Category: BEST DIRECTOR – ARFF Amsterdam 2026

Original Film Title: Shadows

Director’s Name: Christopher Lambert

Writer’s Name: Christopher Lambert, Sean Simpson

Producer: Christopher Lambert

Country of Origin: New Zealand

Country of Filming: New Zealand

Language: English

Runtime: 16 minutes 8 seconds

Film Description:

A boxer trapped in a toxic relationship forms an unlikely connection with a troubled teenage boy, forcing them both to confront cycles of violence, pain, and survival.

Original Film Title: Will this still work…?

Director’s Name: Marco Girnth

Writer’s Name: Marco Girnth

Producer: Marco Girnth

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 21 minutes 40 seconds

Film Description:

Klaus, 65, lonesome in his small world. Caught by his daily routines, he lost the contact to the world around him. But life literally knocks at his door, and forces him to leave his cocoon… to let things happen again… to let “this still work…”

Original Film Title: Magan’s Fare

Director’s Name: Dana White, Chris Knoblock

Writer’s Name: Dana E White

Producer: Dana E White

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 25 minutes 48 seconds

Film Description:

WINNER, Best Live Action Short at Oscar Qualifying 2025 St Louis Int FF, Best Live Action Short nominee at the 2025 Raindance Film Festival, and WINNER, Programmer’s Choice Award at the 2026 Cleveland Int FF, Magan’s Fare is a story about Magan, a ride-share driver, who takes a woman back to her nursing home on a cold December day, to discover that the facility has given up her bed. Magan must now figure out what to do and decide how far he will go to help her.

Original Film Title: Wasted Love – Amore sprecato

Director’s Name: Pascal Häusermann

Writer’s Name: Pascal Häusermann

Producer: Pascal Häusermann

Country of Origin: Switzerland

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: German

Runtime: 40 minutes

Film Description:

With his first essay film, the artist returns to Genoa, the city where he spent several months two decades earlier. Once again, he follows the labyrinthine alleyways of the old town—spaces that once mirrored his inner states of doubt, desire, and artistic self-inquiry. Drawing on a diary written during that earlier stay, the film unfolds as an audiovisual montage in which city and self begin to merge and blur into one another.

Original Film Title: Baby Steps

Director’s Name: Justin Lamb, Chandler Bramstedt

Writer’s Name: Katherine Dawson, Julian Murdock, Woong Lee

Producer: Jacqueline Chenault, Eeshan Khandekar, Marie Sandoval

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 25 seconds

Film Description:

In an attempt to move forward with her life, a woman revisits a life-altering decision

Original Film Title: The Guardian Angel

Director’s Name: Andrei Christian Bortica

Writer’s Name: Andrei Christian Bortica

Producer: Catalina Bortica

Country of Origin: Romania

Country of Filming: Romania

Language: Romanian

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes 47 seconds

Film Description:

After his wife is kidnapped by the Italian mafia, Andrei
assumes a false identity and infiltrates the rival
organization. In a dangerous game of deception and betrayal,
every step brings him closer either to saving his family or
to his own destruction.

Original Film Title: Two Sisters

Director’s Name: Clément Dupeux

Writer’s Name: Clément Dupeux

Producer: Victor Robert

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes

Film Description:

Marine and Barbara are sisters.
They are one year apart. They grow up together in small towns and villages, surrounded by the French countryside. They attend the same schools, the same catechism classes, the same sports clubs.
Marine becomes a stage director.
Barbara joins the jihad and meets her death.

Original Film Title: 7 Floors to Midnight

Director’s Name: Sebastian Fesser

Writer’s Name: Sebastian Fesser

Producer: Sebastian Fesser

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 10 minutes 14 seconds

Film Description:

Claus leads a miserable life in a squalid apartment. After being evicted from his home due to rent arrears, he intends to commit suicide—but suddenly, an unknown naked woman appears at his door.