
Zhizi Hao

Synopsis
An 8-year-old boy searching for fireworks on a Chinese New Year’s Eve, after the firework ban is introduced in this southern Chinese town.
Writer: Zhizi Hao
Director: Zhizi Hao
Country of Origin: China
Runtime: 20 minutes
Producer: Fatma Al Ghanim and Poppy Clinton and Vibah Gautam
Zhizi Hao is a Chinese writer/director based in London. In 2017, thanks to the BAFTA China-UK Scholarship, he moved to London to pursue an MA in filmmaking at the London Film School. There, he refined his voice as a storyteller and sharpened his skills as a writer/director.
Biography
Born into a military family as an only gay son, raised in a place where neither of his parents came from, and now living abroad, Hao is familiar with the feeling of being an outsider. This rootlessness defines his perspective and has become a motif in the stories he tells.
His previous works have been included in and awarded by various international film festivals, such as Shanghai International Film Festival (2021), Fribourg International Film Festival (2022), Etiuda&Anima Film Festival (2021), London Short Film Festival (2019), BFI Future Film Festival (2019), Scottish Queer Film Festival (2019) and Leiden Shorts (2022).

Andrew Stephen Lee

Synopsis
A viral video rattles an out-of-work father.
Writer: Andrew Stephen Lee
Director: Andrew Stephen Lee
Country of Origin: United States
Runtime: 18 minutes 20 seconds
Stephen is a Filipino-American Director and Writer currently developing his first feature, In The Shade Hardly Any Sun. He is also in post-production for a new short film, At Little Wheelie Three Days Ago, which shot Winter 2022.
Biography
Stephen’s last narrative film, Manila is Full of Men Named Boy, premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival and continued on to the Busan International Film Festival, Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, and SxSW. The film was honored with Best U.S. Film at the 25th Palm Springs International Shortfest, among others.
Stephen assisted Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg for three years before entering into Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. He is also an alumnus of the Artist Academy, held by the New York Film Festival, and has also been supported by the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists and most recently, Starlight Media’s Stars Collective.
Additionally, Stephen works as an editor and educator.
Most recently, he cut the feature film Eyimofe (This is My Desire) which premiered at the 71st Berlinale and was acquired by the Criterion Collection. He also edited Entré tu y Milagros which premiered in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival and was awarded the Orizzonti Prize.
Stephen has taught filmmaking at Columbia University and Temple University. He currently teaches in the BFA Film program at SUNY Purchase.

Jimmy Laporal-Trésor

Synopsis
France, 1986. When Hughes, a young man from the French West Indies, discovers the new Freetime ad, it is a shock : France, the country where he was born, to which he owes his life and his identity, considers him a cannibal. This is the start of a radical awareness fueled by anger and frustration.
Writer: Jimmy Laporal-Trésor
Director: Jimmy Laporal-Trésor
Country of Origin: France
Runtime: 26 minutes 59 seconds
Producer: Manuel Chiche / Nicolas Blanc / Violaine Barbaroux / Sarah Egry
Director, screenwriter, literary editor and producer, Jimmy has a wide range of skills. He is the screenwriter of two feature films: La Cité rose and Mon frère, that already deal with the way society looks at so-called immigrant youths, the harmful impact rough neighbourhoods have on people. After a successful short film, The Kiss, Jimmy comes back to directing with his first feature film – Rascals -, a very personal work being filmed since early June 2021.
Biography

Khalifa Al Thani

Synopsis
In an abstrusely dystopian future, a man wants to go back to his family. But bypassing the latest system becomes a near impossible journey
Writer: Khalifa Al Thani
Director: Khalifa Al Thani
Producer: Fatma Al Ghanim and Poppy Clinton and Vibah Gautam
Country of Origin: Qatar
Runtime: 12 minutes 30 seconds
Khalifa Al Thani is A Qatari filmmaker, curator and visual artist, Al Thani has worked on a variety of projects, ranging from films to exhibitions. His work focuses on the interdisciplinary exploration of Qatari and identity themes. In the last few years, he directed, wrote, and produced several films, most notably A Tale of a Song with AlJazeera Documentary. Al Thani ventured into curatorial works, most recently Outbreak, which took place during the Ajyal Film Festival. He attained a BFA in Film and Video from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is currently a part of the Doha Film Institute.
Biography

EL HOUSSINE HNINE

SYNOPSIS
Asso is a religious man in his forties, he is an extremist. He loves his wife and his daughter but has to face the dilemma of choosing between his wife and the islamic strict and extreme rules.
production: Ayoub el mahjoub
scenario: El houssine hnine
runtime: 18 min
country: Morocco

Farid Mirkhani

Synopsis
The two rival-wife are living in the same house. The first woman is infertile and the second young woman is pregnant. The husband pays more attention to the young woman, which makes the first wife jealous until the young wife dies in an accident and the first wife sees no reason to live in that house and leaves the house…
Writer: Farid Mirkhani
Director: Farid Mirkhani
Producer: Sareh Keypour
Country of Origin: Iran
Runtime: 21 minutes 30 seconds
Born in Hashtrood, East Azerbaijan, in 1981, after completing his primary education in his hometown, he entered the medical school of Tabriz University and from the beginning of his student days, he pursued his long-standing love and interest (cinema). He started making short films in 2002. His first film was a short documentary called Day 254, which dealt with the issue of marginalization in the city of Tabriz. The film premiered in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Los Angeles and Santiago, Chile. After that, he continued to make social films, but after a few years, he started making medical educational Documentarys, and teaching medical issues is one of his main concerns. The filmmaker’s cinematic record so far is 47 scientific documentaries, 4 short films, one feature movie and 9 international awards, and 22 international appearances and the jury of two festivals – Italy and Turkey.
Biography

Tatiana Delaunay

Synopsis
Two witty, sweet and confused men become friends because they don’t have anything better to do. Their day
oscillates between small talk, existenal crisis and dubious male rites of passage, whilst wandering the woods
surrounding Oslo, in search of a suitable place to camp – in the middle of winter.
Writer: Tatiana Delaunay
Director: Tatiana Delaunay
Producer : Tatiana Delaunay
Country of Origin: Norway / Italy
Runtime: 20 minutes
Tatiana Delaunay is a French-Italian director based in Oslo, where she is studying a Master in Directing at the National Academy of the Arts. She holds a BA from Central Saint Martins in London. She is currently developing her second short film as well as a theatre play.
Biography

Tarek El Sherbeny

Synopsis
On a cold winter night in Cairo, 28-year-old Hazem welcomes men to his father’s funeral. He seems indifferent, something is taking his mind off the whole situation. While listening to the Qur’an, his mother suddenly arrives, and starts insulting the late father while exposing his extramarital affairs that left her solely responsible for her son & daughter. People are trying to shut her up, she is hysterical. What will
Writer: Tarek El Sherbeny
Director: Tarek El Sherbeny
Producer : Tarek El Sherbeny and Mony Mahmoud
Country of Origin: Egypt
Runtime: 12 minutes
Tarek El Sherbeny is an Egyptian filmmaker based in Cairo. After his graduation from Engineering, he decided to pursue his passion for cinema and started making short films. He self-studied the principles of filmmaking and worked independently. Tarek directed 3 experimental short films that got selected in national festivals.
Biography
“He’s Dead Now” is his first fiction short film; It got (Honorable Mention) from Matera IFF along with several screenings around the world. (Rotterdam Arab FF, Oregon SFF, Texas SFF, Film Africa, AfryKamera & (GOYA-Qualifying) Almeria IFF).

Juli Suàrez

Synopsis
The past of Lina, a Syrian refugee girl, is full of monsters. She will have to face them if she wants to look to the future.
Writer: Juli Suàrez
Director: Juli Suàrez
Country of Origin: Spain
Runtime: 20 minutes
T Juli Suàrez. Girona, 1967. Filmmaker. He studied production and production at ERAM, a specialized audiovisual school linked to the University of Girona. He is the founder of the LGC Films production company.
Biography
His main works are documentary feature films. Works such as: “Lolo Rico: the non‐invented look” (2015) “Leo to life” (2017) and “One more year” (2019) have led him to win several awards and selections at festivals around the world.

Sami Morhayim

Synopsis
A Turkish-Jewish family faces a series of dilemmas on the morning of Susam’s Bar-mitzvah ceremony with the limitations of Shabbat day rules when Susam locks himself in his room and does not get out for his ceremony.
Writer: Sami Morhayim
Director: Sami Morhayim
Producer : Aycan Aluçlu and Hilal Şenel
Country of Origin: Turkey
Runtime: 17 minutes 53 seconds
Stephen is a Filipino-American Director and Writer currently developing his first feature, In The Shade Hardly Any Sun. He is also in post-production for a new short film, At Little Wheelie Three Days Ago, which shot Winter 2022.
Biography
Stephen’s last narrative film, Manila is Full of Men Named Boy, premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival and continued on to the Busan International Film Festival, Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, and SxSW. The film was honored with Best U.S. Film at the 25th Palm Springs International Shortfest, among others.
Stephen assisted Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg for three years before entering into Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. He is also an alumnus of the Artist Academy, held by the New York Film Festival, and has also been supported by the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists and most recently, Starlight Media’s Stars Collective.
Additionally, Stephen works as an editor and educator.
Most recently, he cut the feature film Eyimofe (This is My Desire) which premiered at the 71st Berlinale and was acquired by the Criterion Collection. He also edited Entré tu y Milagros which premiered in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival and was awarded the Orizzonti Prize.
Stephen has taught filmmaking at Columbia University and Temple University. He currently teaches in the BFA Film program at SUNY Purchase.

Alireza Kazemipour

Synopsis
Sahra, an Afghan refugee in Canada arrives at Iranian ex-Dentist, Hamed’s doorstep for help extracting her late father’s gold teeth before they bury him.
Writer: Alireza Kazemipour
Director: Alireza Kazemipour
Producer : Mattisse Weyler Hubert and Alireza Kazemipour
Country of Origin: Canada
Runtime: 15 minutes
Alireza Kazemipour, is a multi-awarded Iranian-Canadian screenwriter, director, and producer. He gained his master’s degree in Film directing from the
Biography
faculty of art at the University of Tehran in 2010 and directed his first short film “Slowness”. He made his second film “The Blue Bed” in 2020 and it has been selected and screened for more than 60 Film festivals around the world, and has received 12 awards and 14 nominations, including the Best Director Award from the Vancouver Short Film Festival. Recently, he has directed a documentary feature film “Margin vs. Center” (2021), and a short movie “Split Ends” (2021) that will be released soon. Social justice, women’s rights, and immigrant issues are his concerns.

Pol Diggler

Synopsis
During a fancy New Year’s Eve party, two dancers will try to mock the upper class audience by changing the song of their performance.
Writer: Pol Diggler
Director: Pol Diggler
Producer: Sandra Forn
Country of Origin: Spain
Runtime: 8 minutes
Barcelona. Director, producer and audiovisual creative. In 2014 he created FERGAHT Productions, an independent label that joins professionals from each filmmaking department, from original idea and scriptwriting to postproduction and distribution.
Biography
Since then and under his direction, FERGAHT’s films have achieved 200 international awards and have been selected in more than 500 festivals such as Tarazona, Sitges (Paul Naschy Award), BIFFF (Audience Award), Soria or Hard:Line. 3 times nominated for the Méliès European Award.
Biofilmography:
-2021: Work it Class!
-2019: Horrorscope
-2017: IP-IS
-2015: Director’s Cut


Synopsis
In our world, many people like Manssour exist. Through the case of Manssour, this film tackles the problem of violence in education from a psychological and philosophical perspective in order to understand the motives and reasons behind this violence.
production: Mohammed El fadhli
scenario: Hmoud Faris
Runtime: 12 min
Country: Kuwait