Category: BEST STUDENT FILM – ARFF Amsterdam 2026

Original Film Title: Türkiye: Rising from Silence

Director’s Name: Caner Mert, Daan Mansfeld

Writer’s Name: Caner Mert

Producer: Caner Mert

Country of Origin: Netherlands

Country of Filming: Turkey

Language: Turkish

Runtime: 26 minutes 48 seconds

Film Description:

Türkiye: Rising from Silence shows how a generation of young people in Turkey is growing up under repression, censorship, and fear, while those who speak out for freedom and democracy risk arrest, prosecution, and social exclusion.

Original Film Title: Eye Wall

Director’s Name: Masha Shaposhnikova

Writer’s Name: Masha Shaposhnikova

Producer: Masha Shaposhnikova

Country of Origin: Netherlands

Country of Filming: Netherlands

Language: English

Runtime: 13 minutes 38 seconds

Film Description:

Eye Wall is a drama unfolds against the backdrop of a massive hurricane Khanum in 2023.
Ae Cha, a young woman tries to survive in a slum with her baby daughter and demented mother, but the waters rise too fast…

Original Film Title: The League of Extraordinary Employees

Director’s Name: Melissa Arcak

Writer’s Name: Melissa Arcak, René Nicklaus, Thilo Kokozinski

Producer: Melissa Arcak, René Nicklaus, Jan Niederprüm, Nina Noskowiak

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 41 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

Lisa, Michael and Boris want to relax after a long week at work. But everything changes when an alien on board of a UFO suddenly lands and causes trouble in the neighborhood. Together with gas station cashier Daniela, they confront the uninvited guest so they can finally call it a day.

Original Film Title: BURNING PAGES

Director’s Name: Josephine Barbara van Duren

Writer’s Name: Josephine Barbara van Duren

Producer: Syed Hussain Ali, Jashan Doshi

Country of Origin: Netherlands, United Kingdom

Country of Filming: United Kingdom

Language: English

Runtime: 10 minutes 42 seconds

Film Description:

Lisane (19) embarks on a journey through the streets of London to find peace with losing the part of herself that will always be in love with Ben(23).

Original Film Title: Liars

Director’s Name: Guancheng Feng

Writer’s Name: Craig De Lorenzo

Producer: Kalen Eriksson

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 14 minutes 29 seconds

Film Description:

A reality show production team sets out to help an elderly man in New York reconnect with his family by staging his fake funeral, hoping to prompt his loved ones to cherish him more and spend quality time with him. However, the cameras unexpectedly uncover the hidden cracks beneath the family’s seemingly perfect facade.

Original Film Title: Drifting

Director’s Name: Lei He

Writer’s Name: Lei He

Producer: Lei He

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 25 minutes

Film Description:

In the depths of a coal mine, where sunlight disappears and time stretches into silence, Drifting observes the fragile rhythms of miners’ lives.
Moving between underground darkness and the surface world, the film captures moments of exhaustion, song, and quiet persistence. It reflects on labor as a condition of being—where the human body becomes entangled with the weight of the earth, and where survival unfolds against the vast scale of geological time.

Original Film Title: Grounded

Director’s Name: Lucy Brady

Writer’s Name: Lucy Brady

Producer: Zach Murrell

Country of Origin: Australia

Country of Filming: Australia

Language: English

Runtime: 10 minutes 34 seconds

Film Description:

In the aftermath of a failed robbery, Cindy and Lola flee with the body of their partner James. While Lola is focused on survival and escaping the consequences of their actions, Cindy becomes increasingly unable to accept James’ death, clinging to him long after he’s gone.
As the two women drive deep into the woods to bury the body, old resentments and buried truths begin to emerge. What starts as an attempt to cover their tracks slowly unravels into a tense emotional standoff fuelled by grief, paranoia, and desperation.

Original Film Title: Wear Share Repeat

Director’s Name: Matty Milligan, Jobin Jayin

Writer’s Name: Matty Milligan, Jobin Jayin

Producer: Stephanie Matteis, Sabine Weber

Country of Origin: Canada

Country of Filming: Canada

Language: English

Runtime: 17 minutes 39 seconds

Film Description:

Fashion and sustainability expert Sabine Weber brings us straight to the front row of a radical experiment: what happens when total strangers swap clothes?

The average shopper buys a new garment every week but only wears it a handful of times before it sits in the back of a closet unworn and forgotten. Wear, Share, Repeat tests whether sharing can rewrite the rules of consumption and cut down waste.

Tracking the data and some unexpected twists as dozens of strangers get involved in this project that builds toward a finale that doesn’t just answer a question of sustainability, it also reveals something deeper about those who took part.

Original Film Title: I’ve Been Having Dreams

Director’s Name: Nicolas Nunez

Writer’s Name: Nicolas Nunez

Producer: Holly Scott

Country of Origin: Australia, Netherlands

Country of Filming: Australia

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 19 minutes 35 seconds

Film Description:

The unexpected death of a young girl rocks her older brother, and haunts him with nightmares. As guilt-induced visions tear down his psyche, he must confront his sisters death and his parents suspicion before the family is torn apart.

Original Film Title: Just For Tonight

Director’s Name: Yona Luc Gagne

Writer’s Name: Yona Luc Gagne

Producer: Yona Luc Gagne

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 12 minutes 37 seconds

Film Description:

Viola, a young woman devoted to caring for her father, Dario, who is lost to illness, struggles under the weight of responsibility. As her world narrows to feeding, cleaning, and soothing him, she longs for freedom and connection. Torn between love and self-preservation, Viola must choose between remaining his caregiver or reclaiming her own life at the cost of leaving her fathers side, for just one night.