In the 2023 New Talents selection, young auteurs from across borders speak of loss and the search for identity, taking us on a wild ride of different approaches to committing events to memory and challenging familiar modes of storytelling. This programme is about finding a way for the filmmaker's story to disrupt the status quo and remind viewers that the real power of change lies within them.

The common thread in all the selected works by emerging filmmakers is the ambiguity of choice. Stand up or remain a silent witness. Rebel or submit to reality. It is about the choices that manifest as individual acts of courage, but also those that are thrust upon us against our will. The beauty of all these creative visions lies in their balance of sympathy and hostility toward a world on fire, and in their shared, unyielding hope that the humanity in us always has a chance to have its last say.