Embedded Files
Join us over three days for a selection of films by Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi; Lebanese filmmakers Marie-Rose Osta and Lea Najjar; collaborators Olivier Barbier and Ossama Bawardi; and Korean artist Sangbum Ahn.
Through The Present, Someday a Child, When I Saw You, Ship of Fools, Then Came Dark, and Dust Devil, these stories move across places, languages, and generations, exploring home, memory, displacement, and what endures.
Though each comes from a different place, together they remind us why we gather: to witness one another’s stories, listen, and hold space for what matters.
We’ll also be screening a demo of Murlo’s Something Beautiful, an interactive game that invites us into a different kind of storytelling, one shaped through participation and discovery.
Your presence matters - to these stories, to this gathering, and to the people and communities we’re here to support.
What if they Bomb Here Tonight (2025)
What if they Bomb Here Tonight (2025)
Samir and Nadyn, a Lebanese couple, spend a sleepless night anxious and fearing an Israeli airstrike could shatter the glass walls of their home. With their children peacefully asleep, they battle with whether to flee or risk the worst and stay.
Samir Syriani (Director)
Samir Syriani (Director)
Samir Syriani (b. 1989) is a Lebanese film director and screenwriter known for blending striking visuals with insightful storytelling. He graduated with a full scholarship and gained early recognition for his award-winning student film "To Baalbek", which was screened at over 15 international and local festivals. His career flourished through directing acclaimed music videos, earning multiple Best Music Video awards, and creating TV campaigns for global brands. In 2019, he completed his Masters' Degree short film "Contact", which premiered internationally at the 49th Tampere Film Festival, earning multiple awards and worldwide festival selections, including Best National Film at BMFF. In 2024, he completed "What If They Bomb Here Tonight? ", a short film he directed, co-wrote, and co-acted in, set to premiere at the 47th Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 2025. Beyond filmmaking, Samir is a university professor, mentor to young filmmakers, and a devoted father of two daughters – his favorite, most time-consuming, job.
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Director : Samir Syriani | Screenplay : Samir Syriani, Nadine Chalhoub Syriani | Producers : Nicolas Khabbaz | Director of photography : Pierre Mouarkech | Sound recording : Bassam Lebbos | Sound Mix : Cedric Kayem | Editing : Desirée Abou Jaoude | Music Composer : Cedric kayem | Actors: Samir Syriani, Nadine Chalhoub Syriani
Awards
Awards
Jury Award - Regard - Festival International de Court métrage au Saguenay - (CANADA - 2025)- Audience Award - Bref International Short Film Festival - (ITALIE - 2025)- University Jury Award - Medfilm Festival Rome - (ITALIE - 2025) AUDIENCE AWARD - Festival Internacional de Curtas Metragens de Sao Paulo - (BRESIL - 2025)- MENTION MEILLEUR SCENARIO - The Lebanese Film Festival of France (FFLF) - (FRANCE - 2025)- Best Fiction Short - Festival International Music & Cinema Marseille - (FRANCE - 2026)- Prix des lycéens +15 ans - Ciné-Jeune de l’Aisne Festival International de Cinéma - (FRANCE - 2026)- Grand Prix du Festival des Lycéens - Festival Cinéma d'Orry-la-ville - (FRANCE - 2026)- Special Mention - Movies that Matter Festival - (PAYS-BAS - 2026)- Honorable Mention for Narrative Short - San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLO Film Fest)
The Present (2025)
The Present (2025)
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West
Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?
Farah Nabulsi (Filmmaker)
Farah Nabulsi (Filmmaker)
Farah Nabulsi is a Palestinian-British Oscar-nominated and BAFTA®-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate.
She is the daughter of Palestinians who were fortunate enough to make a home in 1970's Britain — unlike the millions who continue to remain stateless in refugee camps.
Born, raised and educated in London, Farah began her career as an institutional equity stockbroker. She ended up with a CFA designation at JP Morgan Chase before moving on to build a children-focused business that she ran for 10 years.
In 2015, Farah started working in the film industry. She founded a production company through which she writes, produces and directs fiction narrative films, exploring topics that matter to her. She also created a digital resource to deconstruct the Israeli military occupation of Palestine in a way never done before.
Awards
Awards
Farah Nabulsi's short film "The Present" won the BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film in 2021. The film was also nominated for Best Live-Action Short Film at the Academy Awards.
Beyond these major accolades, "The Present" went on to win over 60 International Film Festival Jury and Audience Awards, including:
Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in February 2020
Multiple international film festival awards including Best Live Action Short Film and Gold Medal for Best Film at various festivals
Captcha (2025)
Captcha (2025)
Captcha explores blurred boundaries between humans, animals, and objects through robotics, AI, and IoT. Centered on a funeral for broken AIBO robot dogs in Chiba, Japan, the film merges documentary footage and repair workshops with animal fables. Interviews with engineers and Buddhist monks offer technical, animistic, and ecological perspectives on co-evolution between humans and nonhuman agents.
Dust Devil (2023)
Dust Devil (2023)
The desert symbolizes environmental devastation and climate collapse. Through visual filters and technological representations, Dust Devil explores how nature and human transformation are inseparable. The film unfolds as a surreal interplanetary journey that blurs the lines between documentary and fiction, nature and artifice, life and non-life.
Sangbum Ahn (Director)
Sangbum Ahn (Director)
Sangbum Ahn (b. 1991) is a South Korean artist and filmmaker based in Seoul and London, whose practice explores the shifting relations between nature and technology, perception and communication, and management systems and nonhuman agency through moving image and sound installation. Recently, his work has examined how anthropogenic interventions into the environment come into conflict with nature’s homeostatic processes, tracing ecological vulnerabilities and signs of slow collapse paradoxically revealed by infrastructures designed to stabilise and control such conditions.
Something Beautiful (TBA)
Something Beautiful (TBA)
Something Beautiful is an immersive, music-driven point-and-click adventure game. Explore detailed, atmospheric environments, solve intricate puzzles, and experience a compelling story from musician and visual artist Murlo.
Murlo (Producer)
Murlo (Producer)
MURLO is a British musician, visual artist, and producer based in London, originally from the East Midlands. Established in the UK's electronic and bass music scene, he's known for his work as a DJ and producer remixing artists across the underground circuit, performing at venues throughout London and Manchester.
Beyond music production, Murlo is developing Something Beautiful, an ambitious multimedia point-and-click adventure game set in the industrial landscape of Coil City. The project fuses music, visual art, and sculpture into a handcrafted experience—embedding an entire original album into interactive puzzles and surreal environments. Drawing influence from body horror cinema, Kafkaesque transformation, and Lynchian dream logic, Something Beautiful represents Murlo's expansion into game design, blending his musical and visual art practice into an immersive narrative experience.
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