Category: WSXA PARIS 2026

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Criminal – dir. Landon Donoho

(FINALIST)

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Original Film Title: Criminal

Director’s Name: Landon Donoho

Writer’s Name: Landon Donoho, Izzy Spring

Producer: Derek Ceca Res

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 3 minutes 3 seconds

Film Description:

Criminal is an EDM pop anthem about being messy and wild and making every kind of mistake possible in the moment. Directed by Landon Donoho and starring Izzy Spring, the music video follows Izzy as she navigates messy situationships with a variety of people using clever editing, playful colors, and collection of diverse actors.

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Invincibles – dir. Shana Rosilio

(HONORABLE MENTION)

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Original Film Title: Invincibles

Director’s Name: Shana Rosilio

Writer’s Name: Shana Rosilio

Producer: Shana Rosilio

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 24 minutes 53 seconds

Film Description:

This film is a dinner party behind closed doors. Hannah is hosting a dinner party at her house with her grandmother, her old school teacher, one of her classmates, and her brother, who lives with her. The classmate seems unaware of what he’s doing there, the school teacher tries to be as discreet as possible, and the brother keeps coughing. The atmosphere at dinner is heavy, as if everyone is superfluous, and the room is increasingly filled with unease…

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The Thieving Magpie – dir. Chloé Luizard

(FINALIST)

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Original Film Title: The Thieving Magpie

Director’s Name: Chloé Luizard

Writer’s Name: Chloé Luizard

Producer: Chloé Luizard, Kévin Evanno

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 14 minutes 25 seconds

Film Description:

Nicolas is fighting an ongoing battle at the Gigamarché ; to spare the world of the uncatchable “Thieving Magpie”, who persists in their rampage and mocks him with each of their crimes. Fortunately, Nicolas’ team is there to support him.

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A MOTHER’S LOVE – dir. Harald Schwarzenbacher

(WINNER)

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Original Film Title: A MOTHER’S LOVE

Director’s Name: Harald Schwarzenbacher

Writer’s Name: Gregor Schmidinger

Producer: Harald Schwarzenbacher

Country of Origin: Austria

Country of Filming: Austria

Language: German

Runtime: 21 minutes 10 seconds

Film Description:

Beate, 43, lives with her husband Uwe and their eight-year-old son Benjamin in a small town. On the surface, they appear to be an ordinary family—yet they are still reeling from the tragic bus accident that claimed the life of their eldest daughter, twelve-year-old Jana. The loss continues to weigh heavily on Beate, piercing through her daily life like a wound that refuses to heal.

When Benjamin is unexpectedly summoned to the police for questioning, Beate learns that her own son carries partial responsibility for the accident.

This revelation shatters her. A storm of emotions begins to rage within her, pushing her into a psychological limbo between grief and maternal love. She can barely look Benjamin in the eyes without seeing in him the cause of her daughter’s death.

How is she supposed to face her child now?
How can she reconcile his innocence with the unbearable weight of guilt?

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RUDRAM – dir. Srinivasa Sasikiran Chakravarthula

(FINALIST)

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Original Film Title: RUDRAM

Director’s Name: Srinivasa Sasikiran Chakravarthula

Writer’s Name: Srinivasa Sasikiran Chakravarthula

Producer: Sravanti Yerragudi

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: Telugu

Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes 25 seconds

Film Description:

Storytelling has always been central to human survival. Long before books and screens, stories helped us make sense of the world, carry memory, and pass strength from one generation to the next. That belief is at the heart of Rudram.
The film follows Bhavani, a Drug Diversion Investigator, and her younger autistic sister, Shivani. Raised in foster care after losing their parents to drugs, the sisters navigate a world that has already taken so much from them. For Shivani, who is non-verbal, her sister’s stories become her language—her way of transforming silence into imagination. Through dance and mythic archetypes, she finds a strength that allows her to protect the only family she has left.
Rudram is not only about the opioid crisis—it is about the timeless power of story to heal, to empower, and to transform. Made entirely in the United States(Minnesota) with a debut cast and crew, the film carries forward that human tradition: to tell a story that reminds us we endure not just through survival, but through the stories we live and share.

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The Race – dir. Zoran Pribičević

(HONORABLE MENTION)

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Original Film Title: The Race

Director’s Name: Zoran Pribičević

Writer’s Name: Zoran Pribičević, Marko Hrenovic

Producer: Alenka Zganjer Pribicevic

Country of Origin: Croatia

Country of Filming: Croatia

Language: Croatian

Runtime: 21 minutes 49 seconds

Film Description:

Sanja, Darko, and their 7-year-old daughter Mara live in perfect family bliss—until a sudden heart defect shatters their world. As they search desperately for help, they find themselves trapped in a cold, indifferent system where time blurs and no one listens. With everything slipping away, they are left with one final, desperate chance.

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THE RESONANCE – dir. Emir Mavitan

(WINNER)

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Original Film Title: THE RESONANCE

Director’s Name: Emir Mavitan

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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The Birth of Maia – dir. Laetitia Cazaux

(FINALIST)

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Original Film Title: The Birth of Maiaas Tale

Director’s Name: Laetitia Cazaux

Writer’s Name: Laetitia Cazaux

Producer: Laetitia Cazaux, Jason Grangier

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 18 minutes

Film Description:

Maia, a 14-year-old dancer, sees her audition abruptly interrupted by her first period. Confronted with a fear of growing up, she desires only one thing: to speak to her mother, a figure ever-present in her heart but absent from her life. She persuades her older brother, Léo, to drive her to their mother’s house.

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Snow Over Kigali – an African Christmas Tale – dir. Kerim Esen

(HONORABLE MENTION)

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Original Film Title: Snow Over Kigali – an African Christmas Tale

Director’s Name: Kerim Esen

Writer’s Name: Kerim Esen

Producer: Kerim Esen, Esteban Corti, Jessica Beard, Lucia Sapelli, Aniket Ukey

Country of Origin: Argentina, Germany, Paraguay, Rwanda

Country of Filming: Germany, Rwanda

Language: English, German, Kinyarwanda

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Film Description:

“Snow over Kigali” is told from an African perspective through the eyes of a nine-year old boy. It pictures three mother-child stories unfolding in parallel in Kigali and culminating on Christmas Eve in Berlin:
Rachel’s Secret – A nine-year old boy looking for snow travels alone from Kigali to Berlin. At the foot of the Berlin TV-Tower, Ethan meets former athlete Nick who promises that it will snow on Christmas Eve…
Esther’s Decision – After a bad breakup, a young Rwandan woman doesn’t tell her German boyfriend Patrick that she is pregnant. Patrick returns from Berlin to Kigali to fight for Esther’s love and the life of their unborn daughter…
Deborah’s Will – 20 years after genocide a widower returns to Rwanda to fulfill his late wife’s will. George is looking for Deborah’s daughter to confront her with the truth buried in the past…

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Pick Up Artist – dir. Alvaro Orlando

(FINALIST)

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Original Film Title: Pick Up Artist

Director’s Name: Alvaro Orlando

Writer’s Name: Alvaro Orlando

Producer: Evan Ross, Alexis Knapp

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes

Film Description:

Drew is seconds away from proposing to his girlfriend—he’s got the ring, the speech, the whole Pinterest-worthy plan—when she strolls in and casually announces she’s found someone else. Now heartbroken, humiliated, and housing enough sadness to flood a small Airbnb, Drew is convinced he’ll die alone.

Enter his best friend, who decides the cure for heartbreak is… a Pick-Up Artist seminar. Yes, those guys. Suddenly Drew is trapped in a world of spray-tanned dating “gurus,” aggressive cologne, and grown men shouting affirmations in the mirror.

What follows is Drew’s wildly disastrous attempt to “get back out there” using advice that absolutely no woman on Earth would ever respond to. But somewhere between the cringe, the chaos, and the catastrophic flirting, Drew just might stumble into something real—mostly by accident.