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with Maï Calon & Anton Cla
How do schools approach the teaching of animation? What does their curriculum look like? What is a graduate’s profile? Representatives from the participating schools address these and other questions in their presentations.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
with Serhii Mirankov
This presentation introduces Ukrainian animation as a living artistic and educational tradition. It reflects on its place within the Institute of Screen Arts in Kyiv, the continuity between generations of students and alumni, and the broader context of the upcoming 100-year anniversary of Ukrainian animation. It also highlights current efforts to increase its visibility through education, screenings, and international exchange.
Breaking up with someone you love can feel like an endless ride on an overcrowded bus. The second block of international non-competitive films brings not only melancholy and escapism, but also animated embroidery and cheeky talking trees. We’ll even try to uncover collective memory using nothing but a pair of stick-on googly eyes.
English and Slovak subtitles.
Another chaotic day unfolds for the bus driver. Stuck in heavy rush hour traffic, the bus barely moves. Frustrated passengers grow impatient, demanding the impossible from him. Exhausted, overwhelmed, and burnt out, he begins to cry. Then, a sudden and inexplicable miracle carries the bus—full of strangers and its driver—into the stars.
With an unacknowledged mental disorder, Adela seeks answers in popular rituals. She feels that something is watching and harming her, and only religion seems to understand her. During a visit to a healer, she confesses the disturbing origin of her suffering.
For the past year, since November 29th, I’ve been keeping an animated journal. Every day I drew one scene from that day. WHY??? Well, this was meant to be a birthday present.
Two weary travellers seek out shade and sustenance from an idle tree. Based on the fable, "The Travellers and the Plane Tree" by Aesop.
A young woman struggles with memory loss. One night, aliens barge into her room and connect her to an array of machines to study her brain. Once inside, they all discover her fading memories that blend into her dreams in a melancholic and psychedelic trip. Reality becomes subjective as she tries to make sense of what’s left.
Chill vibes at the barbecue. Problems will arise, but there’s no need to worry, because in the end, we’ll be chilling at the barbecue again.
When a bus seat is pushed too far back, the passenger behind finds her journey taking an unexpected turn.
She was 8 when she went missing. The investigation revealed her family's involvement. Narin saw something she shouldn't have. Everyone in the village knew, but no one dared to speak out.
A fire ignites, and a boy’s fantasies about a girl dissolve into a haunting reality he can’t escape.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
Participating schools from previous editions of the Student Forum present their approach to teaching animation alongside a selection of student works. Each presentation follows a simple structure – approach, films, and a final “signature moment” – giving each school space to express its identity and creative focus.
Or is it vice versa? Can we still tell the difference, or has fiction become indistinguishable from reality? This block explores the hybrid nature of animation through photogrammetry, digital formats, and video games that simulate real life. You’ll drift through failed relationships and artificial worlds that exist only as sets. Neurodivergent chaos, a protest in Cannes, hyperplastic excess, and Paganini all collide – raising a final question: can there be originality, or just endless repetition?
An introduction in English by curators Ema Nemčovičová and Jakub Spevák.
English and Slovak subtitles.
The world is a wonderful stage, but its characters are disgraceful.
A dream landscape, built from the facades of the houses in the big city. The images, which are on the edge of our perception and almost outside of our attention, are put together, arranged and staged. With photogrammetry, a parallel world is shown that eludes us in the autopilot mode of everyday life.
An animated extravaganza of plastic collected from beaches, roadsides, attics and junk shops. This is an elegy to a love affair that has gone sour, a fond farewell to that most beautiful material that has enslaved our planet – plastic.
In May 1968, Paris was shaken by students and workers protests. Meanwhile, at the Cannes film festival, a group of filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard expressed their will to close the festival to show their solidarity to the protesters.
An animator tries to make sense of a failed relationship.
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A rapidly associative animated film about life inside a neurodivergent mind: too many ideas, too little rest. It explores the inner noise of a filmmaker who wants everything at once – and almost breaks under it.
An experimental video starring a man and a woman who perform a Paganini composition through a series of repeated edited images where they use of objects, noises and small vocalizations in order to emulate music, creating a series of unusual and amusing sequences.
It's a simulation of reality where you can see the world from everything's point of view - it's kind of a philosophy project in the form of a game. There is no narrative or story - just the world as it is.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
A maximum of 7 people can be in the space at one time, where they will be able to watch selected VR films during a one-hour session.
What could be more fake than virtual reality? It’s hard to find a better competitor. Especially when VR joins forces with AI – it becomes a full-blown double whammy of artificiality. Over its first decade, virtual reality has accumulated plenty of labels, along with a fair share of fake news. Claims like “VR will replace cinema,” “soon we’ll only have sex in virtual reality,” and “before long, we’ll only meet people in VR.” So far, all of these predictions have proven hollow. People still enjoy having solid ground beneath their feet, the feel of touch on their skin, and their senses fully awakened.
This year’s inaugural VR selection is therefore not an escapist journey into distant dreamscapes as a preview of some determined future. Instead, it highlights how the reality we experience can shift – and how “realness” and “authenticity” can take many different forms. Whether we are talking about myths, work routines, social media, dreams, artificial intelligence, or even plastic interspecies surgery.
On the fictional social network Owlet, only positive comments are allowed. On the surface it's a cheerful world of cute and bizarre posts, but the idyll is shattered when popular influencer Kristine suddenly disappears and the platform begins to suppress any questions about her fate. Together with other users, you try to circumvent increasingly strict censorship algorithms and find ways to communicate despite system surveillance. The project draws on real strategies used by activists who creatively overcome online censorship through symbols, codes, and multilingual memes.
This world does not shine with diversity. Everything is made of grey cubes and the local inhabitants blindly follow orders, mechanically pushing blocks forward and submitting to a system that seems meaningful at first glance, but in reality exhausts them and strips them of individuality. An abstract yet gently narrative wordless film explores the geometry of reality through a minimalist visual language, becoming a quiet commentary on the illusion of the value of work in rigid structures. What happens when one of the inhabitants decides to step out of this monotonous regime?
Taiwanese XR artist, visual artist and animator Wen-Yee Hsieh invites viewers into a disturbing plunge on the border of dream and dystopia. Limbophobia is a dark, hypnotic journey through a landscape that resembles the collective mind of humanity — a space full of unrest, transformation, and oppressive images that emerge as echoes of our fears and desires. The surreal visual language alternates fragile beauty with a sense of threat, drawing us into a world where the boundary between inner landscape and outer reality continually dissolves. This unique one-man project quietly, with cold intensity, suggests where humanity can arrive in its obsession with the insurmountable.
39 versions of Polly live in her house. They wear a number on their T-shirts representing their age. Each version of Polly lives and ages without replacing the previous one. Her life revolves in an endless cycle. Who is the real Polly? Her character transforms over time and manifests through her individual selves. Some parts of the apartment are calm, others rage with chaos, in others a subtle but fatal pain slumbers. And yet this is a day like any other...
Is it possible to achieve uniqueness among eight billion others? 8 Billion Selves is a fluid, dreamlike journey through a world where people are born, work, wage wars, love, dance, create art and die. Sounds and images layer into a kaleidoscope that reveals the beauty of shared existence and its disturbing shadows, reflecting our collective presence and fragile individuality. This wordless work explores our place in the crowd and the growing pressure toward uniformity, manifested in an obsession with 'fake' aesthetics — bodily modifications and artificial interventions in identity that gradually grow to absurd, grotesque proportions.
Three characters flee through a harsh Icelandic landscape. What are they fleeing from and why? The journey gradually transforms into a surreal wandering across time and space. The main heroine enters a mysterious pool and reality dissolves into colors, rhythm and the movement of the surrounding world, until only the heroine's inner struggle with herself remains. The work connects virtual reality with physical theatre and new circus, inviting viewers into an imaginary, Lynchian mysterious space where the boundary between dream and reality disappears and where our own identity is born and perishes.
The prefix 'oneiro' refers to dreams — and as the title of this 360° film suggests, Oneiro offers a vivid, surrealistic, dreamlike vision of the digital world inside the 'mind' of artificial intelligence. Today we are accustomed to asking AI software a wide range of questions: from simple fact-checking and data analysis to personal therapeutic counselling or relationship advice. But what if instead of the polished, servile tone of current models, artificial intelligence actually told us what it thinks? This satirical comedy gives AI human feelings and moods, drawing parallels between our dreams and algorithms.
Perhaps animated documentaries (aka ‘anidocs’) best understand the nature of reality and fiction. How does Parkinson’s disease affect a fifty-year marriage? Do we really know everything, for example, about fireflies? And can a body exist without a horse? This selection reveals the beauty of traditional textile crafts and a fictional city whose inhabitants struggle to survive.
English and Slovak subtitles.
Helpless in the face of a repressive state, a young couple leaves their home — an escape that turns into a surreal nightmare.
My day begins by descending a hill. At the end of the day, I climb it and go home. Down and up I go, feeling what?
Warp and Weft is an animated documentary short about traditional textile crafts. A love letter to the act of hand-making, traditional craft practices, and the people who love them. Stemming from the fear of these artforms slipping away in a society that no longer values the human labour behind them.
Acid City is a documentary about a fictional city in an acidic ocean, following a film crew as they capture daily life. Blending real interviews from NYC with fictional characters, the film explores resilience, self-sufficiency, and the city’s relationship to water and extreme heat.
Little temples stand as reminders of Iran’s lost sculpture tradition, which faded due to religious prohibitions over a long period in history.
Branching Light and Flickers of a Dawn is a 3D animated ecofiction exploring the synchronous behaviour of fireflies through science and imagination. It highlights the limits of human perception, revealing their light signals as complex communication beyond our understanding.
Narrated by James Cromwell and based on John Matthias’ memoir, Living with a Visionary reflects on his fifty-year marriage to Diana, an art curator living with Parkinson’s. As her hallucinations intensify, John adapts to her imagined world. When the pandemic separates them, he must face his limits as a caregiver. In their final call, he reads her a poem, left only with memories of her visions.
In an attempt to identify itself, a body without a horse moves through its absences and voids.
70-year-old Timo makes the most of his short ride to work. Speeding up on a bicycle ends up in a ditch, but the adrenaline rush leaves a feeling of pleasure.
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Bouchra, young coyote, lesbian and a Moroccan filmmaker in New York, finishes the script for her autobiographical film. She is paralyzed by the fear of the blank page. A phone call with her mother in Casablanca will have memories resurfacing. Their tender yet complex exchange sparks a creative breakthrough opening a journey through family bonds, daughterhood, and the thrill of love. A sophisticated visual oddity of disturbing vulnerability, exploring alienation in silence and the weight of taboo. A luminous declaration of love to all mothers.
English and Slovak subtitles.
The second collection of films by female directors from Central and Eastern Europe is once again composed of films screened by the members of the Animation Festival Network (Anifilm, Animafest, Fest Anča, Animest and Animateka). This selection was put together by the programme directors of the abovementioned festivals. The showcase offers various films and different views on the world and animation.
English subtitles.
A disturbing story set in the near future. People are locked in small dwellings, living in a virtual world, all filming and broadcasting videos. They don't realise they aren't free — until one of them goes outside.
A community of garden creatures sustains the flow of life through the water of a fountain. When a butterfly gets trapped in the fountain, it faces an entirely unknown situation.
A lost soul wanders through dense forest at night. Drifting aimlessly, they stumble upon a group of kindred spirits gathered around a fire — each ready to share the story that led them there.
An original, visually daring puppet film in which all the statues in the area come to life, leave their shrines and roadside pedestals, and calmly march forward — all in the same direction. People watch with growing unease. Only a small boneless girl gazes in fascination.
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A wise bird-woman sends three birds to accompany a girl through the dark and unknown landscapes of her inner world.
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Paula, a lonely centaur and pedicurist in a small town of human-animal hybrids, longs for human legs. When she meets Arnold, a charming crocodile man, it's love at first sight — until conflict disrupts their idyll and Paula must choose: love or self-acceptance?