2026 short film Competition preselection
We’re thrilled to announce the preselection for this year’s short film competition! A huge congratulations to the talented filmmakers who have made it to the preselection stage.
Balung
Tenzin Lhadon (India)
14min 31sec
Sonam, a fourteen year old girl on her way to the west encounters a girl with a red belt. While she builds a friendship bond with the stranger, others find it hard to believe in Sonam as the friend she talks about wasn’t visible to the others-only Sonam does. Being young and under guidance she had no choice but to leave her stanger friend when she had to continue her journey. Yet later in her life, she goes to visit her stranger friend one last time.This film explores the unseen- blurring the physical and spiritual realm while also inspecting what is invisible to the naked eye.
The Loop
Karma Yeshi Namdak (India)
7min 12sec
A young man finds himself inexplicably trapped in a relentless time loop after coming into contact with a mysterious cursed object. Forced to relive the same moments over and over, reality begins to blur as desperation takes hold. As he struggles to break free from the cycle, he is forced to confront the choices, fears, and unseen forces that keep him imprisoned. A psychological short film exploring repetition, isolation, and the search for meaning.
Tibet, Where the Wind Prays
Rekjong and Kunzang (Canada)
8min 34 sec
In this short documentary, Tsewang Lhazom recalls fragmented memories and dreams of Tibet, her ancestral land, far from her current home in Canada. Although she has never been to Tibet, her connection is personal, shaped by geographically distant, historically fragmented, and generationally preserved memories passed down through her grandmother, who was born in Tibet, and her late husband, who visited Tibet in the 1980s. Their stories intertwine with her enduring hope of visiting Tibet, in this life or the next, and are evoked through songs, poetry, and the Canadian landscape.
SAMSARA
Tashi Samuels and Tuhin Chadra (UK)
4min 18sec
Samsara' is a visual exploration of a poem Tashi Samuels wrote, with the same title. Inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist concept of Samsara (འཁོར་བ།), which describes the experience of suffering of all beings and reflects the constant cycle of life, death and rebirth.
The film explores modern life as an endless performance. The figure of the Yeti embodies the interplay of mixed identities and belonging in diaspora. The mythical creature that belongs in vast mountainous landscapes, is constricted to an urban terrain and wears the ultimate symbol of metropolis life, a suit.
'Samsara' portrays a solitary Yeti wandering through a Brutalist landscape, dressed in a business suit and performing for an indifferent society. Their existence unfolds as a continuous spectacle of dancing, entertaining, and adapting to the expectations of the world around them. Yet when the audience disappears, the performance ceases. In the stillness, Yeti is left alone with an unspoken longing for a home that no longer exists.
Yeti is a metaphor for migration, alienation, and the fragile search for belonging within systems that demand constant participation and self-performance. Through surreal imagery and quiet observation, it asks whether we are living authentically, or merely performing the roles that society has written for us.
TENZO
Migmar Jannot (France)
18min 13sec
A group of four young Tibetans are filming a music video in the center of Paris. They have to stop filming when they notice that the singer's small bag is missing. Inside is his residency permit, which he has just received.I will never forget that day.
Twenty years later, I decided to animate the experience, hoping to leave the story to the world. Through the animation film I express preciousness of my sister to me and send my condolences for the deceased family.