Category: 2025 WSXA Paris

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: (IN)VISIBLE

Director’s Name: Sam JosephRudolph

Writer’s Name: Sam Joseph

Producer: Sam Joseph

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: United Kingdom

Language: English

Runtime: 11 minutes 21 seconds

Film Description:

(IN)VISIBLE is a psychological short debut film written, directed and produced by Sam Joseph that explores the psychological effects of domestic abuse and society’s complicity in trial and judgement, silencing women’s truths. Through an innovative style of sustainable filmmaking, a young wife, tightly controlled by her older husband, is misread as cold while he charms his friends. When he suddenly leaves during a very awkward and tense pre dinner gathering in an unfinished interior backdrop of an art exhibition, she finds herself at the centre of an uncomfortable damning trial by those who only know his version of the story.
The film’s emotional power lies in what remains unsaid, avoiding gratuitous violence, it also challenges how violence against women is too often portrayed on screen. Instead, it reveals the insidious nature of abuse, gaslighting and coercive control and the ease with which a perpetrator can shape a narrative, leaving the survivor to face societal judgment. The trial unfolds around a contemporary table setting, echoing iconic scenes from art history, underscoring the cyclical and enduring patterns of how women are seen, silenced, and judged.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Flying Low

Director’s Name: Xiong Wei

Writer’s Name: Xiong Wei

Producer: Qiu Jia Qiu

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 29 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

Tianyu, a 13-year-old middle school boy from a poor family, was raised by his father alone. Even though Tianyu still had a chance to be admitted despite his hard work, he gave up the high school entrance examination together with a girl he had a good relationship within the class. But on the day of the high school entrance examination, Tianyu found that the result was not what he expected…

Later, Tianyu followed his father to Dongguan, the most developed coastal area and the most factories in China, because his father thought that there might be more job opportunities there.

Tianyu’s father did not want Tianyu to enter society too early, so he spent a lot of savings on Tianyu to choose a good local vocational school that did not require high school examination results. He hoped that he could continue to study there and have a better future way out.

Soon, the second school year was coming to an end, and Tianyu didn’t know whether he would spend more money to enter the college entrance examination class, or he would participate in a corporate internship stipulated by the state and enter a factory arranged by the school.

However, Tianyu also learned that even if his father was willing to pay more to allow him to enter the college entrance examination class, he would not be able to take the spring college entrance examination in this city in the first place because of his father…

It is too late for him.

In the end, how will Tianyu choose…

(AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS)

Original Film Title: Scattered Flowers

Director’s Name: Raquel Gardner

Writer’s Name: Annie Creech

Producer: Annie Creech, Raquel Gardner, MacKenzie Lee, Leona Igoe

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 22 minutes 49 seconds

Film Description:

The bond between sisters is tested in this short film that explores the definition of family and the sacrifices we make—as well as the secrets we keep—to protect the ones we love.