The selection for the Orizzonti Short Films International Competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival (28 August-7 September 2024) has now been finalised. The 13 flicks hailing from 16 different countries will be world-premiered at the gathering and will be vying for the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film, to be handed out by the Orizzonti section jury.

Seven of the 13 shorts selected are produced or co-produced by Europe. Among the auteurs, we find Londoner Joe Weiland, whose debut, Gorka, was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Short Film; Icelandic helmer Rúnar Rúnarsson, who was Oscar-nominated for the short The Last Farm in 2005, and who will be rocking up in Venice after he world-premiered his fourth feature, When The Light Breaks [+lire aussi :
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interview : Elín Hall
interview : Rúnar Rúnarsson
fiche film], in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard earlier this year; Rand Beiruty, who lives in both Amman and Berlin, and who has only just finished developing his first feature-length documentary, Tell Them About Us (which won Best Pitch at the Reception of German Film Schools during the 2020 Berlinale); and Italian master of animated film and internationally renowned illustrator Roberto Catani, whose Orizzonti-selected short film, made with oil pastels, required more than three years’ work.

Here is the list of the 13 short films selected:

Almost Certainly False – Cansu Baydar (Turkey)
Shadows – Rand Beiruty (France/Joran)
Il burattino e la balena – Roberto Catani (animation) (France/Italy)
The Poison Cat – Tian Guan (China)
Ajar – Atefeh Jalali (Iran)
Three Keenings – Oliver McGoldrick (UK/Ireland/USA)
My Mother Is a Cow – Moara Passoni (Brazil)
René va alla guerra – Luca Ferri, Mariachiara Pernisa, Morgan Menegazzo (documentary) (Italy/Slovenia)
James – Andrés Rodríguez (Guatemala/Mexico)
O – Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland/Sweden)
Who Loves the Sun – Arshia Shakiba (documentary) (Canada)
Moon Lake – Jeannie Sui Wonders (USA)
Marion – Joe Weiland, Finn Constantine (France/UK)