Category: BEST SHORT FILM – WSXA PARIS 2026

(FINALIST)

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.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: SANAD

Director’s Name: Noor Al-Nasr

Writer’s Name: Noor Al-Nasr

Producer: Poppy Clinton

Country of Origin: Qatar

Country of Filming: Qatar

Language: Arabic

Runtime: 19 minutes

Film Description:

While having plans of his own, Jassim is forced to make a stop at a campsite
after learning about his estranged brother Ali’s wild behavior.
On the way back home, the brothers have a moment of bonding over a practical joke Ali has over the radio which ironically links them to a psychotic truck driver seeking revenge.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: ELECTRA

Director’s Name: DIMITRIS ZAPATINAS

Writer’s Name: PETROS TSAPILIS

Producer: DIMITRIS ZAPATINAS, PETROS TSAPILIS, AFRODITI DIMOU, PETROS NIAMOTINAKIS, DESPOINA VOGIATZI

Country of Origin: Greece

Country of Filming: Greece

Language: Greek (Modern)

Runtime: 23 minutes 11 seconds

Film Description:

A young female volleyball athlete is summoned to her coach’s office. Ready for the worst, she comes prepared to confront the man who has long abused his power over her and her co-athletes.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Stranger In The World

Director’s Name: Bryan Thomas Dobson

Writer’s Name: Bryan Thomas Dobson

Producer: Bryan Thomas Dobson, May Orozco

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 17 seconds

Film Description:

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: La Fée Électricité (The Goddess of Electricity)

Director’s Name: Cottia Thorowgood

Writer’s Name: Cottia Thorowgood

Producer: Charles Haswell

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: France

Language:

Runtime: 7 minutes 42 seconds

Film Description:

As daylight falls, La Fée Électricité (The Goddess of Electricity) awakens beneath Paris, charged to bring light to the streets above. As she begins to move, she galvanises her power and emerges onto the streets of Paris, illuminating the city with electricity.
By dawn, having danced all night her electric powers are overwhelmed by the daylight. By morning, her powers are extinguished.

This is a short dance film filmed on location in Paris, featuring Royal Ballet soloist, Viola Pantuso. The story is built on the concept of La Fée Électricité – the personification of electricity in France in the late 1800s, as a woman, or fairy, who brought light and power to the people and streets.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: Dov’è che ci siamo già visti? (Beyond memory)

Director’s Name: Claudio Piccolotto, Gemma Iuliano

Writer’s Name: Claudio Piccolotto, Gemma Iuliano

Producer: Roberto Imbriale, Cristina Bianconi

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 15 minutes

Film Description:

Arturo, a seventy-four-year-old junk dealer who has spent his life repairing broken things, discovers he is gravely ill. His adult children, Anna and Ernesto, try to find a way to care for him, eventually deciding — reluctantly — to bring him back to live with his former wife, Miranda.
But Miranda has Alzheimer’s and no longer remembers him. To avoid confusing her, Arturo must pretend to be a distant cousin in need of a place to stay.
Living under the same roof after thirty years apart, the two move through a strange, suspended time. In the rhythm of their shared days — a breakfast, a shadow in the corridor, a song from the past — something subtle shifts. Memory flickers like light through dust, and forgotten tenderness finds its way back.
Through the lens of illness and aging, “Beyond memory” becomes a meditation on love, time, and identity. The story blurs the line between what is remembered and what is imagined, between what once was and what could have been.
Arturo comes to understand that not everything broken can be repaired — yet, by staying close to Miranda, he discovers that love itself can offer a quiet form of redemption.
Blending realism and poetry, the film invites us to look at memory not as something that fades, but as something that moves — fragile, luminous, alive.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: NO NAME

Director’s Name: Seunghyun Kim

Writer’s Name: Seunghyun Kim

Producer: Yong Joon Kim

Country of Origin: South Korea

Country of Filming: South Korea

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 5 minutes 47 seconds

Film Description:

In a city touched by modernization, a schoolgirl walking along a traditional stone wall feels uneasy as her surroundings shift into modern buildings. She is kindly guided inside by a well-dressed gentleman, where a woman in a kimono appears to welcome and beautify her, turning cleansing and adornment into a dreamlike rite of transformation. When the girl finally faces a mirror, the illusion shatters: the beauty reveals itself as torture, and the refinement as violence. The gentleman is exposed as a Japanese colonial policeman, and the film ends by revealing modernization as a glittering mask concealing oppression and brutality.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Graphic Stories: Destinat10n

Director’s Name: Haralambos Drousiotis

Writer’s Name: Aggeliki Athanasiadi

Producer: Haralambos Drousiotis, Aggeliki Athanasiadi, Miltos Karras

Country of Origin: Cyprus

Country of Filming: Cyprus

Language: English, Greek (Modern)

Runtime: 34 minutes 41 seconds

Film Description:

“Graphic Stories: Destinat10n” explores the ten-year evolution of Graphic Stories, highlighting the most significant moments, challenges, and diversity of the creative community around the conference. Through interviews with international personalities such as David Carson, Julia Kahl, Rob Snow, Yossi Lemel, and the founders, the documentary shows how Graphic Stories has put Cyprus on the global map of visual communication and inspires young creators to pursue their dreams despite obstacles.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: How We Hamsters Die

Director’s Name: Phoebe Burdick, Mio Gribskov

Writer’s Name: Phoebe Burdick, Mio Gribskov

Producer: Mikayla Hatchell

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 5 seconds

Film Description:

A comedic 2D animated short film that tells the absurdly tragic stories of hamsters from the after-life. Built upon interviews & true stories, the film aims to entertain while promoting responsible pet ownership and proper treatment of hamsters. Prepare to laugh, cry, and gasp in shock as this mixed-media, documentary-style film takes a look into how and why this colorful cast of pet hamsters died.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: PASSAGE À L’ACTE

Director’s Name: Paul Morinière

Writer’s Name: Paul Morinière

Producer: Paul Morinière

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 15 minutes 22 seconds

Film Description:

A psychiatrist and her patient make hypnosis therapy to help him recover from a sexual trauma.