Maša Drndić and Marta Ban, our longtime selectors, had Bela Bračko Milešević this year by their side as a new member of the selection team. Our three selectors worked diligently and their keen eyes handed us 31 films for this year’s competition.

STIFF brings us a rich and carefully curated film programme that invites us to take a break and look around – and inside. In eight programme blocks the films weave a common tale of humanity, vulnerability and resistance. From intimate stories to social commentaries, from reality to dreams, the selected works take us on an emotional and visual tour of the contemporary world.

This year, the selection of animated, feature and documentary films explores the passages and fissures of the everyday – those silent, imperceptible, crucial moments where something moves inside. Stories that remind us that film is not just a mirror to reality, but a space where reality can be rearranged.

CURRENTS

Spices we didn’t choose, words stuck in our throats, gentle touches we may have missed — can the currents that carry us still be redirected? Four films, four personal worlds in transition — between childhood and coming of age, routine and rebellion, shame and surrender, illusion and acceptance.

In Fabula Rasa (animation, Croatia, dir. Dora Klanac), Špiro grows up in a pot full of spices, where each new flavour leaves a mark and helps shape his world. The River (fiction, Serbia, dir. Uglješa Ranisavljević) takes us to a small village in Vojvodina, where a boy named Mirko spends the summer in the shadow of his father’s absence, while first loves and family tensions quietly ignite his turbulent adolescence. In a Seidlian style, the documentary Everything Else (Croatia, dir. David Gašo) turns classified ads and online posts into a map of loneliness and the human need for connection. And in the German animation Detlev (dir. Ferdinand Ehrhardt), the daily ritual of a man at a gas station slowly crumbles under the weight of accumulated shame and the gaze of a witness.

CRACKS

What happens when the structures we rely on—body, mind, routine—begin to fracture? In these quiet ruptures, between restraint and eruption, space emerges for resistance, reflection, and vulnerability.

In the documentary Vale tudo (Slovakia, dir. Tereza Smetanová), Lucia “Pretty Beast” Krajčovič—a professional MMA fighter and new mother—prepares for her return to the ring, navigating the impossible tension between strength and softness. French fiction film Everybody’s Doing Fine (France, dir. Adèle Shaykhulova) follows a young Russian journalist at a wellness retreat in the Alps, where news from home shatters the fragile stillness and forces her inward. And in the animation Vincent in the Call Center (Croatia, dir. Amila Šarić), a burnt-out office worker reaches a surreal breaking point in a rebellion against the mechanical rhythm of his daily grind.
Every story breaks where it’s thinnest. In the cracks, truth finds its way—and a space for change.

SNAGS

Ties of family, friendship, duty, and identity form the fabric of our lives, but just as often, they twist, tighten, and tangle.In these moments of confusion, friction, and tension, something tender and revealing is set loose. This program presents five coming-of-age stories where childhood brushes up against the raw edges of reality, and growing up means navigating the messiness between innocence and experience.In the playful Slovakian documentary A Good Mind Grows in Thorny Places(Slovakia, dir. Katarína Gramatová), twelve-year-old Adam, a Romani kid with adult-sized burdens, tries to earn money for energy drinks by chopping trees with his brother in Slovakia’s so-called “hungry valley.” Braided(animation,China/USA, dir. Chenxi Zhang) explores the tangled contours of growing up through the memories of a young woman who recalls a childhood tightly bound in braids and a quiet, painful connection with her mother that endures even after the braids are cut off . Romanian short fiction Truth or Dare ( dir. Simona Borcea) takes us into a summer shared by two adolescent sisters, where flirting and jealousy become silent lessons in closeness, rivalry, and inevitable coming of age. Cowboys (animation, dir. Robinson Van Hoof) follows Billy – a not-so-successful cowboy in a forgotten Wild West town – as he tries to prove himself by chasing fame and outlaws, accompanied by his best friend and a reluctant sheriff. In The Sea in Between(Fiction, Czech Republic, dir. Lun Sevnik), a teenage boy is  stranded on a boat with a creepy tourist waits for his father to return, as discomfort rises with the tide.

STITCHES

The seams of our experiences can often be both visible and painful or sometimes invisible, hidden beneath the surface. In this program block, we explore the space between the visible and the invisible, creating a context where silence and noise intertwine, allowing private stories to connect with broader social narratives.
Between Heaven and Halls (documentary, Netherlands, dir. Olivia Mos) presents anecdotes from museum workers about inexplicable situations they encounter, revealing their coexistence with artworks that transcend time, space, and context. The Undying Pain of Existence (animation, Germany, dir. Oscar Jacobson) depicts an unforeseen circumstance in which a model poses for a drawing lesson, disrupting the moment’s perfection. The feature film Ashes (fiction, Germany, dir. Dingding Jiang) follows Melanie as she grapples with the aftermath of a tragedy that claimed her family, and how one encounter shifts her perspective on the future. In the animated film Can You Hear Me? (Poland, dir. Anastazja Naumenko), the emotional distance between a mother and daughter is “stitched” together through communication via Zoom.

VIS-À-VIS

In the people who surround us and the place where we live, we see reflections of ourselves – woven into the space and time we inhabit. That environment is sometimes motionless, and at other times deceptive and unstable. Occasionally, it is even bizarrely meaningless. Can the chipped and fragmented parts of our being be assembled into something remotely coherent and whole?

The film 8 (fiction, France, dir. Anaïs-Tohé Commaret) plays with real and surreal imagery in a documentary style, where one constantly flows into the other, and the viewer sinks with the characters into a parallel logic and reality. Instead of a spectacular dystopian apocalypse, the director presents the quiet collapse of the capitalist world: isolated individuals trapped in endless boredom and depression. In Grand Prize (Croatia, dir. Anja Koprivšek), talented dancer Valentina – a pioneer of voguing on the local scene – and young trans man Teo find and build their space of freedom and existence on the Zagreb ballroom scene and in their shared relationship. In the animated film Wish You Were Ear (Hungary, dir. Mirjana Balogh), we vividly share our lives with others.

BOLD BATTLES

Battles can be silent, internal, and almost inaudible, or they can be open, public, and painfully recognizable. This collection of stories highlights battles that reveal issues often overlooked, such as trauma, sexuality, digital violence, and the performativity of identity.The documentary Yet Another One (Croatia, dir. Karla Jelić) exposes the painful struggle against the abuse of power in the education system through the story of Vida, a directing student who experienced sexual harassment at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. Caught in 4K (fiction, Austria, dir. Adriana Mrnjavac and Nicole Stigler) examines the impact of social media on children by exploring their early encounters with the darker aspects of the digital world. In the animated film Pillow Talks (Belgium, dir. Amandine Vautrin), intimate conversations about sexuality and romantic relationships uncover layers of past experiences. Project Nika (documentary, Croatia, dir. Tadija Tadić) takes you into the world of a young influencer, where the lines between private and public life continuously blur.

TIMELESS TALES

Everything changes, except the essence. This program block presents three unique stories that bear witness to the moment we live in, while also reflecting archetypal patterns of behavior that have changed their appearance throughout history – but never their core.

Somewhere far away on the edge of the Bering Sea, the documentary Koka (Poland, dir. Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk) gently and skillfully warms the viewers’ hearts through the portrayal of the life of a father and son – both fishermen – despite the overwhelming cold of the striking yet harsh landscapes. In the delicately muted French animation Esca (France, dir. Felice Ronzon), two young girls search for a shared shelter from the rain that just won’t stop falling. Through testimonies and footage of task execution, the documentary Their Eyes (France, dir. Nicolas Gourault) immerses the viewer – almost tangibly – into the latest system of labor exploitation of workers from the impoverished Global South: the extremely underpaid job of training artificial intelligence so that autonomous vehicles can, based on the learned images, independently drive wealthy passengers through the streets of wealthy countries.

AFTER ALL

How much do we care about those left behind? This program block brings stories from the margins – those abandoned and alone – In an effort to make them visible to someone, at least.

A solar eclipse, as a dark omen, illuminates the lives of invisible people through the excessive deforestation of a small impoverished jungle village in Argentina, in the mystical fiction film Our Shadows (Argentina, Germany, dir. Agustina Sánchez Gavier). The documentary Run, Monnie, Run (Poland, dir. Karolina Biesiacka) tells the story of a young athlete with fetal alcohol syndrome whose running career has hit a dead end: despite her will, strength, and determination, the modest socioeconomic circumstances she lives in are too far removed from her goals. In the fiction film Til Tomorrow (Slovakia, dir. Hannah Dale), two brothers are left to quietly rescue their mother, who struggles with addiction – so the neighbors won’t hear. In the animated film Supreme Domain (Belgium, dir. Hasan Pastaci), our essence is as complex as a pomegranate fruit. Like a lonely but warm light in the darkness of a borderland, the protagonist of the documentary Dry Goods (Croatia, dir. Toni Jelenić) does her best to care for migrants who cross the nearby border illegally.

All of these films, as always – are free!

〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉〉

The International Student Film Festival — STIFF is organized by Filmaktiv and the Student Cultural Center of the University of Rijeka, in co-organization with Art-kino and with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), the City of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Rijeka Tourist Board, the Serbian National Council, the Council of the Serbian National Minority, and the Goethe-Institut Zagreb. The work of Filmaktiv is supported by the Kultura Nova Foundation and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development.