EUROPE
SHORTLIST

Almost Home
Germany / Sci-Fi / 30 minutes
Director: Nils Keller
Writer: Nils Keller, Maximilian Richert
Producer: Carolina Oswald, Jonas Lembeck
Cast: Susanne Wolff, Jeremias Meyer, Stephan Kampwirth
Coming of age. Sci-Fi. Having lived on a spaceship with his mother for two years, Jacob's dream of returning home is finally about to come true. But as they close in on Earth, they receive word of a great danger that could put the teenager in mortal peril. And with the uncertainty of his return, an even bigger question arises whether the boy is mature enough to make life changing decisions by himself.

Astronaut
Germany / Sci-Fi / 13 minutes
Director/Writer: Ammar Sonderberg
Producer: Ammar Sonderberg, Hanna Sophia Johnen, Michael Linn
Cast: Oliver Neitzel
An ASTRONAUT on a foreign Planet. His oxygen reserves are running out and he doesn’t have any food. His situation seems completely hopeless, but there is a surprising twist at the end.

Aysha
Germany / Drama / 13 minutes
Director/Writer: Cengiz Akaygün
Producer: Cengiz Akaygün
Cast: Jiyan Akaygün, Halima Ilter, Ecem Türkmen
A fully veiled girl named AYSHA(10) is sitting in the courtyard of a house in Rojava, Syria playing with her slingshot when her little SISTER(11) joins them. The two are presented this morning by a WOMAN (38), who is also covered, in front of an exam. They should quote from the Koran. While Aysha's sister passes the exam in an exemplary manner, Aysha struggles with it. Unlike her sister, she is rebellious and would like to break out of the role that has been assigned to her. When the woman takes more drastic measures, Aysha understands the seriousness of the situation.

Madleen
Germany / Drama / 12 minutes
Director/Writer: Wesley Tc Howard
Producer: Matthias Fleischmann
Cast: Anna Mennicken, Patrick Sass, Christopher Köberlein, David O. Riedel, John Ludwig
Franconia, Germany 1812. Four Deserters of the Grande Armee are seemingly hunted down by their former comrades. But it is not just the armee that is seeking revenge on the traitors.

Nakam
Germany / Drama / 33 minutes
Director: Andreas Kessler
Writer: Fabien Virayie
Producer: Max Breuer
Cast: Anton Krymskiy, Peter Miklusz, Jevgenij Sitochin
Twelve year old violin player Mitka is supposed to execute an attack on several SS officers in the name of a ukrainian partisan movement. But this attempt will also put his only friend in life danger.

Noctuidae
Germany / Drama / 23 minutes
Director/Writer: Alexandra (Ali) Mauritz
Producer: Alexandra (Ali) Mauritz
Cast: Elisabeth Frank, Hendrik Massute
A lonely seamstress receives a strange request: to sew a cloak made only from the wings of moths. A work of delicate beauty is painstakingly crafted, and with it a fragile bond between two lost souls. But as soon as the work is finished, her client disappears. Searching for him, she discovers his secret. The cloak holds his final hope to escape a hostile world of lights. Is it possible to reach the freedom of moonlight? Or is her client a lunatic, crazy enough to jump to his death for a fantasy?

Steeplechase
Germany / Sci-fi / 6 minutes
Director/Writer: Andrey Kezzyn
Producer: Andrey Shibanov, Niko Tsarev, Andrey Kezzyn, Antanas Kleinas
Cast: Michele Reilly, Seth Lloyd
Two physicist collaborators use a quantum computer to simulate a projective closed time-like curve, the mathematics of time travel, using themselves as the frame of reference. This takes them on an unexpected journey into themselves.

Taste of Home
Germany / Drama / 29 minutes
Director: Âni Võ
Writer: Kathi Kiesl, Âni Võ
Producer: Max Wallner, Tobias Bissinger, Âni Võ
Mai (17), a Vietnamese girl who was trafficked to Germany, has to earn money for her family back in Vietnam but is exploited and sold on by her smugglers. She flees and asks her new friend Linh (11) for help whose mother is part of the system herself. Suddenly, not only Mai but also Linh has to choose between freedom or family.