
A Couplet of Deep Thoughts
Select Shorts: Ratings up to PG-13, with one "mild"-R-rated short.
Pensive / Abstract
Approximate Running Time: 70 minutes
Streaming in this year's Virtual Festival available only from June 9-26 on
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Password to the *****
The basis of returning to global nature is to get to know the nature within us - our own nature - and to look at the process of individual (personality) development as a component of a global phenomenon.
The film brings a poem to life that winds between childhood memories, diary notes, and their adult interpretation, reflecting the issues raised by the search for the meaning of existence and the feeling of frequent hopelessness. Jumping between dreams, nightmares, and confused memories, Grandma’s timeless, safe figure links to the stars that show a path in the dark as the shining responses of the universe. At the same time, through their continuous transformation during the poem, they embody the only constant thing as well - the change itself.

Square Dance No. 1
Eunmi Kang
Busan, South Korea
MM, Independent
3:23
G
Repeated Flashing Images
Random square patterns obtained by rubbing folded kitchen napkins with black ink turn into spontaneously improvised movements of shapes and textures.
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Outsider
Shuo Liu
China
StMo, Independent
2:10
R
Stylized Nudity
The magic between ‘frames’ acts on clay, the table becomes a contradictory object that can be soft and hard. Some people get into it, but others are not. There is no differentiation between superior and inferior or right or wrong in this place, but how we face the world.
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The Luggage Room
Daniela Cuenca
Valencia, Spain
3D, Student
6:41
G, Subtitles
Soledad, a 65-year-old immigrant, fills a suitcase with gifts to send her family, as she embarks on a journey of fantasies and memories about her loved ones and the countless objects she has accumulated for them in a mountain of baggage inside her small room.
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The Hole
Piotr Kaźmierczak
Legnica, Poland
Debut, Solo
2:30
G
A short story about struggling with lack, emptiness, loneliness.
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Warmth
Nathania Zaini
Los Angeles, California
StMo, Professional
2:40
G
Warmth is a story about daily encounters between a passerby and a homeless person in the street of Los Angeles. It explores the empathy and human connections that are often overlooked.
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Nurture
Ying-Fang Shen
Richmond, Virginia
2D, Independent
3:00
PG-13
Stylized Nudity, Breastfeeding
Breastmilk comes quietly into the world at the time of birth to raise newborns. Sometimes they go even further and nourish more little lives through milk banks.
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Duet
Yadid Hirschtritt Licht
Chicago, Illinois
FxF, Student
5:00
G
Duet is an animated short film that explores the persistence of love, the transcendence of music, and the heartache of losing a loved one. The story centers on a cat who is adopted by an elderly woman. The two connect as the woman teaches the cat to play piano. After the woman passes away, her daughter and grandson bring the cat home, where the cat has difficulty adjusting to the new environment and family. As the cat and grandson play a duet on the keyboard, the process of healing begins.
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A Bite of Bone
Honami Yano
Tokyo, Japan
FxF, Professional
9:45
PG
Death
A little girl reflects on her last summer with her father at his funeral.
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Change/ce
Meera Krishnamurthy
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
MM, Independent
5:43
G
In Bengaluru, a woman navigates her fears in the Covid-19 pandemic using a deck of Tarot cards. The cards she draws- Justice, 7 of Pentacles and Death transform her inner and outer world. The animated piece also reveals an internal conflict between logic and intuition.
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Rachel Bavaresco
New York City, New York
2D, Student
3:25
PG-13
Stylized Nudity
Three one one is a visual exploration of how intricately and beautifully connected people’s lives are. Starting at an apartment building at sunrise, the film takes the audience through windows and walls into living spaces and rooftops, but banality starts to take a different shape and form as we move from each vignette to the next. The residents, although unaware, play a role in the surrealist logic: one man’s mindless actions make up the world of another.
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Autumn
Pim Christian
Alkmaar, The Netherlands
2D, Novice
4:25
G
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Autumn brings the wind that carries a falling, withered leaf through the memories of a woman’s youth and her relationship with a once young man. But spring brings new light and life to withered leaves and lives.
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Downfall
Rona Fayad
Lebanon, Beirut, Sin El Fil
FxF, Student
3:28
PG
Not included in virtual streaming
Enya's journey trying to make it as a dancer is hindered as her behaviors drag her downhill.
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This film was withdrawn after judging was complete, so it currently exists in limbo... So far it remains an official selection that is unfortunately unable to stream in 2022's FAF.
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Subjective Vision, Myriam Boccara
Lionel Samain
Paris, France
FxF, Professional
8:39
G, Subtitles
Not included in virtual streaming.
Remains an Official Selection in Competition for overall awards.
"Subjective Vision" is an immersive adventure into the workshop of painter Myriam Boccara, that questions the intimate relationship between the artist and her work.
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Oyasumi ~Lullaby of Flame~
Arisa Wakami
Tokyo, Japan
StMo, Professional
6:46
G, Subtitles
Not included in virtual streaming.
Remains an Official Selection in Competition for overall awards.
It's the eve of the end of a long-lasting world and the beginning of a new one. The ancient gods of the earth gather to celebrate the new beginning. Everything returns to the Emptiness and is reborn. The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end. Darkness of light. Light of darkness. The universe of sleep and the sleep of the universe.
Sand painting animation and the sound of overtones invite you to a meditation-like world. Even in the midst of turbulent times, it is okay. Life goes on. A new world has already begun.
We will deliver to you such a quiet light of hope.