The 117 titles in 5 international competitions were selected from a record-breaking submission of over 5600 films.

The international Shorts Live-Action Competition will see seven World Premieres: A PERFECT MARYAM (Dirs. Solmaz Etemadzadeh, Ara Torosian, 2025, Iran, USA), NO NO PLACE HOTEL (Dir. Reinis Ubelis, 2025, Latvia), ROTTEN (Dir. Asli Bildirici, 2025, Netherlands), SIRENS (Dir. Argyro Nicolaou, 2025, Cyprus), SOMETHING WILD (Dir. Zsuzsanna Konrad, 2025, Hungary), THREE MINUTES (Dir. Sofía Medrano, 2025, Argentina), WHISPER OF THE TRANQUIL WATER (Dir. Jun Chong, Singapore, 2025).

Laurence Boyce, Director of Short Film Programme: "The competition contains a plethora of delights, some of which have already garnered plaudits from the festival circuit whilst others will be making their debuts at PÖFF Shorts. This will be chance for audiences to check filmmakers at the cutting edge of cinema whilst also enjoying some more established names who are at the top of their games."

Cutting edge also applies to the New Talents competition, which will feature many filmmakers who will be the future of cinema with an equal mix of award-winning films and brand new discoveries.

The New Talents sections consist of 20 live-action and 20 animated films, with also 6 films having their World Premiere at PÖFF Shorts: BIG ZEUS (Dir. Johannes Magnus Aule, 2025, Estonia), BUT I NEVER ASKED (Dir. Nicole Humiński, 2025, Germany), CAN CIRCLE CIRCLES? (Dir. Xuerou Huang, 2025, UK), DEAD AIR (Dir. Andrej Haring, 2025, Austria), LIQUOR (Dir. Yichen Huang, 2025, Germany), ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX (Dir. Yingdan Lai, 2025, US, China).

Among the 15 competing films in the Kids Animation Competition (part of the International Animation Competition), PÖFF Shorts will welcome the World Premiere of EXPERIENCES AND LEARNING. AND PARENTING (2025) from Polish director Malgorzata Rybak.

Vassilis Kroustallis, Director of Animation Programme: "The international animation competition offers the latest and engaging in all sorts of ways animation shorts, from festival darlings to new discoveries and world premieres in 2D, 3D and stop-motion animation. From narrative to experimental discourses, all films —including our New Talents and our Children's Animation competition programme) showcase a vast and quintessentially relevant overview of the contemporary animation scene."

The jury prizes for the Best Film in the live-action and animation categories, as well as the best Estonian film selected by the international jury will earn the right to be nominated for the short film Oscars. A nominee for the Best Short Film award of the European Film Academy will also be selected from among the competing films.

The films of the National Competition will be announced on October 14. The entire festival programme will be announced on October 30.

FULL LIST OF INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION TITLES

SHORTS ANIMATION COMPETITION

BUSY BODIES (dir. Kate Renshaw-Lewis, USA, 2025)
BECAUSE TODAY IS SATURDAY (dir. Alice Eça Guimarães, Portugal, 2025)
DARK GLOBE (dir. Donato Sansone, Italy, 2024)
DOG ALONE (dir. Marta Reis Andrade, Portugal, 2025)
DOG EAR (dir. Péter Vácz, Hungary, 2025)
FAČUK (dir. Maida Srabovic, Croatia, 2025)
GOD IS SHY (dir. Jocelyn Charles, France, 2025)
HOW (dir. Marko Mestrovic, Croatia, 2025)
I AM NOT HERE ANYMORE (dir. Nawojka Wierzbowska, Poland, 2025)
IL BURATTINO E LA BALENA (dir. Roberto Catani, Italy, 2024)
KABUKI (dir. Tiago Minamisawa, Brazil, 2025)
LA VIE AVEC UN IDIOT (dir. Theodor Ushev, Bulgaria, 2025)
LIKE FRIEND, LIKE DEER (dir. Malek Eghbali, Iran, 2025)
MERRIMUNDI (dir. Niles Atallah, Chile, USA, 2025)
MY LITTLE SPACE (dir. Seungmin Han, South Korea, 2024)
OFF-TIME (dir. Nata Metlukh, Ukraine, 2025)
ONCE IN A BODY (dir. María Cristina Pérez, Colombia, 2025)
ORDINARY LIFE (dir. Yoriko Mizushiri, Japan, 2025)
PARADAÏZ (dir. Matea Radic, Bosnia, Canada, 2025)
PRAYING MANTIS (dir. Joe Hsieh, Taiwan, 2025)
STRANGE TEEN SPIRIT (dir. Frank Ternier, France, 2025)
THE MUD UNDER MY WINDOW (dir. Violette Delvoye, Belgium, 2025)
THE WEAVER (dir. Yiorgos Tsangaris, Cyprus, 2025)
TO THE WOODS (dir. Agnès Patron, France, 2025)
TONIGHT I’LL DREAM ABOUT WATER (dir. Adrianna Matwiejczuk, Poland, 2025)
TV OR THE DISTURBANCE ON FOREST HILL ROAD (dir. Frederic Siegel, Switzerland, 2025)
WATER GIRL (dir. Sandra Desmazières, France, 2025)
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (dir. Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Alexandra Myotte, Canada, 2025)
WITH TAPES AND TOASTS IN THE CAR (dir. Kiana Naghshineh, Germany, 2025)
WITNESS: AN ORGANIMA FILM (dir. Nik Arthur, Canada, 2024)

SHORTS NEW TALENTS COMPETITION: ANIMATION

CAN CIRCLE CIRCLES? (dir. Xuerou Huang, United Kingdom, 2025)
CLEANLINESS (dir. Andrejs Brīvulis, Latvia, 2025)
DIPOLAR BIPOLAR (dir. quankai li, Japan, 2025)
FLOATING (dir. Jelena Milunović, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, 2025)
FOUR WALLS OF MEMORY (dir. Joanna Platek, Poland, 2024)
HUNTING (dir. Lea Favre, Switzerland, 2024)
I (dir. Chih-Chen Hsu, Japan, [2025)
LE JARDIN ROSSINI (dir. William Burger, Siméon Jacob, Odelia Laine, Garance Mondamert, Tara Rewal, Mathilde Vergereau, Arthur Wong, France, 2025)
LIQUOR (dir. Yi-Chen Huang, Germany, 2025)
MS.UNDERSTONED (dir. Yuki Buma, Japan, 2024)
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX (dir. Yingdan Lai, US, China, 2025)
PEAR GARDEN (dir. Shadab Shayegan, Germany, 2024)
SPINE (dir. Marta Margetić, Croatia, 2025)
STONE OF DESTINY (dir. Julie Černá, Czech Republic, 2025)
TINY FILM ABOUT RAPE (dir. Nebe Motýlová, Czech Republic, 2025)
TWO POINT FIVE STARS (dir. Sina Lerf, Dario Boger, Dario Marti, Switzerland, 2024)
URBAN DUO (dir. Hongyu Yue, China, 2024)
VOYAGE OF THE RED RABBIT (dir. Sam Gualtieri, USA, 2024)
WALK IN (dir. Han-eol Park, South Korea, 2024)
WANDERING DOT AND THE BLANK SQUARE PAGE UNIVERSE (dir. Ieva Lība Ratniece, Belgium, Latvia, 2024)

SHORTS KIDS ANIMATION COMPETITION

ARE WE THERE YET? (dir. Sven Kristlbauer, Raul Bison, Marion Zeder, Switzerland, 2025)
BIRDS OF PARADISE (dir. Tomek Ducki, Poland, France, 2025)
EXPERIENCES AND LEARNING. AND PARENTING. (dir. Malgorzata Rybak, Poland, 2025)
FOREVERGREEN (dir. Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears, US, 2025)
GRANPA IS SLEEPING (dir. Matei Branea, Romania, Bulgaria, 2025)
LE PETIT ET LE GÉANT (dir. Isabela Costa, France, 2025)
LEAVE THE ISLAND (dir. Chen Wu, Taiwan, 2025)
LENA'S FARM: FULL NEST (dir. Elena Walf, Germany, 2025)
MY GUT FRIEND (dir. José Manuel “Becho” Lo Bianco, Mariano Andrés Bergara, Argentina, Mexico, 2025)
PROUT (dir. Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium, India, Vietnam, 2025)
TATARANG! (dir. Manri Kim, South Korea, 2024)
THE DRIFTING GUITAR (dir. Sophie Roze, France, Switzerland, 2024)
THE EMPTY PANEL (dir. Thibault Chollet, France, 2025)
THE RABBITS' HOUSE AT NUMBER 968 (dir. Jai-Xin Wu, Taiwan, 2025)
THE RUMBLE-BUMBLE RALLY (dir. Annette Saugestad Helland, Johan Kaos, Norway, 2024)

SHORTS LIVE-ACTION COMPETITION

A PERFECT MARYAM (dir. Solmaz Etemadzadeh, Ara Torosian, Iran, USA, 2025)
BARBED WIRE (dir. Gustavo de Carvalho, Brazil, 2024)
BECAUSE OF (U) (dir. Tohé Commaret, France, 2025)
BLOOMER (dir. Jimmy Zwedberg, Sweden, 2025)
BRIGHT SUMMER DAYS (dir. Nevena Desivojevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, 2025)
CHERUBS (dir. Anna Pieri Zuercher, Pietro Zuercher, Switzerland, 2025)
DAMMEN (dir. Grégoire Graesslin, France, 2025)
EL PÜTÌ PÈRS (dir. Paolo Baiguera, Italy, 2025)
KISMET (dir. Ziga Virc, Slovenia, 2025)
MESOPOTAMIA, TX (dir. Lucy Gamades, USA, 2025)
NO NO PLACE HOTEL (dir. Reinis Ubelis, Latvia, 2025)
NOTES FROM PLANET THREE (dir. Simon Ellis, United Kingdom, 2025)
NOW HEAR ME GOOD (dir. Dwayne LeBlanc, USA, 2025)
PANTELLERIA (dir. Jan Cornet, Spain, 2025)
RAMÓN WHO SPEAKS TO GHOSTS (dir. Shervin Kermani, Canada, Spain, 2025)
RAZAA (dir. Pooja Tolani, India, 2024)
ROOM NUMBER (dir. Silvia Lorenzi, Estonia, 2025)
ROTTEN (dir. Asli Bildirici, Netherlands, 2025)
SIRENS (dir. Argyro Nicolaou, Cyprus, 2025)
SOS (dir. Anita Morina, Kosovo, 2025)
SOME OF YOU FUCKED EVA (dir. Lilith Grasmug, Austria, France, 2025)
SOMETHING WILD (dir. Zsuzsanna Konrad, Hungary, USA, 2025)
THE END OF THE WORLD (dir. Alessandro Mosca, Peru, 2025)
THE HILL OF LOVERS (dir. Moreetsi Gabang, Botswana, 2024)
THE LONELINESS OF LIZARDS (dir. Inês Nunes, Portugal, 2025)
THE SHIRT OFF YOUR BACK (dir. David Robinson-Smith, Australia, 2025)
THE WIND IN ASH (dir. Sun Kun, China, 2025)
THREE MINUTES (dir. Sofía Medrano, Argentina, 2025)
WAVES (dir. Juanjo Giménez, Spain, 2025)
WEEKEND (dir. Rytis Dringelis, Lithuania, 2025)
WHISPER OF THE TRANQUIL WATER (dir. Jun Chong, Singapore, 2025)
WITHOUT KELLY (dir. Lovisa Sirén, Sweden, 2025)

SHORTS NEW TALENTS COMPETITION: LIVE-ACTION

ARTURIA (dir. Dániel Kőváry, Hungary, 2025)
AT THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO (dir. Jorge Granados Ross, Mexico, 2024)
BIG ZEUS (dir. Johannes Magnus Aule, Estonia, 2025)
BUT I NEVER ASKED (dir. Nicole Humiński, Germany, Poland, 2025)
CENTRE OF THE SPIRAL (dir. Dāvis Gauja, Latvia, 2025)
DEAD AIR (dir. Andrej Haring, Austria, 2025)
DOG AND WOLF (dir. Terézia Halamová, Czech Republic, 2025)
DYSPHONIAS (dir. María Camila Pulgarín, Manuela Giraldo, Colombia, 2024)
DYING OF THE YOUNG DEER (dir. Angelika Cygal, Poland, 2025)
EGGSHELLS (dir. Beth Barnes, Scotland, 2025)
FAMILY SUNDAY (dir. Gerardo Del Razo, Mexico, 2025)
GLITTER KISS (dir. Augustė Gerikaitė, Lithuania, 2025)
GOODBYE, FISHIES (dir. Jonathan Zhang, Australia, 2025)
MEMORABILIA (dir. Roosa Vuokkola, Finland, 2025)
NIGHTS AND DAYS (dir. Daniela Sláviková, Slovakia, 2025)
PUNTER (dir. Jason Adam Maselle, South Africa, 2025)
RESORT (dir. Chanelle Eidenbenz, Switzerland, 2024)
SHALLOW GROUND (dir. Jozo Schmuch, Croatia, 2025)
THE BLADE, THE WOUND (dir. Lucas Minier, France, 2025)
WELCOME HOME FRECKLES (dir. Huiju Park, Korea, 2025)

The international short film and animation festival PÖFF Shorts will take place from 11-19 November with screenings in Tallinn and Tartu.

The festival is presented by Elisa.
Article updated October 10, 2025