International Shorts 1: Documentary

From small steps taken in a museum in Kyiv to giant steps in Neil Armstrong's ancestral home, stories of evolution and revolution.

PALEONTOLOGY LESSON - Sergei Loznitsa

Amidst pain, grief and rage, dreams and aspirations of Ukrainian children and adults keep the country going. In Kyiv, a group of schoolchildren visits the Natural History Museum, guided by a Paleontology teacher, who, as if by magic, transports the kids into a faraway world, where there is no war.

BLIND, INTO THE EYE - Atefeh Kheirabadi, Mehrad Sepahnia

Blind, into the eye reflects on the deliberate blinding of protesters in Iran in 2022/23. In the montage, subjective and documentary traces intertwine in a cinematic search for the political power of seeing and the attack on the visible itself.

I’M RECORDING - Ina Knap

How true are our memories? How much are we influenced by our upbringing? These and other questions run through the narrator heroine’s head as she watches, and at the same time converses with the footage from her family's film archive.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER - Élodie Beaumont Tarillon

One winter evening in 95, Carole left behind a violent husband and three children. Prince Charmings are not to be trusted.

NEIL ARMSTRONG & THE LANGHOLMITES - Duncan Cowles [RU]

Neil Armstrong and the Langholmites is a film about the day one of the world's most famous men visisted the small 'burgh' of Langholm and the profound emotional effect the place, and its people, had on the normally stoic astronaut.

International premieres are eligible for Grand Prix International Short Award and Grand Prix Documentary Short Award. Films eligible for the Redbreast UNHIDDEN Short Award are indicated with [RU]. All films are from 2025 except where indicated.

Awards presentation supported by Murphy’s.