Still: Kontrewers

International competition

How to Catch a Butterfly* (prod. Docmakers) in which Filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus writes letters to a young mass shooter to find the root of their mutual obsession for one another. The short doc continues its successful festival run with selections for a.o. SXSW (world premiere), Milennium Docs Against Gravity and Go Short. Festival distribution is handled by Purple Ray Film. 

Zuza Banasińska returns to Uppsala with their latest short Kontrewers*. In 2024 Banasińska’s Grandmamauntsistercat was selected as European Film Award candidate by the festival. Kontrewers tells the story of the ghost of a possessed girl, trapped for centuries within a stone, encounters the director’s 102-year-old grandmother. It world premiered at Berlinale earlier this year. Festival distribution is handled by Video Power.  

Dreams for a Better Past* by Albert Kuhn (NL coproduction Idle Eye) uses a personal, analytical, and cinematic lens to examine how an untold family history leaves its mark on the second and third generations. The short doc world premiered at IDFA and travelled to a.o. Vienna Shorts, Bucharest International Experimental FF and Kerala International Documentary and Short FF. Sales are with Marvin & Wayne. 

Dutch co-production Heaven Will Wait, graduation film by Dutch director Silver Tjepkema for LUCA School of the Arts Brussel, completes the selection in international competition. A group of young women wield their sexuality with confidence, yet their world brims with tension: caught between watching and being watched. Festival distribution is handled by Purple Ray Film.

Children’s competition

Little Goat Squad by Elisabeth Hesemans and produced by IJswater Films follows a group of kids who discover a baby goat hidden in the bushes and decide to secretly keep it. To care for their new friend, they start doing chores for their neighbours to gather the things they need, leading to a series of funny, chaotic and heartwarming adventures. Sales are with Dutch CORE. 

National competition

Dutch co-proction Don't Politicize : Go Hungary made for DocNomads by Wyneke van Nieuwenhuyzen and Jasmijn Kooijman is competing for the national prize. A coming-of-age portrait of queer teenage twins Nati & Dorka in populist Hungary.

Out of competition

Also included in the festival program are The Laptop Is Purring on My Lap and I Am Lonely Like a Cat by Ariela Bergman (Kortkort), A Shot at Art* by Ilke Paddenburg (Comedy Cuts) and City of Poets* (EFA Short Films on Tour).  

Read more about Uppsala Short Film Festival here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund