Jury’s Pick: Six Encounters

Interlanguage
Sangeun LEE, Germany, South Korea, 2026, 26 min. Korean with English subtitles

Tico Tico Life
ZHANG Suhao, Mainland China, 2025, 18 min. Mandarin with English subtitles

Lingua Automata 
Long Pham, US, 2026, 19min. English with Vietnamese subtitles

雨的另一种形状 (The Haunting Damp)
ZHOU Xing Zhi, China, 2025, 20 min. Cantonese with English subtitles

Flamingo In The Garden
MA Xinhui, China, 2025, 13 min. English, Arabic and Mandarin in English subtitles

DISTANCES
YANG Liping, Japan, 2024, 20 min. Japanese with Chinese and English subtitles

Six encounters that move between intimate and surreal worlds, tracing isolation, displacement, memory, language, and the fragile possibilities of connection and transformation. In Interlanguage, as the anniversary of their mother’s death approaches, Hyunsu travels alone to the East Sea after her brother refuses to join her, where she unexpectedly meets Kaori, a Japanese woman who bears a striking resemblance to the missing actress Seolhyun. Tico Tico Life follows a young man on the eve of graduation as he moves between banks, churches, and garbage stations, gradually realizing that he is trapped within an invisible system. Lingua Automata enters a world of machine-to-machine communication through images created entirely within the Roblox game engine, reflecting on language, automation, and predetermined systems. In The Haunting Damp, a couple preparing to marry moves into their new home and makes room for the husband’s older brother, waiting for the April rains to break the stifling heat surrounding them. Flamingo In The Garden follows a young Chinese woman hospitalized in Morocco after a surfing accident, as morphine-induced dreams blur reality and fantasy and lead her towards a renewed connection with her body and a sense of freedom. Finally, DISTANCES follows Iwai, a former prisoner living in a rehabilitation facility, who forms an unexpected friendship with a homeless man named Sasaki and sets out to find him after he suddenly disappears.