SHORTS
All short-films are FREE to stream from 30 Oct - 8 Nov 2021.
Watch in the Video Player below or watch directly on Byzanfest YouTube Channel.
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Read about each finalist below.
SHORT-FILM FINALISTS
LET MY PRAYER ARISE
Genre: Experimental
Country: USA
Director: St. Herman Monastery
"There [in heaven], all those who mastered themselves will be glorified, those who prayed for the world, who bore the burdens of the whole world's sorrows, for theirs was the love of Christ, and love cannot suffer a single soul to perish." - St. Silouan of Mount Athos (1866-1938)
Nominated: BEST SHORT-FILM, BEST DIRECTOR (SHORT-FILM) and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (SHORT-FILM)
DRAGONFIRE
Genre: Experimental
Country: Australia
Director: Stephan and Andrew Robinson
For valour in the face of danger. A poem inspired by St. George the Great Martyr.
Nominated: BEST SHORT-FILM, BEST DIRECTOR (SHORT-FILM) and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (SHORT-FILM)
A JOURNEY INTO EASTERN ORTHODOX
MONASTICISM
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Matthew Aughtry
The monks of the Brotherhood of St. Dionysios the Areopagite (Long Island, NY) speak about their calling and Christian witness.
Nominated: BEST DIRECTOR (SHORT-FILM) and BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT-FILM)
LAST CHANCE
Genre: Dystopian Sci-Fi
Country: Romania
Director: Andrei Budau
Even when in darkness, everyone gets another chance.
Nominated: BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT-FILM)
METANIA
Genre: Documentary
Country: Greece
Repentance: changing the way of thinking, the way of life. A day-cycle in the life on Mt. Athos.
Nominated: BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT-FILM)
WHERE IS HE?
Genre: Animation
Country: Serbia
Director: Bojan Teodosijevic
Roman guards find themselves in trouble when a dead body they have been guarding goes missing.
Nominated: BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT-FILM)
TESTIMONY: EMILIO JARUFE
Genre: Documentary
Country: Chile
Director: Francisco Salvador Yarad
Emilio is blind, but that doesn’t stop him from living his life and helping the Church he loves so much.
Nominated: BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST YOUTH FILM
DYSTOPIC VIRTUES
Genre: Dystopian Sci-Fi
Country: Australia
Director: St. Euphemia College
In a futuristic dystopic world where virtue is prosecuted and punished, three young Orthodox Christians are faced with harsh punishments and even imprisonment. Amidst persecution, one discovers Freedom in Truth.
“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.”
+ St. Anthony the Great, “The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection”
Nominated: BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST YOUTH FILM
GOD'S WILL
Genre: Comedy
Country: Serbia
Director: Tanja Brzakovic
Four nuns set out into the woods to collect berries, but it is here they are confronted by the greatest examination of their spiritual lives. Animosities, rivalry, but also friendship and love for one cat, will all play their part.
Nominated: BEST SHORT-FILM, BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR
BECOMING A PRIEST
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Sarah Werner
Fr. Peter Runyon offers a powerful, moving reflection about his journey to holy priesthood, as well as heartfelt advice to anyone contemplating service to God.
Nominated: BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR
JUST LIKE WATER
Genre: Experimental
Country: Greece
Director: Manos Triantafillakis
Spyros contemplates his life growing up on the island of Crete, Greece. An examination of time and whether we really live and value the moments in our daily lives?
Nominated: BEST SHORT-FILM, BEST DIRECTOR (SHORT-FILM) and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (SHORT-FILM)
THE MEANTIME
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Samantha Pess
Kleopatra (88 yr) is experiencing the closest thing to childhood she ever has been able to, as her formative years were eclipsed by wartime occupation. Now living with dementia under the care of her family, this condition has given her a bittersweet opportunity to finally accept the caregiving that she has shown many – yet never before received.
Nominated: BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT-FILM), BEST YOUTH FILM and BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR
ANATHEMA
Genre: Thriller
Country: Cyprus
Director: Paolo Antypas
On the island of Cyprus, an insomniac is haunted by hallucinations that his mother believes are a message from his dead father.
Nominated: BEST SHORT-FILM, BEST DIRECTOR (SHORT-FILM), BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (SHORT-FILM) and BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT-FILM)
FINDING FAITH
Genre: Documentary
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Monika Ivcenkova
The stories of three British men who became Russian Orthodox priests and how Covid-19 has impacted their service to God.
Nominated: BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR
THE PATH TO THE CHURCH WHERE
EVERYONE IS EQUAL
Genre: Documentary
Country: Russia
Director: Fr. Yury Maximov
Just over a century ago, George Alexander McGuire from Antigua and Raphael Morgan from Jamaica each found their own way to the ancient and original Christian tradition, free from segregation and racial discrimination.