This year’s International Short Film Competition showcases 15 remarkable films selected from more than 140 submissions from around the world. Spanning intimate personal journeys and stories shaped by broader social realities, the programme offers a rich and thought-provoking exploration of freedom in its many forms. Together, these films invite audiences of the 5th FREEDOM Film Festival to encounter new perspectives, cultures, and experiences through the art of short filmmaking.
This year’s competition programme was curated by Competition Programmer Anna Andriushchenko and Festival Artistic Director Łukasz Adamski. The official selection brings together films from Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, and the United States. Diverse in form, tone, and perspective, these works explore freedom as both a personal and collective experience, revealing why it remains one of the most compelling and universal themes in contemporary cinema.
This year’s International Short Film Competition gathers films drawn to thresholds between countries, identities, generations, systems, and the quieter shifts within a single life. Freedom here is not a destination or a declaration; it doesn’t arrive as certainty. It is quieter and more intimate, often fragile, sometimes fleeting: a moment of self-recognition, a refusal to disappear, a choice to speak, leave, stay, or begin again. The protagonists resist easy categorisation, finding agency not in grand victories, but in acts of honesty, defiance, care, and sudden clarity. Together, the programme reflects a generation of filmmakers pushing formal and narrative boundaries while staying close to the urgent questions of our time – stories of crossing borders, both literal and emotional, and the courage it takes to imagine a different future. At its core, it asks us to quiet the noise of the world, so we can hear ourselves again.
Anna Andriushchenko, International Short Film Competition Programmer
International Short Film Competition – Official Selection
Here are the 15 titles competing in this year’s International Short Film Competition:
- I’M THE MOST RACIST PERSON I KNOW – dir. Leela Varghese
- MY NAME IS JOY – dir. Alexandra Strunin
- WALLS – dir. Basile Charpentier
- FUCK THEM ALL – dir. Polina Biliaieva
- HYENA – dir. Altay Ulan Yang
- DON’T FORGET TO SLEEP – dir. Aleksander Stęcel
- NOT SCARED, JUST SAD – dir. Isabelle Mecattaf
- NIGHT OF PASSAGE – dir. Reza Rasouli
- NERVOUS ENERGY – dir. Eve Liu
- FACADE – dir. Elise Kruusel
- I AM NOT HERE ANYMORE – dir. Nawojka Wierzbowska
- DOG AND WOLF – dir. Terézia Halamová
- ALI – dir. Adnan Al Rajeev
- TAGA – dir. Jill Sachs
- THE PLUMBER – dir. Emmanuel Levy
Congratulations to all the filmmakers selected for this year’s competition.
The 15 shortlisted films will be screened on July 10 at MCSW Elektrownia in Radom as part of the 5th FREEDOM Film Festival. The International Competition Jury will select the winning titles, with its composition to be announced soon. The awards will be presented during the festival’s Closing Gala on July 11.