Category: Best Student Film – 2025 WSXA Barcelona

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: The 7th Avenue

Director’s Name: Roger Escalante

Writer’s Name: Roger Escalante

Producer: Roger Escalante, Laura Yañez, Gabriela Iturralde

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming : Spain

Language: English

Runtime: 3 minutes 16 seconds

Film Description:

In London in the 1990s, Stanley, a reserved cab driver, frequents The 7th Avenue gay bar in the Soho district during his work breaks. Seemingly bewildered, memories of an earlier conflict assail him. Through flashbacks, Stanley’s discomfort and conflict over Thomas’ identity is revealed inside his cab, culminating in a tense moment in which he forcibly removes him from the vehicle. The short film concludes with an emotional reunion at The 7th Avenue, where Stanley discovers that the performer on stage is, unexpectedly, his own son.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: B2B

Director’s Name: Noam Debel

Writer’s Name: Noam Debel

Producer: Noam Debel

Country of Origin: Israel

Country of Filming : Israel

Language: Hebrew

Runtime: 6 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

What does it mean to be a man? In a reality where gender norms are changing, and the classical model of masculinity is being put to the test, is there a new masculinity, or just an old model in new forms? “B2B” (Ben Le Ben) seeks to examine contemporary masculinity through conversations with men in their late twenties. The project explores the tension between societal expectations and individual desires, between what we feel on the inside and what we present to the outside world. The project is aimed at raising questions about identity, gender, and relationships in a reality that is in constant motion.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: RIPTIDE

Director’s Name: Jorge Rimer, Laura Herrero García

Writer’s Name: Jorge Rimer, Laura Herrero García

Producer: Laura Herrero García

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming : Spain

Language:

Runtime: 4 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

Neela, a 26-year-old woman, seeks refuge in the sea to escape her troubled mind, only to be pulled into a dreamlike world where her darkest thoughts take shape.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Bastard

Director’s Name: Islam Gimazov

Writer’s Name: Islam Gimazov

Producer: Giovanna Ribeiro

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States

Language: English

Runtime: 14 minutes 43 seconds

Film Description:

Barging high into the house, a reckless, straightforward son fights with a merciless, perfectionist father, who seeks to understand why his son is becoming a low-life.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Flow

Director’s Name: Maja Rónyai, Janka Lelkes

Writer’s Name: Maja Rónyai, Janka Lelkes

Producer: Maja Rónyai

Country of Origin: Hungary

Country of Filming : Hungary

Language: Hungarian

Runtime: 8 minutes

Film Description:

Flow is an experimental short fiction movie about regular people experiencing the “flow” through everyday life. Watching the flow of scenes real time, we peak into the lives of separate individuals living completely different lives next to each other. We follow our main character through his route into the night as he crosses paths of strangers without even noticing it. We get the chance to experience flow in our everyday life, while getting the viewers into an immersive flow feeling.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Blackberry

Director’s Name: Katie O’Grady

Writer’s Name: Samantha Mei Paull,

Producer: Jessica Barr, Samantha Mei Paull, Katie O’Grady

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States

Language: English

Runtime: 15 minutes

Film Description:

When a group of friends sneak out of summer camp, they return to find that everyone has vanished and only a puzzle of mystic markings and blood remain.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: El Tonelero: Creando El Alma Del Barril

Director’s Name: Lou Guarneri, Maria T Luskay

Writer’s Name: Fiona Torres Moino

Producer:

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming : United States

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 33 minutes 59 seconds

Film Description:

La película PaceDocs de 2024 es una exploración del arte de la fabricación de barriles, también conocido como tonelería, que tiene una rica historia que se remonta a civilizaciones antiguas, con evidencia de contenedores de madera utilizados para almacenar y transportar líquidos encontrados en sitios arqueológicos que datan desde el año 2690 A.C. en Egipto. El tipo de barrica y el tipo de madera utilizada en la vinificacíon pueden influir significativamente en el sabor, el aroma y las características del vino en España, al igual que en otras regiones vitivinícolas del mundo.

Los vinos de la región de Montilla-Moriles son ampliamente conocidos desde hace siglos. La región vinícola se remonta al siglo octavo, convirtiéndose en uno de los vinos más antiguos de la región de Andalucía.

En este documental, producido por la Dra. Maria Luskay, el profesor Lou Guarneri y el equipo de cine documental de la Universidad Pace, los cineastas de PaceDocs hablaron con cooperadores y enólogos que han dedicado sus vidas a esta tradición.

En el proceso, aprendieron sobre el trabajo muy importante de la toneleríael—tonelero— y cómo las manos del tonelero contribuyen a la artesanía de la fabricación de barriles, con la alma de la barca en la esencia del sabor y la artesanía en el condimento del vino y los licores.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Overture

Director’s Name: Iris Ortega

Writer’s Name: Iris Ortega

Producer: Isabella Rose Leonard, Jackie Beran, Abby Weinstein, Maria Viana Busto

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States

Language: No Dialogue

Runtime: 14 minutes 59 seconds

Film Description:

This non dialogue short centers around a young boy who is both blind and deaf and has a passion for music. Each night before bed his parents host, what they call, ‘the concert hour’ for him in the living room. So for a few moments their child believes he is conducting his own orchesta and he guides himself through the vibrations that surround him. As the show goes on, we will realize not everything we see is what it seems, not even what we hear or feel.