In the Shadow of the Pines is an animated short documentary about a difficult father-daughter relationship. Drawing on childhood memories, Anne Koizumi, the filmmaker, explores her upbringing with her Japanese immigrant dad, who was also the janitor at the elementary school she attended. The film explores the idea of shame and how it can shape and define us while also concealing who we can truly become.

As India continues its shift to the right, this documentary shares vignettes of discussions with various grassroots artists, activists, historians and people representing the majority, as the country spoke up against the proposed discriminatory citizenship laws in India in 2019-2020. Documented before the COVID pandemic, the government of India has since withdrawn the proposed laws, but the battle for justice and the identity of the Indian nation continues.

Between banter and drama, small talk and skateboard tricks, director Sal Eigh (credited as Althea Yi) navigates the rich ecosystem that is the skatepark through her debut short film (It’s) The Pits.

“The individual’s identity is neither lost nor created; it is constantly transformed.”

Set in a neo-noir-inspired landscape, the narrative follows Eric’s never-ending journey and obsession with the infinite as a source of meaning. Eric portrays his internal conflict through choreographic distorted, repetitive, and looping movements. As he progresses through the real world, he gradually transforms and merges with the environment around him until he reaches a perceived infinity. At this point, Eric transcends into a 3D virtual world. A vacuum of space where time does not exist, where he sees glimpses from his past, present, and future. Eric then leaves this virtual space back to reality, beginning a new cycle. Ultimately leading to the end of the film’s beginning – an infinite loop.

Two men fight for hygiene.

Definition of “There”: there adverb (PLACE)
“There…” refers to an unknown country which the protagonist calls home. A borderless land with no features and nothing but soil. There is no architecture in this home, neither physically nor spiritually.
The soil represents an entity that embodies the potential for growth. It refers to the country, Iran; a place of multi-faceted possibilities.

In Persian literature, Iran is a feminine name and still many people are named Iran; a motherland which gives birth, wherein growth takes place. On Wikipedia, the most basic search on the internet, it states “a country is a distinct territorial body or political entity (i.e. a nation). It is often referred to as the land of an individual’s birth, residence or citizenship.” The short film draws upon the question whether the protagonist truly considers herself as the resident or citizen of that unknown land?

In order to be physically in this country, the protagonist is forced by the interviewer to be dishonest and doubt her thoughts. At the end, it is she who has to leave that land and carries “THERE” with herself.

A long time stage performer dreams that one day his Filipino musical production will play in Broadway.

A Sino-Canadian adoptee breaks the silence of incest by responding to her family archives through dance. In the ritual sacrifice of a papaya, she reenacts her traumatic past to emancipate her adult self.

Une adoptée sino-canadienne brise le silence de l’inceste en répondant à ses archives familiales par la danse. À travers le sacrifice d’une papaye, elle rejoue son passé traumatique pour émanciper sa sexualité adulte.

Kathy Tran and Agnès Gaudreau work as auto mechanics at Bâtiment 7, a collective-run space that facilitates the integration of minorities. We get to know them through this inspiring place where they’re truly able to be themselves.

Sahra, an Afghan refugee in Canada arrives at Iranian ex-Dentist, Hamed’s doorstep for help extracting her late father’s gold teeth before they bury him.

This is a story about a bride who is separated from her soldier husband by life and death.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty in China, a civil war was launched in order to compete for power and positions, and the people suffered from exile and exile.

The man, Wang Hui, had been married for less than a few months and was forcibly conscripted into the army.

Newlywed wife Zhang, who has been waiting at home all day long, accompanied by the birds in the garden, unknowingly becoming a dream. Dreaming of Wang Hui’s return from dismantling his armor, Zhang was both happy and sad. All of a sudden, the drums of war were terrifying, and the soldiers were in chaos, all of which were skeletons of flesh and blood. Zhang suddenly woke up with fright, only to realize that it was all a dream.

Lyrics the Peking Opera on Animation Bride’s Dream

With entangled thoughts, I think of our honeymoon,
Only a few days of tender loving care did we indulge ourselves.
My dear husband, my dear love,
How miserable I am!
Why don’t you write me, your poor newly wedded wife?
Men are ungrateful for they pursue only power and fame,
And all those sweet words you whspered to me are now in vain.

When Jay fails to audition in a K-pop group, his uncertain future is only prolonged in the comfortable city of Montreal. While the people around him have different undercurrent thoughts about him, his only pillar of confidence lies in his whimsical disguise.

Scrolling Part 1 is a glimpse and a record of the collective artistic practice of Returning River. It is an accumulation of the sensations, emotions and thoughts gained as the artists move in, on and around various places. It is one of their first meetings after a long period of isolation. They come together to move and to broaden their perceptions of self in relation to place and society. It is an ephemeral, site specific performance of witnessing and responding to a specific moment in time for no one and everyone.

Tired and overworked, a frustrated employee attempts to leave for the night. Then, everything starts to shift…

na·nit·ic / adjective: “The first brood of worker ants produced by a queen ant using only the reserved nutrition in her body. Nanitics shoulder the initial fate of the colony and are often underfed due to the conditions in colony building. Thus, nanitics may be smaller in size from later workers ants to optimize the survival of the group…” — But what happens to the colony when the queen dies? Had the nanitics done enough?

The GraveSleepers is an animated short film, exploring themes of transience, mortality and the human condition. Inspired by factual events that led a group of itinerants to inhabit rows of empty graves in a cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran, گور خواب ها / The GraveSleepers, is a literal title of what aims to offer a lyrical interpretation, questioning the fragile and fleeting nature of our existence against a backdrop of dust.

Alisi Telengut is a Canadian artist of Mongolian origin living in Berlin and Tiohtià:ke/ Montréal. Alisi is a Canadian Screen Award nominee and a Québec Cinéma Awards – Prix Iris winner in Best Animated Film. Her work received multiple international awards and nominations, including the Best Short Film at Stockholm Film Festival (Sweden), Best Animated Film at Mammoth Lakes Film Festival (USA) and Brussel Independent Film Festival (Belgium), as well as a Jury Award at the Aspen Shortsfest (USA). Alisi’s work has been screened internationally, such as at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (USA), UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein (Germany), Sundance Film Festival (USA), TIFF (Canada), Videonale at Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany), among others.

Koussay Hamzeh graduated in audio-visual and cinematographic studies from St-Joseph University in Beirut, and is a former member of the Berlinale Talents, AFA, INIS and EAVE. Since 2009, he has produced eight shorts and two feature films, winning more than 30 international awards. Based in Montreal since 2020, he founded his new production company, Presse À Scotch.

Noémie Leduc-Vaudry began her professional career as an actress more than 15 years ago on the youth program “Sam Chicotte,” debuting with her character “Cri-Cri.” She got hooked on gambling from the age of 6 and never stopped playing after that!

She also voices over cartoon characters, dubs, and provides voice-overs for advertisements.

Recently, you may have seen her in “L’Échappée”, “C’est comme ça que je t’aime,” “Haute démolition” or “L’air d’aller” that won a prize at the prestigious “Canneseries” Festival!

Passionate about cinema and television, she studied cinema at Cégep André-Grasset to learn more about the field . Also fond of meeting new people and making connections, she also completed a bachelor’s degree in public relations at UQÀM and has experience organizing free networking evenings for communities of Quebecois artists and artisans.

Noémie is a versatile actress who likes a good challenge and plays a vast variety of characters! She considers herself privileged to be able to pursue her passion and is living proof that determination and hard work always pay off in the end! She is also a proud advocate for diversity within the film industry and is touched to see that things are finally changing!

Honoured to be part of the jury this year, Noémie is looking forward to exploring the nominated films and meeting wonderful people along the way! According to her, Montreal’s diversity is one of its greatest assets and she is delighted that festivals such as Accès Asie have the mission to bring these artists to the forefront and let them shine!