The Jury
Christian Jeune
Christian Jeune (Toulon, France) started at the Festival de Cannes as a local intern in 1983 while pursuing his studies, going on to join the Film Department at its Paris office in 1995. Since 1999 he has been the director of the same department, and in 2003 he became Deputy to the General Delegate, Thierry Frémaux. Under his position, he takes care of the selection process, in connection with the different players. He has also travelled widely for the last 20 years, mainly in Asia to scout films and visit members of the world industry. He has served on the jury of many festivals (Busan, Tokyo, Adelaide, Taipei, Bangkok, Macao…). He has also translated over 100 films from English to French, including three films in the Bourne series, the three Kingsman films, and many more.
Ada Solomon
Romanian film producer working in the film business for 30+ years and has credits on almost 100 films, including Golden Bear winners “Bad Luck Banging”, “Child Pose”, Venice Orizzonti & FIPRESCI winner “The New Year Tha tt Never Came” & European Film Academy winner & Oscar-nominated “Toni Erdmann”.
Her career is inextricably linked to the one of Radu Jude with whom she had made 20 films.
She has worked with prestigious filmmakers as Cristian Nemescu, Ivana Mladenovic, Alexandru Solomon, Răzvan Rădulescu, Tomasz Wasilewski, Hana Jusic, Drago Sholev and contributed to debuts of many European Filmmakers like: Belgian Marta Bergman, Moldavan Olga Lucovnicova, Norwegian Emilie Blichfeldt, Italians Chiara Malta, Federico Bondi, Adriano Valerio, Romanians Anamaria Comănescu, Paul Negoescu, Alina Șerban, Seb Mihăilescu etc.
She is the Chair of the Board of the European Film Academy, one of the initiators of the Pop-Up Residencies and a founding member of the Board of Romanian Alliance of Producers.
Ada is the recipient of European Film Academy European Co–production Award – Prix Eurimages 2013, Central European Initiative Award 2018 in Trieste IFF, Underground Spirit of Europe Award 2021 in Palic IFF as well as Czech Producer’s Association World Excellence Award 2022 in Ji.hlava IFF & was listed by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the Top 40 Most Influential Women in Film Business.
Thanassis Karathanos
Thanassis Karathanos studied Political Science and Economics in Athens and Berlin. He founded the film production companies Twenty Twenty Vision in Berlin (1998) and Pallas Film in Halle (Saale) (2003).
An internationally acclaimed producer, Karathanos has produced and co-produced numerous award-winning films, including the Academy Award-nominated Ajami, The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters. His selected filmography also includes Irina Palm, Clouds of Sils Maria, Elle, Centaur, Slack Bay, Sweet Bean, Ayka, It Must Be Heaven, The Gravedigger’s Wife, Mariupolis 2, Mediterranean Fever, More than Strangers, Orphane, All that’s left of you and Hen.
He is a member of the European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
GREEK SHORTS COMPETITION
Monday, 20 July • 22.45 • Starfish Cinema • 115'
Our Homes Do Not Exist
Documentary • 15' • France, Greece • 2025
Director: Anna Lamour
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English
Shot on Super 8, the film follows the story of a family home in Athens that slowly fragments. As it moves through once-familiar neighborhoods, between inhabited and abandoned spaces, a new sense of belonging emerges, both fragile and collective: that of an imaginary home to be invented in the ruins of reality
The Archive of Grigoris Antoniou
Premiere • Experimental • 13' • Cyprus • 2025
Director: Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexia Achilleos
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Martha, a museum archivist, has discovered a box of early 20th century lantern slides from Cyprus in the museum’s collection. As she goes through the processes of documenting, cataloguing, preserving, contextualising, and storing the slides, she uses a Museum Bot – an AI assistant – to help her interpret the archival material. However, this occasionally leads to conflicting information and unexpected glitches.
Leuresthes
Drama • 25' • Greece • 2025
Director: Ioanna Roumelioti
Language: English
Subtitles: English
When his mother commits suicide, Dinos returns to the village where he grew up. Confronted with the Orthodox tradition that denies her burial, he defies social conventions by choosing a personal ritual of farewell.
Lala's Land
Documentary • 14' • Greece • 2025
Director: Thanasis Fousekis
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English
A Portrait of Drag Queen Lala Kolopi and Giorgos, the person behind her. A journey into the dazzling world of drag shows, through Giorgos’ story of his path from discovering the persona to her rise as a symbol of freedom, self expression, and creativity.
After the Water
Documentary • 23' • Italy, Greece • 2025
Director: Davide Marchesi
Language: Arabic, English, Greek
Subtitles: English
People on the move, stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos. Historical, political, and environmental layers shaping the territory emerge, documenting a series of swimming lessons offered to the refugee youth on the island. As many people cross the sea between Turkey and Greece without being able to swim, water represents one step of the journey to overcome, but also an element of trauma.
Mikro Soma
Drama • 25' • Greece • 2025
Director: Yannis Symvonis
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English
A meeting that means survival for one and anticipation for the other. On the edge of the Greek countryside, a car moves forward. Amid memories, questions about the past, and hopes for love and recognition, a man and a boy negotiate not only their relationship, but also an emotionally and physically painful exchange.
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION A
Tuesday, 21 July • 20.30 • Starfish Cinema • 118'
Jonathan
Greek Premiere • Drama • 17' • Belgium, Kenya • 2025
Director: Lieven Corthouts
Language: Swahili
After years of war, Nyawel, a South Sudanese woman living in Kenya, travels back to her hometown in search of her missing son and mother. On the long bus journey, she meets others with broken ties. As the landscape slips by, so does time—will she find them, or is everything already lost?
Found&Lost
Greek Premiere • Drama • 17' • Austria • 2025
Director: Reza Rasouli
Language: Arabic, German, English
Tamim, a Syrian father living in Vienna, sets out to return a lost wallet to its owner. What starts as a simple act of kindness quickly spirals into a series of misunderstandings, forcing him to navigate an increasingly complex moral dilemma.
In another Palestine
Greek Premiere • Documentary • 10' • Peru, Germany • 2026
Director: Yaela Gottlieb
Language: Arabic, Spanish
Some children swim in the Jordan River on their way to Jerusalem. It’s summer, and the plants are bearing fruit. Paths stretch out in every direction. People and memories wait to be named. It’s New Year in Palestine.
Scorching
Greek Premiere • Drama • 19' • China • 2026
Director: Beidi Wang
Language: Chinese – Min Nan, Mandarin Chinese
After visiting the chicken processing plant, Yan experiences unsettling physical change, meanwhile, a bird flu quietly descends in suburban Guangdong, China.
Shallow Ground
Greek Premiere • Drama • 20' • Croatia • 2025
Director: Jozo Schmuch
Language: Croatian
Set in the Croatian city of Vukovar, three decades after the end of the Croatian War of Independence, Shallow Ground tells the story of Marija, an elderly mother whose son Luka went missing during the war. One morning, Luka returns, unchanged, as if no time has passed. He still looks twenty. He carries no explanation, no scars, no aging, just the quiet familiarity of someone long lost.
Auntie Lica The Hunchback
Greek Premiere • Drama • 15' • Romania • 2025
Director: Paul-Razvan Macovei
Language: French, Romanian
Eva flies back from France expecting a simple funeral. What she gets is a hunchbacked grandma, a furious village priest, and a coffin that just won’t fit. With the church refusing to bend and the body refusing to straighten, Eva is forced to navigate small-town absurdities, family pressure, and funeral logistics that defy common sense.
Something Wild
Greek Premiere • Drama • 21' • Hungary, USA • 2025
Director: Zsuzsanna Konrad
Language: Hungarian, English
In an average Hungarian family home, a straight-A-student, yearning to be free, starts turning into a bear.
ECHOES SHORTS A
Tuesday, 21 July • 23.00 • Starfish Cinema • 107' • Free Admission
White Veil
Documentary • 10’ • Ireland, Slovenia • 2025
Director: Žiga Ciber
Language: Slovenian
Subtitles: English
Nestled by the banks of the Soča River, the village of Anhovo carries a legacy buried beneath layers of history and dust. More than 100 years ago, an asbestos cement factory was built. Through shifting wars, regimes, and borders, from fascism, socialism, and capitalism, the factory endured. It gave people jobs, homes and hope. But soon, it began to take their breath, their health, and eventually, their lives. Today, it is still belching smoke, as time stands still under the White Veil.
El Guero
Premiere • Fiction • 17’ • Argentina, Mexico • 2026
Director: Lucia Lalor, Wenceslao Arias
Language: Spanish, English
Subtitles: English
A man working for a foreign company arrives in a coastal town to supervise the construction of the first touristic hotel in the area. He soon finds himself caught in growing tension with the local inhabitants, who express their frustration over the invasion of their beaches, until the confrontation reaches a breaking point.
Requiem for the Caspian
Premiere • Documentary • 15’ • Azerbaijan, UK, Italy • 2025
Director: Suad Gara
Language: Azerbaijani, Russian
Subtitles: English
As the Caspian coast is drying out, fishing villages give way to industrial landscapes. Suspended from their day-to-day activities, the inhabitants of an old village on a remote island of Pirallahi off the coast of Baku await the Sea’s return. Meanwhile, the land grab continues, as factories, warehouses and oil rigs take over what was once a vibrant underwater ecosystem.
Plant Life
International Premiere • Documentary • 22’ • US • 2026
Director: Brett Marty, Josh Izenberg
Language: English
Subtitles: English
An intimate, urgent portrait of Dr. Joanne Chory, a scientist who rewrote the rules of plant biology, racing to enlist those breakthroughs to fight climate change. As her Parkinson’s advances and carbon levels surge, she pursues her most audacious experiment yet. She and her team are re-engineering crops to draw down CO₂ at a planetary scale — a scientific race against time that may determine both her legacy and our future.
Chuuraa
Documentary • 17’ • UK • 2026
Director: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Language: Sakha
Subtitles: English
In the remote Siberian Arctic, an Indigenous Sakha scientist descends into the depths of the melting permafrost. Searching for an ancient creature, he makes his way through the dangerous caves to the mythical realm of the Underworld.
Gyaros: The Story of the Sea
Documentary • 25’ • Greece • 2026
Director: Mike Bekos
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English
A journey on the island of Gyaros through the perspective of the sea. The exploration of its history from antiquity to the present day, emphasizing the importance of protecting marine environment. Presented by WWF, it showcases Greece’s consistent work through programs implemented over the past 12 years, as well as the crucial designation of Gyaros as a Marine Protected Area. Through powerful imagery and testimonies, the film brings forward the deep connection between humans and nature.
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION B
Wednesday, 22 July • 20.30 • Starfish Cinema • 112'
Ambush
Greek Premiere • Drama • 21' • Jordan, Canada • 2025
Director: Yassmina Karajah
Language: Arabic, Greek
A pop-up techno club ambushes the streets of downtown Amman flooding a conservative neighborhood with heavy bass and unfamiliar faces. Jana arrives, newly sober, wrestling with intimacy. While across the street, Hasan watches from his family rooftop, anticipating a long-overdue encounter.
The Inner Ear
Greek Premiere • Comedy, Drama • 17' • Argentina • 2026
Director: Rafael Federman
Language: Spanish
After a boat accident, Lorenzo begins to hear a persistent buzzing sound. As his daily life becomes increasingly strange, he embarks on a journey through medical therapies in search of something that can ease his discomfort.
SightNotSeeing
Greek Premiere • Experimental • 11' • Hong Kong • 2026
Director: Sheungman Yim
Language: English
In Kowloon City, Hong Kong, a cultural tour begins, tracing the outline of a walled city that no longer exists. But the group slips out of frame soon enough. In its place, a different kind of cultural tour emerges—less about heritage, more about human nature.
Still Standing
Greek Premiere • Documentary • 10' • USA • 2026
Director: Victor Tadashi Suarez, Livia Albeck-Ripka
Language: English
The urban wildfire that tore through Altadena, California, in January 2025 was among the most destructive in history, destroying more than 9,000 homes and structures. Thousands more homes were left standing. But they are toxic. Despite the health risks, many insurance companies claim these homes are habitable.
For the Opponents
Greek Premiere • Documentary • 15' • Chile, France, Mexico • 2026
Director: Federico Luis
Language: Spanish
In the tough neighbourhood of Tepito, a young boy chases the great Mexican dream: to become a boxing champion.
Captive Audience
Greek Premiere • Comedy • 14' • Singapore • 2025
Director: Kew Lin
Language: English, Mandarin, Malay
Rejected by the music industry, a disenchanted musician decides to perform his music to a different audience — animals at the zoo.
Wind Beneath the Wings
Greek Premiere • Drama • 26' • Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro • 2025
Director: Sonja Tarokić
Language: Croatian
As Anica undergoes chemotherapy and struggles to preserve her dignity, her estranged ex-husband Vlatko drifts through a life marked by loneliness and alcoholism. Separated by years of resentment, they each search for a reason to keep living before it is too late.
ECHOES SHORTS B
Wednesday, 22 July • 23.00 • Starfish Cinema • 65' • Free Admission
Artefacts of Accumulation
Documentary • 19’ • Portugal • 2025
Director: Locument
Language: English
Subtitles: English
A voyage into the depths of the transformation process of discarded matter, gazing at the operations that domestic and industrial waste undertake in the process of being recycled and deposited. Immersing in the technologies that define the procedures of dealing with refuse, the film reveals the architectures that orbit the worlds our waste creates.
The Prediction
European Premiere • Drama • 24’ • India • 2025
Director: Rishi Chandna
Language: Tamil
Subtitles: English
A grieving boatman and an earnest meteorologist share their knowledge of the seas and weather, but find themselves helpless in the face of unpredictable climate.
Change Makers
Documentary • 20’ • Greece • 2025
Director: Casey Beck
Language: Greek, English
Subtitles: English
Lefteris Arapakis was born to be a sixth-generation fisherman in Greece. Instead, he started the country’s first-ever fishing school, training fishermen to remove plastic garbage from local waters and convincing this ancient profession – including his own family – of the need to protect the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.
POPUP SHORTS
Thursday, 16 July • 22.00 • Andreas Kalatzis Gallery • 153' • Free Admission & Drinks
Thursday, 23 July • 21.30 • Starfish Cinema • 130' • 10€ + Complimentary Babel Beer (see ticket below)
Children of Telavi
Documentary • 9’ • Georgia, Ireland • 2026
Director: Joel Zeiser
Language: English, Georgian
In Telavi, a small town in eastern Georgia, a group of friends meets to play board games and create music and poetry. Outside, life follows the rhythm it always has. Inside, a community forms around the table, seeking a life full of expression.
Three Seals
Animation • 8’ • Germany, China, Brazil • 2025
Director: Dou Dou
Language: Mandarin
Setting out to escape insomnia, hunger, and self-doubt, three seals embark on an inner journey.
Samba Infinito
Premiere • Drama, Musical • 15’ • Brazil, France • 2025
Director: Leonardo Martinelli
Language: Portuguese
During Rio’s Carnival, a street cleaner struggles with the loss of his sister and his work obligations. Amid the celebrations, he finds a lost child and sets out to help him.
Notes From Planet Three
Documentary • 14’ • UK • 2025
Director: Simon Ellis
Language: English
A boy shares the science of our solar system with his two year-old sister, as documentary scenes of the night sky collide with social media conspiracies. One generation embracing science while another throws it away.
Agapito
Drama • 15’ • Philippines/France • 2025
Director: Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Romero
Language: Tagalog
It’s the last day of the month. Bowlers flock to the lanes of a bowling alley that has seen better days. Mira, the manager, decides to close early. She’s awaiting the arrival of a special visitor.
Nothing and Everything
Premiere • Drama • 17’ • Greece • 2025
Director: Lia Tsalta
Language: Greek
Two women face the final moments of their relationship, navigating the tender rituals of goodbye. As they reflect on their separation, they immerse themselves in a world of care, loss and the transience of existence.
Dingo
Documentary • 18' • US • 2026
Director: James Marcus Haney
Language: English
An 81-year-old undiscovered street photographer prodigy, Dingo, reflects with his daughter on how photography affects their memories and grief.
The Patient 1789
Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi • 26’ • Greece • 2025
Director: Eirini Karagkiozidou
Language: Greek
A patient-artist lies in a hospital bed, gradually surrounded by the objects of his “work therapy”. With the help of his assistants and family members, he toils to create his greatest masterpiece: his own death.
The Missing Piece
Premiere • Fiction, Drama • 20’ • France • 2026
Director: Alma Jodorowsky
Language: English, Greek, French
After her grandmother’s passing, Alma travels to Greece in order to find the missing piece of a jewel, given to her by her relative before her passing.
AegeanFF Winning Short Films & Select PopUp Shorts
Join us on the Short Films Closing Night for a special screening of this year’s award-winners, followed by a selection of PopUp films presented by their filmmakers. Watch the winners of the Best Aegean Short Film, Jury Special Mention, Best Greek Short, selected by the 2026 Jury; as well as the winner of the Sustainability Award, honored by the Festival Team.
The closing night will be accompanied by complimentary Babel Beer, the Official AegeanFF Cinema Beer!