Category: Best Documentary – 2025 ARFF Paris

Original Film Title: On Melting Snow

Director’s Name: Mojtaba Bahadori

Writer’s Name: Mojtaba Bahadori

Producer: Mojtaba Bahadori, Sophie Cauvin

Country of Origin: Belgium, Iceland

Country of Filming : Belgium, Iceland, Morocco

Language: French

Runtime: 1 hour 13 minutes

Film Description:

Each landscape reflects a memory of our planet, memories that have been cruelly divided by time and man-made political borders. For the past 33 years, Sophie Cauvin has been on a journey to engage with these transformed landscapes, collecting and reuniting these fragmented memories, and immortalizing them in her astonishing art creations.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: SHALOM PASSION; Never Again is NOW!

Director’s Name: Or Ben David

Writer’s Name: Carey Smolensky

Producer: Carey Smolensky

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Israel

Language: English, Hebrew

Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes 43 seconds

Film Description:

Documentary, produced by Carey Smolensky, filmed in December 2023 during Carey’s two week volunteer mission to Israel after the horrific attack on October 7th, where he embraced and uplifted those ravaged by conflict while seeing and experiencing the people and sights of a beautiful country on its path to heal itself.

Shalom (peace) is a core value of Judaism. The Jewish people will always want and have hope for Peace. Every time Israel was attacked, they not only defended their land and defeated their enemies, while capturing additional land. This land was then given back in exchange for peace. Hamas’ attack on Israel was not for land, it was solely to terrorize and kill Jews. As Golda Meir profoundly said, “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: All People Free Documentary Short Film

Director’s Name: Duda Penteado

Writer’s Name: Duda Penteado

Producer: Unshakeable Productions

Country of Origin:

Country of Filming :

Language:

Runtime: 10 minutes 15 seconds

Film Description:

“ALL PEOPLE FREE” – SHINING A LIGHT ON THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY IN BRICK KILNS
Acclaimed artivist and filmmaker Duda Penteado presents All People Free, a powerful short documentary that exposes the little-known yet devastating reality of modern-day slavery in brick kiln factories across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. With over 20 million people trapped in forced labor—nearly half of them children—this film is a call to justice and a catalyst for global change.

This 10-minute documentary, designed for film festivals and community screenings, gives voice to survivors, unpacks the complexities of this global crisis, and exposes the deep connection between exploitation in brick kilns and broader economic systems and instability. By spotlighting sustainable solutions and collective action, All People Free seeks to galvanize audiences to take meaningful steps toward ending modern slavery.

Produced by Unshakeable Productions, the film presents a deeply moving visual narrative that brings attention to the unimaginable suffering endured by families working under inhumane conditions in the brick-making industry. Through intimate storytelling and firsthand accounts, All People Free sheds light on a human rights crisis that remains largely hidden from the world’s view.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: NADO

Director’s Name: Daniele Farina

Writer’s Name: Massimo Canuti, Roberto Farina, Daniele Farina

Producer: Daniele Farina, Matteo Mavero

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming : Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 1 hour 8 minutes

Film Description:

NADO is an intimate and powerful journey through the life and work of
one of the greatest Italian sculptors of the twentieth century. A
story of resistance and courage, a human parable of
will and joy that spans a whole century.
Nado Canuti has faced the difficulties of life since he was young with tenacity and vision, transforming every obstacle into
material to be sculpted. The story of a man who with three fingers
shaped his destiny.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Unlabelled

Director’s Name: Colette Johnson-Vosberg

Writer’s Name: Colette Johnson-Vosbergd, Patricia Jubin

Producer: Colette Johnson-Vosberg

Country of Origin: Canada

Country of Filming : Canada

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes

Film Description:

Unlabeled delves into the deeply personal journeys of three transgender individuals— Emery Payne, Lucy Belgum, and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee. Their story confronts the profound challenge of being born into the wrong body and each tells their transformative paths toward personal freedom and self-realization.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: The Amazone

Director’s Name: Émilie Maréchal, Camille Meynard

Writer’s Name: Émilie Maréchal, Camille Meynard, Patricia Jubin

Producer: Anne-Laure Guégan, Géraldine Sprimont

Country of Origin: Belgium

Country of Filming : Belgium, France

Language: French

Runtime: 1 hour 12 minutes

Film Description:

The Amazone is an intimate portrait of a mother and daughter in a family where women have been affected by breast cancer for four generations.
The film tells a story of love and resilience, where sharing, talking and reconciliation stand up to isolation, silence and rupture.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: The Life You Stole From Me

Director’s Name: Christine Ravier, Johan Touleron

Writer’s Name: Christine Ravier, Johan Touleron

Producer: Christine Ravier, Johan Touleron

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming : France

Language: French

Runtime: 54 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

Franck is 10 years old and has just started attending a prestigious school in his hometown when he becomes the victim of a pedophile teacher. The hold exerted on him is so strong that he only manages to escape the influence of his agressor and rapist as an adult. He tells us, on-camera, about his search for the truth after years of lies. In order to free himself, the adult Franck explores the inner workings of manipulation. He omits nothing of what he long considered to be his “complicity” and the consequences it has on his life in a strikingly honest encounter with himself.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Return to the Fields

Director’s Name: Mengjiao Zhou

Writer’s Name: Ruishan Li

Producer: Kaitai Yang, Junlong Guo, Lu Chen, Liu Siyu

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming : China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 18 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

This documentary tells the story of a Chinese man named Zhou Anjun and his return to his hometown to farm. He was the only college student in his village, but he was unlucky and had a rough life as a farmer. He eventually returned to his hometown and occupied several acres of farmland. His story showed his perseverance in facing the repeated attempts and efforts after hard work. He did not feel ashamed for returning to his hometown to farm, but instead found belonging in the land, regained his dreams in hard work, and found his own happy life in the countryside.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Han İnsanları

Director’s Name: Kenan Yeşilyurt

Writer’s Name: Kenan Yeşilyurt

Producer: Kenan Yeşilyurt

Country of Origin: Turkey

Country of Filming : Turkey

Language: Turkish

Runtime: 46 minutes

Film Description:

Seeds of Sovereignty is a thought-provoking documentary that explores Mexico’s growing struggle with the United States to protect its biodiversity and food sovereignty. At the center of the conflict is U.S. pressure on Mexico to adopt GMO corn and industrial farming practices, posing a serious threat to the country’s traditional agriculture and environmental health.

In response, the Mexican government and advocacy groups have mobilized to resist these efforts, sparking a powerful movement to safeguard food sovereignty, biodiversity, and sustainability.

Through striking visuals and compelling narratives, Seeds of Sovereignty exposes the harmful effects of industrial farming in both nations and challenges viewers to reflect on a country’s right to provide its people with safe, nutritious food while preserving its environment and cultural heritage.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Seeds of Sovereignty

Director’s Name: Stuart J Tanner

Writer’s Name: Stuart J Tanner

Producer: Stuart J Tanner

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States, Mexico

Language: English, Spanish

Runtime: 50 minutes

Film Description:

Seeds of Sovereignty is a thought-provoking documentary that explores Mexico’s growing struggle with the United States to protect its biodiversity and food sovereignty. At the center of the conflict is U.S. pressure on Mexico to adopt GMO corn and industrial farming practices, posing a serious threat to the country’s traditional agriculture and environmental health.

In response, the Mexican government and advocacy groups have mobilized to resist these efforts, sparking a powerful movement to safeguard food sovereignty, biodiversity, and sustainability.

Through striking visuals and compelling narratives, Seeds of Sovereignty exposes the harmful effects of industrial farming in both nations and challenges viewers to reflect on a country’s right to provide its people with safe, nutritious food while preserving its environment and cultural heritage.