Heads in the clouds

Director: Mieszko Chomka
Poland, 2026, 13 min. 7 s.

You don’t come to this swimming pool to swim in it, because there is no water. You bring your friend. Besides, you don’t know how to swim. You’re too young. But what if it could be filled with imagined water? If you can imagine a pool full of water, you can imagine much more. Your favorite roller coaster in Kyiv. The largest park in Kharkiv. Your grandmother who lives just outside the city. Your room. In this imagined water, you have your heads in the clouds rather than actually swimming, but you feel at home.

Lodz Film School
A short film shown at: Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2026)

Class Photo

Director: Arnas Balčiūnas
Lithuania, 2025, 17 min. 12 s.

While revisiting his now-abandoned school, Ignas runs into a former classmate. As they wander through corridors filled with conflicting memories, they try to capture what will soon be gone.

National Film School KIMO, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater

A short film shown at: MFF Cannes 2026 (Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes), Anonimul International Independent Film Festival (2026)

Frozen Lands

Director: Thomas Schira, Takeiki Flon

Belgium, 2026, 28 min.

In hopes to get his friend Tak out of a deep depression, Tom takes him to work in the far north. He clumsily tries to take him on an adventure that will bring him back to life. But as they make their way, night falls, rain pours down, and the polar ground crumbles. Blending fiction and documentary, the directors bring their own experiences to the screen. The film creates a space for healing and explores the power of friendship.

RUBIS productions
A short film shown at: Doclisboa (international premiere, 2026), Brussels Short Film Festival (2026)

Furia

Director: Fran Moreno Blanco, Santi Pujol Amat
Spain, 2025, 18 min. 42 s.

Eric lives in a juvenile center. He tries to rebuild his relationship with his mother so he can live with her again when he turns 18. When she doesn’t show up to visit him, he runs away to go to her house. There, he discovers she has a new family and that she has moved on with her life without him.

ESCAC Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya
A short film shown at: Żubroffka (2025) Palm Springs ShortFest (2025), Huesca International Film Festival (2025)

Visiting Time

Director: Sebastian Szewczykowski
Poland, 2025, 15 min.

Ula wants to see her deceased son. Together with Dorothy, his girlfriend, she deceives the receptionist to get into the morgue after hours. Their plan falls apart when Julia, a morgue employee, catches Ula standing over the body of her late son. Ula explains that her son can still become a father with a simple procedure. Julia hesitates, but helps, confessing she lost her own son, who was killed in Donetsk. Does the deceased’s body still belong to him, or to those who love him?

Gdynia Film School
A short film shown at: Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026)

A short film about war

Director: Nadim Suleiman
Poland, 2026, 25 min.

Fahed, a young directing student who fled to Poland from his war-torn homeland, is confronted with his past on the set of a WWII film, where fact and fiction blur.

Lodz Film School
A short film shown at: FPFF Gdynia (2026), Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026), Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026)

The training

Director: Monika Krupa
Poland, 2025, 28 min. 8 s.

For 72 hours, journalists voluntarily enter a simulated war zone where fear is real, captivity feels real, and every decision tests who they are. Among them is Agnieszka – a mother and journalist determined to discover whether anyone can truly prepare to witness war.

A short film shown at: Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026)

Other’s Meadows Flowers

Director: Hanna Drzazga
Poland, 2026,  19 min. 24 s.

Morwa returns to her hometown during summer break. She is greeted by Róża, who has missed her older sister dearly. Meanwhile, Teresa, the girls’ mother, gives her returning daughter a rather cold welcome. When Róża asks her mother for permission to go out in the evening, Teresa agrees only on the condition that she doesn’t go alone. The sisters use a tried-and-tested method they leave the house together, split up, and then meet again at an agreed time and place to return home together without raising suspicion. However, in the morning it turns out that Róża’s bed is empty, and Morwa has no idea where her sister is. She tries to figure out what happened to her and to recall whether she could have foreseen what took place the previous night.

Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School

Spiritus Sanctus

Director: Michał Toczek
Poland, 2026, 15 min.

June 1999. Bogdan has to buy alcohol for his wife’s 50th birthday but the timing couldn’t be worse – the Pope’s visit brings about a city-wide prohibition. A simple shopping jaunt quickly turns into a metaphysical odyssey filled with with absurd events, curious meetings, and bizarre obstacles. With every step, it becomes less clear whether what he is searching for is still vodka or something much more profound.

Studio Munka
A short film shown at: Cannes Film Festival (2026), FPFF Gdyni (2026), Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026), Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026), TAURON Nowe Horyzonty (2026)

The clever plan

Director: Igor Sas
Poland, 2025, 19 min. 58 s.

Robert is 35 years old and hasn’t achieved much in life. The only thing he has is his favorite car, which he uses to deliver food. One day, during a delivery, Robert parks in a no-parking zone. His car gets towed by the municipal police. Unable to afford the fine, Robert decides to steal his car back from the municipal impound lot. Unfortunately for Robert, an elderly woman named Stanisława works at the lot and catches him in the act. Cornered, Robert makes the desperate decision to kidnap Mrs. Stanisława.

Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School
A short film shown at: Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026)

Freestyle

Director: Kacper Nowak-Gocławski
Poland, 2025, 17 min. 24 s.

John, a competitive swimmer, arrives at a sports complex for the Polish Championships with one goal: winning the mixed relay. Just hours before the start, he accidentally records his father and coach, Rafał, in a compromising situation with Sandra, a girl from the team whom John secretly admires. Interpreting the scene as an act of violence and grooming, John acts under extreme emotional stress to “save” her, however, a final confrontation reveals a devastating truth: John’s intervention was unwanted. Faced with the collapse of his world, he must decide whether to finish the race or find a new, mature path to freedom.

Gdynia Film School
A short film shown at: FPFF Gdynia (2026)

Summer Delivery

Director: Lam Can-zhao
Chiny, 2026, 15 min.

A young girl sets out to deliver a red egg to her mother, only to confront the quiet heartbreak of growing up.

A short film shown at: Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (2026), Cinemagic International Film Festival (2026), Jordan Children & Youth’s Film Festival (2026)

Feel no fear with me

Director: Monika Klimkiewicz-Dudziec
Poland, 2025, 17 min. 56s.

Polish-Belarusian border. Podlasie. 12-year-old Ola, daughter of a gambling-addict border guard, is forced by her father to smuggle cigarettes in the border forests. One day, instead of cigarettes, Ola picks up a refugee.

Warsaw Film School

Bad ideas

Director: Jan Bujnowski
Poland, 2025, 110 min.

Is there any connection between sunglasses, high school friends and diminutive names? And could it have something to do with sombrero hats?

A short film shown at: Warszawski Festiwal Filmowy (2025), FPFF Gdynia (2026), Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026), Octopus Festiwal (2026), Palm Springs International ShortFest (2026), Drama International Short Film Festival (2026), Festival du Nouveau Cinema (2025).

Sad Men Are Hard to Look At

Director: Paulina Michta
Poland, 2026, 29 min. 29 s.

After the suicide of her younger brother Maks, 31-year-old Wanda returns home to collect the recordings he left her. The CDs reveal his life through his own eyes – and hints of a buried family secret. Her emotionally distant father, Ernest, hovers over her every step, uneasy with her growing determination to understand what happened. Guided by the footage, Wanda reconnects with Michał, a childhood neighbor whose older brother vanished years ago – a mystery the village never solved. Following the clues Maks left behind, Wanda is drawn into a web of guilt, silence, and long-buried secrets that refuse to stay hidden, pushing her toward a truth she may not be ready to face.

Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School
A short film shown at: FPFF Gdynia (2026) 

Central-Mart

Director: Alicja Błaszczyńska
Poland, 2025, 11 min. 47 s

Six egoists and one store. Central-Mart is a dark comedy telling a story of few individuals who through their malice and ruthlessness fall into spiral of absurd events. Their lives entwine and create a web of grotesque occurences, mosty because of their egoism, slyness and ignorance. Regardless if they’re too picky, too cunning or too self-absorbed, every action pushes them towards an inevitable catastrophy.

Fumi Studio
An animation shown at: ETER Anima Festival (2026)

There is no jungle

Director: Marcjanna Urbańska
Poland, 2026, 11 min. 5 s..

In the grey, rainy city lives a monkey, trapped in the hell of procrastination. Every attempt at creative work ends in an escape into his own imagination, into a world full of colors and adventures, and every return to reality is increasingly overwhelming and gray. The monkey must face itself in order to find a space to live between worlds.

Lodz Film School, Fumi Studio
An animation shown at: ETER Anima Festival (2026)

The Echoes

Director: Joanna Fuczko
Poland, 2025, 4 min. 2 s.

A short story about loss and memory, inspired by the forced resettlement of the Lemko community from the Carpathian Mountains. Created independently, the animation combines different techniques, including traditional charcoal drawing. It is a short, moving story about the Lemko experience and lost identity.

An animation shown at: ETER Anima Festival (2026)

Fanatic

Director: Mateusz Jarmulski
Poland, 2025, 9 min.

What happens when a hero blindly pursues his goal, consumed by brutal rivalry? This is a ruthless play on fantasy conventions, where an existential crisis of masculinity proves more dangerous than dungeon monsters. A story of people so deeply attached to their roles that they fail to notice the coming end of the world.

An animation shown at: Koszaliński Festiwal Debiutów Filmowych MŁODZI I FILM (2026), Animator (2026), Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026)

The Nest

Director: Jakub Baniak
Poland, 2026, 10 min. 10 s.

When a man ignores an unsettling presence in his home, the space he once controlled begins to shift, fall apart, and slowly consume everything in its path.

Animoon
An animation shown at: Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026)

Cosmogonia

Director: Karolina Chabier
Poland, 2025, 15 min. 36 s.

In the beginning, there was darkness, and nothing existed except for a few sparks from a small lamp hanging at the bow of the boat. In the boundless night, the Great One appears – a goddess in the form of a bison. From the depths of the water, the Great One pulls out the Little One – a goddess resembling a goat. A friendship forms between them, and with it, life springs up all around. As the world evolves, both goddesses are consumed by their own creative power.

Animoon

Summer of smooth asphalt

Director: Maria Dakszewicz
Poland, 2025, 6 min. 25.

An amusement park comes to a halt with a short circuit. A toy-radio abandoned in a trash bin exposes the park community’s secrets long drowned out by the clamor. Is a power outage the only way out of a crisis of excess?

Lodz Film School
An animation shown at: Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026), TAURON Nowe Horyzonty (2026)

Oh Shineth!

Director: Paweł Modzelewski
Poland, 2025, 10 min. 32 s.

– “What is a human being?” – this is the question the film’s narrator, who is the director’s alter ego, asks God. “O vv– ‘What is a human being?’—this is the question posed to God by the film’s narrator, who is the author’s alter ego. “O Light!” is an animated story in the form of a prayer of thanksgiving about the search for oneself, for truth, and for the lost meaning of life, as well as the experience of love and salvation.

Studio Munka
An animation shown at: Bengaluru International Short Film Festival

Frankie the rabbit’s final preparations

Director: Marianna Mrozek
Poland, 2025, 3 min. 10 s.

The eccentric rabbit Frankie had planned it for a long time. The rope, the height of the chair, the load-bearing capacity of the ceiling hook. Finally, the day came and he hung, exactly as he planned.

Lodz Film School
An animation shown at: Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026), Festiwal Filmu i Sztuki DWA BRZEGI w Kazimierzu Dolnym (2026)

The Garden

Director: Carolina Charadán, Miguel Machado
Canada, Cuba, Mexico, 2025, 12 min. 1 s.

A dreamlike oil-on-glass short where Juana Borrero, 19th-century Cuban painter-poet, wanders a tropical Eden guided by a Blue Rabbit and facing a wounded Velociraptor-an evocative meditation on memory, transformation, and the blurred lines between art and dream.

Pentacle Productions

The Shadow

Director: Petra Balekić
Croatia, 2025, 7 min.

In this experimental animated film, a woman explores the layers of her own body and inner world. Through a symbolic depiction of separation and reconnection with herself, the film examines the dynamics of roughness and tenderness in self-perception. An intimate journey that delves into the complexity of self-acceptance and inner harmony.

An animation shown at: Animafest (2025), Supertoon (2025), Edmonton International Film Festival (2025)

This Is Your Captain Speaking

Director: Nienke Deutz, Digna Van Der Put
Belgium, Netherlands, 2026, 14 min. 15

If you could fly for one day, what would you do? A group of neighbours answers this question and we follow their flight. Along the way, we get to know the characters and it becomes clear this fantasy has a different meaning for everyone.

Miyu Distribution
An animation shown at: International Film Festival Rotterdam (2026)

Axles

Director: Jakub Kryszpin
Poland, 2026, 7 min. 22.

On a speeding train, a man loses his ticket and as he tries to get it back, he falls into a spiral of obsessive searching, where deforming space drags him into an unsettling journey.

Lodz Film School
An animation shown at: MFF Cannes (2026), Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy (2026), TAURON Nowe Horyzonty (2026)

Visit into irradiated land

Director: Anne-Sophie Girault
France, 2026, 18 min. 51 s.

Sophie guides visitors through the exclusion zone around the Golfech nuclear plant in southern France. Years after the disaster, she outfits tourists in protective suits and leads gyropod tours across irradiated land where decontamination teams still work.

Pentacle Productions
An animation shown at: MFF Cannes 2026 (Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes)

Wish You Were Ear

Director: Mirjana Balogh
Hungary, 2025, 10 min. 14 s.

In a world where ex-partners must swap a chosen body part after each break-up, every relationship leaves a visible mark. Disfigured and longing for wholeness, the protagonist encounters someone wearing their former ear – and begins a journey toward self-acceptance. A reflection on how relationships reshape us, inside and out.

An animation shown at: MFF Berlin (2025), Sarajevo International Film Festival (2025)

This year, the Authors Spotlight competition selection is supported by members of the University of Lodz Film Studies Research Group: Julia Kaźmierczak and Stanisław Sobczyk.