Animated Hero Classics: Beethoven

Even as a young boy, Beethoven marched to the beat of a different drummer. Trained in the traditional music methods by his father, Beethoven was an accomplished pianist by the age of 12. But he yearned to try new sounds and persevered until audiences heard his music. By his early twenties, this persistent young man performed for Joseph Haydn, who compared him to the great Mozart. Sadly, Beethoven began to lose his hearing, but he threw himself even more deeply into his music, composing "Fur Elise," "Sonata Pathetique" and the dramatic "Fifth Symphony" years later, audience members heard what he could not and leapt to their feet in ecstatic appreciation for such passionate music. His creativity gave the world then, as it does today, music that stirs the soul. The video begins in 1827 with 30,000 people paying tribute to the great Beethoven in Vienna, Austria. Then the video switches to his life as a child...

Piece of Paradise

Alex returns to a lifeless home that she ran away from at a young age. Once home, she begins filming a video about her past life but begins to question why she is putting her misery on display instead of doing what makes her happy.

Una vida predestinada

The Contract

Sleazy director "auditioning" actresses for a movie and trying to get them to commit to more to get the part.

Bird Hours

In a dystopian near-future, a young couple slowly realizes their mega-corporation employer's VR work-from-home routine is draining the life out of their relationship and must decide whether to lose their humanity or break free.

On The Job: Cancer Crackdown

While discovering the cure for cancer, Dr. Castle (Jenna Castle) has an unexpected delivery.

Saturday night, Sunday morning

An actor goes out at night to cover a second job and meets two passengers who invite him to make a detour.

Morning After

Michael is faced with a dilemma, when a night of drinking with friends, turns into a sensual exploration of sexual identity.

A War Poem

Lost at war, two soldiers struggle to find their moral grounding before their ultimate demise.

The Devil Followed Me Home

A masked man is stalking a young couple, Bette and Anthony

MUFFA

Lulu

The circus dancer Lulu is a thoroughly liberal being. Although she loves her former savior, the clown Alfredo, she begins a relationship with the noble Henri von Reithofen. Henri kills himself ruined by the horrendous expenses for Lulu. She however is fishing for the next rich patron, the much older Baron Waldheim. His son knows Lulu and warns his father that she will also hurt him. Waldheim succumbs to Lulus's insinuations and punishes his son.

The North-Ming Fish

Short film from Taiwan.

Angemacht

A lonely young lady strolls through the busy streets of a big city in the evening and casts meaningful glances at passers-by. Short conversations ensue and a man finally invites her to his place. He laboriously prepares dinner for her, but she becomes increasingly bored and suddenly disappears. She walks through the streets again and finally enters a record store. With ambiguous words she attracts the attention of the salesman, then the movie ends.

Der Todeskuss

Short film directed by Orly Toren

Palindrome

A word or phrase whose meaning does not change whether spelt backwards or forwards. A young man loses everything he has in one day. He is fired from his job, kicked out of his hotel, betrayed by his colleagues and turned down by an old flame. We see this ordinary tale told backwards in time

unfinished

A family faces a difficult farewell after breakfast one morning.

Presque Isle

Tortured manchild Danny returns to his family's abandoned island retreat and finds himself beset by fantasies of deceased ancestors, former lovers and concerned friends. Frazier is Danny's enigmatic father-figure, and the man Danny's deceased mother Alicia passionately loved but could not let herself have. Both men are prisoners of their pasts; neither can abandon their passionate devotion to Alicia.

Locksmiths

Two robbers unknowingly break into the home of a murderer who is in the process of hiding his latest victim.

Graduation Film

A film student is having her birthday party with a few of her classmates she hasn’t seen in a while. Yeong-ju and Chae-eun become close friends after the party, and the two form a romantic relationship after realizing the chemistry they have. Yeong-ju writes a screenplay based on the story of her and Chae-eun.

Aftersun

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.

The Beaver

Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter pushes for his parents to get a divorce.

From Straight A's to XXX

When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Helen

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

Embattled

The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.

A Movie

Bruce Conner's landmark experimental film consisting entirely of found footage edited to a new score.

Die My Love

After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Not Without Hope

A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.

Starving in Suburbia

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

The Plague

A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.

The Other End

Diogo (17) has a little quirk: he likes to call his mother's female therapy patients and masturbate while listening to them on the phone. One of these patients is Angela (43), a woman who was just left by her husband When Diogo calls Angela, she thinks it's her husband calling. She starts having a relationship with the silence on the other end of the line. But when she finds out it's Diogo, she's disgusted. She's furious. But, most of all, she's attracted to this person who showed so much interest in her. The only person who called her every day. Diogo helps Angela see that she can have a new beginning and she shows him his way to independence. But they have to face a number of obstacles: There's the age difference, Diogo's mother, and, especially, his own path to adulthood.

The Plague Dogs

Two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, struggle to survive in the countryside after escaping from an animal research laboratory. They're pursued by search parties and then the military after rumours spread that they could be carrying the bubonic plague.

The Machinist

Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.

Flowers in the Attic

After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.

Goodbye June

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.

The Safety of Objects

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Palm Trees and Power Lines

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

The Experiment

20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.