CIFF 2023 2024 Official Selections

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Learning to fly is a stop motion film by Sam Slowik featuring the adventure of Lego man and his rig friend, as they set out to learn how to fly.

Samuel Alexander Slowik Starting his stop animation journey in 2019 at the age of 10, Sam began making stop motion films. Gradually self learning styles and production techniques by watching and creating stop motion animation films.

A poetic and playful exploration of existential philosophy in the modern world.

Paul Wolffram - writer, rider, maker.
Paul is a documentary film maker who has received many international awards for his collaborative film making with communities throughout the Pacific and in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Sometimes he rides motorcycles.

In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private.
So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how dose a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary

Farnoosh Abedi was born in 1985 in Isfahan/ Iran.
He has made more than 20 short animated films and TV series, documentaries and one Feature Animated .
His films was presented and screened in more than 1000 domestic and international film festivals and received 330 awards.

Null Island is the fourth track off of CYANO SUN SUITE: a live concert film of poetry and improvised hipjazzsoulbopfunkhop shot at the iconic Montreal Biosphere. Directed by Stefan Verna; written, performed and produced by poet Tawhida Tanya Evanson; and featuring improvised music by members of Kalmunity Vibe Collective. This visual album is an afro-ancestral dream told through word, sound and science.

Stefan Verna Movement inspires all of Stefan Verna’s creations; ‘Poeticizing our pain’ describes both his process and the impact he seeks with his filmmaking. Stefan started dancing in his late teens and later got involved in theatre before dedicating his professional life to cinema. His deep interest in Afro Culture, Politics and Dance fuels his body of work.
A graduate of Concordia University's Film Production program, Stefan Verna has been active in the film community as a Director, Scriptwriter, Director of Photography and Video Instructor to marginalized youth. As a director he has explored various filmmaking forms: documentary, fiction, music videos and dance films.

Celebrating the kindness and generosity of people who choose to save the life of a stranger, this film is a heartfelt exploration of human compassion and the essence of universal beauty.

Lorenza Castella Born 1988 in Mondoví, Italy. B.A. and M.A. Degree in Philosophy at the Universities of Turin and Jena with distinction. Researcher at Forschungszentrum Gotha, writer and editor of various academic publications. Director, writer and creative producer of numerous documentary films for the European and German television.

A couple (Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan) have decided to cross the border because of the war in their land. The woman is pregnant. They have difficult and impassable roads ahead of them.

HAMIDREZA ARJOMANDI Iran, Islamic Republic of

A mother-daughter relationship grows more explosive in this coming-of-age story.

Germán Guzik Traditional and digital illustrator and animator.
Screenwriter and animation film director.

- Bachelor degree on Cinema, Animation and Multimedia -Head and co-founder of my own studio: - Borguz -

“Resurrection under the Ocean" is about the resurrection of a man who was helplessly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, after falling to the bottom of the ocean, with a symbolic narrative.

Serkan Aktaş Director’s statement "Resurrection Under the Ocean" depicts the resurrection of humanity in the darkest place of the ocean in a symbolic way through a helpless character. The film's metaphorical narrative style and its use of fictional and formal elements aim to bring a different-unique approach to cinema. It offers a visual feast with the harmony of music and choreography.
In the deepest part of the ocean, death is tried to be portrayed in the dark. Then, the pain of resurrection, which begins with the sound of a whale symbolizing vitality, is completed when the character comes to the surface of the sea.
I can say that with the film "Resurrection Under the Ocean", it is a film that develops the tendency of other films I have made to benefit from tradition, this time in a different form and framework

The relationship and histories of a Jewish grandmother and grandson are explored on a walk around the neighborhood.

Walt Schoen

Itchy Bears is the music video for Petey Shanks, a character in the show Grumbles and Mr. Bones.

Chris James Keefer

A scientist tries to put his consciousness into the AI drone. (Canada)

Vladi Haivoronski  is an authentic independent filmmaker - desperate frustrated and neurotic.

The Old Age Home as a short story around a wholesome experience. Then around the first wave of the Covid pandemic, I collaborated remotely with an Argentinian artist and created a comic out of that story. 

Upon meeting the crazy folks at Bamarmax, I was encouraged to develop it further into an animated film with their help. 

This is a story that has resonated with people across  genders, age-groups, geographies and value systems.

Rahul Razdan is an architect by education, a corporate leader by profession, and a film maker by passion. 

He graduated from the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi (1990-1995) and then studied Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (1998-2000). 

He has 25+ years of diverse experience across various media comprising television, documentary films, interactive media, internet, social media, online gaming and mobile.