In this non-dialogue tale, set along the coast of Vietnam, a mermaid is rescued from the fish market by a fisherman. As the hero carries her back to the ocean they are joined by two seahorses. Upon her awakening on the beach the mermaid performs a sensual dance. But her joy is short-lived: the waves have other plans.

In a dystopian world, freedom comes with ranking. An MMA fighter is about to step on the ring when his social anxiety disorder takes over. The only way he knows how to deal with his fears is to either fight or flight, but this only takes him further away from winning the game.

“Simple is complex and complex is simple.” Choreographer and director Naomi Kats exposes the internal world and the perspective we hold on our thoughts. To which extent do we allow ourselves to choose, and to look in the mirror?

In the process of encountering an abandoned building, multi-disciplinary artist Martijn Klukas playfully tests our perception in a series of parables. Representation, decontextualization, deconstruction and sequentiality in text, image and sound playfully reveal an intuitive body that constantly searches for meaning and expanded connections.

A young Bulgarian man, riding the endless rollercoaster of workouts, anonymous sex, and dopamine, asks how to finally get off in a world where the body is everything. The film explores the obsession of queer men with their bodies as an object of desire, pleasure, and self-confidence and probes how the body is weaponized in fitness, sex, and hookup culture. Collecting footage from video games, 3D scans, online conversations, and archive footage of the ideal male body, the film asks if it is possible to completely detach from our bodies in this supersexual culture.

In the history of the future, lab technicians clone themselves. The temperature rises when a clone emerges that deviates from the norm. A game of mirroring, attraction and repulsion emerges, in which the distinction between the deviation and the standard becomes blurred, and even reversible. In the end, who is the right clone?

The discovery of a dance creature in the elevator of a theater sets in motion a cat and mouse play between performer and camera. Both are looking for the fragile harmony of a dance captured on film.

Twelve world leaders assemble in a war room to play a game on life and death in which they have to dance tango. Last man standing.

This film is part of the online program but is not accessible on the territory of Belgium.

A faceless, genderless body moves in tiny motions; twisting, twitching, stretching; transforming into curious, surreal and intimate shapes. Forming includes dancers with MS and examines the experience of living with a neurological condition. Developed from an artwork by Chloe Rosser and supported by Scottish Ballet.

The human body and its most basic need is the subject of this minimalist film envisioning a water-scarce future. A young man stumbling along a path, hears the sound of water before dropping down in exhaustion. He opens his eyes to find himself in a bare landscape where a bottle of water sits on top of a very high pole.

"In our neighborhood, lives a rooster. In our neighborhood, lives a sadist slaying rooster!" With these first words, Syrian writer and poet Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani recites the journey of a dictator rising to power.

Carmen, has just won a dance competition, she is holding the prize in her hands. She is exhausted, but happy, it has been worth the effort. She walks home, she just wants to show off her prize and let her family know that she has succeeded this time. She is so happy she can't even feel her own feet. But someone is following her. She realizes too late, it's too close. Carmen has to run, hide and defend herself. She'll never get home, she doesn't need to prove anything to anyone, not anymore. "Footsteps" proposes a poetic look at violence against women based on a physical investigation of Argentinean folkloric traditions and their replication in modern times.

Siren is a short story of a curse. The central figure’s heightened state of danger blooms into ecstasy, disgust and rage. What happens when we yield to our fear?

As the Call, So the Echo follows a young woman in conflict with her inner demons. How does she reckon with her unknown self?

Millennial Eva is looking for a way to escape her daily struggles. The nightlife can give her the anonymity she needs to finally surrender to the moment. Will she get carried away by the flow of the beat? Can she disappear into the crowd without losing herself?

Blue Funk charts the physicality of being afraid. As chain reaction, fear settles over its targets, exposing their innate sentient responses of freeze, fight, fawn, and flight. The resulting cacophony evokes the volatility of this moment in time, a mounting pressure edging towards its breaking point.

Through a feminist lens, Wiaam from Syria and Orian from Israel seek to examine alternative methods of protest against occupation, racism and violence in current Israel. They grapple with the decision of whether to leave or stay, take action or remain home.

Mathilde is a short film based in parts of the 19th century novel 'A Love Story' by Dutch author Lodewijk van Deyssel. Mathilde is estranged from herself and her surroundings by a long-term illness. She is advised to go and live in the countryside for a while. One evening she comes out of her lethargy and has a breakthrough.

Sininen (The Blue) is a fairytale fantasy of a bird-like figure in the embrace of the forest. The central character of the film has evolved over the years as Vappu has searched for her power figure through dance and movement. The film depicts gentle strength and magical skills, independence and a self-directed ability to create life, meaning and encounters around her. Each of us has something unique to pass on. The script was written together with the performers and choreographed by Vappu Virkkula.

Branches asks how our lives could differ based on a single decision or encounter. Drawing on director Masumi's experience as a minority and immigrant to the UK, we examine how the environment and society shape us. Exploring neuroses and fears through the multiverse, viewers will ponder how choices in life topple like dominoes. We present opportunities for viewers to reflect on their lives in our post-COVID information-oriented society, which fragments our ideology.