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

Alantė Kavaitė : 2015
Sangailės vasara

Seventeen-year-old Sangailė 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 Austė, a local girl of her age, who unlike Sangailė, lives her life to the full with creativity and dare. As the two girls become lovers, Sangailė allows Austė 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. Alantė Kavaitė'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.