Empire Builder

Mischief Night(en)

Everyone has Halloween, but in Yorkshire, they have Mischief Night, where madness and mayhem rule. In the course of one night, the barriers that separate two families—one white, one Asian—come tumbling down in a blaze of crime, clubbing, love and fireworks—changing all their lives forever.

Once in a Lifetime(sv)

Mona Bergström is a sweet eurovision-obsessed woman in her 30s. She is married to a lazy husband and has four children, all named after her favorite Swedish Eurovision popstars. Her brother is a crossdressing guy self-titled "Candy Darling". Mona works in a retirement home for disabled people, where she is responsible for taking care of a young man named David who suffers a movement-restricting disease forcing him into a wheelchair. David's parents have abandoned him, as they wanted a normal child. Mona holds a big place in David's heart, and vica versa. David's goal is to get his parents to come and visit him, and he wants to show them that he is a great person, despite his handicap. Therefore he works with music on his computer, and his goal is to create a song, send it to "The Cardigans", a famous Swedish band and have them play the song and credit him, hoping his parents would spot it and want to visit him.

Extraction(en)

Jack longs to escape his monotonous routine, but obedience to society and fear of change leave him with more of the same: a busy, yet unfulfilled existence. In this off-kilter world, a group of extractors are targeting those who have neglected to truly live. Jack is next.

A House in Berlin(en)

A Glasgow woman inherits a house in Berlin and has her eyes opened

Roy Cohn/Jack Smith(en)

When Jill Godmilow’s movie Roy Cohn/Jack Smith premiered at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival, the number of AIDS-related deaths was reaching an all-time high in the United States (over 270,000). In New York City, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, many artists and filmmakers were grappling with the disease. While Broadway was hosting the second part of Tony Kushner’s award-winning play Angels in America, downtown New Yorkers were fondly recalling another recent production, Ron Vawter’s one-man show Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, in which the actor, who died of AIDS in April 1994, performed two monologues, first as Cohn, the conservative lawyer, and secondly, as Smith, the flamboyant experimental filmmaker—both of whom died of AIDS-related causes in the late 1980s.

Hide and Seek(en)

Four fragile young people flee London to start an unconventional utopia, creating a world of fantasy that overwhelms them.

Bolletjes Blues(nl)

Spike, an aspiring rapper, gets sucked into a criminal environment and ends up in jail for smuggling drugs.

Sexy Thing(en)

The story of a young girl who escapes her reality by immersing herself in a watery version of the world.

The Water Diary(en)

A story through a child's eyes about living through a drought.

Housebound(en)

A woman with a tragic past rents her bungalow to a man who loves cooking, but according to her distorted mind he uses his knives more than he should.

Iceberg(en)

A married woman falls in love with a 19-year-old girl, and she has to make a choice between her family and the one who might be the love of her life.

The Greatest Store in the World(en)

Geraldine and her two daughters, Livvie and Angeline, are living rough on the streets on London. When their van blows up, they must find an alternative place to stay. At first, they live in temporary housing, but the conditions are unbearable. Geraldine reacts quickly and the family decides to take up residence in Scottley's, the best department store in London. They must keep it a secret from doorman Brian (whom the girls call Mr. Whiskers), and a couple of bumbling thieves who want to rob the store safe of its jewels.

Cold Lunch(no)

Bird droppings on a work shirt lead to extreme unintended consequences.

15 Park Avenue(en)

An exploration of the impact of schizophrenia on a young woman and her family in today's Calcutta.

Werckmeister Harmonies(hu)

A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.

Gepellte Haut(de)

Four young people from Berlin decide to spend their summer in Portugal. They throw away their smart phones, open up their relationships and try to free themselves from any social norms. But just as their utopia comes true, a devastating forest fire breaks out around them.

Kissed(en)

Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.

Open Window(en)

The engagment between a struggling photographer and an assistant professor is marred by an act of violence.

One Foot Under(fi)

Visa Vuorio, a 35-year old team leader at the Helsinki city gardening department, is suffering from a terminal neurological disease and only has a few months to live. Because of this, he is a member of a therapeutical support group for people suffering from terminal diseases. Visa's life changes when a young female reporter, Hanna Manninen arrives at the support group offering to write a series of articles about Visa's life story.

The Devil's Arithmetic(en)

An American-born Jewish adolescent, Hannah Stern, is uninterested in the culture, faith and customs of her relatives. However, she begins to revaluate her heritage when she has a supernatural experience that transports her back to a Nazi death camp in 1941. There she meets a young girl named Rivkah, a fellow captive in the camp. As Rivkah and Hannah struggle to survive in the face of daily atrocities, they form an unbreakable bond.

Boy(en)

Boy is the unsettling story of a young male prostitute, or Rent Boy, in a small rural town who learns the truth behind a hit and run accident which has killed a local girl. When the news of the girls death spreads through the community, the driver and his family decide that the boy must be silenced. The set out to scare him into silence. The pressure becomes more and more violent, but despite this, the boy battles to expose the truth.

Night of the Living Dead: Re-Animation(en)

After inheriting the family mortuary, a pyrophobic mortician accidentally exposes hundreds of un-cremated bodies to toxic medical waste. As the corpses re-animate, the mortician's inheritance-seeking younger brother unexpectantly shows up, stumbling upon a full zombie outbreak!

Flow(en)

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

F(en)

A group of teachers must defend themselves from a gang of murderous kids when their school comes under siege after hours.

Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe(fr)

In the autumn of '43, Mina, a little girl of Jewish origin, is entrusted to farmers in the Cévennes. Shocked by Jeroboam's frustrated manners and Deborah's cruel reflections - who is still suffering two centuries later from the struggle between Protestants and Catholics - Mina thinks she'll find refuge with Jeannot. But the young boy doesn't like girls and mistreats Mina. Fortunately, she has a friend: the village pastor. Thanks to him, she can go to school. Despite their constant bickering, Mina takes a liking to Jeannot. She convinces him to come to school with her. Together, they go for walks or take advantage of the passage of maquisards to force open the cellar door where hams hang! The arrival of an "informer" at the little school and encounters with the Germans disturb Jeannot.

Hanna-Barbera's 50th(en)

The special is hosted by Tony Danza and Annie Potts celebrating 50 years of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's partnership in animation. This is the first animated project to be broadcast in Dolby Surround sound system.

Flow(xx)

Eight woman, one life. Short animation by Sumito Sakakibara. The 9th Japan Media Art Festival Animation Division Grand Prize Winner

Dune(hu)

Sounds as witnesses. They blurr into memories, half-dreams, it is undecided if they are real or not. A fluctuation between imagination and reality.

Guf. Confession(ru)

This is not an interview, this is a confession. Revelations of the artist in the form of a monologue. Guf about Keti Topuria's betrayal, drugs and a new girl.

Old Man Junior(en)

Morbius Jr, now an OId Man, is nearing the end of life, when he finds the last hope for all Morbkind. However, as he fights to protect the future of Morbheads, he finds himself facing off against an unlikely of enemy... HIMSELF.

The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers(ru)

The action takes place in 1920 during the Civil War. Crimea on the eve of complete liberation from the White Guards. Returning from patrol, the four brave “elusive” knocked down an airplane. In the field bag of the captured pilot, they find a secret report, which speaks of the existence of defensive fortifications around the coastal city, which the Reds have yet to take. Young heroes get the task to get a map of fortifications and go to the city...

Gabriel's Redemption: Part I(en)

After leaving his prestigious post at the University of Toronto, Gabriel embarks on a new journey with Julia, and he is eager to become a father. However, Gabriel's idyllic vision is jeopardized when Julia's intensive program becomes all consuming. When Julia is granted a prestigious opportunity to deliver an academic lecture at Oxford, Gabriel challenges her about the subject of her presentation, which clashes with his own research. In Oxford, their past resurfaces, including an old nemesis determined to humiliate Julia and expose one of Gabriel's well-guarded secrets. Emotions run high, alliances are tested, and the couple must confront the shadows of their shared history in a battle for love, truth, and redemption.

My Grandfather's Demons(pt)

Rosa's life, a highly valued professional, is turned upside down when her grandfather Marcelino dies.

You'll Never Find Me(en)

Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick’s intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality...

Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny(ja)

To defend their kingdom against a sudden invasion, a mighty general returns to the battlefield alongside a war orphan, now grown up, who dreams of glory.

Kill(en)

Road(en)

An elder brother who lived a life of crime but left to show his younger brother the lifestyle is not fit for anything. Years later his younger brother takes his footsteps in the life of drugs/crime, to a deal gone wrong his younger brother is murdered, his elder brother steps back into his crime ways and to find and avenge his younger brother's death.

War(en)

In the gray dawn of an October day, as the inhabitants of a village street in Tripoli are engaged in the enjoyment of their several pursuits of life, an Arab rushes upon the peaceful scene, announcing that Italy has declared war against Turkey and that the Italian warships are now in the harbor, shelling the city.

The Last Night of Sandra M.(es)

Freely inspired by the life of the actress Sandra Mozarowsky, who died in 1977 when she fell from the terrace of her house in Madrid, the story will focus on the day before the accident, in which loneliness, fear and anguish in the face of a situation desperate mix with his dreams and ambitions.

Les Bodin’s partent en vrille(fr)