Current Frames is a survey on the international short film scene, featuring perspectives and stories from around the world
Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival is the largest short film festival in the world. It showcases over 400 short films a year, with long queues to match. This programme pulls together highlights from the festival’s official selection, featuring stories that capture life in flux.
In small town India, convinced that machines are quietly replacing them, three retired men threaten to take over the jobs of household appliances. But when one of their children lands a job at an A.I. company, it rattles their crusade and makes them wonder if they’ve already been left behind.
A young man sits in the car with his girlfriend. Two policemen in an unmarked car pull up to command a routine identity check. They invite him out and proceed methodically to a pat-down, as he stands in front of the car, under the dismayed eyes of his girlfriend.
Samir and Nadyn, a Lebanese couple, spend a sleepless night anxious and fearing an Israeli airstrike could shatter the glass walls of their home. With their children peacefully asleep, they battle with whether to flee or risk the worst and stay.
In the underground world of diffing, a community finds solace in their passion, as they navigate personal struggles and challenges both on and off the road.
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.
Pranav Bhasin is a Mumbai-based director and writer whose work blends absurdity, humor, and tenderness in contemporary India. His short Taylor’s Version is a Vimeo Staff Pick, New Year’s Eve is featured on Short of the Week and Screaming on the Fly screened in the music video competition at SXSW. During the pandemic, Pranav wrote and directed the popular comedy mini-series Cabin Fever in India. He was a fellow at the Academy of Zurich Film Festival and Vanishing Angle’s Short-to-Feature Lab, hosted by Jim Cummings. A self-taught filmmaker, he ran a YouTube channel from 2012 to 2017, where he built an early audience.
Born in 1978 in Blida (AL), Mohamed Bourouissa lives and works in Paris (FR). He describes contemporary society implicitly, by its contours. With a critical take on the mass media image, the subjects of his photographs and videos are people left behind at the crossroads of integration and exclusion. Preceded by a long immersion phase, each of Mohamed Bourouissa’s projects builds a new enunciation situation.
Samir Syriani is a Lebanese film director, screenwriter, and university professor who gained recognition with his award-winning student film To Baalbek, which was screened at over 15 festivals. His master’s short, Contact, premiered at the 2019 Tampere Film Festival, winning multiple awards.
Ruairí Bradley is a multi-award-winning director from Belfast, focused on stories of identity, community, and connection, with a particular emphasis on marginalised voices. A graduate of Ireland’s National Film School, he majored in documentary with a minor in production. His debut short film, We Beg To Differ, has screened at top festivals, including SXSW, Clermont-Ferrand, and Camerimage. The film has won numerous awards, including an Oscar qualification through the Galway Film Fleadh, a nomination at the London Critics Circle Awards, an Irish Film and Television Award nomination, and a European Film Award candidacy.
Jocelyn Charles studied applied arts at École Boulle, Estienne, and the Gobelins, where he perfected his skills in drawing and animation. As an illustrator and director of music videos (The Weeknd, L’Impératrice) and short films, he crafts a singular visual signature. Since 2020, he has been collaborating with Remembers studios, founded by Félix de Givry and Ugo Bienvenu—a space where talents from animation, illustration, and cinema converge.
