International Competition
[Venues] YC Yamagata Central Public Hall 6F, CL Yamagata Citizens’ Hall (Large Hall)
Feature-length works were sought from around the world, and from the 1,318 entries emerges a rigorous selection of fifteen cinematic gems, richly varied and representing the vanguard of world filmmaking.
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(Alphabetically shown) |
- Jurors:
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Edwin (Filmmaker) • Someone’s Wife in the Boat of Someone’s Husband
Azza El-Hassan (Filmmaker) • Kings and Extras
Ishii Gakuryu (Filmmaker) • Labyrinth of Dreams
Two more jurors to be announced.
Another Home- TAIWAN, HONG KONG, FRANCE / 2024 / 83 min
Director: Frankie Sin
Set in a small eatery on Cheung Chau, a Hong Kong outlying island where traces of its fishing village past remain, the film captures the lives of ordinary people during turbulent times. In his first feature shot on his native island, the director closely observes the emotions of the shop’s regulars—people who flock there like family.
Below the Clouds [New]- ITALY / 2025 / 114 min
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Trough the daily lives of people living at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, the film presents layered histories—from ancient times buried in ash and lava to the present, where the area serves as a port for exporting Ukrainian grain.
DIRECT ACTION- GERMANY, FRANCE, KOREA / 2024 / 212 min
Directors: Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell
In a space occupied by activists who oppose environmental degradation, the film reveals how the self-sufficient lifestyle that runs within this farming community is an integral part of their Direct Action strategy.
L'Homme-Vertige: Tales of a City- FRANCE, GUADELOUPE / 2024 / 93 min
Director: Malaury Eloi Paisley
Filmed over five years in the director’s homeland of Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean, the film follows encounters with residents along the empty streets of the crumbling city of Pointe-à-Pitre. Through these walks, the reality of oppression—and the people’s will to resist—comes into focus.
I Was, I Am, and I Will Be!- JAPAN / 2025 / 100 min
Directors: Itakura Yoshiyuki
Kamagasaki, a town of day laborers. As Osaka prepares to host the 2025 Expo, the camera captures life on the streets and listens closely to the voices of the dead—voices that refuse to fade.
Letters to My Dead Parents- CHILE / 2025 / 106 min
Director: Ignacio Agüero
Through footage of his former labor unionist father, testimony from a colleague, and home movies of his house and family, the filmmaker creates a dialogue between dream and reality, the living and deceased—weaving personal memory into the fabric of Chilean history.
Malqueridas- CHILE, GERMANY / 2023 / 74 min
Director: Tana Gilbert
Secretly filmed on banned mobile phones, these images reveal the everyday lives of incarcerated women in Chilean prisons. To protect the footage and give it permanence, each frame was printed and then redigitized.
Park- TAIWAN / 2024 / 101 min
Director: So Yo-Hen
Two Indonesian poets converse under the stars in a Tainan park. Poems about fellow migrants are read aloud, eventually reaching someone, somewhere in the form of a fictional radio program.
Rising Up at Night- CONGO (DRC), BELGIUM, GERMANY, BURKINA FASO, QATAR / 2024 / 96 min
Director: Nelson Makengo
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is devastated by floods. In this town enveloped by darkness, the film shows its people surrendering themselves to prayer and music for the gods as they wade through the floodwaters that have penetrated their homes.
The Seasons- PORTUGAL, FRANCE, AUSTRIA, SPAIN / 2025 / 83 min
Director: Maureen Fazendeiro
In Alentejo, Portugal, people have long lived in rhythm with nature, herding and farming in plains dotted with megalithic tombs (dolmens). Folklore and archaeological perspectives come together accompanied by lively song in a circular journey through time.
Time to the Target- LATVIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, UKRAINE / 2025 / 179 min
Director: Vitaly Mansky
Russian missiles strike even in the rear areas far from the front lines. Vitaly Mansky, whose Eastern Front is still fresh in our minds, spent a year and a half documenting his hometown Lviv in this requiem-like epic.
TrepaNation- SYRIA, FRANCE, GERMANY / 2025 / 222 min
Director: Ammar al-Beik
The German “refugee camp” where the filmmaker lived until granted refugee status no longer exists, but the aperture of his camera lens traces the path of memory. With deep longing for those he met and love for his homeland, he captures the story with intense passion.
Welded Together- FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM / 2025 / 96 min
Director: Anastasiya Miroshnichenko
Working as a welder, Katya is reunited with her alcoholic mother and begins living with her baby sister. This is a story of a Belarusian woman who matures in her craft and strives to reconnect the family.
A Window of Memories- JAPAN / 2023 / 67 min
Director: Kiyohara Yui
The filmmaker’s own paternal and maternal grandmothers’ stories are compiled into texts and read aloud by two women. This film ventures to convey the memories of two grandmothers from two different families, through the bodies of others.
With Hasan in Gaza- PALESTINE, GERMANY, FRANCE, QATAR / 2025 / 106 min
Director: Kamal Aljafari
The filmmaker discovers an old videotape in his camera—footage of himself traveling through Gaza in 2001. As memories surface, tracing back to the two intifadas, they intertwine with the present-day reality of Gaza. This sparks a new journey of reflection, confronting a pain that refuses to end.