Competition films

294 Musíme prežiť 1

A journey through human resilience in the shadow of climate change: a cinematic odyssey takes us from the vulnerable coast of the eastern United States and the vast deserts of Mongolia to an underground city in Australia and the frozen shores of Greenland. This is not a film about climate change itself, but about how we cope with it. Through personal stories from across the globe, the film reveals how communities—united by our shared, fragile Earth—find the courage and strength to adapt, endure, and forge new paths forward with creativity and faith in the future.

292 Otvorím svoje ústa 2

In the settlement of Isaszeg near Budapest, we are examining a mysterious item known as the "thread book." Domonkoš Volter, a doctoral student of Slovak history at ELTE University in Budapest, has served as the artistic director of the Isaszeg Women’s Choir for the past five years; in 2022, at the village museum, he came across a small book that had been donated to the institution by Ľudovít Ragáč in 2016. This small, two-hundred-year-old "thread book" contains religious texts written in Biblical Czech. The young scholar also taught the women's choir the old songs found within it, ensuring that these centuries-old Slovak religious gems would come to life at the book's launch.

288 Another Island 2

OUTRA ILHA (ANOTHER ISLAND) is the portrait of a Cape Verdean community who gave birth to the Amilcar Cabral neighbourhood, living on the outskirts of the industrial port of Sines in Portugal. Over the years, in a spirit of mutual help the inhabitants have built their own houses, planted their vegetable gardens on a wasteland, right next to the factories that they had helped building.

282 Parasisi 1

The presence of outsiders leaves deep traces on the Wayana society on the border of Suriname with French Guyana. Invasive encounters continue to reshape daily life and ancestral lands. Illegal gold mining, religious intervention, and even doctors with the best intentions leave marks that are often silently violent. Parasisi traces both the visible disruptions and the subtle echoes of colonialism, revealing how post-colonial mechanisms persist in indigenous reality today.

280 Mořeplavci pravěku 1

A crew of enthusiasts sets out across the Aegean Sea in a *monoxylon*—a vessel hollowed out from a single tree trunk. Their goal is to test how the first farmers might have traveled from Asia Minor to Europe 9,000 years ago. The documentary reveals new facts about ancient European history.

279 Magic of Podlasia 4

Forest Guardian – Stories from the Heart of Wood is a poetic documentary journey through the mystical landscapes of Podlasie, where nature, spirituality, and freedom intertwine. Tomasz speaks openly about the protection of wolves and bison, helping refugees at the border, and inspiring younger generations through social media to reconnect with the wild.
“He doesn’t just live in the Forest. He is its guardian.”
The magic of the Białowieża Forest, freedom, and the fight for nature
Meet Tomasz Onikijuk – the Forest Guardian of the forest’s secrets, who has lived in harmony with nature since childhood.,Herbs, wild animals, the rituals of ancestors… and the fight for every patch of the Forest.
The Forest Guardian isn’t afraid to speak out – he helps refugees, protects bison and wolves, and on social media inspires young people to fall in love with nature.

273 By Hills and by Trails 2

Jean-Louis Perrier, a transhumant shepherd since 1965, continues to uphold pastoral traditions in the Cévennes, South of France, alongside young, passionate shepherds: transhumance on foot, magnification of flocks. But this passion faces many challenges today: the return of wolves, fodder scarcity, restrictive regulations, economic fragility of the sheep sector.

272 Každý potrebuje svoj kmeň 1

Two friends leave behind the comforts of the 21st century and embark on a perilous journey into the heart of South Sudan. Amidst the harsh, unforgiving wilderness and African tribes, they seek the lost essence of community. Through the faces, stories, and rituals of people who rely on one another, they strive to rediscover what has vanished from our own civilization.
This film is not merely an unsettling glimpse into a distant world; it is a provocative journey toward the realization that the key to our future may lie hidden in the deepest past. It is a call to rediscover what should truly matter to us.

270 No man s land 3

Two young people decide to make a documentary about the situation in which people live in the villages or specific locations of the semi-abandoned country, from the perspective of the Republic of Moldova. Being both Moldovans and both becoming part of the diaspora, the young people try to see the other side of the coin created by the paradigm with which the last generations of youth are raised: "You have to run away from Moldova as far as possible.