Eye For Film >> Festivals >> EIFF >> 2013 >> Shorts

The shorts are split into the programmes are listed below. Those that are in competition for the inaugural shorts award are marked accordingly. Which programme a short falls into is listed in itallics.

• Bridging The Gap - Four new short documentaries from the four corners of Scotland.
• Coming Up - Short films from new talent selected by Film4
• Creative Skillset Film Academies - Discover the British directors of tomorrow.
• Exquisite Corpse - A film-collage following the structuring principles of the Surrealist parlour game of the same name.
• For the Family - Films suitable for children aged 8 and upwards.
• Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion - A teeming mass of images that explode and expose global systems and structures of power.
• Rapture and Revelation - Showcase exploring shamanic activity, transcendental forces and spirit-healing.
• Sacred Objects - An excursion into personal landscapes — cerebral and vibrant by turns.
• Strange Latitudes - A cinematic pilgrimage meandering through landscape and folkloric themes.
• Suburban Light - How do physical space and the individual amalgamate and influence one another?
• Surreal Selves - Four shorts that forensically scrutinise the overlapping inner and outer lives and experiences of their young protagonists.

View other Edinburgh International Film Festival Films by strand: American Dreams, Animation, Black Box, Directors' Showcase, Fantastic Voyages: The Films of Richard Fleischer, Films on Film, Focus on Korea, Focus on Sweden, Galas, International Feature Film Competition, Michael Powell Award Competition, New Realities, Night Moves, Not Another Teen Movie, Special Screenings, Symphonies Of Life: The Films Of Jean Grémillon, World Perspectives

Doughnuts and Sink Or Swim

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Ben Smith)

Animated journey of teenager Ned as he plunges into a world of adventure aboard the Nautilus.

For The Family

After Treatment (Country: Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Edith Stauber)

A woman goes to a hospital for aftercare after injuring her hand. The glass doors close behind her, and she enters a microcosm which keeps time according to its own system. Animation.

Exquisite Corpse

After Vegas (Country: Switzerland, US; Year: 2012; Director: Laurence Bonvin, Stephane Degoutin)

Las Vegas is one of the cities which suffered the most of the crisis in the US. The film describes this ruin of the present time.

Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion

All Souls' Day (Święto zmarłych) (Country: Poland; Year: 2012; Director: Aleksandra Terpinska; Writer: Aleksandra Terpinska; Stars: Jasmina Polak, Ewa Dalkowska, Mariusz Bonaszewski, Anatol Fuksiewicz)

The story of the eighteenth birthday of Lena, a young woman who is trying to bond with her family.

Sacred Objects

Ancestral Delicatessen (Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Gabriel Folgado; Writer: Gabriel Folgado; Stars: Fabrice Bonniot, Angelina Arias Fernández, Eloy Fernández González, Raúl Fernández González)

Examination of the traditional way of life for those who harvest chestnuts for maron glaces.

Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion

Getting On and Nae Pasaran

Ash (Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Nathan S Duncan), Official Site

Experimental documentary that navigates the abandoned spaces of the Austin State Hospital.

Suburban Light. In competition

Asleep (Adormecido) (Country: Portugal; Year: 2012; Director: Paulo Abreu)

Experimental documentary about the Capelinhos volcano, on the island of Faial.

Exquisite Corpse

Boneshaker (Director: Nuotama Frances Bodomo; Writer: Frances Bodomo)

An African family lost in America travel to a Louisiana church to find a cure for a problem child.

Full Review

Rapture and Revelation

Beat (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Aneil Karia; Writer: Aneil Karia, Aneil Karia; Stars: Ben Whishaw, Henry Garrett, Kieron Jecchinis, Carl Prekopp, Hannah Daniels, Chelsea Fitzgerald, Jamie Alderson, Remy Beasly, Alastair Greener, Tania Joseph, Ann Pidcock, Sheetal Dandgey, Katie Burnetts, Steve Laopodis, Montana-Lee Joseph-Hayes), Official Site

A day in the life of a man who appears to be walking a paper-thin line between hopelessness and euphoria.

Rapture and Revelation. In competition

The Border (A Raia) (Country: Portugal, Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Iván Castiñeiras Gallego )

The lives of those who live on the frontier that divides south-east Galicia and north-west Portugal,

Strange Latitudes. In competition

Boneshaker and Burger Van Champion

Buffalo Dreams (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Maurice O’Brien)

Documentary about Scots buffalo.

Bridging The Gap

Burger Van Champion (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Iftekhar Gafar; Writer: Rick Edwards; Stars: Jamie Michie, Jessie Cave, Joanna Scanlan, Joshua Herdman, Ricky Grover, Will Merrick)

A young woman hopes to win the heart of the man she adores by winning an eating competition.

Full Review

Coming Up

Cannibal Story (Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Yunkurra Billy Atkins, Sohan Ariel Hayes)

The story of the dangerous, carnivorous ancestral beings that live beneath Lake Disappointment.

Exquisite Corpse

A Cautionary Tail (Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Simon Rippingale; Writer: Erica Harrison; Stars: Barry Otto), Official Site

A little girl is born with a tail that expresses her emotions, which brings problems as she grows up.

For The Family

Charlie Says (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Lewis Arnold; Writer: Frances Poletti; Stars: Conner Chapman, Gary Cargill, Elliott Tittensor, Christine Bottomley, Sanchia McCormack, David Doyle, Stacha Hicks, Gordon Peaston, Lucy Jackson, Sam Gittins, Jake Davies), Official Site

A young boys lie cuts through the calm of a family holiday and leaves a trail in its wake that threatens to grow into something more dangerous as dusk approaches.

Creative Skillset Film Academies

Cold Warrior (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Emily Greenwood; Writer: Emily Greenwood; Stars: Kenton Hall, Wolf Kahler, Eloise Littell, Laurence Mitchell, Nigel Pilkington), Official Site, Trailer

A young gymnast questions her dreams of championship glory when she discovers she's part of a shady government plot to win at any cost.

Surreal Selves. In competition

Confetti (Country: Brazil; Year: 2012; Director: Mariana Kaufman, Jo Serfaty)

Following the path of confetti through the Rio carnival.

Exquisite Corpse

Daimi (Country: Denmark; Year: 2012; Director: Marie Grahtø Sørensen; Writer: Eini Carina Grønvol, Marie Grahtø Sørensen; Stars: Bebiane Ivalo Kreutzmann, Tina Fritz Christinsen and Wilma Vujic), Official Site

Daimi, 12, is spending Christmas on her own with a pet pig in a run-down apartment.

Surreal Selves. In competition

Dinner And A Movie (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Ben Aston; Writer: Ben Aston, Maria Hummer; Stars: Nathan Hennenfent, Martin Ashley Jones, Anne Wittman), Official Site

A prison dating site. A Shanghai hotel. Post-apocalyptic ketchup. A frozen coffee mug.

Creative Skillset Film Academies

Doughnuts (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Simon Neal; Writer: Ishy Din; Stars: Aheel Akhtar, Anjli Mohindra, Wahab Sheikh)

A marriage comes under strain due a pregnancy and the presence of a rival - a shiny new BMW.

Full Review

Coming Up

Dr Easy (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Richard Kenworthy, Chris Harding, Jason Groves)

An invasion of technology into personal identity.

Sacred Objects. In competition

Endless Day (Country: Germany; Director: Anna Frances Ewert)

For most people, sleep comes naturally, but for others, the night turns into an ongoing struggle to drift off into oblivion. This film explores what it’s like to be awake involuntarily and the feelings that accompany the passing of sleepless time.

Suburban Light. In competition

The Executioner's Vacation (As Vacaciones de Verdugo) (Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Sonia Albert Sobrino, Miriam Albert Sobrino)

A Galician executioner tries to escape the horrors of his profession.

Suburban Light

Fear My Kingdom (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Björn Ruehmann; Writer: Sven Glage, Björn Ruehmann; Stars: Bill Champion, Walter Winterburn)

The story of an introverted eight-year-old with a heart defect... and his over-protective dad.

Surreal Selves. In competition

The Flame And The Cotton Ball (Flammen og vattotten) (Country: Denmark; Year: 2012; Director: Niels Bisbo; Writer: Paola Pellettieri)

A little live flame lives in Fire land. He works hard in the noisy mines but he doesn't like it there. One day he sees a strange white creature behind a rock, who turns his life upside down.

For The Family

Forgot Something? (Olvida Usted algo) (Country: Mexico; Year: 2012; Director: Dalia Huerta)

A vertiginous voyage about the impermanence and evolution of the relative value of things through certain lapses, spaces, ideas, conditions, beings and objects; our attachment to them, to life, their way to the end, to their rebirth, to their transformation.

Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion. In competition

Getting On (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Ewan Stewart; Writer: Ewan Stewart, Liam Stewart, Liam Stewart; Stars: Antoni Burns, Louise Goodall, Veila Hutton, Liam Lambie, James O'Hara, James Ramsay, Pamela Robertson, Isobel Thompson)

A woman labouring under the weight of housework with no reward, has an unusual visitor.

Full Review

Rapture and Revelation. In competition

GHL (Country: Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Lotte Schreiber; Stars: Michael Krassnitzer)

A male figure, his identity unknown, leads the spectator to various locations on this deserted beach during the off-season. His reason for being there is never revealed, though it is clear that he is going through some kind of crisis.

Suburban Light. In competition

Gowanus Canal (Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Sarah J Christman)

Just below the surface of one of New York City’s most contaminated bodies of water, microorganisms thrive amidst man made waste.

Exquisite Corpse

Henry (20397, 20398, 23122) (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Michael Pearce; Writer: John Donnelly; Stars: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Felix Linghorn, Max Linghorn, Eloise Joseph, Joe Gilgun)

As life for his mother becomes increasingly complicated and frustrating, young Henry struggles to get his needs met.

Full Review

Coming Up

The Hideout (Country: Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Astrid Bussink)

Coming-of-age film about four boys from a small village in the Netherlands.

For The Family

Inorganica (Year: 2013; Director: Valerie Mellon)

A Glasgow lab where a scientist is attempting the impossible.

Bridging The Gap

Just Ancient Loops (Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Bill Morrison)

'Views of Heaven' in 24 frames per second.

Rapture and Revelation

Light Plate (Country: US, Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Josh Gibson), Trailer

Black-and-white film essay exploring the Tuscan landscape and the relationship between tradition, modernity and food.

Strange Latitudes. In competition

Little Brother (Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Andrei Staruiela; Writer: Martin Kreuch)

Little Brother is a short psychological drama about Ray, a hypochondriac whose obsession with his own body leads him to think that a parasitic twin living inside him causes his chronic pain.

Creative Skillset Film Academies

Little Revolutions (Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Marie Constantinesco; Writer: Marie Constantinesco; Stars: Maria Stoian, Sosa Morina, Doru Paul, Ana Maria Paul)

December 25th, 1989, NY. A family of Romanian refugees get ready for Christmas. On television, the trial of the Ceausescus. In the bathroom, a young girl and a lost caterpillar.

Surreal Selves. In competition

The Loaves And Fish (Country: Spain, Serbia and Montenegro; Year: 2013; Director: Irene M Borrego; Writer: Irene M Borrego, Manuel Muñoz Rivas; Stars: Sofija Bogdanovic, Mirko Gluscevic, Otac Milovan Vujovic), Official Site

Drama about a the man who looks after the Serbian Orthodox church in a small community.

Suburban Light. In competition

Lucille In The Sky (Year: 2012)

The story of a 26 year old girl who loses her memory after a brutal car accident.

Suburban Light. In competition

My Father Looks Like Abdel Nasser (Abi youchbeh Abdel Nasser) (Country: Lebanon; Year: 2012; Director: Farah Kassem; Writer: Farah Kassem)

Intimate study of the director's own father.

Sacred Objects

Nadya (Country: US, Russia; Year: 2012; Director: Mary Rasmussen, Jonathan Sanford; Stars: Nadezhda Dobrydina, Tatyana Rubis, Oleg Verzhbalovich)

The story of a 14-year-old Russian girl living in an environmentally devastated town populated only by women.

Sacred Objects. In competition

Nae Pasaran (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Felipe Bustos Sierra; Stars: Felipe Bustos Sierra, Bob Fulton, John Keenan, Robert Somerville)

Story of the Scottish factory workers who stood against the military coup in Chile from afar.

Full Review See: Interview with Felipe Bustos Sierra about Nae Pasaran

Bridging The Gap

Nile Perch (Country: Uganda; Year: 2013; Director: Josh Gibson)

Documentary examining the economy and ecology of the fish, the Nile perch.

Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion

Rushcart (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Tom Chick)

The mysterious rites of the Morris Men’s Rushcart procession in Saddleworth, England.

Strange Latitudes

SeeD (Year: 2013; Director: Hui-ching Tseng)

Family short.

For The Family

Sink Or Swim (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Luke Snellin; Writer: Line Langebek Knudsen; Stars: Una Stubbs, Charlotte Beaumont, Sarah Hoare)

Meditations on swimming and age.

Full Review

Coming Up

SNAP (Country: Belgium, UK; Year: 2012; Director: Thomas G Murphy, Hilere)

Animation sees a young Water Haggis, meets a cool frog and an unlikely new friend.

For The Family

Sola (Country: Austria; Year: 2013; Director: Alexandra Makarová)

In a deserted world Sola strays through foreign houses, always in search of food, survivors and her own will to survive.

Sacred Objects

Swallow (Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Genevieve Bicknell)

Documentary about a small respite house in Edinburgh where people are fed and cared for.

Bridging The Gap

The Thinker In The Supermarket (Country: Serbia and Montenegro; Year: 2012; Director: Igor Simic; Writer: Igor Simic; Stars: Graham Barnfield), Official Site, Trailer

The contemporary Thinker's stream of consciousness in the supermarket of our world...

Interrogation, Rebellion, Subversion

Vultures Of Tibet (Country: US, China; Year: 2012; Director: Russell Bush), Official Site, Trailer

Documentary that explores the commercialisation of Sky Burial, a private ritual where the bodies of Tibetan dead are offered to wild griffon vultures.

Rapture and Revelation

Wasted (Country: Ireland; Year: 2013; Director: Cathy Brady; Writer: Cathy Brady; Stars: Nora-Jane Noone, Andrew Simpson, Barry Keoghan, Damien Hannaway, Olivia Nash, Eleanor Methven, Eilish McCaffrey, Leah O'Rourke), Official Site, Trailer

Having travelled the world and struggled to start a career, Sarah (30) is forced to live back home with her mother. Over the summer Sarah strikes up a friendship with two teenage boys, spurred on as she reclaims her youth, but new extremes threaten to bring reality crashing back.

Creative Skillset Film Academies. In competition

Wild Horses (Los Caballos Salvajes) (Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Jorge Canada Escorihuela)

Documentary about a dying way of life.

Strange Latitudes

The Winter of Zeljka (O Vierno de Zeljka) (Country: Brazil, Denmark, Croatia; Year: 2012; Director: Gustavo Beck)

A legend tells that Zvončari scared away invading Tatars or Turks. According to the legend the shepherds put masks on theirheads, belted on bells, and produced a deafening noise that scared the enemy away.

Strange Latitudes

Ziegenort (Country: Poland; Year: 2013; Director: Tomasz Popakul; Writer: Tomasz Popakul; Stars: Jakub Nosiadek)

A teenager faces problems growing up, exacerbated by the fact he is half boy, half fish.

Exquisite Corpse