Goodbye Golovin [Ukraine]
Screening at over 15 international film festivals, Mathieu Grimard’s Goodbye Golovin won Best Ukrainian Short Film at Odesa 2020 and the Youth Jury’s Special Mention at Berlinale 2020. Starring Oleksander Rudinskiy, Dasha Plahtiy, and Maria Stopnyk, Goodbye Golovin asks, is it more courageous to stay—or to go when a home is a hopeless place? Untethered by his father’s death, Ian Golovin is determined to leave behind the old man’s world, abandon the desolate high-rises, and get out from under his old life to start over.
Iniquity [United Kingdom]
British Short Film Award and Beeston (UK) Festival winner Oliver Goodrum’s Iniquity features an ensemble cast including Richard Crehan, Mariona Tena, Samantha Seager, Austin Haynes, Alex Draper, Patrick O’Brien, Darryl Forster, Mackenzie Kai Clarke, Bamshed Abedi-Amen, Jude Claybourne, Nina Beagley, Sophie Farquhur, and Lucy Brown. The sequel to the highly-touted short film This Is Vanity, this deeply emotional and powerful film examines—and even questions—notions of good and evil, bullying, and forgiveness when Michael’s past threatens to upend his current anonymity.
The Journey [Canada]
Ève Saint-Louis’ The Journey tells the story of Chantale and her estranged father’s reluctant and fraught reunion when he offers to drive her from the airport to a family holiday. However, as night falls and her father deviates from the planned route, Chantale will be faced with his hold on her and need to act. Saint-Louis joins Claude Laroche and Catherine Chabot in the cast.
The Journey
The Kites [Iran]
The Kites director Seyed Payam Hosseini manages to “image a film that feels like such a ray of active hope despite the nearness of a conflicted past.” This Vimeo Staff Pick stars Asiah Moradi-Zar, Osman Pira, Karo Qavami, Kimia Khaledeian, Amir-Mohammed Kad’xodaie, Karo Hassani, and Ramiar Ghavami. In the film, a young boy must discover a solution when a young girl’s kite ends on the opposite side of a mine-laden divide. With the help of friends and an elder, the boy embarks upon a mission to return the kite in one piece.
Never Land [USA]
Brett Smith’s five-time festival winner Never Land tells the story of an inner-city foster boy with nothing but himself and his imagination to keep him company. His only escape comes through his daydreams of Neverland, where all little boys without parents go to be loved as Lost Boys. Features cast members Malakai James, Raz Simone, Ben Leiataua, Sonny Golden, Cierra Jackson, and Renee Rudge.
Punch-Drunk [United Kingdom]
In a café in Marseille, a man’s life begins to unravel when his lunch is disturbed by a chatty stranger in this short from director Larry Ketang and Liam White, starring Barry Ward, Corin Silva, and Babeth Diamantidis. An international festival darling and BAFTA-longlisted for Best Short film that counts legendary British director and screenwriter Ken Loach (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) among its outspoken fans, Punch-Drunk is an almost one-taker wonder from the directors of the Doughnut.
