Category: ARFF PARIS 2026

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Une minute

Director’s Name: Fabrice Tavars

Writer’s Name: Fabrice Tavars

Producer: Léa Barbacani

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 17 minutes 5 seconds

Film Description:

Cinq femmes.
Cinq vies.
Cinq réalités qui, en apparence, ne se croisent jamais.

Une étudiante pressée.
Une mère irréprochable.
Une cadre accomplie.
Une adolescente silencieuse.
Une femme âgée, invisible aux yeux du monde.

En une minute de leur quotidien, chacune traverse un moment banal, presque anodin. Une minute qui ne dit rien. Une minute qui cache tout.

Derrière les murs, dans les regards évités, dans les gestes retenus, une même violence se manifeste — psychologique, physique, sexuelle, institutionnelle. Une violence diffuse, banalisée, parfois niée, mais toujours présente.

Ces femmes ne se connaissent pas. Elles ne se rencontreront jamais.
Pourtant, un lien invisible les unit : la violence faite aux femmes, transmise, tolérée, tue, génération après génération.

Une minute est un court-métrage choral qui interroge le silence, la normalisation de l’inacceptable et l’urgence de regarder en face ce que l’on choisit trop souvent d’ignorer.
Parce qu’en une minute, une vie peut basculer.
Parce qu’en une minute, le silence peut être brisé.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Sunrise, Ha’ii’ah

Director’s Name: Edsel Pete

Writer’s Name: Edsel Pete

Producer: Navajo Nation TV and Film

Country of Origin:

Country of Filming:

Language: English

Runtime: 26 minutes 29 seconds

Film Description:

Sunrise is about a teenage Navajo boy who had been adopted at a young age through the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and has been living off the reservation with an adopted family. The Navajo boy begins to conflict with his surroundings and soon discovers he is of Native American heritage and begins this long awaited journey of self-discovery and self-identity.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: My Protection, My Teacher, My Garden

Director’s Name: Betty Bennett

Writer’s Name: Betty Bennett

Producer: Carlos J. Pappe

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 8 minutes 32 seconds

Film Description:

The greatest of teachers, a garden and with the help of flowers, trees, animals, fruits and more provides perceptible wisdom.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Curious (The Story of Pie)

Director’s Name: JEONG JIN KIM

Writer’s Name: JEONG JIN KIM

Producer: JEONG JIN KIM

Country of Origin:

Country of Filming:

Language: English

Runtime: 11 minutes 40 seconds

Film Description:

In the fantastical Figure Universe, pies create the feeling of love and peace. But one pie, Qupa, begins to wonder if perfection is truly enough. When Qupa meets Bupu, a blue apple who delivers curiosity, and Dewnie, a baby dragon of hope, they tumble into the human world where comfort and instant solutions have replaced curiosity. Curious: The Story of Pie is an animated short that blends whimsical adventure with emotional depth, reminding us that imperfection, imagination, and the courage to wonder are what keep us human.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Live in Live

Director’s Name: Thet Nay Tun

Writer’s Name: Ruidi Bao, Jithu Jayakumar, Mg Bathar

Producer: Thet Nay Tun

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: Myanmar

Language: English

Runtime: 30 minutes

Film Description:

Live in Live is a post-modern expressionism psychological drama that blends romanticism and realism, exploring the internal struggle of a man trapped in the aftermath of a traumatic event, haunted by guilt and the weight of his own emotions.

Kyi Thar, a man in his 30s, works as a brand mascot performer. He suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) following the suicide of his beloved wife, who took her life due to harassment by an online Kyar Phyant Gang. The trauma from this loss has forced Kyi Thar into a repetitive, monotonous routine, stuck in a loop of self-blame and emotional numbness.

The film follows three days in Kyi Thar’s life as he attempts to break free from this psychological cycle. On the first day, he wakes up late, disturbed by a vivid dream of his wife’s suicide. He moves through his morning routine, trying to escape the haunting presence of his “other self,” a manifestation of his guilt that constantly blames him for his past actions. His other self reappears, showing him a photo of his wife, intensifying his feelings of shame. He tries to push these feelings aside as he heads to work. At the train station, the train is late, as usual. His other self reappears, criticizing him for not taking the bus instead. Kyi Thar then receives a phone call from his mother, informing him that his father is in critical condition and requires money within next two days, for treatment. If not his father will die.

When he arrives at work, his manager reprimands him for being late, preventing him from asking for the financial help he needs for his father, who is in critical condition. At the shopping mall, Kyi Thar performs in a frog costume as a mascot, dancing for the public. He teases a child with food, but the child begins to choke. Kyi Thar freezes, paralyzed by fear, but a bystander intervenes and saves the child. The event leaves Kyi Thar with overwhelming guilt. Later, as he returns home, he reflects on the day, realizing that he is trapped in an endless loop, desperately wishing for an escape from his pain.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Mr. Benjamin’s Birthday

Director’s Name: Crystle Viviana Dorsey

Writer’s Name: Crystle Viviana Dorsey

Producer: Dianne Ashford, James Lopez

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 28 minutes 23 seconds

Film Description:

A heartbroken health care provider is forever changed when his patient wants to give up on life.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Return to My Blue

Director’s Name: Yuta Noguchi

Writer’s Name: Yuta Noguchi

Producer: Yuta Noguchi, Takaki Nakadai

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 38 minutes 56 seconds

Film Description:

A documentary that follows a severely disabled boy in need of advanced medical care and his mother wearing a ventilator as they take on the challenge of traveling to an uninhabited island without electricity.

The preciousness of life quietly comes to light in time away from everyday life and social restrictions and living with nature. Then, they quietly ask the meaning of “to live.”

The sound of the waves, the twinkling of the waves, the exchanged glances, and the smiles of the children deeply seep into the hearts of the viewers. They are by no means loud, but they look back at “life” as a definite presence through the journey of mother and child.

An infinitely positive documentary film that captures the moment when a little bit of courage moves the world.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Against the Waning Light

Director’s Name: Paul Loftus Murnaghan

Writer’s Name: Paul Loftus Murnaghan

Producer: Paul Loftus Murnaghan

Country of Origin: Ireland

Country of Filming: Ireland

Language: English

Runtime: 26 minutes

Film Description:

Resonating deep in the abyss, slowly turning, endlessly entangled. It senses us punch and dream. Cloud and stone tune to its ancient song. A song that we have long forgotton.

This film takes a less Human-centric view of existence, it is without words and attempts to communicate through sound and light reflected. It is shot using only natural light. Our attention is focused on and through a sole female Freediver, as she is drawn deeper and deeper into the fathomless ocean. She experiences something vast and ancient that sets her on a journey through landscapes untouched by human hands.

Freediver* Nina McGowan leads us through diverse vistas, supported on this Animist journey by choreographer Cindy Cummins, with a singular soundtrack composed by Murnaghan.
It was while watching light dance on the ocean floor that Murnaghan conceived the idea for this work. He began feeling observed, growing aware of another presence. At first this inspired a musical composition but that quickly evolved into movement and video, visually merging human and non-human landscapes, retracing an ancient departure, from deep seabed to the forested hills.

Although there is no dialogue, a form of communication does occur. There is exchange through light, it hints at a metaphysical ecological. Things we are on the cusp of knowing, while in the process of destroying. There is no sign of human presence other than the diver. Here she acts as a conduit, as animals and humans do in nature, passing material from one space to another. The film posits the earth as a sentient being, with an open ended narrative that allows the viewer room to evolve ideas that surface from within.

As part of this project Writer/Director Paul Murnaghan took the decision to screen in more unusual spaces, beginning with a large aquarium in Galway, Ireland, (Atlantaquaria) on Culture Night 2025, on to a Dance Festival at Uillinn in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, and most recently in Barcelona’s oldest cinema, Cinema Maldà, in The Gothic Quarter. Meeting house Square in Dublin’s Temple Bar will host a large outdoor projection for two nights, March 19th and 20th , looping each half hour from 7.30 to 11.00 P.M. All are welcome, as it intended that people should find this work by accident.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Short Film: Gangsta to Grace

Director’s Name: Letitia Scott Jackson, Valerie Denise Jones

Writer’s Name: Letitia Scott Jackson

Producer: Letitia Scott Jackson, Fred Jackson

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 5 minutes 50 seconds

Film Description:

Gangsta to Grace is the true story of Letitia “Chuckie” Scott, a preacher’s daughter who spiraled into the streets, hid a double life, and let her father take a 15-year fall for her crimes. From incarceration to redemption, this raw and powerful drama explores guilt, grace, and the painful path to purpose.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Mandalay

Director’s Name: Askold Oksanich

Writer’s Name: Askold Oksanich, Olga Porfimovych

Producer: Olga Porfimovych,

Country of Origin: Ukraine

Country of Filming: Ukraine

Language: Ukrainian

Runtime: 32 minutes 5 seconds

Film Description:

Hrytsko knows nothing about his grandfather, who vanished from the family before the boy was born. When news comes of the old man’s mysterious disappearance, Hrytsko travels to a decaying village to claim his inheritance. There, among the ruins of a forgotten life, he receives a strange object: doll-like toy house.
At first, the house seems like a harmless relic. But then he notices something—or someone—inside. A tiny girl lives within it, trapped in a loop of idyllic moments. As Hrytsko watches her, he finds comfort in her world. Time slows. Reality slips. His schoolwork, friendships, and even love fade into the background. The house begins to feel more real than his own life.
He doesn’t know that the same house once consumed his grandfather. The closer he draws to the girl inside, the more he steps away from himself. The toy house becomes a gateway to Mandalay—a dreamlike realm where there is no pain, no routine, no failure. But the paradise is false.
Inspired by Kipling’s poem, Mandalay toys with the idea of illusion: the original poem dreams of a coastal utopia with flying fish—but the real Mandalay has no sea. Hrytsko’s Mandalay is just as deceptive. When he asks to stay in that perfect world forever, his girlfriend Olena must fight to pull him back.
In the climax, Hrytsko crosses the threshold and meets his lost grandfather within the house. There, behind the illusion, he discovers the dark core of Mandalay—a hollow place built from denial, addiction, and forgotten truths.
The house burns. Then it reappears elsewhere, untouched—its curse intact. Because evil can be defeated, but not destroyed.
Mandalay is a haunting fable about the cost of escapism and the danger of mistaking fantasy for freedom. Behind every beautiful illusion, something is waiting.