FILM PROGRAMS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16th
*Premiere Status*
World Premiere (WP), North American Premiere (NAP), Canadian Premiere (CP), Ontario Premiere (OP, Toronto Premiere (TP).
12:00PM
FOREIGN SHORT AND FEATURE
PROGRAM: 2H 20M. Followed by audience Q & A.
Moderated by Elizabeth Lazebnik, Program Committee .
SHORT
Les Lucioles
Directed by Loïs Angilella, Lé Faynel, Ambre Fournier, Clémentine Gabard, Hannah Gozlan, Claire Represa, Emilie Richard, Mathieu Staropoli and Maïa Xueref
In the 1920s, female workers in a factory paint fluorescent watch dials. Mollie, the newcomer, makes a mistake that forces her colleagues to work with her through the night. Deprived of the evening ball they were supposed to attend, they end up improvising their own ball in the factory...
(NAP, 2024, Animation, 00:06:35, France)
FEATURE PRESENTATION
FEATURE
Highly Explosive
Directed by Kerstin Polte
In the heart of Hamburg, the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb not only leads to a large-scale evacuation but also triggers an emotional state of emergency. As residents are forced to confront their long-suppressed fears and traumas, unexpected encounters arise amid the chaos—meetings that would never have happened under normal circumstances.
(CP, 2024, Drama, 01:35:00, Germany)
5:30 PM
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS
Mothers, Daughters and Such…
Total run time: 2H 22M. Followed by audience Q & A.
Moderated by Edie Steiner, Program Committee.
Program Curated by Leslie-Ann Coles, FeFF Director
In Garrigues
Directed by Vera Martynov
EN GARRIGUES is an intimate cinematic essay following writer Sabine Garrigues in her solitary life in southern France. Out of a profound loss, she wrote Nothing is known — a deeply personal text. In the silent, windswept landscape of the garrigue, she writes, runs, and breathes — tracing a path through grief back to meaning and beauty.
(NAP, 2024, Experimental, 0:19:00, France)
Sprout
Directed by Allie Yonick
Sprout explores the layered complexity of a mother and daughter relationship. At its core, it is a bond rooted in security and nourishment, yet one that also carries instability, sacrifice, and heartbreak. The story centers on a mother facing the loss of her sprout farm, her primary livelihood, and a daughter equally entangled in that struggle. For the daughter, the farm is not only the land she grew up on but also the source that sustained her, shaped her identity, and gave her the music that defined her world.
(NAP, 2024, Drama, 00:08:32, Toronto, ON)
Un lieu à elle
(A place of her own)
Directed by Noé Perrel Kirscher
Valérie and her two daughters, Alice and Mara, return to the home of their grandmother, who has just died. This return to her childhood home takes Valérie to a place she never imagined.
(NAP, 2024, Drama, 00:13:42, France)
Red
Directed by Sophie Horry
A young woman is set to have sex for the first time. Despite her mother working in a sex industry, Nina does not want think about intimacy as a physical act – she wants a deep love connection. Is the reality going to match her fantasy?
(NAP, 2025, Drama, 0:20:36, Poland)
Dirty Bad Wrong
Directed by Erica Orofino
Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6 year old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, books a last-minute client with a dark fetish.
(2023, Drama, 0:14:40, Toronto, ON)
Fish In Vat
Directed by Hou Xinyan
After the daughter Muxin tastes the “forbidden fruit”for the first time, an unexpected medical examination tears apart the veil of shame between her and her OB-GYN mother. The isolated islands separate Muxin and her mother, but they use love to overcome misunderstanding and redeem each other from hostility, calling back their true selves.
(NAP, 2024, Drama, 0:30:21, China)
Good Morning Mom
Directed by Oben Yilmaz
Written by Oben Yilmaz & Nuri Cihan Özdoğan
At a very huge farm in the middle of nowhere, two sisters engage in a secret struggle with each other in order to win their mother's love. The family is irreparably shaken on the day the sister gets stuck in the swamp due to an unfortunate accident.
(NAP, 2024, Drama, 0:16:42, Turkey)
9:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS & FOREIGN FEATURE
PROGRAM: 2H 30M. Followed by an audience Q & A.
Moderated by Leslie-Ann Coles, FeFF Director and Program Curator.
SHORT
Gardening
Directed by Sarah Beeby
In the aftermath of sexual assault, a woman retreats into the garden of her mind. Searching for answers and struggling to do "the right thing", she realises that she must regain her voice and find new paths to healing, before she and her garden are destroyed completely.
(NAP, Animation, 0:13:54, England,UK)
SHORT
Under the Kasaya
Directed by Jennifer Fan Jiang
After an unexpected interaction with her Buddhist mentor, 14-year-old Jean faces a terrifying dilemma: to stay silent, or to risk it all by confessing the ugly truth to her deeply devout Buddhist mother.
(NAP, 2024, Drama, 0:14:56, Toronto, ON)
- FEATURE PRESENTATION -
FEATURE
Shakti
Directed by Nani Sahra Walker
Durga, a single mother, struggles to protect her spirited daughter Lila while working tirelessly to keep her family afloat. When Lila begins to change in troubling ways, Durga is forced to confront buried secrets, corrupt systems, and a society that refuses to see their worth.
(WP, 2025, Drama, 01:35:00, Nepal)
Followed by an audience Q & A.
FILM PROGRAM
DAY FOUR - OCTOBER 17th
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