GRRL HAUS Best of Shorts
May 7, 2026
IL KINO • Nansenstraße 22, 12047 Berlin
IL KINO • Nansenstraße 22, 12047 Berlin
Screening 1
THE BIRTH OF NAIKEE — Clementine Decremps
My Grandmother is a Skydiver — Polina Piddubna
But What a Moment — Johanna Falke
I Might Regret This — Aurélie van Oost
Careful — Camille Lagaisse
Loneliness Doesn't Come Alone — Amanda Valle
Not Alone — Momo Cao
trannies live forever: turn your eyes to the sky — Merit Thursday
THE BIRTH OF NAIKEE — Clementine Decremps
My Grandmother is a Skydiver — Polina Piddubna
But What a Moment — Johanna Falke
I Might Regret This — Aurélie van Oost
Careful — Camille Lagaisse
Loneliness Doesn't Come Alone — Amanda Valle
Not Alone — Momo Cao
trannies live forever: turn your eyes to the sky — Merit Thursday
Screening 2
LUMINOUS MATTER — Bianca Arnold, Moss Berke
The Ozard — Ciska Meister
Field of Fog — Giulia Palombino
Blossoming Wasp — Nessa Norich
AFTERLIFE — Sia Rass
Mommy — Manon Praline
The Magic Orange — Ali Burns
Lacy's World: Mission — Lois Talullah
Perverse Feminine — Kalen Aradia
LUMINOUS MATTER — Bianca Arnold, Moss Berke
The Ozard — Ciska Meister
Field of Fog — Giulia Palombino
Blossoming Wasp — Nessa Norich
AFTERLIFE — Sia Rass
Mommy — Manon Praline
The Magic Orange — Ali Burns
Lacy's World: Mission — Lois Talullah
Perverse Feminine — Kalen Aradia
Screening 1 - 1:45:09
The Birth of Naikee
by Clémentine Decremps (she/her)
20:00
Naikee recreates Botticelli’s Venus with three other gender diverse people of color to reflect on binary beauty norms.
By revisiting key moments in Naikee’s journey toward self-definition, The Birth of Naikee challenges the rigid heteronormative frameworks of a society still deeply attached to binary structures. Through a reinterpretation of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, Naikee asserts her right to become an image-maker and claim visibility.
Clémentine Decremps is a French director and film editor based in Berlin. As an editor, she worked with renowned artists like Wim Wenders and specialises in art-house cinema and installations. After gaining experience as a director in the commercial field, she developed her own projects, like DEAR DIARY and THE BIRTH OF NAIKEE.
by Clémentine Decremps (she/her)
20:00
Naikee recreates Botticelli’s Venus with three other gender diverse people of color to reflect on binary beauty norms.
By revisiting key moments in Naikee’s journey toward self-definition, The Birth of Naikee challenges the rigid heteronormative frameworks of a society still deeply attached to binary structures. Through a reinterpretation of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, Naikee asserts her right to become an image-maker and claim visibility.
Clémentine Decremps is a French director and film editor based in Berlin. As an editor, she worked with renowned artists like Wim Wenders and specialises in art-house cinema and installations. After gaining experience as a director in the commercial field, she developed her own projects, like DEAR DIARY and THE BIRTH OF NAIKEE.
My Grandmother is a Skydiver
by Polina Piddubna (she/they)
10:00
In 1960s Tajikistan, a skydiver gets a call from her granddaughter in 2022 Ukraine, sparkingan intergenerational journey through trauma, memory and identity.
Alfyia, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother's safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.
Filmmaker, artist and activist with Ukrainian and Central Asian Tatar and Bashqort roots. Polina was born and raised in Kharkiv, started her career in Kyiv, and has been living in Berlin since 2019. She has a bachelor's degree in animation and is currently doing her master's as an animation director at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Polina also organises social and educational projects, works at film festivals and does artistic research on decolonial topics.
by Polina Piddubna (she/they)
10:00
In 1960s Tajikistan, a skydiver gets a call from her granddaughter in 2022 Ukraine, sparkingan intergenerational journey through trauma, memory and identity.
Alfyia, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother's safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.
Filmmaker, artist and activist with Ukrainian and Central Asian Tatar and Bashqort roots. Polina was born and raised in Kharkiv, started her career in Kyiv, and has been living in Berlin since 2019. She has a bachelor's degree in animation and is currently doing her master's as an animation director at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Polina also organises social and educational projects, works at film festivals and does artistic research on decolonial topics.
But What a Moment
by Johanna Falke (she/her)
9:50
Summoned by voiced from beyond, a person begins her journey through a massive city in search of "The Heart".
In a dystopian city, where mindless corporate security guards patrol the streets, a person is given the quest to start the cosmic reboot. She has to travel through the city, it's undergrounds and through dimensions to reconnect with "The Heart". But there is danger around every corner.
Johanna Falke born 15.01.1999 finished her Diploma in fine arts at the HBK in Braunschweig in 2025 under Natalie Czech in the class of new media and poetics. Currently she lives and works in Berlin, while her debut Film "But what a Moment" makes it's way through the queer and experimental film festival scene all across Germany.
by Johanna Falke (she/her)
9:50
Summoned by voiced from beyond, a person begins her journey through a massive city in search of "The Heart".
In a dystopian city, where mindless corporate security guards patrol the streets, a person is given the quest to start the cosmic reboot. She has to travel through the city, it's undergrounds and through dimensions to reconnect with "The Heart". But there is danger around every corner.
Johanna Falke born 15.01.1999 finished her Diploma in fine arts at the HBK in Braunschweig in 2025 under Natalie Czech in the class of new media and poetics. Currently she lives and works in Berlin, while her debut Film "But what a Moment" makes it's way through the queer and experimental film festival scene all across Germany.
I Might Regret This
by Aurélie van Oost (she/her)
10:00
When a notification shatters the bliss of a perfect night, a French expat spirals into an absurd journey across Berlin, haunted by questions she can't ignore.
After a blissful night with her boyfriend, Zoé, a French expat living in Berlin, wakes up to a fertility notification that abruptly shifts the morning. What begins as a simple search for the morning-after pill quickly turns into an absurd journey through the city.As Zoé navigates pharmacies, strangers, and a language she doesn’t fully understand, she is confronted with unsolicited advice, awkward encounters, and subtle forms of mansplaining that blur concern with control. Moving through a foreign city that both fascinates and isolates her, the day unfolds in unexpected ways.Between chaotic moments and quiet reflections, Zoé finds herself facing questions about love, responsibility, and autonomy, questions that, despite involving two people, often seem to land on her shoulders alone.Blending dark humor with intimacy, I Might Regret This follows one woman over the course of a single day as an ordinary errand becomes a deeper confrontation with expectation, choice, and the pressure surrounding procreation.
Director: Aurélie van Oost:
Drawing from her nomadic childhood and adolescence across Europe and Asia, director Aurélie van Oost recently moved from Montréal to Berlin to fully dedicate herself to filmmaking. L Might Regret This is her second short film in collaboration with actress Eva Lomby.
In Berlin, Aurélie continues to develop her cinematic and multimedia practice, creating short narrative works and writing new projects. She has also directed several music videos, one of which was nominated for Best Music Video at the Berlin Music Video Awards.
Her sharp eye for layered characters and distinctive perspective set her apart as a bold new voice in contemporary filmmaking.
Eva Lomby:
Eva Lomby began storytelling through movement in the south of France. A trained dancer who left home at 15 to pursue ballet, she was told early at the Conservatoire de Marseille: “You have something to say.” She went on to dance on prestigious stages, performing repertoire from Nacho Duato and Maurice Béjart, and later in the stage musical The Lion King. She then made a grand jeté from stage to screen, appearing as a ballerina antagonist in the Amazon Studios feature Birds of Paradise directed by Sarah Adina Smith.
Her first short film as an executive producer and lead actress, Might Regret This, has already received festival recognition, including awards for Best Actress and Best Produced Script. Inspired by her life in Germany and sparked by a moment in a pharmacy, the film blends sharp humor with feminist perspective. Alongside acting, Lomby also works as a movement director, continuing to shape stories through the body while developing bold characters and scripts that move between drama and comedy.
by Aurélie van Oost (she/her)
10:00
When a notification shatters the bliss of a perfect night, a French expat spirals into an absurd journey across Berlin, haunted by questions she can't ignore.
After a blissful night with her boyfriend, Zoé, a French expat living in Berlin, wakes up to a fertility notification that abruptly shifts the morning. What begins as a simple search for the morning-after pill quickly turns into an absurd journey through the city.As Zoé navigates pharmacies, strangers, and a language she doesn’t fully understand, she is confronted with unsolicited advice, awkward encounters, and subtle forms of mansplaining that blur concern with control. Moving through a foreign city that both fascinates and isolates her, the day unfolds in unexpected ways.Between chaotic moments and quiet reflections, Zoé finds herself facing questions about love, responsibility, and autonomy, questions that, despite involving two people, often seem to land on her shoulders alone.Blending dark humor with intimacy, I Might Regret This follows one woman over the course of a single day as an ordinary errand becomes a deeper confrontation with expectation, choice, and the pressure surrounding procreation.
Director: Aurélie van Oost:
Drawing from her nomadic childhood and adolescence across Europe and Asia, director Aurélie van Oost recently moved from Montréal to Berlin to fully dedicate herself to filmmaking. L Might Regret This is her second short film in collaboration with actress Eva Lomby.
In Berlin, Aurélie continues to develop her cinematic and multimedia practice, creating short narrative works and writing new projects. She has also directed several music videos, one of which was nominated for Best Music Video at the Berlin Music Video Awards.
Her sharp eye for layered characters and distinctive perspective set her apart as a bold new voice in contemporary filmmaking.
Eva Lomby:
Eva Lomby began storytelling through movement in the south of France. A trained dancer who left home at 15 to pursue ballet, she was told early at the Conservatoire de Marseille: “You have something to say.” She went on to dance on prestigious stages, performing repertoire from Nacho Duato and Maurice Béjart, and later in the stage musical The Lion King. She then made a grand jeté from stage to screen, appearing as a ballerina antagonist in the Amazon Studios feature Birds of Paradise directed by Sarah Adina Smith.
Her first short film as an executive producer and lead actress, Might Regret This, has already received festival recognition, including awards for Best Actress and Best Produced Script. Inspired by her life in Germany and sparked by a moment in a pharmacy, the film blends sharp humor with feminist perspective. Alongside acting, Lomby also works as a movement director, continuing to shape stories through the body while developing bold characters and scripts that move between drama and comedy.
CAREFUL
by Camille Lagaisse (she/her)
13:40
When a secret feminist group assigns Lucie her first mission — to lure an unpunished abuser into a trap — the lines between justice, healing and revenge begin to blur.
CAREFUL is a female revenge drama and protest film that explores gender-based violence, justice, female empowerment, and resistance, giving voice to the anger and resilience of those who have experienced sexual abuse and systemic injustice. The film aims to raise awareness, challenge the silence surrounding these issues, and spark debate — not to advocate violence or vigilantism, but to reconsider our approach on personal, societal, and systemic levels. Sexual violence can be prevented and violent behaviors unlearned, but only if we confront and dismantle the structures that allow these
injustices to persist.
Camille Lagaisse is a French filmmaker. After a Master‘s degree in Modern Literature and Cinema at La Sorbonne, she started working as a director and editor mainly within the music industry. In 2020 she was selected for the writing residency Le G.R.E.C. CAREFUL is her first fictional film as director.
by Camille Lagaisse (she/her)
13:40
When a secret feminist group assigns Lucie her first mission — to lure an unpunished abuser into a trap — the lines between justice, healing and revenge begin to blur.
CAREFUL is a female revenge drama and protest film that explores gender-based violence, justice, female empowerment, and resistance, giving voice to the anger and resilience of those who have experienced sexual abuse and systemic injustice. The film aims to raise awareness, challenge the silence surrounding these issues, and spark debate — not to advocate violence or vigilantism, but to reconsider our approach on personal, societal, and systemic levels. Sexual violence can be prevented and violent behaviors unlearned, but only if we confront and dismantle the structures that allow these
injustices to persist.
Camille Lagaisse is a French filmmaker. After a Master‘s degree in Modern Literature and Cinema at La Sorbonne, she started working as a director and editor mainly within the music industry. In 2020 she was selected for the writing residency Le G.R.E.C. CAREFUL is her first fictional film as director.
Loneliness Doesn't Come Alone (La Soledad No Viene Sola)
by Amanda Valle (she/her)
12:05
In the eyes of a little girl, the days repeat like a silent echo, building a universe of routines and waiting some weeks feel like years.
In the eyes of a little girl, the days repeat like a silent echo, building a universe of routines and waiting. In that motionless universe, two scenes become unforgettable: a constant phone call, and a father who promises to arrive every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Through these memories, the short film reconstructs a childhood shaped by waiting, imagination, and the eternal search for a presence that never comes
Amanda Valle is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, video, and, most recently, sculptural works in glass and porcelain.
Her short film, Back in the Island, has been selected by more than 20 international festivals, earning awards such as Best Generation at the Berlin Commercial Festival, Best Photography at the Le Femme Filmmakers Festival (UK), and Best Dominican Documentary, both in her home country and at the Milan Fashion Film Festival.
Valle’s exhibitions include Art Basel Miami, Salone del Mobile in Milan at Nilufar Gallery, group and solo shows at Molin Corvo Gallery in Paris, collateral events at the Venice Biennale, and the Women of Diaspora exhibition at the Nader Museum during Art Basel Miami. Her recent work also features a collaboration with Venini for Art Basel Miami and Shin Gallery in New York.
She now lives and works between New York and Buenos Aires.
by Amanda Valle (she/her)
12:05
In the eyes of a little girl, the days repeat like a silent echo, building a universe of routines and waiting some weeks feel like years.
In the eyes of a little girl, the days repeat like a silent echo, building a universe of routines and waiting. In that motionless universe, two scenes become unforgettable: a constant phone call, and a father who promises to arrive every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Through these memories, the short film reconstructs a childhood shaped by waiting, imagination, and the eternal search for a presence that never comes
Amanda Valle is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, video, and, most recently, sculptural works in glass and porcelain.
Her short film, Back in the Island, has been selected by more than 20 international festivals, earning awards such as Best Generation at the Berlin Commercial Festival, Best Photography at the Le Femme Filmmakers Festival (UK), and Best Dominican Documentary, both in her home country and at the Milan Fashion Film Festival.
Valle’s exhibitions include Art Basel Miami, Salone del Mobile in Milan at Nilufar Gallery, group and solo shows at Molin Corvo Gallery in Paris, collateral events at the Venice Biennale, and the Women of Diaspora exhibition at the Nader Museum during Art Basel Miami. Her recent work also features a collaboration with Venini for Art Basel Miami and Shin Gallery in New York.
She now lives and works between New York and Buenos Aires.
Not Alone
by Momo Cao (she/her)
3:27
I ate her. Pain didn’t eat me.
Moving through memory, grief, and the restless waves of the mind, traces of a twin sister remain, while a hidden grace waits in the silence.
Momo Cao is a New York–based visual artist and animation director. Since her first film In the Winter (2018), she has continued creating independent animation and illustrations.
A message from Momo: Let’s imagine a beautiful future together. God walks beside us.
by Momo Cao (she/her)
3:27
I ate her. Pain didn’t eat me.
Moving through memory, grief, and the restless waves of the mind, traces of a twin sister remain, while a hidden grace waits in the silence.
Momo Cao is a New York–based visual artist and animation director. Since her first film In the Winter (2018), she has continued creating independent animation and illustrations.
A message from Momo: Let’s imagine a beautiful future together. God walks beside us.
trannies live forever: turn your eyes to the sky
by Thair Thursday (he/him)
10:00
A transfag hero of the old midWest is laid low by The Men. What will become of him?
Turn your eyes to the sky! Turn your eyes to the sky! A transfag hero goes to battle with The Men. Laid low, he chooses the path best known to him: transformation.’
Thair Thursday is an interdisciplinary maker living, teaching, growing, and making in Illinois. The proud son of a transfag lineage, Thair likes to explore the technologies of social agreements and how they impact our relationships, behaviors, and movements.
by Thair Thursday (he/him)
10:00
A transfag hero of the old midWest is laid low by The Men. What will become of him?
Turn your eyes to the sky! Turn your eyes to the sky! A transfag hero goes to battle with The Men. Laid low, he chooses the path best known to him: transformation.’
Thair Thursday is an interdisciplinary maker living, teaching, growing, and making in Illinois. The proud son of a transfag lineage, Thair likes to explore the technologies of social agreements and how they impact our relationships, behaviors, and movements.
Screening 2 - 1:39:27
LUMINOUS MATTER
by Bianca Arnold & Moss Berke (she/her)
15:20
A collaborative work between artists, writers, and lovers Bianca Arnold and Moss Berke, Luminous Matter invites viewers to experience the transformative power of the everyday, where love, dress up, and play are valued as methods of queer co-becoming.
Bianca and Moss tell themselves in front of the camera: intimacy, spaces travelled, reflections in the mirror, poses and naturalness. The camera is an extension of the limbs, an extension of their relationship.
Almost in a revisitation of certain works by Barbara Hammer, Luminous Matter is a declaration of love made of glimpses, details, beams of sunlight, plastic material on which the voiceover paints a thousand theories and a thousand colors. The two protagonists film themselves, bounce the film from one’s body to the other’s, look for each other in the glances and in corners of rooms that only they know, finding the space to dress up, comb their hair, put on makeup, and so “dig outward” to find ever greater spontaneity, to bring it to light, while their “lesbotransqueer home video practice” produces the possibility of witnessing their transformations.
Bianca Arnold (Turin, 1997) is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher with degrees in anthropology and gender studies. Her work ranges from installations to video art, writing, and painting. A solo exhibition of her work (I Bambini del Compost) opened in 2022 in Bologna. She has also published several articles on queerness and cinema. Bianca has directed several short films, including di vento e di voci (of wind and voices) (2024), co-directed with Giuliana Zungri, and Vogliamo Una Vita Bella (We Want A Beautiful Life) (2025). She is currently attending the documentary filmmaking course at CSC, the Italian national film school. She collaborates with Sicilia Queer Film Fest and is part of Sbaraglio Cinema, independent film collective in Palermo.
Moss Berke (New York, 1995) is a writer, researcher, and multidisciplinary artist who is situated in the expansive intersection of gender studies and environmental humanities. Her research and arts practice bring together fiber arts, poetry, video, landart, tattooing, collective activism, and performance. Her work creates experiments with themes of loss, grief, and desire, more-than-human intimacies, and non-normative temporalities. Most recently, Moss co-curated an exhibition, Limbo, which mobilized de-colonial and queer theory to approach the entangled world of wetlands. Moss' articles and poems can be found in Almanac Journal of Trans* Poetics, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Death Studies, LagoonScapes Journal of Environmental Humanities, Soapbox Journal of Cultural Analysis, and elsewhere.
Bianca and Moss have been a creative duo since 2023, and in 2025 they inaugurated their installation/performance “Proximity Rehearsal” at Galleria Rollò in Palermo, which was then presented in October 2025 at the Lesbian Lives Conference in New York City. They live and work in Palermo, Italy.
by Bianca Arnold & Moss Berke (she/her)
15:20
A collaborative work between artists, writers, and lovers Bianca Arnold and Moss Berke, Luminous Matter invites viewers to experience the transformative power of the everyday, where love, dress up, and play are valued as methods of queer co-becoming.
Bianca and Moss tell themselves in front of the camera: intimacy, spaces travelled, reflections in the mirror, poses and naturalness. The camera is an extension of the limbs, an extension of their relationship.
Almost in a revisitation of certain works by Barbara Hammer, Luminous Matter is a declaration of love made of glimpses, details, beams of sunlight, plastic material on which the voiceover paints a thousand theories and a thousand colors. The two protagonists film themselves, bounce the film from one’s body to the other’s, look for each other in the glances and in corners of rooms that only they know, finding the space to dress up, comb their hair, put on makeup, and so “dig outward” to find ever greater spontaneity, to bring it to light, while their “lesbotransqueer home video practice” produces the possibility of witnessing their transformations.
Bianca Arnold (Turin, 1997) is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher with degrees in anthropology and gender studies. Her work ranges from installations to video art, writing, and painting. A solo exhibition of her work (I Bambini del Compost) opened in 2022 in Bologna. She has also published several articles on queerness and cinema. Bianca has directed several short films, including di vento e di voci (of wind and voices) (2024), co-directed with Giuliana Zungri, and Vogliamo Una Vita Bella (We Want A Beautiful Life) (2025). She is currently attending the documentary filmmaking course at CSC, the Italian national film school. She collaborates with Sicilia Queer Film Fest and is part of Sbaraglio Cinema, independent film collective in Palermo.
Moss Berke (New York, 1995) is a writer, researcher, and multidisciplinary artist who is situated in the expansive intersection of gender studies and environmental humanities. Her research and arts practice bring together fiber arts, poetry, video, landart, tattooing, collective activism, and performance. Her work creates experiments with themes of loss, grief, and desire, more-than-human intimacies, and non-normative temporalities. Most recently, Moss co-curated an exhibition, Limbo, which mobilized de-colonial and queer theory to approach the entangled world of wetlands. Moss' articles and poems can be found in Almanac Journal of Trans* Poetics, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Death Studies, LagoonScapes Journal of Environmental Humanities, Soapbox Journal of Cultural Analysis, and elsewhere.
Bianca and Moss have been a creative duo since 2023, and in 2025 they inaugurated their installation/performance “Proximity Rehearsal” at Galleria Rollò in Palermo, which was then presented in October 2025 at the Lesbian Lives Conference in New York City. They live and work in Palermo, Italy.
The Ozard
by Ciska Meister (they/them, she/her)
20:00
In the rehearsal process of The Ozard of Wiz, a youth theatre production, the creators journey down the yellow brick road to create their queer utopia under the spotlight. Marie Lea, Romy, and Art look back on what it meant to play freely as children—without judgment. When did shame first step onto the stage?
Ciska Meister (1998, DE) is a filmmaker and artist, based in the Netherlands, who is tragically/fortunately chained to an incessant need to challenge the implications of the genre and medium they work within. Their work is characterised by a hopeless devotion to a playful yet earnest approach, in which they repeatedly find themselves asking unanswerable questions (seldom coming to incontestable conclusions).
by Ciska Meister (they/them, she/her)
20:00
In the rehearsal process of The Ozard of Wiz, a youth theatre production, the creators journey down the yellow brick road to create their queer utopia under the spotlight. Marie Lea, Romy, and Art look back on what it meant to play freely as children—without judgment. When did shame first step onto the stage?
Ciska Meister (1998, DE) is a filmmaker and artist, based in the Netherlands, who is tragically/fortunately chained to an incessant need to challenge the implications of the genre and medium they work within. Their work is characterised by a hopeless devotion to a playful yet earnest approach, in which they repeatedly find themselves asking unanswerable questions (seldom coming to incontestable conclusions).
Field of Fog
by Giulia Palombino (she/her)
3:00
In an anonymous place of retreat, a journey unfolds, punctuated by hallucinations and moments of awkwardness. One by one, figures emerge from their beds, stepping into a shared experience. The sequences of their simple movements give rhythm to a nonlinear story that unfolds like a seamless loop.
Giulia Palombino is an Italian animator and artist based in Berlin. Working with hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation, she moves between film and visual art. Her practice centres on rhythm, repetition, and restrained movement, often placing minimal gestures within open narrative structures. Her animations and drawings have been presented in festivals and exhibition contexts across Europe.
by Giulia Palombino (she/her)
3:00
In an anonymous place of retreat, a journey unfolds, punctuated by hallucinations and moments of awkwardness. One by one, figures emerge from their beds, stepping into a shared experience. The sequences of their simple movements give rhythm to a nonlinear story that unfolds like a seamless loop.
Giulia Palombino is an Italian animator and artist based in Berlin. Working with hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation, she moves between film and visual art. Her practice centres on rhythm, repetition, and restrained movement, often placing minimal gestures within open narrative structures. Her animations and drawings have been presented in festivals and exhibition contexts across Europe.
Blossoming Wasp
by Nessa Norich & Anooj Bhandari (she/they, he/they)
13:00
Sai is a counterfeit artist who convinces himself that the money he fabricates will change his family’s grief. Bullied by beautiful yet irreverent figments of his imagination, Sai confronts his own grief through the spectrum of implications his counterfeit practice could have on his family.
Blossoming Wasp is a queer South Asian story about a family’s grief in the wake of losing its patriarch. After the death of his father, Sai, a counterfeit artist, convinces himself that the money he fabricates will change his family’s grief. On his mom’s first birthday after his father’s passing, Sai is confronted by the spectrum of implications his counterfeit practice could have on his family, forcing him to face the depth of his own grief.
Blossoming Wasp straddles reality and delusion. Sai moves through his everyday life in a daze, bullied by beautiful yet irreverent figments of his memory and imagination, the specters of his grief hovering. His bereavement casts perception into confusion: What is real anymore? What matters?
Nessa Norich is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and performer who creates satirical works for screen and stage. Her talent and passion have led her to international training at Jacques Lecoq, and professional opportunities presenting her original works across the U.S, Europe and the UK, notably at the Edinburgh Fringe, the British Film Institute, Joe’s Pub, Battersea Arts Center, New Orleans Fringe, the Louvre, Hammerstein Ballroom, and Soapbox Theater in Oslo, NY Live Arts among others. Nessa’s film Jelly Bean, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, was the official selection of 21 international festivals, including its World Premiere at Flicker’s Rhode Island, where Nessa received the award for Best Actress. Nessa is a recipient of many awards and grants, including the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media and the Mem Global Grant. She has developed works at The Getty Villa, The Orchard Project, Mount Tremper Arts, and NACL residencies.
Anooj is an Artist focusing on experimental non-fiction and magical realism, who believes deeply in art as a process to ask quiet questions publicly. Drawn to aesthetics that sit somewhere between a Shel Silverstein drawing and an episode of the Twilight Zone, he is intrigued by the ways the endearing softness of illustration and the eerie mysticism of the unknown can weave together to ignite communal daydreaming. He is an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, and collaborates with Agile Rascal, a bicycle touring theater troupe, and Radical Evolution where he has been co-commissioned for SoHo Rep’s 2027-2028 season. Past residencies have included the Lighthouse Residency at the BEAM Center, and The Bandung Residency with the Asian American Arts Alliance and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts. Anooj is a 2023 MacDowell Fellow, a current Jerome T. Hill Artist Fellow, and Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing.
by Nessa Norich & Anooj Bhandari (she/they, he/they)
13:00
Sai is a counterfeit artist who convinces himself that the money he fabricates will change his family’s grief. Bullied by beautiful yet irreverent figments of his imagination, Sai confronts his own grief through the spectrum of implications his counterfeit practice could have on his family.
Blossoming Wasp is a queer South Asian story about a family’s grief in the wake of losing its patriarch. After the death of his father, Sai, a counterfeit artist, convinces himself that the money he fabricates will change his family’s grief. On his mom’s first birthday after his father’s passing, Sai is confronted by the spectrum of implications his counterfeit practice could have on his family, forcing him to face the depth of his own grief.
Blossoming Wasp straddles reality and delusion. Sai moves through his everyday life in a daze, bullied by beautiful yet irreverent figments of his memory and imagination, the specters of his grief hovering. His bereavement casts perception into confusion: What is real anymore? What matters?
Nessa Norich is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and performer who creates satirical works for screen and stage. Her talent and passion have led her to international training at Jacques Lecoq, and professional opportunities presenting her original works across the U.S, Europe and the UK, notably at the Edinburgh Fringe, the British Film Institute, Joe’s Pub, Battersea Arts Center, New Orleans Fringe, the Louvre, Hammerstein Ballroom, and Soapbox Theater in Oslo, NY Live Arts among others. Nessa’s film Jelly Bean, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, was the official selection of 21 international festivals, including its World Premiere at Flicker’s Rhode Island, where Nessa received the award for Best Actress. Nessa is a recipient of many awards and grants, including the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media and the Mem Global Grant. She has developed works at The Getty Villa, The Orchard Project, Mount Tremper Arts, and NACL residencies.
Anooj is an Artist focusing on experimental non-fiction and magical realism, who believes deeply in art as a process to ask quiet questions publicly. Drawn to aesthetics that sit somewhere between a Shel Silverstein drawing and an episode of the Twilight Zone, he is intrigued by the ways the endearing softness of illustration and the eerie mysticism of the unknown can weave together to ignite communal daydreaming. He is an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, and collaborates with Agile Rascal, a bicycle touring theater troupe, and Radical Evolution where he has been co-commissioned for SoHo Rep’s 2027-2028 season. Past residencies have included the Lighthouse Residency at the BEAM Center, and The Bandung Residency with the Asian American Arts Alliance and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts. Anooj is a 2023 MacDowell Fellow, a current Jerome T. Hill Artist Fellow, and Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing.
Afterlife
by Sia Rass (she/her)
16:18
Sasha, a Russian-American filmmaker living in New York, returns to Moscow as her grandparents prepare for their belated Orthodox wedding. With her camera and a list of questions, she follows them through memories, routines, and sixty years of imperfect devotion. As their story unfolds, Sasha confronts her own sense of displacement—torn between cultures, searching for a self that feels fully hers.
Afterlife is a hybrid documentary-fiction short about memory, migration, and the quiet endurance of love.
Sasha, a Russian-American filmmaker living in New York, returns to her hometown to film her grandparents’ long-awaited Orthodox wedding after more than sixty years together. Drawing on real family conversations and personal memories, she documents their modest yet deeply rooted devotion through interviews and fragments of daily life. As the camera lingers on their routines and reflections, Sasha begins to confront her own emotional dislocation — caught between cultures, relationships, and versions of herself that no longer fully align.
Sia Rass is a Russian-born filmmaker based in Canada. Her work blends documentary and fiction to explore identity, vulnerability, and the ways we change — willingly or not. AFTERLIFE is her first narrative-driven short, inspired by intimate interviews she recorded with her grandparents, whose relationship and memories guided the film’s emotional tone.
by Sia Rass (she/her)
16:18
Sasha, a Russian-American filmmaker living in New York, returns to Moscow as her grandparents prepare for their belated Orthodox wedding. With her camera and a list of questions, she follows them through memories, routines, and sixty years of imperfect devotion. As their story unfolds, Sasha confronts her own sense of displacement—torn between cultures, searching for a self that feels fully hers.
Afterlife is a hybrid documentary-fiction short about memory, migration, and the quiet endurance of love.
Sasha, a Russian-American filmmaker living in New York, returns to her hometown to film her grandparents’ long-awaited Orthodox wedding after more than sixty years together. Drawing on real family conversations and personal memories, she documents their modest yet deeply rooted devotion through interviews and fragments of daily life. As the camera lingers on their routines and reflections, Sasha begins to confront her own emotional dislocation — caught between cultures, relationships, and versions of herself that no longer fully align.
Sia Rass is a Russian-born filmmaker based in Canada. Her work blends documentary and fiction to explore identity, vulnerability, and the ways we change — willingly or not. AFTERLIFE is her first narrative-driven short, inspired by intimate interviews she recorded with her grandparents, whose relationship and memories guided the film’s emotional tone.
Mommy
by Evie Snax & Manon Praline (she)
8:40
A poetic testimony of bottom-surgery from the first-person.
Six years after her bottom surgery, Manon Praline shares a moving testimony of the challenges and joys she encountered on that journey. Her story is complemented with beautiful imagery shot by artist Eva Wu in the dramatic landscape of the North American Southwest, and scored by Pride Month Barbie’s musical sensation Josephine Shetty. This experimental documentary short is a sequel to the trio’s debut film Baby (2018) which has been shown at almost 40 film festivals throughout Europe and North America and received many praises. Like honey on the tongue of a sweet tooth, Mommy pours pure honesty and vulnerability into the viewer’s eyes, ears, and hearts.
Since 2017, Manon Praline’s works have screened at festivals. 2019 she directed her first short "My Garage My Rules" and launched Praline Studio in 2021.
Visionary artist Evie Snax (eva-wu.com) works with moving image, installation, and new media. She co-created Hot Bits Collective and teaches at Haverford College.
by Evie Snax & Manon Praline (she)
8:40
A poetic testimony of bottom-surgery from the first-person.
Six years after her bottom surgery, Manon Praline shares a moving testimony of the challenges and joys she encountered on that journey. Her story is complemented with beautiful imagery shot by artist Eva Wu in the dramatic landscape of the North American Southwest, and scored by Pride Month Barbie’s musical sensation Josephine Shetty. This experimental documentary short is a sequel to the trio’s debut film Baby (2018) which has been shown at almost 40 film festivals throughout Europe and North America and received many praises. Like honey on the tongue of a sweet tooth, Mommy pours pure honesty and vulnerability into the viewer’s eyes, ears, and hearts.
Since 2017, Manon Praline’s works have screened at festivals. 2019 she directed her first short "My Garage My Rules" and launched Praline Studio in 2021.
Visionary artist Evie Snax (eva-wu.com) works with moving image, installation, and new media. She co-created Hot Bits Collective and teaches at Haverford College.
The Magic Orange
by Ali Burns (she/her)
8:59
Relentlessly optimistic Molly tries to cheer up her depressed boyfriend after he crashes the car. During their walk home she desperately tries to connect. How far will she go to understand him?
The Magic Orange is a romance film gone wrong that tells the story of a girl who wants to manic pixie dream girl her boyfriend’s depression away. She has seen it in the movies, and in songs, and in books…so why can’t she do it as well? The film follows Molly and Paul as they journey home after a car crash. Paul becomes so emotionally distant that sometimes he is not there at all. This pushes Molly to try harder to get Paul to open up, and she forgets herself in the process. Ultimately, Molly's ache to be let in leads to an unsettling ending for both characters and provides a reflection on the sweet horror of losing yourself in another person.
Ali Burns is a filmmaker based in Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in a small town on the East Coast of Aotearoa. There, she developed her love of storytelling, with a particular interest in strange, surrealist stories about sticky human emotions. After studying film and earning a Master's in scriptwriting from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, she has created several award-winning short films.
Ali has also created the music for several of her short films including a song for The Magic Orange. She is involved in music independent from filmmaking and plays in several bands and works for local independent radio station 95bFM.
by Ali Burns (she/her)
8:59
Relentlessly optimistic Molly tries to cheer up her depressed boyfriend after he crashes the car. During their walk home she desperately tries to connect. How far will she go to understand him?
The Magic Orange is a romance film gone wrong that tells the story of a girl who wants to manic pixie dream girl her boyfriend’s depression away. She has seen it in the movies, and in songs, and in books…so why can’t she do it as well? The film follows Molly and Paul as they journey home after a car crash. Paul becomes so emotionally distant that sometimes he is not there at all. This pushes Molly to try harder to get Paul to open up, and she forgets herself in the process. Ultimately, Molly's ache to be let in leads to an unsettling ending for both characters and provides a reflection on the sweet horror of losing yourself in another person.
Ali Burns is a filmmaker based in Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in a small town on the East Coast of Aotearoa. There, she developed her love of storytelling, with a particular interest in strange, surrealist stories about sticky human emotions. After studying film and earning a Master's in scriptwriting from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, she has created several award-winning short films.
Ali has also created the music for several of her short films including a song for The Magic Orange. She is involved in music independent from filmmaking and plays in several bands and works for local independent radio station 95bFM.
Lacy's World: Mission New Crib
by Lois Tallulah, Abigail Sakari & Aphra Kennedy Fletcher (she/her)
14:10
“Be verified.” Lacy lives by it - until a day of delusion, denial and dead-end viewings exposes the life she’s been desperately trying to edit out.
Lacy’s World: Mission New Crib follows a young, wannabe influencer whose dream of online fame blinds her to the reality of her own life— as she searches for a new London pad to live out her dreams. She’s met with delusion bursting encounters throughout the day which shine light on the reality of her living situation…
This raw, satirical British film from an emerging team of female filmmakers mixes dark humour and sharp social commentary, exposing the harsh truths of aspiration and self-delusion in the digital age.
Lois Tallulah is an award-winning director and writer whose work explores the modern female experience through a distinctive blend of comedy and social commentary. Her storytelling centres on what it means to be a woman today, balancing humour with sharp observations about contemporary life. She wrote and directed the acclaimed theatre production In The Shadow Of Her Majesty, a bold critique of the justice system calling for social change.
Her short film Eb and Flo has received international recognition, winning Best Female Film at Independent Film Fest, IndieX Film Festival, Vegas Shorts and One Reeler Shorts. Lois is also the Creative Director of SHORTIES, a feminist-led initiative supporting female filmmakers through workshops, creative labs and partnerships with the BFI for screening events. Across her work, she remains committed to amplifying women’s voices and creating space for new, underrepresented perspectives in film and theatre.
Lead & Writer - Abigail Sakari is a filmmaker and actress whose work interrogates the pursuit of fame and external validation. Blending the visual language of reality TV, memes, pop culture and Twitch, her films explore the psychological undercurrents of modern identity.
At the centre of her work is Lacy — an anxious, disarmingly unaware character whose pursuit of recognition reveals a dissonance between performance and selfhood, gradually uncovering a deeper internal truth. Abigail has collaborated with FKA twigs on Oh My Love from Caprisongs, contributing a closing monologue on self-worth and friendship. A former reality TV contestant with a philosophical sensibility, her work holds a mirror to contemporary desire — locating both absurdity and relief within the pressures of being seen. Through humour, she invites audiences to confront the self-conscious performance of modern life, exposing the absurdity underpinning trends such as looksmaxxing.
Producer & Editor - Aphra is a producer and filmmaker with a passion for stories that connect, challenge and endure. Her work spans television, digital and the big screen — with credits on BAFTA-nominated productions for the BBC and Netflix, and digital originals for Snap and Channel 4. It is in independent film where Aphra's creative voice is most distinctly her own. Her films have earned official selections at BAFTA-qualifying festivals and taken awards at independent film festivals around the world. Aphra is drawn to stories that might otherwise go untold, and to the craft of finding the right form to tell them. Whether working with first-time subjects or seasoned collaborators, she brings the same instinct: to listen closely, and let the story lead. She is a filmmaker who understands storytelling from the idea to the screen - and everything in between.
by Lois Tallulah, Abigail Sakari & Aphra Kennedy Fletcher (she/her)
14:10
“Be verified.” Lacy lives by it - until a day of delusion, denial and dead-end viewings exposes the life she’s been desperately trying to edit out.
Lacy’s World: Mission New Crib follows a young, wannabe influencer whose dream of online fame blinds her to the reality of her own life— as she searches for a new London pad to live out her dreams. She’s met with delusion bursting encounters throughout the day which shine light on the reality of her living situation…
This raw, satirical British film from an emerging team of female filmmakers mixes dark humour and sharp social commentary, exposing the harsh truths of aspiration and self-delusion in the digital age.
Lois Tallulah is an award-winning director and writer whose work explores the modern female experience through a distinctive blend of comedy and social commentary. Her storytelling centres on what it means to be a woman today, balancing humour with sharp observations about contemporary life. She wrote and directed the acclaimed theatre production In The Shadow Of Her Majesty, a bold critique of the justice system calling for social change.
Her short film Eb and Flo has received international recognition, winning Best Female Film at Independent Film Fest, IndieX Film Festival, Vegas Shorts and One Reeler Shorts. Lois is also the Creative Director of SHORTIES, a feminist-led initiative supporting female filmmakers through workshops, creative labs and partnerships with the BFI for screening events. Across her work, she remains committed to amplifying women’s voices and creating space for new, underrepresented perspectives in film and theatre.
Lead & Writer - Abigail Sakari is a filmmaker and actress whose work interrogates the pursuit of fame and external validation. Blending the visual language of reality TV, memes, pop culture and Twitch, her films explore the psychological undercurrents of modern identity.
At the centre of her work is Lacy — an anxious, disarmingly unaware character whose pursuit of recognition reveals a dissonance between performance and selfhood, gradually uncovering a deeper internal truth. Abigail has collaborated with FKA twigs on Oh My Love from Caprisongs, contributing a closing monologue on self-worth and friendship. A former reality TV contestant with a philosophical sensibility, her work holds a mirror to contemporary desire — locating both absurdity and relief within the pressures of being seen. Through humour, she invites audiences to confront the self-conscious performance of modern life, exposing the absurdity underpinning trends such as looksmaxxing.
Producer & Editor - Aphra is a producer and filmmaker with a passion for stories that connect, challenge and endure. Her work spans television, digital and the big screen — with credits on BAFTA-nominated productions for the BBC and Netflix, and digital originals for Snap and Channel 4. It is in independent film where Aphra's creative voice is most distinctly her own. Her films have earned official selections at BAFTA-qualifying festivals and taken awards at independent film festivals around the world. Aphra is drawn to stories that might otherwise go untold, and to the craft of finding the right form to tell them. Whether working with first-time subjects or seasoned collaborators, she brings the same instinct: to listen closely, and let the story lead. She is a filmmaker who understands storytelling from the idea to the screen - and everything in between.
Perverse Feminine
by Kalen Aradia (she/her/they)
16:07
In Perverse Feminine, four women challenge the cultural meaning of “perversion,” confronting shame, repression, and desire as they reclaim the parts of themselves once cast as deviant and discover new forms of identity and power.
Perverse Feminine follows four courageous women as they grapple with the meaning of “the perverse” in their lives. Each confronts the ways femininity has been shaped, policed, and pathologized by society, and shares their transformational story of reclaiming the parts of herself once cast as transgressive. Blending intimate testimony with community-sourced archival fragments and ritual imagery, the film moves between personal narrative and mythic symbolism. Storytellers echo a deeper psychological question: what happens when traits once labeled excessive, emotional, or unruly are no longer suppressed but claimed as sources of power? Expanding on the director’s research into the Perverse Feminine Archetype, this short documentary traces the tension between shame and power, revealing how acts of self-recognition can become a form of quiet resistance.
Kalen Aradia, PhD, is a filmmaker, author, and feminist scholar whose work examines the psychological and mythic dimensions of femininity. Her creative practice emerged from an inquiry into how women learn to relinquish power, shaped in part by her own experiences with domestic violence, psychiatric misdiagnosis, and the cultural pathologization of emotion. Seeking to understand why certain traits are labeled irrational or dangerous, her research led to the concept and transformative framework of the Perverse Feminine Archetype. As a published author, she blends scholarship with experimental nonfiction, striving to highlight collective stories of madness, sexuality, and spiritual rupture. Her work approaches the personal as mythic terrain, where individual experience becomes a lens for examining cultural power, resistance, and transformation.
by Kalen Aradia (she/her/they)
16:07
In Perverse Feminine, four women challenge the cultural meaning of “perversion,” confronting shame, repression, and desire as they reclaim the parts of themselves once cast as deviant and discover new forms of identity and power.
Perverse Feminine follows four courageous women as they grapple with the meaning of “the perverse” in their lives. Each confronts the ways femininity has been shaped, policed, and pathologized by society, and shares their transformational story of reclaiming the parts of herself once cast as transgressive. Blending intimate testimony with community-sourced archival fragments and ritual imagery, the film moves between personal narrative and mythic symbolism. Storytellers echo a deeper psychological question: what happens when traits once labeled excessive, emotional, or unruly are no longer suppressed but claimed as sources of power? Expanding on the director’s research into the Perverse Feminine Archetype, this short documentary traces the tension between shame and power, revealing how acts of self-recognition can become a form of quiet resistance.
Kalen Aradia, PhD, is a filmmaker, author, and feminist scholar whose work examines the psychological and mythic dimensions of femininity. Her creative practice emerged from an inquiry into how women learn to relinquish power, shaped in part by her own experiences with domestic violence, psychiatric misdiagnosis, and the cultural pathologization of emotion. Seeking to understand why certain traits are labeled irrational or dangerous, her research led to the concept and transformative framework of the Perverse Feminine Archetype. As a published author, she blends scholarship with experimental nonfiction, striving to highlight collective stories of madness, sexuality, and spiritual rupture. Her work approaches the personal as mythic terrain, where individual experience becomes a lens for examining cultural power, resistance, and transformation.
