Are We Just Flowers?

A poem about a flower going through an existential crisis

Passing Time

From the music of Uruguayan composer Florencia Di Concilio, English filmmaker Terence Davies does a cinematic reading of his own poem about his late sister, delivered over a single serene shot of the countryside near his home in Essex. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

Daisy Miller

Despite mixed emotions, Frederick Winterbourne tries to figure out the bright and bubbly Daisy Miller, only to be helped and hindered by false judgments from their fellow friends.

The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom

In the twilight of the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial court is plagued by corruption as tyrants rule the land. With the Manchurians preying on a weakened empire, war is imminent. To save the victims from suffering, sorceress Jade Raksha fights the soldiers that oppress people for their own gain. As payback, local officials pin the murder of Governor Zhuo Zhonglian on Jade, turning her and the members of her cult into wanted fugitives for a crime they didn't commit.

Winter Love

Inside a café, on Christmas Eve. Chim Kei meets an enigmatic woman named Mimi Wong who introduces herself as the daughter of an upper-crust family. But the infatuated writer is struck by a spasm of sorrow when he later sees Mimi make her appearance as a taxi-dancer at a party. The lovers are reconciled by the story of her plight told by her sister Annie. However, Mimi goes missing on the engagement day. By a stroke of luck, Chim runs into the elusive woman again and finds out how she was forced into prostitution by her drug-addict husband, his childhood best friend and benefactor Chan Hung-kit. Chim leaves dejectedly, and has since been idling his days away. The frail Mimi confesses her love for Chim on her deathbed, and from not far away, Chan has ended his own life.

Reflections (반영)

Just as Necrón resigns himself to never completing his book, a mysterious mirror arrives at his door, beckoning him. From that night on, inspiration comes to him unannounced, cloaked in mystery. Yet when the mirror has shown him every face he wears, will Necrón find the courage to confront his own demons?

Jons und Erdme

Adaptation of Hermann Sudermann's novel about the troubled relationship between the strong willed Erdme and her irascible husband Jons in the Lithunian moors.

Songs from the Second Floor

A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.

Spring

Ko Suk-ying is saddened over her arranged marriage as manipulated by her father Hak-ming. Ko Kok-sun's Cousin Chow Wai's spends the Mid-Autumn Festival before her marriage with the Kos. She has been in love with Sun. Sun finds out about her love for him when she is about to be married off, he is too weak to oppose to Wai's betrothal to another man. Sun's son, Hoi-sun, falls ill. Fearing the displeasure of his elders, Sun dares not consult a western doctor. Meanwhile, another dispute arises among members of the family over the ancestral land. When accused of being incompetent in his management, Sun takes the blame silently. Wai dies of grief while Hoi-sun becomes a victim of mistreatment. Sun is devastated at this double blow. Hak-ming instructs Sun to arrange for Ying's wedding. Knowing the kind of man Ying's fiancee is, Sun is reluctant. Not wanting to follow in Wai's footsteps, Ying fights for her own rights, and backed by an enlightened Sun, she leaves for a new start.

Pola X

A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and her two friends.

Twilight

In this animated reverie, ambient sound and poetic narration evoke the experiences of a young boy in the forest at twilight. Accompanied by a friend, the boy walks past vigilant rocks and a sentinel tree, hears the grasses' silent plea ("don't tread on us, leave us be"), espies a spider in his web and two worms snug in their leafy bed. In the darkening sky, they watch clouds billow by tickling the snoring moon. Arriving home, the boy wonders where the path of the nearby river flows.

For Love Alone

Teresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.

On Top of the Earth

Sophie is both attracted to boys and girls. She is torn between Nicolas and Mathilde.

I'll Never Forget the Last Time

A movie that portrays a reflection about sense of being self, to love and to be loved.

At Peace

A lonely engineer is intercepted by a young thief, to whom he offers to give all his money with the condition that they share a dinner together. This leads to a conversation that will put their thoughts and faith in life to test.

Oshidori kenkagasa

Torrents of Spring

Sojourning in Macau, Su Erning by chance helps Pan Meiniang resuscitate his younger brother and fends off the thug. In her admiration, Pan calls off the engagement arranged by her mother to exchange vows with Su despite having known him for only three days. To raise the money for the wedding, Su plans to sell his family yacht to the rich wife of his classmate Lu Zuhua in Hong Kong and promises to buy Pan a pearl necklace. The promiscuous Mrs Lu seduces Su on the yacht and then dumps him. 18 years later, Pan's daughter is getting married. Su prepares a wedding gift—a stolen pearl necklace—for the bride but is too ashamed to show himself.

Overload

A spoken word piece about an autistic person experiencing sensory overload in a world that rejects their existence.

Beauty Raised from the Dead

Lau Mung-mui chances on To Lai-leung and their encounter transcends to a rendezvous in their dreams. They admire each other, but they do not know each other's names and addresses. They keep on thinking of each other and decide to take each other as their future husband and wife. Mui's father wants his son to get married, but he pays no attention to his father's wishes. Mui leaves home to look for Leung. Leung's father forces his daughter to marry her rich and powerful cousin. Leung becomes despondent and dies, following an arranged marriage with her cousin. Mui sought everywhere for Leung for three years, but to no avail. He locates the home of Leung, but the household has moved out. The house is guarded by an old servant. Mui, chasing Leung's spirit, has a brief romance with her. Acknowledging that their union will be hindered by their incompatibility as a mortal and a spirit, Leung reincarnates as a mortal so that their love may be rekindled.

A Lovely Girl's Lovely Dreams

Songstress Mui Yee-wah falls head over heels for painter Wai Tik-fung despite their age difference. Because Wai is a married man, Mui's mother is against the match. Mui falls ill from grief. Rich heir Siu Kar-wai seizes the chance to successfully propose to Mui. However, Siu is unable to let go of Mui's past. In a fit of anger, he fires a deadly shot at Wai.

Goodbye June

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.

The Dreamseller

A disillusioned psychologist tries to commit suicide until he strikes up a friendship with an unlikely saviour who teaches him a new way of living.

Not Without Hope

A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.

Mr. Church

A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.

Gracie

A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.

The Girl in the Book

The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

Scandalous Sex

A daughter seeks to restore the reputation of her disgraced father, a wronged college professor. With help of a professional student, she must overcome an ambitious sorority bitch and corrupt college dean.

Eleanor the Great

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Flashbacks of a Fool

An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia. The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 1970s Britain.

The Last of England

The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.

Mindwalk

On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

Burning Sands

Deep into Hell Week, a favored pledgee is torn between honoring his code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing.

For Colored Girls

A film about existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black females. Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.

I Never Sang for My Father

A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.

Home Run

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

Here

An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Astral City: A Spiritual Journey

The selfish Dr. André Luiz dies and awakes in the limbo called "Umbral". After a painful period in the gruesome swamp, he is rescued and brought in a white light to "Nosso Lar" (meaning "Our Home"). He finds a place of harmony, where people live in peace awaiting

Bastard Out of Carolina

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.