Categorie: Short 2026

After her grandfather’s death, a grieving Maria receives a chess board from his will. All the pieces are made of glass except one: the white horse is made of wood, and Maria has a special fondness for it.
During her mourning, Maria is mostly alone — until one morning she finds that one of the chess pieces has moved by itself. Without really knowing what is happening, Maria decides to continue the match. And so her situation starts to improve thanks to that invisible presence that keeps her company.
After spending a few days away visiting her family, Maria returns and finds, to her disappointment, that none of the chess pieces have moved in her absence. Soon after, she receives a call from her mother telling her that they have found a package in her name from her grandfather. Maria asks that they send it to her as soon as possible, and then talks to her grandmother about what has been happening to her. After a tough conversation about the pain of losing a loved one, Maria falls further into her depression. She is only able to leave her bed when her grandfather’s presence returns to keep her company. When another chess piece finally moves, Maria wins the match.
Then she receives the package, her grandfather’s last gift. Inside, she finds a letter from him encouraging her to move on and enjoy her life. She also finds the missing glass chess piece: the white horse. After this last game of chess with her grandfather, Maria finally manages to make the first step to moving on.

After failing to fix her broken life and bad habits with self-help books, a desperate woman returns to the New Age bookstore and demands a refund for her wasted life. The store manager however, offers her a more lucrative option. Accept death and while in purgatory, write a self-help book.

In a Lebanese village, Omar (16) lives in the shadow of his parents’ tragic drowning in a migrant boat accident. Now the sole caretaker of his younger sister Douaa (5), who never leaves his side, Omar carries a deep fear of water. Yet he silently vows to protect her from the same fate, and to teach her to swim despite his trauma.
Between the rose fields where he works and the haunting memories of the sea, Omar struggles to turn water from a symbol of death into a place of safety. But when Douaa suddenly disappears near a lake, he believes she has drowned. In a moment where love outweighs fear, he dives in to save her, meeting the thin line where life and death, loss and courage, converge.
Produced in collaboration with the Lebanese Civil Defense, the film aims to raise awareness about water safety, the dangers of swimming in unmonitored areas, and the importance of early training in rescue and prevention, especially for children. A non-profit work, it delivers its human message through a poetic visual language blending realism and symbolism, telling a story of loss, love, and the choice between “swimming” or staying on the shore

The woman who waits for the man who went to war. The colonial war. What man will this be? If he comes back, how will he come back?

Two sisters face the drama of one of them living with a degenerative illness. Silvia clumsily practices for a future life in a wheelchair, while Carla tries to lighten the situation. Between irony and humor, a small journey through the great fear of the change.