SHORTS IN COMPETITION
PROGRAM 2
What lurks under the veil
What does it mean to honour our decisions, and what must we leave behind to move forward? In this program, we encounter characters who confront the darkness of their desires and contradictions, situations that push them to their limits and challenge their lives as they know them. Through animation, horror, video essay, and docufiction, the body becomes a contested territory and what we keep silent emerges from the pores of each story. The silhouette of the right choice blurs in a world plagued by injustice and inequality.
Curated by Ana Tonso & Dani Rodríguez Chevalier
Casablanca Brothers
Dir. Santiago O´Ryan, José Navarro | Chile | 08 min | Spanish with English subtitles
Two brothers in search of the body of a soldier lost at sea.
Content warning: death / corpse depiction
Director · Screenwriter · Executive Producer · Instructor.
20 years of experience developing animation and live-action projects for film, television, advertising, and digital platforms.
Specializing in the creation of original intellectual property, screenwriting, showrunning, international co-productions, and production services for brands and agencies.
Chilapa Girl
Dir. Juana Lotero López | Colombia | 15 min | Spanish with English subtitles
Yulieth (10-13) faces the difficulties of growing up in a wild territory where natural beauty coexists with the hostility of machismo. Her developing identity is caught between the impulses of her dreams and her reality.
Eternal apprentice, feminist, economist, and filmmaker. Studied Fiction Directing at EICTV, Cuba. She wrote, directed, and co-produced Fresas Salvajes (2022), which premiered at FICCI 61, and Dulces Sueños (2020). His current short film NIÑA CHILAPA (2025) won the India Catalina Award for “Best Colombian Short Film” at FICCI 64, while he is producing his feature film MUCHACHITA CHILAPA.
Foreigner
Dir. Sara J. Quintana | Paraguay | 8 min | Spanish, Guaraní with English subtitles
PYTAGUA is a hybrid film that explores foreignness as a state of constant transformation. Moving between territories, archives, and personal experience, it traces the visible and invisible borders that shape identity—revealing how displacement reshapes both the spaces we inhabit and the body itself.
Sara J. Quintana is a Paraguayan trans migrant audiovisual and photo-chemical artist, Trained at FADU–UBA. Their work combines cinema, photo-chemical processes, and archival practices to explore migration, identity, and memory. Their films and installations have been exhibited and screened in cities including Asunción, Buenos Aires, Taipei, and London, among other international venues.
BAIXADA: In Cubatão´s Waters
Dir. Renato Martin de Castro | Brazil | 16 min | Portuguese with English subtitles
The fisherwoman Zilda finds herself in doubt on keeping her life into the community she lives in after fishing a dead body. Her routine goes on while she tries to gather courage to leave the city of Cubatão.
Renato de Castro is an independent filmmaker and FAAP graduate. He has directed four short films and worked on five others in roles ranging from directing, screenwriting, production and script supervision. With experience in the film industry, de Castro develops an authentic cinematic language marked by emotional impact and a keen attention to social issues.
In Between Storms
Dir. Fran Zayas | Puerto Rico | 15 min | Spanish with English subtitles
After a hurricane ravages his hometown, a grieving man breaks into an off-limits cemetery to rescue the lost remains of his brother.
Content warning: death / corpse depiction
Fran Zayas is a Puerto Rican independent filmmaker based in New York City.
Zayas is a recent graduate of the MFA Film program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a focus in Directing and Writing. He’s been awarded the BAFTA BBC Diversity Scholar, and is a recipient of the Spike Lee Production Film Fund and Cary Fukunaga Production Fund for his thesis film, Entre Tormentas, which is set to premiere in SXSW 2025.
From drama to thriller and dark comedy, Zayas’ films focus on individuals navigating moral dilemmas, generational family trauma, and the search for belonging in the face of gentrification and climate change. Zayas is currently in the development of two feature films based in Puerto Rico.
Zayas’ goal is to encourage a young generation of filmmakers, especially in Latino communities, to embrace their culture through filmmaking.
The Veil
Dir. Gabriel Motta | Brazil | 20 min | Portuguese with English subtitles
A religious cult with fake possession rituals spirals into darkness when the pastor’s daughter is truly taken by an entity.
Content Warning: suicide, death, gore, blood
Gabriel Motta directed the shorts Pastrana (Best Brazilian Short at Brasília and Gramado; selected for Tribeca and BAFICI) and The Veil (TIFF premiere; in competition at Guadalajara and San Francisco Intl Film Festival). He is developing The Veil as his feature debut — selected for the 2026 Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), where it won the Fantastic 7 Award, a collaboration between HAF, Sitges, and Marché du Film, and will be presented at the Cannes Film Market in 2026.
The Tribute
Dir. Josué Sánchez Reyes | Mexico | 5 min | Spanish, Nahuatl with English subtitles
Driven by a desire to reunite with his father, a young man ventures into an ancient Nahuatl ritual. Guided by an elderly couple, a desperate attempt at reconciliation soon transforms into something else.
Originally from the Nahua communities in San Isidro Buensuceso,Tlaxcala, and San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, in Mexico, Josué is Mechatronics engineer. He’s currently in his third semester of the Bachelor’s Degree in Cinematography at CINEMA School of Cinematography and Audiovisual Media in Puebla. LA OFRENDA is his first fiction short film.
Final Scene
Dir. Diego Kompel | Argentina | 20 min | Spanish with English subtitles
A theater class for six strangers starts with basic acting drills but quickly turns into a profound exploration of personal boundaries. As they dig deeper into their roles, their buried emotions rise, leading to an intense, unpredictable experience.
Content warning: violence, guns
Diego Kompel is a visionary multidisciplinary director. Graduated in Image and Sound Design from the University of Buenos Aires, he is renowned for integrating cutting-edge technologies into his projects, creating innovative and captivating works.