, chronically lonely and working as a private investigator. Dorothy is almost sixteen. She is in the midst of a teenage life crisis which is compounded by frustration with her mother who won't tell her who her real father is. Paul is Dorothy's father. This is the secret that Paul returns to Brussels with as he begins to shadow his daughter. Most likely, the two of them would have never met, except for the fact that Dorothy contacted him in her search for her biological father. Paul enjoys the seemingly accidental chance to spend time with Dorothy. The young girl is interested in his job and his life in general and, quite naturally, her curiosity is partly sparked by her emerging sexuality. As the truth keeps getting concealed, repressed family secrets boil away under the surface. A film about the miracle of seeing a child grow up and the anxiety caused by early loss. Savina Dellicour's feature debut premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2014.

Mercuriales

Virgil Vernier : 2014

Bagnolet, on the outskirts of Paris. Two impressive buildings stand out against the sky: Les Mercuriales. They are twin towers which lodge a hive of employees busy at assorted functions for the shady businesses which have their offices there. Lisa and Joane, one Moldavian and the other French, meet there. The two young women could almost be twin sisters separated at birth. A friendship, intense and full of ups and downs, develops between them, and it is told through random moments which swing between emotional intensity, revealed intimacy, ethereal beauty and occasional moments of sordidness and violence. The story of the towers, an unfinished, over-ambitious architectural project from the 70s, spreads its symbolic shadow over the girls' story, in some way moulding a relationship that is another victim of the wounds of modernity. Virgil Vernier's fiction feature debut premiered at L'ACID au Festival de Cannes 2014, and was winner of the FIPRESCI Award at Torino Film Festival 2014.

Les jours venus

Romain Goupil : 2014
The Days Come

The day comes when an official letter inquires about your age and status. The day comes when an idea for a script won't turn into a film. The day comes when your son asks about your past and sets off on his own adventures. The day comes when the two of you reminisce about how you met so long ago. The day comes when your parents are so old that time is short. A story in which ten chapters intertwine with each other: the money, the idea, the world, the son, retirement, Her, Paris, the city, the father, death. A series of scenes recounting a life, switching from present to past and back again, from recollection to new directions. A film about time passing and the time left before that day comes. Romain Goupil's feature premiered in competition at Tokyo International Film Festival 2014.

Las altas presiones

Ángel Santos : 2014
The High Pressures

As a way of getting over his recent bitter romantic relationships, after living away from his native city for a long time due to work reasons, Miguel returns to Pontevedra to search for shooting locations for a film. Looking at his life with a lack of interest that goes a step beyond melancholy or nihilism, he finds it hard to get involved in what is happening, or to establish relationships with those around him. Nevertheless, this journey through the industrial ruins of the ria and through what is left of old friendships will put him in touch with himself again, and this may be the wake-up call that he needs. Seeing old friends and reminiscing about the good old days, he becomes thankful and has a chance to meet someone else to love. Ángel Santos's second feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the Best Film award at its European premiere in the Las Nuevas Olas section at Sevilla European Film Festival 2014.

Disparue en hiver

Christophe Lamotte : 2014
Missing in winter

Daniel is a former police officer turned debt collector who, in his late fifties, goes about his "dirty job" without emotion or affect. One winter's day, on a roadside parking lot, he is approached by Laura, an 18-year-old girl who asks him to drive her home. He accepts. On the way, she offers him "her services" in exchange for money. Furious, Daniel throws her out of the car. Remorse, and the violence of his reaction, force him to turn around and retrace his steps, but Laura has disappeared. The next day, Daniel visits Mme Savielli to recover another debt payment. But now, the old lady is worried. Her granddaughter, with whom she lives, went missing two days ago. Daniel then recognises Laura in a photograph, and terribly troubled, offers to help the old lady. By engaging body and soul in an obsessive investigation, Daniel's decision will change his life. A dark drama of a man's confrontation with his inner demons. Christophe Lamotte's feature premiered in competition at Festival du Film de la Réunion 2014.

Rastres de sàndal

María Ripoll : 2014
Traces of Sandalwood

Despite her fame and fortune, Mina, a successful Indian actress in Mumbai, can't forget her little sister Sita, from whom she was forced to separate after their mother's death in a village. Thirty years later she will finally find out that Sita is alive and well in Barcelona. However, Sita's adoptive parents have erased all traces of her past. She is now called Paula, works as a researcher in biology and has no recollection of her Indian background, let alone of Mina. Faced with the shocking truths of her past, Paula begins a long journey of self-discovery, aided along the way by her budding romance with the handsome Indian immigrant Prakash. A story of hope and love across Mumbai and Barcelona; from India to the Mediterranean and all the way back. María Ripoll's feature was voted the Most Popular Film when it premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid 2014.

Lola auf der Erbse

Thomas Heinemann : 2014
Lola on the Pea

Lola lives with her mother Loretta on a houseboat. Since her father vanished a year ago, she has become introverted and lives in her own dream world. She has vowed not to cut her hair or wash the spot on her neck where her dad last kissed her until he gets back. She doesn't really get along with her classmates at school, and her only real friend is the crazy old captain Solmsen. One day, however, whilst hanging out at her favourite spot near the river, her solitude is broken by an intruder. His name is Rebin. No one except their teacher knows that Rebin is a Kurd living illegally in Germany with his parents. Although Rebin's father has warned him to keep to himself, little by little he and Lola become friends. Lola's mother, in the meantime, has met a new man, Kurt. He's nice enough, but there's no way Lola is going to let anyone replace her dad, so she does everything she can to put him off. But when Rebin's mother gets very ill, Lola swallows her pride and begs for Kurt's help. A few days later, Rebin and his family are nowhere to be found, and Lola is inconsolable. Thomas Heinemann's second feature premiered at Filmfest München 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.

Melbourne

Nima Javidi : 2014

Husband and wife Amir and Sara, are packing and getting ready for a long-haul trip to Melbourne, Australia, where both plan to continue their studies. Whilst they are packing and saying their goodbyes to friends and family, the couple also happen to be babysitting the neighbour's newborn baby girl. However, just a few hours before the departure of their flight, they are involved in an unfortunate and tragic event. An intimate psychological drama exploring the flawed intricacies of humanity. Nima Javidi's feature debut premiered at Fajr International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at Venice International Film Critics' Week 2014.

Conducta

Ernesto Daranas : 2014
Behaviour

Eleven-year-old Chala lives alone with his alcoholic mother. To make ends meet, he raises pigeons and trains fighting dogs with his neighbour, who's possibly his biological father. He feels a close connection to his ageing sixth grade teacher Carmela who, after falling ill, is replaced by a new teacher who imposes a strict disciplinary regime in class. The young teacher Marta decides that the energetic boy needs to be disciplined at an institution for re-education, a decision Carmela vehemently opposes. When Carmela starts a campaign to get him back, the bond between teacher and student grows stronger, but she is confronted by a school administration that sees her as a threat to the values and ambitions they have for a new Cuba. Ernesto Daranas's second feature was the winner of multiple awards at its European premiere at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.