Mami Wata and Animalia
Animalia
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Sofia Alaoui; Writer: Sofia Alaoui; Stars: Oumaïma Barid, Mehdi Dehbi, Fouad Oughaou)
A young, pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.
World premiere
Bad Behaviour (Bad Behavior)
(Country: France, Morocco, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Englert; Writer: Alice Englert; Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Whishaw, Alice Englert, Ana Scotney, Dasha Nekrasova, Marlon Williams)
Lucy, a former child actor, seeks enlightenment at a retreat led by spiritual leader Elon while she navigates her close yet turbulent relationship with her stunt-performer daughter, Dylan.
World premiere
Girl
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Adura Onashile; Writer: Adura Onashile; Stars: Déborah Lukumuena, Danny Sapani, Le'Shantey Bonsu, Liana Turner)
Eleven-year-old Ama and her mother, Grace, take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create. Ama’s growing up threatens the boundaries of their tenderness and forces Grace to reckon with a past she struggles to forget.
World premiere
Heroic
(Country: Mexico, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: David Zonana; Writer: David Zonana; Stars: Santiago Sandoval Carbajal, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica del Carmen, Esteban Caicedo, Carlos Gerardo García, Isabel Yudice)
Luis, an 18-year-old boy with Indigenous roots, enters the Heroic Military College in hopes of ensuring a better future. There, he encounters a rigid and institutionally violent system designed to turn him into a perfect soldier.
World premiere
Mamacruz
(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Patricia Ortega; Writer: José Ortuño; Stars: Kiti Mánver)
With the help of her newly emigrated daughter, a religious grandmother learns how to use the internet. However, an accidental encounter with pornography poses a dilemma for her.
World premiere
Shayda and Sorcery
Mami Wata
(Country: Nigeria; Year: 2023; Director: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Writer: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Stars: Evelyne Ily, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Kelechi Udegbe, Emeka Amakeze, Rita Edochie, Tough Bone)
When the harmony in a village is threatened by outside elements, two sisters must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land.
World premiere
La Pecera
(Country: Puerto Rico; Year: 2023; Director: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez; Writer: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez; Stars: Isel Rodríguez, Modesto Lacén, Magali Carrasquillo, Maximiliano Rivas, Anamín Santiago, Idenisse Salamán)
As her cancer spreads, Noelia's ultimate decision is to return to her native Vieques, Puerto Rico, and claim her freedom to decide her own fate. She reunites with her friends and family, who are still dealing with the contamination of the US Navy after sixty years of military practices.
World premiere
Scrapper
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Charlotte Regan; Writer: Charlotte Regan; Stars: Harris Dickinson, Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun, Ambreen Razia, Olivia Brady, Aylin Tezel)
Georgie is a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Out of nowhere, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.
World premiere
Shayda
(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Noora Niasar; Writer: Noora Niasar; Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Osamah Sami, Leah Purcell, Jillian Nguyen, Mojean Aria, Selina Zahednia)
Shayda, an Iranian mother, finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardised.
World premiere. Day One
Slow
(Country: Lithuania, Spain, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Marija Kavtaradze; Stars: Greta Grinevičiūtė, Kęstutis Cicėnas)
Dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas meet and form a beautiful bond. As they dive into a new relationship, they must navigate how to build their own kind of intimacy.
World premiere
Bad Behaviour and Scrapper
Sorcery
(Country: Chile, Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christopher Murray; Writer: Christopher Murray; Stars: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz)
On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organisation of sorcerers.
World premiere
When It Melts
(Country: Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Veerle Baetens; Writer: Maarten Loix; Stars: Charlotte De Bruyne, Rosa Marchant)
Many years after a sweltering summer that spun out of control, Eva returns to the village she grew up in with an ice block in the back of her car. In the dead of winter, she confronts her past and faces up to her tormentors.
World premiere