Category: BEST FEATURE FILM – 2025 ARFF AMSTERDAM

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: JAD

Director’s Name: JAMIL NAJJAR

Writer’s Name: JAMIL NAJJAR

Producer: Khaled Habachi

Country of Origin: Tunisia

Country of Filming : Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes

Film Description:

Inspired by a true story, Jad follows the journey of Ahmed, an ambitious young businessman whose life is turned upside down when his brother, Mehdi, is involved in a serious car accident. Rushed to the hospital, Mehdi falls into a critical state, forcing Ahmed to leave behind his world of certainty for one of waiting and anguish.

Trapped in an overcrowded public hospital, Ahmed discovers a reality he had never truly perceived before: packed hallways, patients left to their fate, overworked caregivers, and distressed families. This place becomes the stage for a life-altering experience, where every moment is a battle between hope and despair.

Through sleepless days and nights, Ahmed crosses paths with broken destinies and invisible heroes. Caught between compromises, bureaucracy, and helplessness in the face of illness, he is confronted with his own limitations, his prejudices, and a reality he can no longer ignore. This ordeal will forever change the way he sees life and the value of humanity.

Realizing that the end of a dream follows the beginning of daylight, Adam witnesses the death of Anki, who has reached the age of eighty. Fulfilling his friend’s last wish, Adam places Anki’s body in a small fishing boat and takes it south across the Euphrates River to the sea.

Alone at the riverbank, Adam listens to the sounds of his eternal childhood, where the boundaries between dream and reality blur.

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: The Answering Machine

Director’s Name: Jose Cortes

Writer’s Name: Jose Cortes, Steffen Kuester, Juliane Gabriel

Producer: Ulfa von den Steinen, Alexej Mend

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming : Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes

Film Description:

The Answering Machine follows a young opera singer from Berlin as she struggles beneath the weight of her family’s expectations, the unforgiving demands of the opera world, and the darkness festering within her own psyche. What begins as a pursuit of perfection becomes a harrowing descent into fear, self-doubt, and fractured identity. As her sense of reality unravels, music — once her refuge — morphs into both her torment and salvation. In this psychological drama, sound and silence intertwine to chart the excruciating journey toward self-awareness, where every note carries the echo of pain… and the possibility of truth.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: SONGS OF ADAM

Director’s Name: Oday Rasheed

Writer’s Name: Oday Rasheed

Producer: Majed Rasheed

Country of Origin: Iraq

Country of Filming : Iraq

Language: Arabic

Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes

Film Description:

In a remote Mesopotamian village on the banks of the Euphrates River, twelve-year-old Adam decides to stop time within himself. Only three people believe in his ability to defy time: Anki, his loyal best friend; Ali, his younger brother; and Iman, his cousin, whose dreams of a future with Adam are shattered by his choice.

As the years pass, the villagers grow suspicious of Adam’s unchanging appearance. When a devastating weevil infestation strikes the crops for the second year in a row, the villagers blame Adam, believing he is cursed. He is imprisoned in an old, isolated barn, where he remains for over twelve years.

In the barn, through a magical blend of innocence and wonder, Adam remains untouched by time. However, the world around him, and those he loves, continue to age. Anki, now his jailer, transforms into the guardian of Adam’s eternal childhood. Adam draws Anki back to his childhood self, reviving the lost days of their friendship, regardless of how much time has passed.

Everyone gets old, except Adam.

Ali watches time slip away, growing increasingly disillusioned as he struggles to reconcile his aging self with the image of the forever-young Adam, while Iman, once filled with dreams of love, tangles time and space on her deathbed.

Realizing that the end of a dream follows the beginning of daylight, Adam witnesses the death of Anki, who has reached the age of eighty. Fulfilling his friend’s last wish, Adam places Anki’s body in a small fishing boat and takes it south across the Euphrates River to the sea.

Alone at the riverbank, Adam listens to the sounds of his eternal childhood, where the boundaries between dream and reality blur.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Be Myself Be Happy

Director’s Name: Ray Leung

Writer’s Name: Ray Leung, Andrea Zhao

Producer: Jieqiang Wu

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming : China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

Film Description:

This film uses the nonlinear narrative style to tell the story of how four separated characters were influenced by a young boy to find their right way of living.

In a society fraught with intense competition, we meet Guo, unemployed guy has a pregnant wife to support; Wu, a good high school student pressured by a “tiger mom” to achieve but forced to hide his true self; Senior Wang, the elderly craftsman , who feels obsolete by his son’s family; and Lady Zhao, who works hard but faces sexual harassment in the workplace. They are like lost sheep, stumbling at life’s crossroads, seemingly a step away from dire consequences. But then, a pure-hearted young boy from the Loess Plateau, Zheng, appears beside each of these lost characters. In his simple and sincere way, he inspires them, helping each of them to calm down, step back from the brink, and make better choices, ultimately altering their life paths.

(Winner)

Original Film Title: 17 DAYS OF NOVEMBER

Director’s Name: VALENTÍ FIGUERES JORGE

Writer’s Name: VALENTÍ FIGUERES JORGE, HELENA SÁNCHEZ BEL

Producer: VALENTÍ FIGUERES JORGE

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming : Spain

Language: Catalan, Spanish

Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes 46 seconds

Film Description:

Juan García Oliver and José Antonio Primo de Rivera never met face to face, until today… in the Purgatory of History.

This is the story of a Waiter and a Marquis.

17 DAYS OF NOVEMBER narrates the moment where two vital trajectories intersect and lead to a tragic outcome: the execution of José Antonio Primo de Rivera on November 20th, 1936.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Stranded

Director’s Name: Akin-Tijani Balogun

Writer’s Name: Olayinka Ayinde, Michael Wisdom

Producer: Joseph Akowe, Rachel Akowe, Edward Akowe, Rosemary Ikheloa

Country of Origin: Nigeria

Country of Filming : Nigeria

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes

Film Description:

Grace is a young lady with a loving suitor, Francis, on her neck. But she consistently puts him on hold to sort out issues of the past. However, Francis is willing to wait no matter how long it takes. The relationship surviving all sorts of bumps, Grace finds herself unable to resist Francis’ charms for too long. But at the moment she is about to give in, she receives a call that changes everything.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: The Shadow of History

Director’s Name: Moein Hasheminasab

Writer’s Name: Moein Hasheminasab

Producer: Moein Hasheminasab

Country of Origin: Germany, Iran, Islamic Republic of

Country of Filming : Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes

Film Description:

The Shadow of History follows the story of Lina, a young woman carrying a painful memory from her childhood — a time when, in silence and vulnerability, she was assaulted by her history teacher. Now, she seeks to raise her voice, however trembling it may be. Lina is not alone on this path; Sophia, her close friend, stands beside her in solidarity. The Shadow of History challenges censorship and historical distortion, striving to shed light on the bitter truths of wars and violations. This film is an ongoing journey in the search for freedom — a deep exploration of unwritten history and untold injustices, along a path that continues despite all its hardships.

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: The Perfect Family

Director’s Name: Pablo De Antuñano

Writer’s Name: Pablo De Antuñano

Producer: Raul Ramírez, Carlos Pérez, Rodolfo García

Country of Origin: Mexico

Country of Filming : Mexico

Language:

Runtime: 2 hours

Film Description:

The COVID pandemic only sharpened and exacerbated the hidden vices of society
contemporary.

Stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, techno-dependency, domestic violence and addictions are the new horsemen of the apocalypse that corrode and tear down what was the most solid social structure for millennia: The family.

Normalization and invisibility are the first obstacle to mental health and in this film we wanted to make a global call to recover the safest place we have: our home.