The short film “Three Minutes”, directed by Sofía Medrano, has been selected to compete in the International Live-Action Competition at PÖFF Shorts 2025, while “My Gut Friend”, by José Manuel “Becho” Lo Bianco and Mariano Andrés Bergara, will take part in the Animation Competition. Both films stand out among the 117 titles selected from more than 5,600 submissions, reaffirming the festival’s position as one of the most important short film events in the world.

“Three Minutes”, which will have its world premiere in competition, tells the story of Magnolia and Cecilia, a couple who have just moved in together and face the anxiety of waiting for the result of a pregnancy test. During those three suspended minutes, silence and uncertainty become an abyss separating them from the moment that could change everything. With an intimate style and a sensitive gaze, Medrano’s film explores love, fear, and the quiet tension contained in the fleeting moments that define life.

The Live-Action Competition will include five other world premieres — among them A Perfect Maryam (Iran/USA), No No Place Hotel (Latvia), Rotten (Netherlands), Sirens (Cyprus), and Something Wild (Hungary) — reaffirming its role as a global showcase for contemporary short cinema. According to Laurence Boyce, Head of the Short Film Programme, this year’s lineup offers “a wealth of delights — some already acclaimed on the festival circuit, others making their debut at PÖFF Shorts — giving audiences the chance to discover filmmakers working at the cutting edge of cinema.”

Meanwhile, “My Gut Friend”, by Lo Bianco and Bergara, is part of the International Animation Competition, which will present works in 2D, 3D, and stop motion, spanning from traditional narratives to experimental storytelling. The film follows Jim, a lonely man who recalls his childhood when his gut was alive. Despite his parents’ and doctors’ efforts to make him “normal,” Jim decides to listen to his gut, which sparks enormous curiosity in him with a single word: climb. Driven by that impulse, he begins to climb everything around him until he discovers something that fascinates him — a mountain beyond the horizon.

Vassilis Kroustallis, Head of the Animation Programme, highlighted that the competition offers “a diverse and vibrant selection of animated shorts that reflects the richness and relevance of contemporary animation.” The lineup includes both festival favorites and world premieres from emerging talents.

The jury awards for Best Film in the Live-Action and Animation categories — as well as for Best Estonian Film — will qualify the winners for consideration for the Academy Awards® in the short film category. A nominee for the European Film Academy’s Best Short Film Award will also be selected from among the competing films.

The films selected for the National Competition will be announced on October 14, while the complete festival programme will be revealed on October 30.

SHORTS ANIMATION COMPETITION

BUSY BODIES (dir. Kate Renshaw-Lewis, USA, 2025)
BECAUSE TODAY IS SATURDAY (dir. Alice Eça Guimarães, Portugal, 2025)
DARK GLOBE (dir. Donato Sansone, Italy, 2024)
DOG ALONE (dir. Marta Reis Andrade, Portugal, 2025)
DOG EAR (dir. Péter Vácz, Hungary, 2025)
FAČUK (dir. Maida Srabovic, Croatia, 2025)
GOD IS SHY (dir. Jocelyn Charles, France, 2025)
HOW (dir. Marko Mestrovic, Croatia, 2025)
I AM NOT HERE ANYMORE (dir. Nawojka Wierzbowska, Poland, 2025)
IL BURATTINO E LA BALENA (dir. Roberto Catani, Italy, 2024)
KABUKI (dir. Tiago Minamisawa, Brazil, 2025)
LA VIE AVEC UN IDIOT (dir. Theodor Ushev, Bulgaria, 2025)
LIKE FRIEND, LIKE DEER (dir. Malek Eghbali, Iran, 2025)
MERRIMUNDI (dir. Niles Atallah, Chile, USA, 2025)
MY LITTLE SPACE (dir. Seungmin Han, South Korea, 2024)
OFF-TIME (dir. Nata Metlukh, Ukraine, 2025)
ONCE IN A BODY (dir. María Cristina Pérez, Colombia, 2025)
ORDINARY LIFE (dir. Yoriko Mizushiri, Japan, 2025)
PARADAÏZ (dir. Matea Radic, Bosnia, Canada, 2025)
PRAYING MANTIS (dir. Joe Hsieh, Taiwan, 2025)
STRANGE TEEN SPIRIT (dir. Frank Ternier, France, 2025)
THE MUD UNDER MY WINDOW (dir. Violette Delvoye, Belgium, 2025)
THE WEAVER (dir. Yiorgos Tsangaris, Cyprus, 2025)
TO THE WOODS (dir. Agnès Patron, France, 2025)
TONIGHT I’LL DREAM ABOUT WATER (dir. Adrianna Matwiejczuk, Poland, 2025)
TV OR THE DISTURBANCE ON FOREST HILL ROAD (dir. Frederic Siegel, Switzerland, 2025)
WATER GIRL (dir. Sandra Desmazières, France, 2025)
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (dir. Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Alexandra Myotte, Canada, 2025)
WITH TAPES AND TOASTS IN THE CAR (dir. Kiana Naghshineh, Germany, 2025)
WITNESS: AN ORGANIMA FILM (dir. Nik Arthur, Canada, 2024)

SHORTS NEW TALENTS COMPETITION: ANIMATION

CAN CIRCLE CIRCLES? (dir. Xuerou Huang, United Kingdom, 2025)
CLEANLINESS (dir. Andrejs Brīvulis, Latvia, 2025)
DIPOLAR BIPOLAR (dir. quankai li, Japan, 2025)
FLOATING (dir. Jelena Milunović, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, 2025)
FOUR WALLS OF MEMORY (dir. Joanna Platek, Poland, 2024)
HUNTING (dir. Lea Favre, Switzerland, 2024)
I (dir. Chih-Chen Hsu, Japan, [2025)
LE JARDIN ROSSINI (dir. William Burger, Siméon Jacob, Odelia Laine, Garance Mondamert, Tara Rewal, Mathilde Vergereau, Arthur Wong, France, 2025)
LIQUOR (dir. Yi-Chen Huang, Germany, 2025)
MS.UNDERSTONED (dir. Yuki Buma, Japan, 2024)
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX (dir. Yingdan Lai, US, China, 2025)
PEAR GARDEN (dir. Shadab Shayegan, Germany, 2024)
SPINE (dir. Marta Margetić, Croatia, 2025)
STONE OF DESTINY (dir. Julie Černá, Czech Republic, 2025)
TINY FILM ABOUT RAPE (dir. Nebe Motýlová, Czech Republic, 2025)
TWO POINT FIVE STARS (dir. Sina Lerf, Dario Boger, Dario Marti, Switzerland, 2024)
URBAN DUO (dir. Hongyu Yue, China, 2024)
VOYAGE OF THE RED RABBIT (dir. Sam Gualtieri, USA, 2024)
WALK IN (dir. Han-eol Park, South Korea, 2024)
WANDERING DOT AND THE BLANK SQUARE PAGE UNIVERSE (dir. Ieva Lība Ratniece, Belgium, Latvia, 2024)

SHORTS KIDS ANIMATION COMPETITION

ARE WE THERE YET? (dir. Sven Kristlbauer, Raul Bison, Marion Zeder, Switzerland, 2025)
BIRDS OF PARADISE (dir. Tomek Ducki, Poland, France, 2025)
EXPERIENCES AND LEARNING. AND PARENTING. (dir. Malgorzata Rybak, Poland, 2025)
FOREVERGREEN (dir. Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears, US, 2025)
GRANPA IS SLEEPING (dir. Matei Branea, Romania, Bulgaria, 2025)
LE PETIT ET LE GÉANT (dir. Isabela Costa, France, 2025)
LEAVE THE ISLAND (dir. Chen Wu, Taiwan, 2025)
LENA’S FARM: FULL NEST (dir. Elena Walf, Germany, 2025)
MY GUT FRIEND (dir. José Manuel “Becho” Lo Bianco, Mariano Andrés Bergara, Argentina, Mexico, 2025)
PROUT (dir. Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium, India, Vietnam, 2025)
TATARANG! (dir. Manri Kim, South Korea, 2024)
THE DRIFTING GUITAR (dir. Sophie Roze, France, Switzerland, 2024)
THE EMPTY PANEL (dir. Thibault Chollet, France, 2025)
THE RABBITS’ HOUSE AT NUMBER 968 (dir. Jai-Xin Wu, Taiwan, 2025)
THE RUMBLE-BUMBLE RALLY (dir. Annette Saugestad Helland, Johan Kaos, Norway, 2024)

SHORTS LIVE-ACTION COMPETITION

A PERFECT MARYAM (dir. Solmaz Etemadzadeh, Ara Torosian, Iran, USA, 2025)
BARBED WIRE (dir. Gustavo de Carvalho, Brazil, 2024)
BECAUSE OF (U) (dir. Tohé Commaret, France, 2025)
BLOOMER (dir. Jimmy Zwedberg, Sweden, 2025)
BRIGHT SUMMER DAYS (dir. Nevena Desivojevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, 2025)
CHERUBS (dir. Anna Pieri Zuercher, Pietro Zuercher, Switzerland, 2025)
DAMMEN (dir. Grégoire Graesslin, France, 2025)
EL PÜTÌ PÈRS (dir. Paolo Baiguera, Italy, 2025)
KISMET (dir. Ziga Virc, Slovenia, 2025)
MESOPOTAMIA, TX (dir. Lucy Gamades, USA, 2025)
NO NO PLACE HOTEL (dir. Reinis Ubelis, Latvia, 2025)
NOTES FROM PLANET THREE (dir. Simon Ellis, United Kingdom, 2025)
NOW HEAR ME GOOD (dir. Dwayne LeBlanc, USA, 2025)
PANTELLERIA (dir. Jan Cornet, Spain, 2025)
RAMÓN WHO SPEAKS TO GHOSTS (dir. Shervin Kermani, Canada, Spain, 2025)
RAZAA (dir. Pooja Tolani, India, 2024)
ROOM NUMBER (dir. Silvia Lorenzi, Estonia, 2025)
ROTTEN (dir. Asli Bildirici, Netherlands, 2025)
SIRENS (dir. Argyro Nicolaou, Cyprus, 2025)
SOS (dir. Anita Morina, Kosovo, 2025)
SOME OF YOU FUCKED EVA (dir. Lilith Grasmug, Austria, France, 2025)
SOMETHING WILD (dir. Zsuzsanna Konrad, Hungary, USA, 2025)
THE END OF THE WORLD (dir. Alessandro Mosca, Peru, 2025)
THE HILL OF LOVERS (dir. Moreetsi Gabang, Botswana, 2024)
THE LONELINESS OF LIZARDS (dir. Inês Nunes, Portugal, 2025)
THE SHIRT OFF YOUR BACK (dir. David Robinson-Smith, Australia, 2025)
THE WIND IN ASH (dir. Sun Kun, China, 2025)
THREE MINUTES (dir. Sofía Medrano, Argentina, 2025)
WAVES (dir. Juanjo Giménez, Spain, 2025)
WEEKEND (dir. Rytis Dringelis, Lithuania, 2025)
WHISPER OF THE TRANQUIL WIND (dir. Jun Chong, Singapore, 2025)
WITHOUT KELLY (dir. Lovisa Sirén, Sweden, 2025)

SHORTS NEW TALENTS COMPETITION: LIVE-ACTION

ARTURIA (dir. Dániel Kőváry, Hungary, 2025)
AT THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO (dir. Jorge Granados Ross, Mexico, 2024)
BIG ZEUS (dir. Johannes Magnus Aule, Estonia, 2025)
BUT I NEVER ASKED (dir. Nicole Humiński, Germany, Poland, 2025)
CENTRE OF THE SPIRAL (dir. Dāvis Gauja, Latvia, 2025)
DEAD AIR (dir. Andrej Haring, Austria, 2025)
DOG AND WOLF (dir. Terézia Halamová, Czech Republic, 2025)
DYSFONIAS (dir. María Camila Pulgarín, Manuela Giraldo, Colombia, 2024)
DYING OF THE YOUNG DEER (dir. Angelika Cygal, Poland, 2025)
EGGSHELLS (dir. Beth Barnes, Scotland, 2025)
FAMILY SUNDAY (dir. Gerardo Del Razo, Mexico, 2025)
GLITTER KISS (dir. Augustė Gerikaitė, Lithuania, 2025)
GOODBYE, FISHIES (dir. Jonathan Zhang, Australia, 2025)
MEMORABILIA (dir. Roosa Vuokkola, Finland, 2025)
NIGHTS AND DAYS (dir. Daniela Sláviková, Slovakia, 2025)
PUNTER (dir. Jason Adam Maselle, South Africa, 2025)
RESORT (dir. Chanelle Eidenbenz, Switzerland, 2024)
SHALLOW GROUND (dir. Jozo Schmuch, Croatia, 2025)
THE BLADE, THE WOUND (dir. Lucas Minier, France, 2025)
WELCOME HOME FRECKLES (dir. Huiju Park, Korea, 2025)