All WINNERS of Categories
Films selected to the Live Screening - February 28, 2025
Windcatcher (Australia)
Director: Tanith Glynn-Maloney
- Best Feature Film (for audience 12 Years Old and under)
A ten-year-old Aboriginal boy and his friends try to defeat bullies at a school carnival and become heroes.
Giants of la Mancha (Germany)
Director: Gonzalo Gutierrez
- Best Animated Film (for audience 12 Years Old and under)
- Best Sound
“Giants of La Mancha” is an extraordinary and adventurous journey for the whole family, following 11-year-old Alfonso, heir to Don Quixote, and his three imaginary rabbits, which are joined by Pancho and Victoria. With their power of friendship, they save their beloved hometown somewhere in La Mancha from a huge storm. They dream the impossible dream, overcome their fears, and use their imagination to find the real force behind the storm.
My Big Big Friend (Brazil)
Director: Andres Lieban
- Best Producer
- Best Original Score
In this animated musical film for kids aged 2-11, Yuri, Lili and Matt, along with their Big Big Animal friends Golias, Nessa and Bongo will have their biggest adventure yet!
They will travel to a strange new world where they will meet Doodle Doubt – a strange creature that will test their friendship and self confidence.
Little Anna (Latvia)
Director: Uldis Cipsts
- Best Feature Film (for audience 13 – 18 Years Old)
“My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes,” says red-haired Anna, well, at least until she arrives at the house shared by two middle-aged siblings, Maria and Martin. Originally, farmers Maria and Martin wish to adopt a teen boy from an orphanage and are surprised to receive Anna sent by mistake. Bubblying, imaginative and sometimes theatrical Anna quickly wins the heart of Martin but is disapproved of by stern Maria at first. Slowly and surely the three will grow into one loving family. Anna will finally have a home, a community and friends. Maria will gradually open up herself as well. There is a child in each and every one of us. Based An European take on the Canadian classic Anne of Green Gable.
Rapunzel und die Rückkehr der Falken (Germany)
Director: Christoph Heimer
- Best Child/Teen Acting
- Best Song (for audience 18 Years Old and under)
Once abandoned by her biological parents as a newborn, Rapunzel lives deep in the forest with the magician Eleonor. When Queen Freya unexpectedly summons the magician to court to witness her son Prince Sigismund’s succession ritual, Rapunzel simply invites herself along. The nature-loving prince and whirlwind Rapunzel hit it off straight away. Eleonor’s past catches up with her, however, as she served the king many years ago and caused his death with her magic. Now the queen demands the magician’s services again to protect her supposedly weak son. Although Eleonor helps the young prince to survive the ritual, she refuses to be eternally faithful. The queen then has Rapunzel and Eleonor imprisoned. But Sigismund and his best friend Pip secretly free the girl who is so dear to the prince’s heart. Rapunzel and Eleonor flee to an old, hidden tower.
GIRL No. 60427 (Israel)
Directors: Shulamit Lifshitz & Oriel Berkovits
- Best Short Film (for audience 13 – 18 Years Old)
Tel Aviv, 1998, summer vacation. Reut finds and reads her grandmother’s secret notebook from the Holocaust. Grandma’s story resonates in Reut’s well-developed imagination, and the fun week in Tel Aviv with Grandpa and Grandma turns into something else entirely. Reut’s relationship with her Grandma is changed forever.
LUKi and the Lights (USA)
Director: Toby Cochran
- Best Short Film (for audience 12 Years Old and under)
LUKi, a charming and upbeat robot known for living life to the fullest, confronts a life-altering ALS diagnosis. Through the lens of LUKi’s unwavering resilience, the story of his battle against ALS transforms into a testament to the human (and robotic) spirit’s ability to find light even in the darkest of times. With every choice he makes, every smile he shares, and every second he cherishes, LUKi paints a vivid portrait of what it means to truly live, even as the sands of time slip through his grasp.
The Journey of Sava (Brazil)
Director: Di Florentino
- Best Documentary Film (for audience 18 Years Old and under)
The Journey of Sava is part of the unpublished series Ninhos em Movimento, about childhood and migration in Brazil. Sava is a boy with curious eyes, who carries with him the weight of a recent and sad history. Because of the war he had to leave the Ukraine and come to Brazil, to the city of Prudentópolis in the interior of Paraná, which is known as the land of giant waterfalls.
Eger, 1552 (Hungary)
Director: Attila Szász
- Best Director
Two sixth-graders lose their way on a school trip and find themselves in the middle of the siege of Eger in 1552, on the exact day the Ottoman Army unleashes the final attack on the iconic Hungarian castle.
The Girl Behind the Mirror (Brazil)
Director: Iuri Moreno
- Best Animated Film (for audience 13-18 Years Old)
A transgender girl locks herself in her room for fear of the monsters that threaten her outside, until a new reality appears behind the mirror where these monsters do not exist and she is free to be who she is or who wants to be.
Fortissimo (France)
Director: Victor Cesca
- Best Comedy Film (for audience 18 Years Old and under)
Guy, a pianist passionate about his music, sees his life turned upside down when the church where he officiates takes in a mysterious little girl. A true piano virtuoso, the child prodigy will soon steal the show. A duel of egos then begins.
1 2 3 Red light, Green light (Taiwan)
Director: Liangyu Chen
- Best Short Film by a Young Filmmaker (filmmaker 18 Years Old and under)
Grandpa capybara traveled from South America to Taiwan in Asia. He likes the life of soaking in hot springs in the forest, and his grandchild Gogou likes Taiwanese food.
Taiwan is one of the best places in the world for hot springs, and Grandpa has traveled from the south to the north to soak in all kinds of hot springs, cold springs, and turbid springs. ..as they walking and walking, Gogou often gets hit by the fruit, which came from trees planted by predecessors; soaking and soaking, the grandpa capybara and grandchild capybara seeing that the forest is getting smaller and smaller, and the homeland is in jeopardy…
“1 2 3 Red light, Green light”, Look back and see who moved? A global citizen must see, nobody can avoid it.
Glass Works (Hong Kong)
Director: Norman Ng
- Best First Time Director
A lyrical reminiscence of an innocent childhood friendship in Hong Kong in the 80s, when being kind to someone did not requrie a reason like today. Shing’s dad despises Chi, whom he regards as rude. Shing sights Chi, who suffers from polydactyly, being bullied by hooligans. He comforts Chi by secretly letting him do glassblowing at his dad’s workshop secretly. His raged dad finds out and beats him up. Shing eventually wins his dad’s trust, but unintentionally spurs Chi’s low self-esteem, and Chi walks out on him. How will the two boys reconcile?
I Wanna Be An Eagle (USA)
Directors: Joe Petrucelli & Mark Simon
- Best Youth Music Video (for audience 18 Years Old and under)
Petronia, a young, musical, anthropomorphic sparrow in the big city, dreams and sings about being an eagle. From soaring over the majestic mountains to flying through the streets of New York, we fly with her and experience the freedom and fame of being an eagle until she wakes from her glorious dream.
Krampuss (Iceland)
Director: Guðni Líndal Benediktsson
- BEST SCREENPLAY (for audience 18 Years Old and under)
On Christmas Eve, an Icelandic family comes face to face with the Yule Cat, a ravenous creature of folklore hungry for those who didn’t get clothes for Christmas.
