Category: GLOBE AWARD – 2026 ARFF Barcelona

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: THROUGH THEIR EYES

Director’s Name: Cedric Brusselmans

Writer’s Name: Cedric Brusselmans

Producer: Cedric Brusselmans

Original Music: Pascal Chardome and Line Adam

Country of Origin: Belgium

Country of Filming : Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India

Language: English, French

Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes 27 seconds

Film Description:

THROUGH THEIR EYES follows the transformative journey of four teenagers who travel 25,000 km across Eurasia by train and bus. Told entirely through their voices, emotions, and questions, the film reveals an unfiltered encounter with some of the most urgent challenges of our time.

From a permaculture farm in India to the peaks of the Himalayas, from Bhutan’s spiritual traditions to the tensions in Tibet, the Uyghur region and Armenia, they navigate cultural diversity, climate fragility, oppression, and the educational systems shaping the next generations.

With honesty, humour, and disarming clarity, these teens explore what it means to grow and adapt in a rapidly changing world. THROUGH THEIR EYES is a luminous coming-of-age documentary where travel becomes a profound school of life – an invitation to rethink how we inhabit our planet.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Searching for the Paradise on Earth

Director’s Name: Sam Osmanagich

Writer’s Name: Sam Osmanagich

Producer: Sam Osmanagich

Country of Origin: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Country of Filming : Bahrain

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

Anthropologist Dr Sam Osmanagich is searching for the Lost Paradise on Earth, Land of Immortality, where supreme deity Enki lived for thousand of years. Has he found it in the beautiful Kingdom of Bahrain?

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Heal avec Delphine

Director’s Name: DELPHINE BREYNE

Writer’s Name: SALINA SIU

Producer: REED MORRISSEY

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States

Language: English

Runtime: 30 minutes

Film Description:

Heal avec Delphine is a deeply personal docuseries that follows individuals navigating life after cancer, trauma, alopecia, and other challenges. Each episode invites viewers into a powerful journey of reconnection and renewal—beginning with an intimate look at the person’s world, followed by a transformative beauty restoration at Delphine’s atelier, and ending with a meaningful surprise to mark their new beginning. Through heartfelt storytelling, emotional connection, and light-touch artistry, the series introduces a new era of beauty and healing, where feeling truly seen becomes the start of renewed self-confidence, emotional healing, and personal transformation.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: River Mamma

Director’s Name: Arun K. Vir

Writer’s Name: Arun K. Vir

Producer: Arun K. Vir, Willie E. Dawkins, Stefhen Bryan

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming : United States

Language: English

Runtime: 29 minutes 56 seconds

Film Description:

In Jamaica—where legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals are virtually non-existent and trans communities face profound risk—Jacqueline grapples with the impending transition to her female identity while mourning the loss of contact with her son, Michael. As hostility closes in around her, she is forced to confront what it means to live authentically in a society that denies her dignity, safety, and belonging.

(AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER)

Original Film Title: Shanaya’s Path

Director’s Name: Frank Röhrig

Writer’s Name: Frank Röhrig

Producer: Frank Röhrig

Country of Origin: Netherlands

Country of Filming: India

Language: English, Hindi, Nepali

Runtime: 54 minutes 17 secondsonds

Film Description:

Shanaya’s Path follows the intimate journey of Shanaya, a young person from Darjeeling who identifies as a woman and dreams of transitioning despite immense social and familial resistance. Since gender norms are rigid and visibility for trans people is scarce in her home town, Shanaya leaves for New Delhi, but her desire to become her true self is met with hostility, shame, and fear.
The documentary captures her daily struggles, private moments of reflection, and emotional conversations with her family, who struggle to accept her identity.
This is a deeply human portrait of resilience, courage, and self-discovery in the face of overwhelming odds.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Chronicles of the Inconvenient Truth

Director’s Name: Kaloian Nikolov

Writer’s Name: Kaloian Nikolov, Atanas Krustanov

Producer: Kaloian Nikolov, Peter Draganov

Country of Origin: Bulgaria

Country of Filming: Bulgaria

Language: Bulgarian

Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes 35 seconds

Film Description:

Chernobyl’s 1986 fallout hit Bulgaria hard: regime fear left civilians exposed via tainted feed, milk, and meat – the “Bulgarian Chernobyl” – while soldiers and the high class were spared.
Post-soviet media frenzy unleashed tragedy’s farce: wild claims sparked panic, needless risks, and threats to nuclear progress. History’s unlearned lessons leave a nation perilously exposed.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Those Were the Days

Director’s Name: Ernesto Yitux

Writer’s Name: Ernesto Yitux

Producer: Ernesto Yitux

Country of Origin: Ecuador

Country of Filming: Cuba

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 17 minutes

Film Description:

In 1987, a film school was founded next to a working-class town in western Cuba. For over three decades, hundreds of film students documented the lives of its people. Qué tiempos aquellos takes us to Pueblo Textil to explore what these memories mean today, what emotions they stir, and how they transform over time. A documentary about memory as both personal and collective experience.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: The Man on the Church Spire

Director’s Name: Edwin Beeler

Writer’s Name: Edwin Beeler

Producer: Edwin Beeler, Urs Augstburger

Country of Origin: Switzerland

Country of Filming: Switzerland

Language: German, Swiss German

Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes

Film Description:

He is the village chimney sweep, and as a roofer, he loves working on church steeples at dizzying heights. For the boy, his grandfather is a lucky charm and a strong man. He wants to emulate him and learn more about his heritage. But his grandfather’s fall from the roof changes everything, and on the filmmaker’s 31st birthday, an unimaginable suicide occurs.

What remains are open questions about intergenerational trauma, about male dominance, female subordination, about one’s own identity – and silence.