An Iranian boy befriends an old Japanese woman at a graveyard in Tokyo.

In a world where Black men have wings and their first flight is a rite of passage, Akil must defy fears, insecurities, and societal barriers while discovering his perfect launch into manhood.

Fulfillment of a Wish tells the story of how Sigmund Freud arrived at his theory of the dream as a form of wish-fulfillment. In pairing this story with animated imagery from a deep learning text-to-image model, the work suggests that generative AI imagery may also be the “disguised fulfillment of a suppressed, repressed wish.”

In a dream-like landscape, a girl journeys through her past and present in search of her own Bluebird. Is she pursuing a mere shadow, or has this Bluebird long been soaring within her heart?

Komoro, Japan, 1956. 10-year-old Sumiko chases a red dragonfly through her family’s farm while her mother, Yoshiko, watches from a distance. Tokyo, 1945. Yoshiko, her husband, Susumu, and their baby boy, Kiyoshi, are forced to evacuate their home when hundreds of B-29 bombers drop incendiary bombs on the city, erupting into a massive fire.

The true story of a couple who are driving through an unpopulated region of the New Mexico desert when they see something unexplainable up in the night sky. This amazing and hilarious story, told by the filmmakers' parents, is lovingly animated by hand and brings to life a family legend that has remained a secret for over 15 years.

Animation celebrates the human imagination and its capacity to etch simulations of reality while leaving space for the mind to fill in the gaps and take a leap of faith. Danced movement embodies this same leap of faith as it carves out and evokes worlds via gesture, focus and the dance of time, space and force. “Picture This” reminds us of the power of mental imagery to envision settings as the body generates its own moving pictures.

The Mangwa South District of Zimbabwe has been forgotten by the world and the government of Zimbabwe. A rural district where livestock remains the chief economic driver for villages dotted around the landscape. The villagers own the land, but have no resources to manage and improve it. That was until Guav and Courteney Johnson decided to help. Wire & Water captures the heart of the Johnson brothers. Their love for wildlife, the people of Dukwe Village and the environment they're attempting to resurrect. A story of how sustainable wildlife use can provide protein, alternative income, jobs and security for resurgent animal populations. But most importantly how the community can ensure a ready supply of those two essential elements for life in this far flung region of Zimbabwe. Wire and water.
This story portrays how communities and individuals can work together to better their environment and sustain it for generations to come. A halt to the decades of decline seen in many parts of rural Africa. Though a common partnership in many parts of Africa, this story is seldom seen by those outside of the continent.

By day, Zwai works as a welder at a Durban chop shop - a job that's been responsible for the progressive pain in his hand. This is to support himself and his father who's wholly dependent on him and constantly nagging him about their faulty geyser. But by night, he finds solace in his digital piano keyboard where he plays the jazz music he has loved all of his life. He bumps into Felicia, an old music lecturer one afternoon, who advises him to try out for a position as a resident pianist at a local restaurant.

With his hand deteriorating, he decides to pursue this opportunity but he's constantly distracted by his father's insistence on having hot water and his constant disdain for his piano ability as something unhelpful in their dire financial situation. It's when Zwai's father sells his keyboard and Zwai flunks his restaurant audition that he realises that something needs to change at home.

With nothing more to lose, Zwai confronts his father about the sacrifices he's made for him but his father pushes back insisting that he's sacrificed even more, having been the head of a poor family and having had to wash in cold water for years when Zwai was a child. Realising that his father's repulsion to cold water has taken over his own dream, and Zwai's father's feeling that Zwai owes him for his life, a physical fight ensues between the two men that culminates in Zwai hosing his father down with a garden hosepipe. At the end of the fight, Zwai's father reaches out to Zwai to lift him off the ground but Zwai withdraws his hand for the first time, allowing his father to finally lift himself up by his own hand.

13 years after his civil service in a hospital in Thiès, Senegal, Paul challanges his memories and traumas. With old video footage, interviews and animations he questions his role as a volunteer within the German system of development aid.

(Screenerlink: https://degas.filmakademie.de/nextcloud/s/stQK5SqWgL5LRsE)

In a rural area in Northeast China, a young man and woman arrive at the town's train station early in the morning. Their goal is to head towards the "sea," but they don't board the train. In front of an outdated "stereoscopic viewing machine," they gaze through two lenses, seeing both inside and outside, here and afar, themselves and others.

Set in 1850's Philadelphia, "My Brother's Keeper" follows a wealthy Black physician who must put his freedom at risk to shelter a runaway slave from a ruthless bounty hunter.

A family reconstructs the fragments of memories forgotten by a loved one, in this kaleidoscopic animated documentary.

Vaughn, a rapper hungry for critical acclaim risks sacrificing his authenticity for a coveted interview with a revered magazine.
However, as the journalist turns on him and seeks to destroy his career, "Apollo" must decide whether to play along or fight for his true self.

In a future where time travel is used as a form of therapy, Imogen grapples with the weight of her troubled past and is given the opportunity to revisit her younger self and confront the experiences that shaped her present self.

With REVERIE she will either change something in her past and delete her current chronology. Or she will learn to embrace her past, ultimately finding the strength and resilience to move forward and create a better future for herself.

A family who has recently moved from Mexico to Utah following a job opportunity struggles to adapt to their new circumstances. At the end of the day, they come together to share a burnt meal, but each is lost in their own reflections on the difficult day they've had. After a tense silence and display of emotions, Carolina suggests that instead of eating the burnt dinner, they all go out for pizza. The family ultimately realizes that vulnerability will allow them to shoulder their burdens together instead of alone.