Category: BEST ANIMATION & VFX – ARFF BERLIN 2026

Original Film Title: Cross fire echoes

Director’s Name: Ahmed Saleh Hammadi

Writer’s Name: Ahmed Saleh Hammadi

Producer: Ahmed Saleh Hammadi

Country of Origin: Egypt

Country of Filming: Egypt

Language: English

Runtime: 5 minutes

Film Description:

A musical movie / music video about why are we fighting and killing for no reason who is responsible

Original Film Title: Lithonosaur

Director’s Name: Young-ju Lee

Writer’s Name: Young-ju Lee

Producer: Young-ju Lee

Country of Origin: South Korea

Country of Filming: South Korea

Language: English

Runtime: 4 minutes 59 seconds

Film Description:

An adventure comedy depicting the coming-of-age story of “Litonosaurus,” who survived with a positive attitude despite facing extinction.
Through an adventure that turns a massive predator into a loyal companion dinosaur,
the film offers courage and laughter that transform fear into curiosity.

Original Film Title: NOISE

Director’s Name: Ziping YU

Writer’s Name: Ziping YU

Producer: Ziping YU

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language:

Runtime: 5 minutes

Film Description:

The story follows a gifted racing driver who encounters an inner crisis at the peak of his career. On the track, the temptations of fame and the clutter of his mind transform into a black mist that steadily erodes his sense of self. As desire threatens to consume him entirely, he teeters on the brink of losing control. Yet, in the final moment before his sanity gives way, his original self emerges—dispelling the mist and awakening the pure passion that had nearly been extinguished. In that instant, he completes a journey of redemption and return, making a final choice between desire and true love for the sport.
At its core, the film explores how individuals in modern society can guard the purity within themselves amid the torrent of desire. On the road of ambition, have we too been clouded by the “black mist”? And do we still remember the simple, burning passion that first gave us the strength to move forward?

Original Film Title: The Uninvited at Number 21

Director’s Name: Emmanuel Blanc

Writer’s Name: Emmanuel Blanc

Producer: Emmanuel Blanc

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: No Dialogue

Runtime: 2 minutes 15 seconds

Film Description:

An uninvited guest quietly slips into a Parisian building, his purpose unclear.

Original Film Title: Coexistence

Director’s Name: Myungson Chung

Writer’s Name: Myungson Chung

Producer: Myungson Chung

Country of Origin: South Korea

Country of Filming: South Korea

Language: Korean

Runtime: 4 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

Setting: A High-Tech Society Void of Emotion
In near-future Seoul, humanity lives in total integration with AI through groundbreaking technological leaps. Paradoxically, however, creativity and pure human emotions are becoming depleted. Under the guise of creating a “better future,” society carries out experiments to extract essential human data to achieve a perfect, seamless fusion with AI.

The Experiment: Harvesting the Emotions of Children
Dr. Park, the research director of a mega-corporation, uses children with high emotional sensitivity as experimental subjects. He triggers intense emotions—such as fear, longing, and sorrow—in a young girl (KIT-156) to extract them into energy or data formats. When the children ask, “Why must it be us?” and question the possibility of true coexistence, the system labels their reactions as “unstable” and forcibly “corrects” (deletes) them.

Commodifying Emotion: “I Want to Buy Happiness”
The harvested emotions are stored in massive data centers and sold as commodities to adults who have lost the ability to feel. Watching the children’s suffering on monitors, people display grotesque desires, shouting, “I want to buy happiness” or “Give me something other than sadness.” An inhumane market has emerged where even the most private human feelings are processed and traded.

The Crumbling Utopia
While Dr. Park dreams of a perfect union between man and machine by mechanizing his own body, he is forced to confront the agonizing memories of a man who lost his family. The hologram city and parks, which once appeared peaceful, turn blood-red and begin to collapse due to a “system error.” Combat robots and uncontrollable AI soon overrun the city.

Conclusion: Coexistence or Encroachment?
Amidst the ruins of a destroyed world, a man poses a fundamental, existential question: “Can AI and humanity truly coexist?” Standing before a massive wall of darkness woven from distorted human arms, the film ends with a grim warning: a future where humanity is consumed by AI and loses its very essence.

Original Film Title: MADS & The Freak Factory

Director’s Name: Yda Neves

Writer’s Name: Yda Neves

Producer: Sherin Jonker

Country of Origin: Netherlands

Country of Filming: Netherlands

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 21 seconds

Film Description:

MADS & the Freak Factory is a narrative fashion and music film that transforms the themes of the original song Stereotype into a surreal allegory about identity, categorization, and the systems through which people are understood and evaluated.
Set within a surreal and darkly whimsical factory world, the film follows a young girl as she enters the mysterious MADS Factory, where extraordinary figures move through an enigmatic system of observation, judgment, and transformation. As she ventures deeper into this meticulously controlled world, the line between individuality and classification begins to dissolve, revealing a haunting reflection on the labels that define us—and those who define them.
Blending original music (by Halle Day), handcrafted origami-inspired fashion (by Y.N.Y), and AI-assisted visual worldbuilding, MADS & the Freak Factory is a darkly whimsical allegory Blending original music, handcrafted origami-inspired fashion, and AI-assisted visual worldbuilding, MADS & the Freak Factory is a darkly whimsical allegory about identity, judgment, and the consequences of reducing human beings to predefined roles. The film does not offer answers, but invites reflection on the systems through which we see and define one another.

Original Film Title: Mercy

Director’s Name: Dean Bubello

Writer’s Name: Dean Bubello

Producer: Dean Bubello

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 31 seconds

Film Description:

Amid the devastation of World War I, a wounded soldier encounters an unexpected lifeline — a mercy dog trained to seek out the injured left behind on the battlefield. Told with restraint and quiet observation, Mercy explores compassion in the most inhumane of places, asking whether kindness can endure when survival is no longer guaranteed.

Original Film Title: Heart

Director’s Name: Afroza Sultana

Writer’s Name: Afroza Sultana

Producer: Afroza Sultana

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: English

Runtime: 9 minutes 10 seconds

Film Description:

In a world that bruises the tender-hearted, a woman slowly learns to protect herself by growing stronger with every wound. Each harsh encounter adds another layer of strength until the heart that once felt everything begins to grow quiet. The emotions never disappear—they simply retreat into silence.

Through the image of a rusting iron heart, the film reflects on how deeply emotional people survive the harshness of reality: not by losing their feelings, but by learning when to hide them from a world that rarely understands them.

Original Film Title: TWO LEFTS AND A TRAIL OF BREADCRUMBS

Director’s Name: Reagan Marie Brock

Writer’s Name: Reagan Marie Brock

Producer: brockcastmedia

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 28 seconds

Film Description:

SOME CALL HIM A FAIRY-TALE ICON.
OTHERS CALL HIM THE ORIGINAL BREADCRUMBER.

The Gingerbread Man has one rule: don’t stop moving.

So when two kids accidentally tumble into his bizarre candy-coated world after reading from an old storybook, he immediately does what he does best — panic, deflect, and pretend he absolutely does not care. But getting them home means surviving a city full of melting roads, popcorn sandstorms, aggressive gumdrop pigeons, and a suspiciously judgmental marshmallow council.

As the children drag him across a world he’s spent years running through, the Gingerbread Man starts realizing something horrifying: he might actually be becoming… emotionally available.

Two Lefts and a Trail of Breadcrumbs is a funny, heart-filled adventure about found family, fear of connection, and the world’s most emotionally avoidant cookie.

Original Film Title: Wartime Dream

Director’s Name: Daniele D’Angelo

Writer’s Name: Daniele D Angelo

Producer: Fatti non foste snc

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

It is a daydream while the war rages on. Only art and culture can combat arrogance and stupidity.