Category: ARFF BERLIN 2026

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The Assassin’s Apprentice 2: Silbadores of the Canary Islands – dir. Russ Emanuel

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Original Film Title: The Assassin’s Apprentice 2: Silbadores of the Canary Islands

Director’s Name: Russ Emanuel

Writer’s Name: Paul Hickman

Producer: Paul Hickman, Ryan T. Husk, Howard Nash

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Spain, United States

Language: English

Runtime: 25 minutes 23 seconds

Film Description:

Kaylee, an apprentice assassin for TAA Corp., is taking a long-deserved vacation in the Canary Islands, when her Freerunner drone arrives to project a holographic image of Rick, her handler. Rick explains to Kaylee that her vacation has been cut short, and that she is being urgently summoned by Roy, the head of TAA Corp.’s Canary Island Bureau headquarters, for a new mission. Kaylee follows the Freerunner drone to the TAA Corp.’s Canary Island headquarters, where Roy explains that F.A.D., a rival group of counter-assassins, are on the island to eliminate TAA Corp.’s drone trainers, known as “Silbadores.” Kaylee drives her ninja motorcycle at breakneck speeds along beautiful coastal roads to TAA Corp.’s drone training grounds where she saves the Silbadores from deadly Swarmbots unleashed by the F.A.D. counter-assassins. A final showdown with the F.A.D. counter-assassins Sork and Karla ends with a surprising result.

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The Contract – dir. Milan Smith

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Original Film Title: The Contract

Director’s Name: Milan Smith

Writer’s Name: Milan Smith

Producer: Milan Smith, John R. Mistrot, Tanner Palamides, Tommy Ryan

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 10 minutes 19 seconds

Film Description:

Davis and Burr stake out a quiet house, their focus slipping as petty arguments and dark humor take over. Inside waits their target—a mysterious, disabled killer known only as The Trash Man—who proves far more dangerous than expected. When their plan unravels in a sudden burst of violence, the hunters quickly become the hunted. What follows is a tense, close-quarters game of survival where nothing goes as planned. By the end, the lines of power shift in ways neither man could have anticipated.

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THE RESONANCE – dir. Emir Mavitan

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Original Film Title: THE RESONANCE

Director’s Name: Emir Mavitan

Director of Photography: Alican Akgün

Writer’s Name: Emir Mavitan

Producer: Melis Merdan

Country of Origin: Türkiye

Country of Filming: Türkiye

Language: English

Runtime: 5 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

“The Resonance” emerges as a fashion film that translates Solfeggio frequencies – believed since ancient times to harmonize the mind, body, and spirit – into the visual language of contemporary cinema. The film narrates the character’s inner transformation in chapters, each built around one of six fundamental frequencies, each representing a distinct emotional state.

Starring Tuba Ünsal, The Resonance journeys through an emotional spectrum ranging from 396 Hz to 852 Hz, embodying stages of fear, flow, passion, connection, renewal, and rebirth through physical performance and choreographic expression. Sound waves act as an invisible architectural force, shaping the character’s internal odyssey.

The film not only offers a visual narrative but also immerses the audience in a world where they can feel the vibration of each frequency through 360 – degree sound design. The Resonance presents a poetic exploration that repositions sound as an aesthetic medium, transforming the relationship between emotion and vibration into a cinematic investigation.

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ALEX SÜD – dir. Bongani Baloyi, Botlhale Boikanyo

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Original Film Title: ALEX SÜD

Director’s Name: Bongani Baloyi, Botlhale Boikanyo

Director of Photography: Bongani Baloyi

Writer’s Name: Bongani Baloyi, Dennis Ngango

Producer: Lerato Mokoka, Dennis Ngango

Country of Origin: South Africa

Country of Filming: South Africa

Language: English, German, Tswana

Runtime: 9 minutes 16 seconds

Film Description:

ALEX SÜD follows Mme Selina, a former elite task-force operative who disappeared from the world she once served after becoming a state witness in Germany. Years later, she lives quietly in Alexandra with her young daughter, determined to build a normal life far from the violence and secrets of her past. But when shadows from her old life resurface and threaten the only family she has left, Selina is forced back into survival mode. The story unfolds in a single continuous take, immersing the audience in her desperate race through the township as she confronts the ghosts she thought she had escaped. Blending raw emotion with relentless tension, ALEX SÜD is a powerful story about resilience, identity, and a mother’s determination to protect what matters most.

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Sleep – dir. Nicolas Heinzel

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Original Film Title: Sleep

Director’s Name: Nicolas Heinzel

Director of Photography: Nicolas Heinzel

Writer’s Name: Miriam Becker

Producer: Nicolas Heinzel

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 22 minutes 24 seconds

Film Description:

Every night, a witch comes for Jennifer. Born from a bedtime story her parents once told, the witch returns each night to ensure Jennifer is asleep. Only sleep, or the presence of a person who isn’t haunted by the witch can protect her.
Two years after her parents death, Jennifer lives alone, trapped between grief and fear. Her boyfriend, the only one who knows about the witch, has left for a work trip, and Jennifer senses he will not return. Desperate for protection, she invites Liz, an old school friend she last saw at the funeral, to stay for the weekend.
As night falls, Liz notices Jennifer’s rigid routines and mounting panic. When the truth is revealed, Jennifer must decide how far she is willing to go to survive.

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Marius – dir. Paule Porter

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Original Film Title: Marius

Director’s Name: Paule Porter

Director of Photography: Paule Porter

Writer’s Name: Paule Porter

Producer: Paule Porter

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 11 minutes 27 seconds

Film Description:

Seventeen-year-old Marius spends his days drifting between friendship and the quiet longing to belong. When he joins a group of older youths, the night takes a dark turn. What begins as drinking and teasing escalates into humiliation and violence, exposing the thin line between peer pressure and cruelty. Marius tells the story of a teenager caught in a spiral of right-wing hatred and raises a haunting question: how many tragedies could be prevented if silence turned into action?

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Tiradiavoli – dir. Stefano Carbone, Nicola Lodato

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Original Film Title: Tiradiavoli

Director’s Name: Stefano Carbone, Nicola Lodato

Writer’s Name: Roberto Campili

Producer: Stefano Carbone, Nicola Lodato

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes 15 seconds

Film Description:

A theatre company becomes caught in a curse that intertwines past and present: amid suspicion, obsession, and an ambiguous love story on stage, the struggle to escape destiny will force everyone to confront truths that transcend time.

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Caracas Avenue – dir. Juana Jimenez Del Toro

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Original Film Title: Caracas Avenue

Director’s Name: Juana Jimenez Del Toro

Writer’s Name: Juana Jimenez Del Toro

Producer: Juana Jimenez Del Toro Producciones

Country of Origin: Colombia

Country of Filming: Colombia, France, Italy

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes

Film Description:

Caracas Avenue tells the story of four children in the 1980s who, rejected by their parents for their sexual orientation, are thrown out onto the streets, where they are sexually exploited by a pedophile and begin to commit crimes and engage in prostitution to survive. They dream of traveling to the United States, and amidst their harsh reality, that dream persists. When they arrive in Bogotá, the American dream ends when they are denied visas. The course of their lives takes a drastic turn, and they end up in Bogotá’s red-light district, in the Santafé neighborhood, where they become transvestites. As time passes, their lives take different paths.
Caracas Avenue presenta la historia de cuatro niños de los años 80s, que sufren rechazo por parte de sus padres por su orientación sexual, echados a la calle, donde son explotados sexualmente por un pederasta y comienzan a delinquir y a prostituirse para sobrevivir. Tienen el sueño de viajar a los Estados Unidos y en medio de su cruda realidad ese sueño persiste. Cuando llegan a Bogotá el sueño americano se les acaba por no les dan la visa, el rumbo de sus vidas da un cambio drástico y terminan en la zona roja de Bogotá en el barrio Santafé, donde se transforman en travestis y con el correr del tiempo sus vidas tomaron diferentes caminos.

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The Guardian Angel – dir. Andrei Christian Bortica

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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.