Shorts Live-Action Competition 5

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

The films in this year’s International Competition meet at the intersection of what many of us need in the current social climate. On the one hand, cinema is there inform and provoke us – to make us think about the world and change our perspectives. But cinema is also there to help us escape, to let us throw off the shackles of everyday life and run free in a space devoid of judgement and worry. These shorts do an admirable job on both counts. There are powerful and emotional works, showing determination in the face of insurmountable odds. There are films which make us laugh and delight in the ridiculousness of everyday life and interactions.

But whether they stir us into a fit of righteous indignation or make us squeal with joy (or, indeed, sometimes both) these are films are rooted in the human spirit and raging against the dying of the light with passion, fire and – on occasion – tenderness.

With many of the shorts on offer giving POFF audiences the first chance to experience them in the world, the International Competition is a journey of discovery of exciting new cinema and new voices.

Screenings

Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening081718 / Shorts lühifilmi võistlusprogramm 5
Q&A duration
Screening duration

Films

Baltic premiere

The Loneliness of Lizards

Local title
Sisalike üksildus
Original title
A Solidão dos Lagartos
Director
Inês Nunes
Country
Portugal
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

In a spa surrounded by mountains of salt, guests relax and sunbathe, while workers collect the glowing crystals under the sun. Children run off, escaping the watchful eyes of adults, and a woman drifts through this landscape in a haze, detached from reality. As night falls, the space transforms, shaped by the desires of those who pass through.

Director
Inês Nunes
Runtime
Language
Portuguese
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Room Number

Local title
Numbrituba
Director
Silvia Lorenzi
Country
Estonia
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

Each guest of an hourly hotel deals with a delicate moment in their life, until their routine is interrupted by the suicide of one of the inhabitants, revealing the fragility of life and its vulnerability.

Director
Silvia Lorenzi
Runtime
Subtitles
English

World premiere

No No Place Hotel

Local title
Hotell eikusagil
Director
Reinis Ubelis
Country
Latvia
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

Inside a grand but eerily desolate hotel, surveillance cameras capture a disturbing sequence of events unfolding in just twelve minutes.

Director
Reinis Ubelis
Runtime
Language
Latvian
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Some Of You Fucked Eva

Local title
Mõned teist keppisid Evat
Director
Lilith Grasmug
Country
Austria, France
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

2002, North Carolina. Teenagers recall the investigation into the mysterious fainting of high school cheerleaders.

Director
Lilith Grasmug
Runtime
Language
English

Baltic premiere

Because Of (U)

Local title
Sinu pärast
Director
Tohé Commaret
Country
France
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

Laura is trapped in a toxic relationship with a famous rapper. After a violent argument, her reality starts to warp, straddling the line between the familiar and the distorted, the everyday and the hallucinatory.

Director
Tohé Commaret
Runtime
Language
French
Subtitles
English

European premiere

The Shirt Off Your Back

Local title
Kasvõi särgi seljast
Director
David Robinson-Smith
Country
Australia
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition

A dark fairytale about two brothers re-living a strange encounter with a man on Christmas Day, their memories shifting until the truth becomes something unknowable—something that quietly, irrevocably changes them.

Director
David Robinson-Smith
Runtime
Language
English
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Notes From Planet Three

Local title
Ülestähendusi kolmandalt planeedilt
Director
Simon Ellis
Country
United Kingdom
Year
2025
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2025, 25th Youth and Children's Film Festival
Programme
Shorts Live-Action Competition, Youth Programme

A boy shares the science of our solar system with his two year-old sister, while internet contrarians share ideas of their own. A meditation on misinformation via social media comments on astrophotography.

Director
Simon Ellis
Runtime
Language
English