Category: Best Music Video – 2025 ARFF Barcelona

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Country Couture

Director’s Name: Dustin J Robison

Writer’s Name: Dustin J Robison

Producer: Cali Tucker, Michael Forsch

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 3 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: The Tasty Kings with Blondie Chaplin “Maybe I’m a Queen”

Director’s Name: Jacques Naudé

Writer’s Name: Andrew Morse

Producer: Chelsea Greenwood, Steve Cozzarelli, Lucas Carpenter, Mikalya Gamble, Evan Bauer

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 4 minutes 28 seconds

Film Description:

Short form film for “Maybe I’m a Queen, a key focus track from ‘Native Tongue,’ the critically-acclaimed album by The Tasty Kings with Blondie Chaplin. Directed by Jacques Naudé, the exquisitely-shot cinematic art-house clip features South African singer Blondie Chaplin, known for his recording and touring work with The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and The Rolling Stones, and a standout cast of dreamers and doers.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Musia Totibadze – PROSHAY

Director’s Name: Daria Gushchina

Writer’s Name: Musia Totibadze

Producer: Alena Protasova, Ksenia Turchinskaya, Bogdan Krutov, Tatiana Kurikhina

Country of Origin: Russian Federation

Country of Filming: Russian Federation

Language: Russian

Runtime: 7 minutes 12 seconds

Film Description:

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Mezameru Wakusei – The Awakening Planet –

Director’s Name: Koichiro Tsujikawa

Producer: Gutevolk

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: English, Japanese

Runtime: 4 minutes 12 seconds

Film Description:

This music video was born from a remote collaboration between filmmaker Koichiro Tsujikawa and musician Gutevolk during the COVID-19 pandemic, an “audio-visual exchange diary” shared through social media over a period of several weeks.

Working under the concept of an “audio-visual exchange diary,” Tsujikawa filmed “sketches” of plants and stones that caught his eye during morning strolls, and then sent these sketches to Gutevolk, who put sound to the fragments of stop-motion in reply. Over the course of several weeks, the two artists continued to exchange sketches while uploading a new video to social media each day, making their process visible. This process culminated in the completed video for Gutevolk’s song “Mezameru Wakusei” (“The Awakening Planet”).

Following the diary’s completion, Gutevolk released a series of songs inspired by the work, including “The Number of Blinks,” “An Encouragement of Whistling,” “Fly Me,” “Läpinäkyvä,” “Mizuiro Kodomo,” and “I’m Gonna Be a UFO.”

All scenes in the film were shot in the park near Tsujikawa’s home in Tokyo, and the sound was rendered in Gutevolk’s home studio. In the thick of the pandemic, the artists took motivation from their closed environment, looking to the objects in their surroundings and using them as a source of creation.

Tsujikawa’s rich imagination and meticulous stop-motion brings to life stones, leaves, flowers, and tree branches that move around happily like living creatures, sometimes lovingly, sometimes comically, in vivid color.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: In The Garden

Director’s Name: Artemis Tzavra-Bulloch

Writer’s Name: Sharon Eliashar

Producer: Harold Linde

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 3 minutes

Film Description:

The In the Garden music video by Rubi Ate the Fig takes viewers on a mystical journey through a desert landscape, capturing a surreal fusion of Middle Eastern influences and rock rhythms. The video follows a central character, a woman dressed in flowing, colorful garments, as she embarks on a symbolic quest for meaning and enlightenment. Amidst arid sands, ancient artifacts, and hauntingly beautiful landscapes, she encounters cryptic symbols and evocative imagery, which allude to spiritual themes and the harmony between humanity and nature. Through visual storytelling, the video evokes a sense of timeless mystery, reflecting the band’s unique blend of desert rock and exotic, ethereal soundscapes.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Koreańskie Seriale “The Korean Series”

Director’s Name: Valeria Cocco

Writer’s Name: Valeria Cocco

Producer: Camera Nera

Country of Origin: Poland

Country of Filming: Poland

Language: Polish

Runtime: 4 minutes 58 seconds

Film Description:

An intimate journey towards self-love inside a surreal world where the protagonist is trapped in a multimedia prison and the characters are divided into fragments.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: THE DEEP ROLLING: MAGMA

Director’s Name: Robin Scovill

Writer’s Name: Robin Scovill

Producer: Robin Scovill

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: No Dialogue

Runtime: 10 minutes

Film Description:

When an explosive Detroit jazz sextet begins rehearsing in a desolate industrial lounge, their music awakens iconic producer Warren Defever from a transcendental hibernation and, guided by unseen forces, he drives his classic Ford to where they are playing, and utilizing vintage gear and old school recording techniques, captures and inspires—live on tape—the band’s virtuoso, unrivaled performance.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Moondweller

Director’s Name: Kin Shing Kwok

Writer’s Name: Kin Shing Kwok

Producer: Ka Lee Cheuk

Country of Origin: Hong Kong

Country of Filming: Hong Kong

Language: Yue Chinese (Cantonese)

Runtime: 4 minutes 14 seconds

Film Description:

From the 1960s’ moon race to today’s lunar colonization efforts, humanity has always looked to the stars. “Moondweller” reimagines this quest as a poetic escape from our troubled Earth.

The protagonist flees to the moon, bringing only his most cherished possessions: flowers, a stuffed rabbit, rare stones, and a beloved guitar. On this barren world, he finds solace in solitude, dancing and singing amidst his lunar sanctuary.

But paradise is short-lived. Human forces invade, destroying everything the Moondweller holds dear. Faced with this senseless destruction, he contemplates a drastic solution: resetting Earth itself.

While fantastical, this narrative mirrors our reality. It reminds us how quickly human actions can devastate our world – from a single flower to entire ecosystems. “Moondweller” urges us to cherish and protect our fragile Earth, the only home we truly have.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Last Night

Director’s Name: Patrick Nevian, Alice Schmidt

Writer’s Name: Alice Schmidt

Producer: Patrick Nevian

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: France, Germany

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 3 minutes 38 seconds

Film Description:

It’s about a relationship that’s broken, about the ambivalence of remembering the good as well as the bad times, and grappling with the fresh start.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Gungja

Director’s Name: taeyoung choi

Writer’s Name: taeyoung choi

Producer: Joy Company Intaek JUNG

Country of Origin: Korea, Republic of

Country of Filming: Korea, Republic of

Language: Korean

Runtime: 3 minutes 59 seconds

Film Description:

The part where Lee Do-ryong and Seong Chun-hyang share their love in the classic Korean Pansori novel ‘GungjaJabdam’ was arranged and sung in a modern Gugak sound.

While thinking about Huayang Yeonhwa (the most beautiful moment in life), she happily expressed the space and story of the palace from a modern perspective. “The age when flowers bloom” means the most beautiful and vibrant time in life, and it is compared to the most colorful and vibrant moment when flowers are in full bloom.