Category: ARFF BERLIN 2026

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.

Original Film Title: Rabbit Studio

Director’s Name: Emile B LaCerte Jr

Writer’s Name: Emile B LaCerte Jr

Producer: Emile B LaCerte Jr

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 4 minutes 6 seconds

Film Description:

Noam Rabbit Book Series
Most famous Rabbit in history Be part of the magic
Only send no cost
Need to be in your festival

Original Film Title: The One Who Went Forth To Learn Fear

Director’s Name: Esther Gronenborn

Writer’s Name: Esther Gronenborn

Producer: Esther Gronenborn

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language:

Runtime: 5 minutes

Film Description:

Inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales, The One Who Went Forth to Learn Fear unfolds as a poetic, symbolic ghost drama set in a liminal urban landscape. A young woman drifts through encounters with violence, shadows, and spectral presences—untouched, unafraid, and seemingly empty. But as the boundary between the real and the unreal dissolves, fear enters her world. What begins as a confrontation with the uncanny becomes a quiet transformation: the emergence of emotion, vulnerability, and a fragile sense of being alive.

Original Film Title: The Scribe and the Swordsman

Director’s Name: rokuro_kobo

Writer’s Name: rokuro_kobo

Producer: rokuro_kobo

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes 10 seconds

Film Description:

Created entirely by a single filmmaker using AI-assisted visual production, this 64-minute full-voice feature is set on the verge of a kingdom’s fall.

On the verge of a kingdom’s fall, Shugen, the chief swordsman, returns to the castle in search of a place to die.
There, amid rebellion and ruin, he encounters Kyori, a civil official who alone remains to write the final official chronicle of the dying state.

The king is already dead by his own hand.
All that remain are one poem, one sword, and two men facing the last two hours of their lives.

One was born to letters, the other to the blade.
As destruction closes in, Kyori and Shugen struggle to protect not only their king and their country’s final truth, but also the meaning of their own lives.

Blending classical Chinese poetry, voice performance, and sword action, the film explores what human beings choose to preserve at the very end—and what may serve as proof that they once lived.

Original Film Title: NEO DOKKEBIZ – Hmmm

Director’s Name: JIEUN YU

Writer’s Name: JIEUN YU

Producer: JIEUN YU, Michelle Yu

Country of Origin: South Korea

Country of Filming: South Korea

Language: English, Korean

Runtime: 3 minutes 18 seconds

Film Description:

Where K-POP, Korean heritage, and AI meet.

A traditional Korean guardian spirit, “dokkaebi” (Korean goblin), is resurrected as a virtual K-POP idol through generative AI.
A cinematic music video featuring NEO DOKKEBIZ, a dokkaebi who has come to spread good fortune across the world.