“A Good Mind Grows in Thorny Places" is a short documentary that follows 12-year-old Adam, a local self-proclaimed lumberjack in the so-called “hungry valley” in the middle of Slovakia. Despite the toughness of his life, Adam spins a simple and poetic tale. He's a kid with grown-up responsibilities, standing out as the hardest worker among his friends, even though he's Roma, a fact that doesn't bother him or his family but that is often brought up of by their peers. His brother's part of an extremist political party with conservative views on minorities, but Adam looks up to him for his tree-sawing skills. Adam tries to show only the good side of himself in the village, although his friends see him differently. Patiently, he waits for the right time to reveal who he truly is, defying expectations along the way.

Director, Screenplay, DoP, Editing: Katarína Gramatová ● Sound Design: Anna Žihlová ● Color Grading: Petr Simo ● Cast: Adam Šuniar, Michal Zachenský, Dominik Vetrák ● Executive producer: Julie Žáčková

Director: Delaine Le Bas ● Camera: Lincoln Cato, Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Editor: Laszlo Farkas ● Sound: Justin Langlands ● Music: Laszlo Farkas Mixing of Original Sound & Justin Langlands ● Cast: Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Producer: Delaine Le Bas

Theo, the lead singer of a Nazi band, is about to play the most important concert of his career. But then he is involved in a serious car accident. The driver of the car is Mahmoud, who is about to be prospected for German citizenship. Mahmoud panics and, fearing the possible consequences, commits a hit-and-run. In hospital, Theo is diagnosed with a particularly severe form of ‘foreign language accent syndrome’; he is suddenly only able to speak Arabic. Ironically, Mahmoud becomes his doctor. Theo tries to blackmail Mahmoud into teaching him German. Otherwise, Theo threatens to report Mahmoud to the police, which would jeopardise his future citizenship. Suddenly Theo's band turns up at the hospital and the situation spirals out of control.

Script: Sejad Ademaj, Serdar Gencol ● Director: Sejad Ademaj ● Cinematography: Andreas Blind ● Music: Peter Albrecht ● Sounddesign: Justus Fischer ● Sound: Jonas Winkler
Editing: Alexey Kashaev ● Set design: Gianni Romano, Wolf Romberg ● Producer: Maximillian Gebhardt, Luca Merkle, Maximilian Sachße ● Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg ● Cast: Robin Leo Hoffmann, Georg Paluza, Elsa Langnäse, Anna Maria Zeilhofer

During an escape from his bullies, a boy finds himself in Jean Claude van Damm. He embarks on a career as a martial artist with the aim of one day overcoming his oppressors. He manages to punish evil through the victory of good - but only ever in an honest fight, in fair play. The short feature film is the first Roma martial arts film.

Idea and plot: Lukrecius Chang ● Script, editor, director: Lukáš Šimandl ● Cinematography: Michal Karabec ● Cast: Lukrecius Chang , Václav Šímáček, Ondřej Malina, Jan Sýkora, Isabel Kiššová, Adrian Murtezi, Tibor Horvát, Kevin Šimáček, Kristián Pompa, Miroslav Gabčo, Slávek Krátký, Pavel Vojtěšek, Daniel Uvízl, Pavel Bednář ● Make-up: Kamil Pohanka ● Fight choreography: Ondřej Malina ● Special thanks: Moravskoslezský Kraj, Rock Solid Equipment, Základní škola U Studny, Regionální knihovna Karviná, Boxing king club Ostrava, Hayashi.cz

Director: Delaine Le Bas ● Camera: Lincoln Cato, Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Editor: Laszlo Farkas ● Sound: Justin Langlands ● Music: Laszlo Farkas Mixing of Original Sound & Justin Langlands ● Cast: Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Producer: Delaine Le Bas

"Fakir" is a feature documentary about 23-year-old Dalibor, who, after his release from prison, strives to heal from his traumatic past and rebuild his broken family. Torn between being a father figure to his younger brothers and still seeking one for himself, Dalibor confronts the contradictions in his life. He helps his mother but also questions her role in his imprisonment. Despite his painful history, Dalibor’s spirit remains resilient as he seeks to end the cycle of generational abuse. His journey to healing is marked by extreme acts, while outside the circus, his abusive father manipulates the broken social system to gain custody of his younger brother. Dalibor is determined to protect his family, yet encounters resistance from within, as they are unwilling to confront the abuse. The film delves into trauma, redemption, and resilience, presenting Dalibor as a complex, relatable figure searching for healing and wholeness.

Director Roman Ďuriš ● Cinematography: Michaela Hošková ● Music Composer: Vladislav Šarišský ● Editor: Jakub Fišer ● Producers: Simona Bago Móciková (SK), Michal Sikora (CZ), Adrianna Rędzia (PL) ● Confirmed Partners: Radio and Television

Director: Delaine Le Bas ● Camera: Lincoln Cato, Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Editor: Laszlo Farkas ● Sound: Justin Langlands ● Music: Laszlo Farkas Mixing of Original Sound & Justin Langlands ● Cast: Delaine Le Bas, Hera Santos ● Producer: Delaine Le Bas

The young director Tomáš Vynikal arrives at a Roma ghetto in search of humanity. With an authentic approach, he finds true friendship, but also human corruption. Everything is kept in the dark when the city of Přerov sells the ghetto together with its inhabitants to a private company for the purpose of new housing construction. This company will only go so far to demolish part of the houses and end up insolvent. The work is also a picture of current social problems in the Czech Republic, where human dwellings are meaninglessly devastated. These inhabitants receive new rental flats from the state, thus another ghetto is being created and society is moving in a catch-22 circle. The film contains time spent from September 2010 to September 2020. The documentary is the feature debut of Tomáš Vynikal. This is a fully independent film without state nor commercial support.

Screenwriter, Editor, Producer, Director: Tomáš Vynikal ● Cinematography: Tomáš Vynikal, Šimon Papoušek, Robin Závodný, Zdeněk Eichler, Ondřej Klus, Martin Dvořáček and Milan Cyroň ● Additional Camera: Jonáš Vacek ● Sound Design, Mix, Music: Tomáš Vynikal, Jiří Grúz ● Boom Operators: Jiří Piňos, Josef Kaštil, Robin Závodný, Šimon Papoušek, Zdeněk Eichler, Roman Nepšinský, Jan Princ, Pavel Tóth ● Translation: Michael Stuart Esson ● Text Correction: Radek Malý ● Creative Advisors: Tomáš Binter, Juraj Fándli, Ján Grečnár, Boris Masník, Ľudovít Labík, Iveta Malachovská, Martin Jůza, Andy Fehu, Milan Cyroň, David Lorenz, Jonáš Vacek, Mária Môťovská, Jiří Stejskal, Martin Dvořáček ● Technical Advisors: Aleš Hudský, Jonáš Vacek, Jan Hála and David Lorenz ● Script Editor: Zuzana Pracná ● Colour Correction: Robin Závodný, Tomáš Vynikal