Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action 4

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

How do you reconnect with the world when loss seems to encompass everything? Through taste, touch, sound—or through memory? In a world of constant change, young filmmakers explore the anchors that tether them to physical reality: their own memories, those of their communities, and those of their families. The 2025 New Talents, hailing from various continents, grapple with the meanings of adulthood and belonging in unique ways. Their work reveals a broad palette of techniques and approaches, from sci-fi to documentary and beyond. Editing becomes a form of direction. They weave in magical realism, found footage, folklore, and restorations of past events to explore the what-ifs of human experience. With razor-sharp focus, these films navigate the challenges of life, telling stories that make you ache and smile — and sometimes both at once.

Screenings

Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening081716 / Shorts New Talents võistlusprogramm: lühifilm 4
Q&A duration
Screening duration

Competition presented by:

Films

International premiere

Arturia

Local title
Arturia
Original title
Arturia
Director
Dániel Kőváry
Country
Hungary
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

In the pulse of the night, a young DJ encounters a mysterious entity woven from light. The enigmatic presence leads him to his grandmother's rural home, where buried emotions from the recent past slowly surface.

Director
Dániel Kőváry
Runtime
Language
Hungarian
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Dysphonias

Local title
Düsfoonia
Original title
Disfonías
Director
María Camila Pulgarín, Manuela Giraldo
Country
Colombia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

After a premonition of an unusual bird, a father loses his voice. His daughter undertakes a search to rediscover him, through an intimate narrative that explores the past, the new facets and the silences of a man who is no longer the same.

Director
María Camila Pulgarín, Manuela Giraldo
Runtime
Language
Spanish
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

dying of the young deer

Local title
noore hirve hukk
Original title
dying of the young deer
Director
Angelika Cygal
Country
Poland
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

Helka leaves her family home and walks through the village to her husband’s house. She carries a quilt filled with goose feathers made by women from her family. Despite the silence of her journey, Helka hears what has never been spoken.

Director
Angelika Cygal
Runtime
Subtitles
English

International premiere

Memorabilia

Local title
Mälestused
Original title
Memorabilia
Director
Roosa Vuokkola
Country
Finland
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

Two estranged sisters enter a virtual recreation of their childhood in an effort to find their missing mother. Upon entering the memories, the sisters will have mend their broken relationship while looking for their mother. In the world of memories the sisters face the truth and the strange creature lurking there.

Director
Roosa Vuokkola
Runtime
Language
Finnish
Subtitles
English

European premiere

Goodbye, Fishies

Local title
Hüvasti, kalakesed
Original title
Goodbye, Fishies
Director
Jonathan Zhang
Country
Australia
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts New Talents Competition: Live-action

Haunted by the regret of missing her grandmother’s last moments, Lookpla — a young Thai mother — longs for one final goodbye before those memories slip away. Developed from the director’s and actors’ personal recollections, this hybrid short offers an intimate portrait of how we revisit and reinterpret our memories.

Director
Jonathan Zhang
Runtime
Subtitles
English