The Best of Tampere 2026
Short film screening is one of the spring season’s highlights!
About
The traditional spring screening features award-winning short films from the Tampere Film Festival. The total duration of the screening is 113 minutes.
Films in the screening
International Competition, Grand Prix
Inherited Silence
Dir. Mariam Khatchvani, Georgia 2025
Fiction
15 min
Language: Georgian, Subtitles: Finnish & English
When Nata tries to leave her violent husband, it’s the women around her – bound by tradition – who urge her into silence. In a village where endurance is virtue, her quiet resistance becomes defiance.
International Competition, Audience Award
Living Despite Them
Dir. Antonia Colodro, Alaa Hathleen, Palestine 2024, 2025
Documentary
19 min
Language: Arabic, Subtitles: English
Filmed entirely with cellphone footage, Alaa, a soccer player and physical therapist from Umm al-Kheir in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, records daily life amid demolitions, settler violence, and military control.
International Competition, Best Animation
Unanimated Strangers
Dir. Róisín Kelly, Ireland 2025
Experimental, animation
5 min.
Language: English, Subtitles: Finnish
Surrounded by strangers, a woman’s memories of her past relationship unravel and mesh with the people around her.
National Competition Under 30 Minutes, Special Prize & Tampere Nominee for the European Short Film Audience Award
Puolanka Pussy Rally
Dir. Inka Achté, Einari Paakkanen, Finland 2026
Documentary
6 min
Language: Finnish, Subtitles: English
Puolanka, a tiny village in Northern Finland is famous for its population decline, but also for its dark sense of humor about it. As the long summer evenings stretch out, teenage boys celebrate their new driver’s licences by endlessly circling the same few streets, while an older generation of local gents, proudly known as The Parliament, has already parked itself permanently at the petrol station café. Here, hunting and the legendary “Pussy Rally” aren’t taboos but badges of cultural identity. The only mystery that seems unsolved: where have all the women gone?
International Competition, Best Fiction
Urgashaa Harsan Tsonh / A South Facing Window
D. Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, France, Mongolia 2025
Fiction
20 min
Language: Mongolian, Subtitles: Finnish & English
Azaa and Shagai, a couple in their late 20s, are living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with their 6-year-old daughter. On the verge of divorce, they search for happiness in empty, high-rise buildings. Stuck in their car in the infamous city traffic, they fight it out.
International Competition, Best Documentary
SON
Dir. Leona Cauklija, Sweden 2025
Documentery
13 min.
Language: Swedish, Subtitles: Finnish & English
A mother sees her homeless son’s tags wherever she goes. She interprets his signatures as signals to her and wants to respond. She starts writing SON under his tags. One day, she suddenly gets a reply. Under SON it now says, ‘Hello mom.’
Generation XYZ Competition, Best Genre Film
Dieu est timide / God is shy
Dir. Jocelyn Charles, France 2025
Animation
15 min
Language: French, Subtitles: English
During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.
National Competition Under 30 Minutes, Main Prize
Liian sininen taivas / Too Blue Sky
Dir. Risto-Pekka Blom, Finland 2026
Experimental, documentary
16 min
Language: Finnish, Subtitles: English
A story about money, power, exploitation, and many possible ends of the world. Some long for Mars, others for heaven. Some dance the humppa on the moon. In this short and tragicomic play, every one of us has our own small part to play.
National Competition Under 30 Minutes, Risto Jarva Prize
The Beauty of Automobiles / Puskee veemäiseen paikkaan
Dir. Jukka Kärkkäinen, Finland 2026
Documentery
6 min.
Language: Finnish, Subtitles: English
Intimate moment between a father and son – one night, one car ride, one problem.
***
The Youth Jury Award for National Competition Under 30 minutes, for In My Hand by Marja Helander and Liselotte Wajstedt, will be screened on Saturday, March 28 at 2 p.m. in the Mini Skábmagovat programme at the Kiasma Theatre.