Dublin Independent Film Festival aims to screen a high-quality program of indie films from all over the world and to create a venue for filmmakers and audiences to connect.
- A POEM IN BAMBOO
(USA)
DIRECTORS: CHUN-YAO CHANG, XUFEI WU
CATEGORY: BEST ANIMATED SHORT
1920s, southern Anhui Province, China. A young bridegroom is visiting his aunt, who lives alone in the distant mountains. Bamboo grows everywhere, like an ocean.
Rumors swirl around the isolated mansion and the lonely old lady who lives there, but her nephew is determined to maintain family ties.
The rural setting is beautiful, and his aunt seems kind, if subdued. Still, there is that locked room in the attic. And that strange noise. And secrets?
- BLACK SHORE
(UK)
DIRECTORS: JON PARK, GRANT WHITE
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT FILM
In a bleak British seaside town a family is stalked by an amorphous presence.
- THE BACK OF THE HOUSE
(Ireland)
DIRECTOR: STUART DOUGLAS
CATEGORY: BEST DIRECTOR
A family torn by lost time, love and life.
- THE BIRD AND THE WHALE
(Ireland)
DIRECTOR: CAROL FREEMAN
CATEGORY: BEST ANIMATED SHORT
The Bird and the Whale is a story about a young whale
struggling to find his voice.
After straying too far from his family to explore a shipwreck, he discovers it’s sole survivor, a caged songbird. Together they struggle to survive lost at sea.
- BLUE HOUR
(Hungary)
DIRECTOR: REGŐS ÁBEL
CATEGORY: BEST DRAMA
Orsi is a single mother, living with her 5-year-old daughter.
She’s just found a man on a dating site who she is about to go on a date with.
This short film is about a special night of a middle-aged mother.
- DAVE GOES WEST
(UK)
DIRECTOR: JOE O’CONNOR
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
10 marathons in 10 days along the West Coast of Ireland.
- DIRTY BUSINESS
(UK)
DIRECTOR: YUTAO CHEN
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Most of us don’t think much about recycling. We rinse our yogurt containers, crush our milk cartons, and break down our boxes. But once our trash hits the curb in a blue or a brown or a green bin, we forget about it. Welcome to Minh Khai, Vietnam – where plastic
from all over the world finds new life.
- FORGOTTEN
(USA)
DIRECTOR: DANIEL SOARES
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Would you still perform your art, even if nobody was watching?
After 26 years of professional playing Jai Alai – the fastest ball game in the world- Tevin is trying to bring back the crowds to the court. While remembering the glorious past of this sport in Miami, he tries everything in order to play one last match with a stadium full of people.
- GROUNDS
(UK)
DIRECTOR: PHOEBE TORRANCE
CATEGORY: BEST DRAMA
A wallflower is thrust into a dilemma with her best friends charming brother. At what point is consent given; do our actions speak for themselves or is verbal expression a necessity.
- HOME
(UK)
DIRECTOR: SCOTT ALTMAN
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Full of grit, raw emotion, heartbreak and determination, ‘Home’ chronicles the narrative behind homelessness through the lens of a cast from all strands of Irish society, from activists and volunteers, to musicians and Oscar winners, to the very victims of the
country’s biggest ongoing crisis.
- LEARNING TO SWIM
(UK)
DIRECTOR: RUTH GRIMBERG
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Ingrid and her son Ross welcome Syrian refugee Ahmed into their home in the quiet
English countryside and find a way to resist the uncertainty and fear we all face.
- THE MATCH
(Finland)
DIRECTOR: PIA ANDELL
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT FILM
It is not easy to compete. Two middle-aged women on a tennis court. One hour.
- SPOTTER-SPOTTERS
(UK)
DIRECTOR: BEN PLUMB
CATEGORY: BEST COMEDY
Mockumentary about a spotter-spotter, or someone who takes photos of people taking
photos of trains. He’s about to embark on his bid for the top spot in this year’s
competition. In order to win he will have to overcome the under-handed tactics of his
competitors and the fearsome wrath of angry trainspotters who do not like having their
photos taken.
- SUMMER RAIN
(Belgium)
DIRECTOR: MIWAKO VAN WEYENBERG
CATEGORY: BEST DRAMA
Keita is a 8-year old boy from a Belgian-Japanese family.
During the summer break, he spends two weeks with his grandparents at the Flemish countryside.
Keita has a difficult relationship with his grandfather and they are both put to the test when they are forced to live under the same roof.
- SUNDAY
(Switzerland)
DIRECTOR: NEIL STUBBINGS
CATEGORY: BEST ANIMATED SHORT
A story about a lonely penguin’s quest for a refreshment on a hot and sunny southpole
sunday.
- VALENTINE
(Belgium)
DIRECTOR: BENJAMIN HAUTENAUVE
CATEGORY: BEST SHORT FILM
It’s the middle of the summer. Frank is going to spend the night out with his friends, as
usual. But this time, by morning, things are not quite the same anymore.
- THE WIND PHONE
(USA)
DIRECTOR: KRISTEN GERWECK
CATEGORY: BEST EXPERIMENTAL
The Wind Phone intimately follows the emotional journeys of seven strangers. Each is drawn to the same remote and eerie phone booth on a Japanese cliffside, although their
conversations couldn’t seem more different.
It is not until one of the callers extends a consoling hand to another, that we begin to understand that they are all connected by one harrowing reality.
