Jonatan Etzler
Bad Apples is a biting satirical comedy with a thriller aftertaste starring Saoirse Ronan. Maria is a primary school teacher doing her best to inspire a class of 11-year-olds but unable to because of one unruly and chaotic student. With her career in question and the child’s behaviour spiralling and her class out of control, she makes a series of bad decisions that lead to her accidentally locking this bad apple in her home.
Yukari Sakamoto
Set in an all-girls Christian boarding school, Anna always feels like an outsider due to her ability to see ghosts. Her roommate, Rika, is the complete opposite: an effortlessly popular, well-liked honors student admired by everyone. But when Rika takes her own life, the entire school is shaken, none more so than her closest friend, Shiori, who struggles to make sense of the loss. After discovering Rika's diary, Anna begins to feel her spirit manifest before her, slowly seeping into her body...
Seyhmus Altun
In a small Anatolian town in the early 2000s, ten-year-old Esma’s world quietly unravels after a factory explosion sets off an unrelenting fire. As smoke poisons the land and her family struggles to survive, Esma clings to what remains of her childhood. As We Breathe is a tender portrait of resilience in the face of invisible disasters, a story about growing up too soon, holding on to hope, and refusing to disappear.
WIP Europa 2024
Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe
San Sebastian, 1978. The workers at the water meter factory hold an assembly to discuss a strike, which ultimately fails. Disappointed, the most non-conformist workers turn their aspirations for radical transformation towards more intimate spheres. Some leave the factory to join an isolated community in the mountains, where dozens of young people embarked on an intense journey of shared cathartic experiences.
Ikusmira Berriak 2022
Tribeny Rai
India - South Korea
114 min.
Bishnu returns to her Himalayan village after quitting her job, only to face mounting family pressures and societal expectations. As tensions rise with her pregnant sister's arrival and a budding relationship with a "suitable" boy from her community, Bishnu must choose between conforming to tradition or claiming her independence.
Anton Yarush, Sergey Borovkov
Anton, a successful Russian director in his late thirties, feels hollow despite his career, relationship, and friends. Obsessed with casting the perfect actress for his deeply personal film, he flees to foreign lands, trapped in an exhausting, relentless routine. As weeks pass, the producer makes decisions without him. Alone and spiraling, Anton's self-destruction deepens - until an unexpected, wordless connection offers a faint hope of salvation.
José Alayón
On the arid island of Fuerteventura, Miguel and his daughter Mariana try to move on after his wife dies, a loss that has cast them both adrift. Canarian wrestling is their refuge, their way to make a place for themselves in the world. But Miguel’s body is starting to fail, and Mariana’s rage pushes her to break the rules. With the championship final just around the corner, father and daughter must find their way back to one another before it’s too late.
Tsao Shih-Han
Chou, a sensitive teen craving independence, struggles as the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis hits his family's finances and worsens tensions at home. He secretly works at a billiard hall, forming a bond with gang leader Button, but faces setbacks like Button's enlistment and peer conflicts. Caught by his father, their relationship worsens. At school, his crush Min leaves due to war fears, and pressure from a teacher deepens his uncertainty.
Zhang Zhongchen
The Song dynasty stone statues, dating back 800 years, stand in the wheat fields of Maozhuang Village. Eight-year-old Qing lives in this village with her mother, Hongmei, while her father works away from home all year round. On the way to school, she meets a ghost-like white child who has come to find his missing mother. With the child's arrival, Qing starts to sense whispering under the stone statues as her mother's secret past begins to reveal itself.
Kim Torres
Costa Rica - Mexico - France
88 min.
At the age of thirteen, Laura feels trapped in her new family. Just as she starts accepting her new life surrounded by sprawling forests and palm plantations, she learns that the village hides a dark secret that preys on the women she loves most.
WIP Latam 2024
Stroma Cairns
Two best mates, Jonah and Lee, take a trip to the Northeast coast of Scotland, where Jonah hopes he'll escape the mess he's making of his life in London. They meet Charlie, who is profoundly deaf and visiting his twin brother. Through the darkness that meets them on this wild coast, they form a friendship that ultimately brings Jonah to discover the courage to be vulnerable and that joy can be found despite loss.
Emilie Thalund
Lea, a fifteen-year-old girl, spends her summer at a health camp surrounded by forest and beach. Lea is determined to lose weight, and she longs to be like her friend Sasha, her new roommate at the camp: fun, lively, and unafraid to take up space in the world. While Sasha seeks attention from the local boys, Lea's heart is set on Rune, a charming instructor from the camp. When Rune reciprocates her attention, something awakens within Lea; an unfamiliar yet thrilling desire.
John Skoog
Sweden - Denmark - Netherlands - Poland - Finland - UK - Switzerland
85 min.
At the peak of the Cold War, farm worker Karl-Göran Persson starts fortifying his house. He gathers scrap-metal and casts it into the walls to build a fortress meant to protect him and his neighbours. His efforts are met with puzzlement by everyone but the children. As the construction progresses, so does a conflict with the people in the village.