The European Film Awards are the European equivalent to the American Oscars. Every year, the European Film Academy awards a prize for the best short film. 29 festivals (including Berlinale, the Venice IFF, the Locarno Film Festival, and Kurzfilmtage) submit the choices of their respective juries to the Academy. We present all films nominated in the European Short Film category of the last European Film Awards and thus the most outstanding works of current European short filmmaking.

Being John Smith
John Smith / United Kingdom 2024 / 26'35" / colour/black & white / English / Doc/Exp
After enduring many decades of embarrassment and discomfort, the artist finally admits to the negative impact that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had on his psyche. Peppered with disparate fragments of autobiography, «Being John Smith» takes us on a confessional journey that reveals just how important a name can be.

City of Poets
Sara Rajaei / Netherlands 2024 / 21'22" / colour/black & white / English/Farsi / Doc
In a small, semi-utopian city, all the streets are named after poets. When war begins, new neighborhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees. The streets are renamed after fallen soldiers. Soon, the citizens find themselves lost amid the memories of the forgotten poets.

L'avance
Djiby Kebe / France 2024 / 18'20" / colour / French / Fic
Aliou, a rising student at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, sells a painting of his deceased mother to a renowned collector for 3,000 euros. The delivery of the painting then becomes a long journey during which he will realize the weight of the money he earned.

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
Theo Panagopoulos / United Kingdom 2024 / 17'1" / colour / Arabic/English / Doc
When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender film essay questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land.

Man Number 4
Miranda Pennell / United Kingdom 2024 / 9'54" / colour / English / Exp/Doc
Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker. «What am I looking at?» you had said out loud. The utter strangeness and unfamiliarity of the scenes depicted reminded you of fiction films you’ve seen – or which you think you’ve seen.