WINNERS
SBIFest - August 2025
Please note that among the winning films of the monthly competitions (not all), those selected to participate in the Grand Finale in Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) will be chosen, with public screenings in November 2025, culminating in the Gala Finale. Films that win in a particular category in the monthly competitions will continue to compete in other categories they have entered if selected for the Grand Finale .
Best Short Documentary
"Mountain Mist and Tea" submitter 书玉 代
"Shanlan and Ming" records the persistence of two generations of Luo Minggang, a tea farmer in Fenggang, Guizhou. The father of the party member insisted on organic cultivation in the capital frenzy. After experiencing insects and the crisis of stock withdrawal, he cultivated ecological tea with zinc and selenium soil. His post-90s son returned to his hometown from the army and understood his father's ecological philosophy in the collision of traditional craft and business logic. The camera penetrates the morning fog between the tea buds, witnesses the temperature of the left-behind old people picking tea by hand, and reveals the intergenerational inheritance behind the next organic tea in the era of consumerism - when capital chases quick effect, there are always people who measure land ethics with their lives and use 20 years to soak out the taste of ecological civilization across generations.
China, Runtime: 16:55
"Mutante" director Jacobo Oliveros
Since its construction in 1984, the Omega building has been abandoned in the city of Puebla. Throughout this time it has witnessed the change and evolution of the surrounding environment. Contrary to popular belief, the building has more life than many of the nearby places and consequently, we can find in its human interventions, a reflection of the social, cultural and human identity of the city and the people who make it up.
Mexico, Runtime: 6:05
Best Short Film
"The frame" director VASILIS NIKAS
An old man visits the dilapidated house where his mother, an Asia Minor refugee, grew up. The woman who had saved her from persecution after the end of the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-22, had brought her to Greece and raised her as her own child.
The old man, feeling the need to symbolically bring life back to the space, hangs a photograph of his mother by a nail on one of the walls - it is the only picture he had of her with her parents.
The film preserves the memory of the struggle of the Asia Minor refugees in Greece, which had to rebuild their lives from scratch.
Greece, Runtime: 10:22
"Nalla Neram Vanthachu / Good time has come" director Aran Vetri Selvakumar
Mohana, a transgender woman, vows to become a street hawker after taking a firm decision to choose not to be a beggar. Does society accept her new role?
India, Runtime: 15:00
"If Apples Had Grown In The Desert" director Yonatan Mashaal-Golan
A man wanders in the desert with his dog and finds a sack. He continues on, but the strange discovery does not leave his mind. The man returns to the sack, and meets the greed from which he tried to escape. The cliff is steep, and the slope is slippery.
A small story about a desert hosting a man, a dog and a sack.
Israel, Runtime: 15:30
Best Horror Short Film
"The devil's dance" director Andrea
First half of the last century.
Teresina is a washerwoman, has a pure heart and lives in a remote mountain village where an ancient legend has long been passed down. The encounter with a mysterious stranger will put Teresina to the test, determining her destiny.
Italy, Runtime: 14:17
"Dormant" director Niels Bourgonje
A man cares for his comatose wife at home. After a transgression, he fears something sinister has awakened in her.
Netherlandsl, Runtime: 8:51
Best Spanish Short Film
"The song of the waves" director Simon Lauxmann
"The Song of the Waves" immerses us in a world of shadows where our deepest fears reside. On this threshold between life and death, a guide accompanies souls on their final journey. Now, a young man must face his destiny, burdened by his own shadows, as he embarks on his final journey.
Spain, Runtime: 9:
"Leave behind" director Isabel Bernal
When is the right time to leave behind something that has made you happy? You can live in the past, but for how long? Sometimes the right time is now
Spain, Runtime: 5:40
Best Mid-Length Film
"The Squeeze" director Pia Tikka
In the course of a shooting day, actors Laura (26) and Mike (32) strive to get through the scenes of an intimate drama. During the breaks, they retreat behind the studio’s panoramic backdrop to resolve their acute mutual problem: Laura has decided to have an abortion while Mike is desperately trying to turn her head. In the shadows, away from the brightly lit set, screenwriter Gisella (67) observes the actors’ dynamics as the story she has written unavoidably starts to penetrate their relationship. The brutal abuse scene that Laura and Mike film next will lay bare Laura’s looming decision and unveil the true trauma of Gisella’s past.
Estonia, Runtime: 38:32
"Interpreting Erik" director Donald D'Haene
How the loss of one family's displaced brother taught them not to see homeless people as just the end result; they were once beautiful, talented, creative and loved; they were us. Human. Erik was not nothing; he was everything
Canada, Runtime: 57:37
Best Italian Short Film
"If he were your son" director Massimo De Carlo
The story of migrants told with the use of AI. "La Zattera della Medusa" by Theodore Gerucault comes alive and transports us to the heart of one of the most dramatic tragedies of today's world. The images invite each of us to reflect and ask us about the answer to be given.
Italy, Runtime: 5:40
"M A T E" director Roberto Pili
Short film in Sardinian language.
Giuse and Paolo are two friends with a criminal past. Giuseppe Ungari plays Giuse, a "retired" criminal. His life has changed; he no longer engages in certain activities and has made money through robberies, drug trafficking, and other crimes. He has never been caught and now lives off his earnings. However, his heart has always remained cold. Pierpaolo Massa plays "Paolo," a delinquent who has served twenty years in prison. After his release, he returns to Cagliari to reconnect with his old friend, Giuse. They meet again after twenty years, once Paolo has finished serving his sentence. They are happy to see each other, but there is still a matter to resolve, leading them into a situation that will bring about an unexpected ending.
Italy, Runtime: 9:53
Best Moroccan Short Film
"REGRET" director ABDELILAH MOUJANNI
Ilham, a screenwriter in her thirties, is immersed in work at a café when a red rose mysteriously appears on her table. The flower’s giver, Sarah, a young flower seller, sparks a quiet connection between them that soon leads to a shared lunch. As they stroll through a park, Sarah unveils her profound view of life and reveals painful truths from her past, stirring Ilham’s reflections on love and loss.
When Sarah speaks of Maad—the man Ilham loves yet tries to forget—Ilham is shaken. Suddenly, Sarah vanishes, leaving Ilham searching and questioning. In a poignant revelation, Sarah discloses she is Inas, Ilham’s unborn daughter, confronting her mother’s struggle with the choice of abortion.
The film closes on a tender moment as Ilham and Maad embrace in the café, with Ilham embracing both her love and the life growing inside her.
Morocco, Runtime: 18:13
"Forty Days Road" director Ali Ziani
In Forty Days Road, two colleagues (Ali and Ian) set out on a captivating journey across Egypt to trace the long route of camels traveling from Sudan to a market near Cairo. Along the way, they uncover the tough conditions of transport and join the camels on a 24-hour journey from the Sudanese border to one of the biggest Egyptian camel market near Cairo.
Morocco, Runtime: 29:55
Best Feature Documentary
"Diversity Plaza" director Kesang Tseten
One of America’s more recent immigrants, the Nepali, Tibetan and Bhutanese, have shaped a piece of America in their own image in Jackson Heights, Queens.
In a land offering amenities and freedom absent in the societies they came from, they have fused two apposite worlds: America and the shangrilaic but poor Himalaya. The result is a Himalayan vortex, replete with momo, dal bhat and ema datse eateries (haven for New Yorker foodies), Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples, and a way of caring for their fellow men and women.
This portrayal of the Himalayan immigrants makes a case for a brand of diversity against the growing clamour for greater insularity and
Nepal, Runtime: 01:08:00