OFFICIAL COMPETITION

COMPETITION I

THURSDAY, 11th DEC | 5:00pm

Pie Dan Lo

Kim Yip Tong

Country: Mauritius / France
Year: 2024
Run time: 13 min.
OV: Mauritian Creole, French, English (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

On July 25, 2020, the bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on the reef on the east coast of Mauritius. 12 days later, oil began to spill, causing the worst ecological disaster ever to occur in the region.

The Sea of Dirac

Niklas Lipski

Country: Germany
Year: 2024
Run time: 15 min.
OV: English, German (subtitles in Galician).
Galician premiere

To this day, fishermen cast their lines into the waste canal of the old Lubmin nuclear power plant in Germany. When the reactors were active, the waste heat attracted fish, making it a prime fishing spot, and trawlers returned with full nets. Today, the Baltic Sea is nearly empty; strict quotas aim to restore fish stocks and protect this unique habitat. For the remaining local fishermen, these measures are insufficient to sustain the way of life of previous generations.

La marcha del liquen

Tania Ximena

Country: México / Colombia
Year: 2024
Run time: 29 min.
OV: Spanish (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

What does the re-greening of Antarctica mean for seemingly distant places like Mexico? The Stride of Lichen narrates the story of Antarctic glacier ice, its encounter with the sea, and the advance of lichen and moss. Meanwhile, on the Mexican coast, a community is forced to live only in memories.

COMPETITION II

THURSDAY, 11th DEC | 7:00pm

As entrañas saben o que a razón non entende

Alberto Lobelle

Country: Spain (Galicia)
Year: 2024
Run time: 5 min.
OV: Galician (subtitles in English)

By letting go of the urge to control and embracing the unknown, the creative process finds a new pulse. Thus, As entrañas saben o que a razón non entende aims to celebrate what emerges when we trust our intuition and the experiences the world offers us.

The Grace

Moira Fett y Natalie Berger

Country: United States
Year: 2024
Run time: 13 min.
OV: English (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

In the turbulent and mystical waters of Southeast Alaska, a first-generation fisherman captains her fishing vessel alone offshore. Employing a hook-and-line approach to fishing, Kat Murphy is committed to a sustainable commercial fishery. Back on land in her small Washington port town, Kat struggles to make ends meet and grapples with the challenges of maintaining a way of life deeply embedded in the natural world.

Mientras tanto estoy acá

Gastón Calivari

Country: Argentina
Year: 2024
Run time: 14 min.
OV: Spanish (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

Norma is a fisherwoman who lives on the islands of Entre Ríos, Argentina. At 55 years old, she still doesn’t know what her vocation is, although her true wish is to be an actress. In the meantime, she dedicates herself to fishing.

Six Knots

Ali Vanderkruyk

Country: Canadá
Year: 2024
Run time: 29 min.
OV: English (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

To reduce ambient noise when approaching a cetacean, a vessel should not exceed six knots. A long-standing symbol of the distance between human and animal, the whale is a site of mystery, fascination and exploitation.

COMPETITION III

FRIDAY, 12th DEC | 5:00 pm

Headland

Mariana Duarte

Country: United Kingdom (Scotland)
Year: 2024
Run time: 13 min.
OV: English (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

A nature reserve on the English Channel is a place of wonder and solace, shaped and haunted by violence. Headland is an intimate look at life on a pebble beach reclaimed from the ocean, interweaving the tradition of sea rescues with recent Channel crossings, as witnessed by the last of the Dungeness fishermen.

Beneath Which Rivers Flow

Ali Yahya

Country: Irak
Year: 2025
Run time: 16 min.
OV: no dialogues
Spanish premiere

In the marshlands of southern Iraq, Ibrahim and his family live isolated from the rest of the world, deeply intertwined with the river, the reeds, and the animals they tend. The quiet and withdrawn Ibrahim finds solace only in his buffalo, his one true companion. One morning, a dense fog blankets the marshes, and Ibrahim senses an ominous shift in the land. The rivers begin to dry up, and the earth cracks. As Ibrahim’s world collapses, he must confront forces beyond his control that threaten not only his way of life, but also the one living creature he truly understands.

The Granny & Fishes

Maria Mavati y Ehsan Farokhi Fard

Country: Iran
Year: 2024
Run time: 28 min.
OV: Farsi (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

Iran’s once-thriving Hamun Lake region has become a desolate wasteland. Its sole resident, an elderly woman, survives by collecting dead fish from the dried-up lake bed, while dust storms sweep across the 300 nearby evacuated villages.

COMPETITION IV

FRIDAY, 12th DEC | 9:00 pm

The Herring Queen

Eilidh Munro

Country: United Kingdom (Scotland)
Year: 2025
Run time: 12 min.
OV: English (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

For as long as people in Eyemouth, a small Scottish fishing town, can remember, boys become men who catch fish, and a young girl is crowned as a queen. Now, there’s no fish left to catch, but year after year, a new 14-year-old Herring Queen still takes her crown. Through the observational lens of a fishing festival, we feel the impacts of a global climate crisis, how it affects livelihoods, community and mental health.

Coral City

Camille Ghekiere y Charlotte de Cort

Country: Belgium / Sri Lanka
Year: 2024
Run time: 19 min.
OV: Sinhala, English (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

Kushlani Dissanayake, a young Sri Lankan scientist, goes on an expedition in the waters around Sri Lanka in order to collect crucial information to protect the coral reefs from perishing. Gathering samples of corals, she tries to uncover the distribution patterns of the coral populations and their larvae, developing her view on motherhood, humankind, and a theory on ‘the survival of the kindest’.

Aiguallum Lamparo

David Tena

Country: Spain (Catalonia)
Year: 2024
Run time: 25 min.
OV: Spanish, Arabic, Catalan (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

In the Mediterranean, every night, a group of sailors illuminates the depths of the sea. With their blinding light, they try to attract fish that have become increasingly scarce in these waters. ‘The North Wind’ is one of the last boats from northeastern Spain that still practices this ancestral tradition — a ritual passed down through generations, kept alive today thanks to the Maghreb migrants who carry it on.

COMPETITION V

SATURDAY, 13th DEC | 1:00 pm

Pêche

Luzie Kurth

Country: Belgium
Year: 2024
Run time: 7 min.
OV: no dialogues
Spanish premiere

Pêche follows the rhythm of the last horse-drawn crab fishermen on the Belgian coast, capturing the fragile choreography between man, animal, and tide. Drawing inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy, the film explores a realm where ancient wisdom persists in the present day. In an era of rising sea levels and disappearing traditions, this poetic portrayal unveils a vanishing practice and a submerged form of wisdom.

Lost Songs of Sundari

Sudarshan Sawant

Country: India
Year: 2025
Run time: 8 min.
OV: Marathi, Hindi (subtitles in Galician)
Spanish premiere

Mumbai, once a network of sea-linked villages, is being transformed by bridges and land reclamation, threatening the traditional way of life of the Koli people who lived closely with the sea. Lost Songs of Sundari revisits the Koli myth of Sundari, a legendary ferryboat and its ferrywoman, through the voices of a storyteller, an ageing ferry operator, and a child witnessing the city’s rapid change.

Deriva

Yurian Quintanas y Salvi Danés

Country: Spain (Catalonia)
Year: 2025
Run time: 18 min.
OV: Catalan (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

Deriva traces the invisible mark that the sea has left on the memory of a town and its inhabitants. Oscillating between reality and dream, between words and silence, it constructs a contemporary fable about the transformation of a territory and the loss of a legacy. In constant dialogue with nature, the camera explores the marine world of l’Escala like someone drifting without a fixed course, guided by intuition and the trace of a vanished craft.

Just Sea

Franziska von Stenglin

Country: Malta / Germany
Year: 2024
Run time: 25 min.
OV: English (subtitles in Galician)
Galician premiere

Against the breathtaking backdrop of the towering cliffs on the Mediterranean island of Gozo, Salvo, a seasoned fisherman, practices an ancient fishing method passed down through generations. With a heavy heart, he lowers a traditional fish trap into the depths of the Mediterranean, sharing his reflections on the drastic changes he has witnessed.

OFFICIAL JURY

ADRIÁN CANOURA

Filmmaker and video artist. His work combines film, video creation, and music. His films and projects have been screened and awarded at major festivals around the world. Among his titles are Da morte nace a vida, Rexistros, Caerán lóstregos do ceo, Salitre nas veas, and Nistra Batuko Exploration. His first documentary feature, Fomos Ficando Sós, in which he explores memory and identity, has just premiered at IDFA in Amsterdam.

LAURA DOVAL

Producer, distributor, and co-founder of Gaitafilmes. As a producer, her notable titles include Dhogs and Welcome to ma maison, by Andrés Goteira, Sandwich Cat by David Fidalgo, and Aurora by Area Erina. She is currently working on the production of the feature film Monstro, by Andrés Goteira, and the animated short Cumi, by David Fidalgo. Beyond Gaitafilmes, she works as a distributor of short films and documentaries for Yaq Distribución.

MANOLO GONZÁLEZ

Researcher, writer, and educator. He has played an active role in researching and cataloguing Galician audiovisual memory through various publications and fieldwork. He was the creator and director of the Galician Audiovisual Agency of the Xunta de Galicia’s Department of Culture. He currently coordinates the Chanfainalab filmmakers’ gathering in San Sadurniño. He has received numerous awards, including the recent 2025 Premio da Crítica de Galicia in the category of cinema and audiovisual arts.