Psychonauts
dir. Niko Radas | Croatia | 8 min | Animation
World Premiere: 65th Annecy International Animation Film Festival
Leaving their human hosts, mental disorders take on anthropomorphic forms and find new refuges.
Director Biography
Niko Radas was born in Zagreb in 1980. After finishing the High School of Applied Arts and Design, he graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2004, he has been working at the University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, facilitating art as a therapy programmes. Alongside with a variety of classical art techniques that he uses in his work, Niko initiated a music and a film workshop, in which he writes scrips, designs scenography for animated films and documentaries, which he then produces together with patients.
Inanna
dir. Dragos Badita | Romania,Canada | 24 min | Animation
World Premiere: Vancouver International Film Festival
"Uncanny" is an understatement in this AI-processed dream-poem inspired by the ancient Sumerian goddess of death and rebirth.
Director Biography
Dragoș Bădiță (b. 1987) is a contemporary multi- media artist living and working in Bucharest, Romania. Graduated from the University of Art and Design in Cluj- Napoca, Bădiță works mostly in physical media such as oil or ink and recently began experimenting with generative art and animation. His experimental videos and animations have been screened in cities such as Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Taipei, Stockholm, Figueres, Paris, Las Vegas, and Belgrade, in exhibitions and video festivals. His artword has been exhibited in Cluj, Bucharest, Taipei, London, Copenhagen, Athens, Ghent, Mallorca, Rome, Leipzig, Stockholm, Como, and Berlin.
Bădiță's work originates from fleeting, lived moments that become infused with existential and sometimes mystical themes and states of mind. His pieces reflect on the transience of experience and its connection to a broader understanding of reality - bringing forth ideas about our relationship with nature, the body, other people, the shifting nature of the self, the inevitability of decay and dissolution, and the limits of grasping the inner worlds of others.
Nara and Her Camera
dir. Jérémi Roy | Canada | 7 min | Animation
World Premiere: Tirana International Film Festival
In the small town of Holcá, in the Yucatán, 8-year-old Nara wanders through her hometown, guided by her curiosity and her new camera. As she films her surroundings, the ordinary becomes magical, and the act of looking turns into a playful, cinematic discovery.
Director Biography
Jérémi Roy is a Québécois filmmaker and producer based in Montreal. At the age of 21, his debut independent short film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, confirming his deep attraction to D.I.Y. and resolutely independent cinema. He has since continued to explore this approach to film through five additional short films marked by quiet realism and poetic sensitivity. His work has screened internationally at festivals including Slamdance, BFI FLARE, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2020, he co-founded Les Productions Beau travail with longtime collaborators Camille Demers-Lambert and Dominick Rustam. In 2023, he participated in the Creators Lab: Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His current projects include a poetic short film shot on 16mm and his debut feature film.
Eyes of the Forest
dir. Anna Veisman| Estonia | 25 min | Short
World Premiere: PÖFF Shorts 2025
Inan isolated 18th-century Estonian village, Elo struggles to survive in a community that offers her neither safety nor kindness. Pious villagers fear the dark forests surrounding them, believing supernatural spirits lurk among the trees. But when Elo finds herself betrayed by those she once trusted, she begins to question who she should really be afraid of – unseen spirits in the woods or the people at home.
Director Biography
Anna Veisman is an Estonian filmmaker whose mixed heritage and rural upbringing shape the textures of her storytelling. Born in South Estonia and later moving to Tallinn, she studied languages and audiovisual media before stepping into the world of film as a set designer and line producer. Her creative path took a detour into the music industry as media and PR manager for the popular Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A, for whom she also produced and directed a music video that drew over a million views on YouTube. In 2025, Anna returned to her first calling — cinema — with her debut independent project, Eyes of the Forest, now beginning its journey through festival screens.