HFF2026 // COMPETITION SHORTS 1

A FILM TO REMIND US OF UTOPIA
Dir. Reinaldo Cardenuto | Brazil | 19'52"

In Esdras Baptista's film archives, kept at his home for decades, one can feel the fervor of those who believed in a new tomorrow. Filmed in Brazil in the early 1960s, in the heat of a libertarian political movement, the filmmaker's images materialize the incandescence of collective desires at the historic moment of their emergence. Utopia, though unattainable, is never a mere abstraction. A force that mobilizes actions and feelings, it constitutes the impetus necessary for human existence.

Trailer: youtu.be/o1ovG2Pb4Tc

NO MERCY IN MEXICO
Dir. Oscar Asán | Mexico | 22'40"

In a virtual world, two young people search for their missing friend, but discover that the Mexican tragedy has turned into a macabre video game. Soon, their mission becomes the pursuit of many.

Trailer: youtu.be/i7FeXYJnVMI

17 O'CLOCK
Dir. Flaka Kokolli | North Macedonia | 10'

A family of four must live an everyday life while the world around them shatters during the armed conflict 2001. While the bombing is ongoing these two parents are in a constant dilemma, protecting and sheltering their children inside the four walls of their home, as they beg to play in the sun, or allowing them to play and have a childhood, while they’re still young enough to be shielded by their innocence and ignorance.

Whatever may happen, summer can not stop its flow. As the watermelons grow ripe, the tobacco leaves dry and turn to gold, colonies of ants gather their food, the clock never stops ticking, and the bombs continue to fall around the mountain of Ljuboten.

Trailer: youtu.be/zoOrTipM7us

COYOTES
Dir. Said Zagha | France / Jordan / Palestine / United Kingdom | 20'

A Palestinian surgeon drives home after a long night shift, but little does she know that a commute through a desolate West Bank road will change her forever.

Trailer: youtu.be/kFReZo5WPUU