We are pleased to announce the Official Selection of the 22nd Early Bird International Student Film Festival.
This year, we received more than 1400 films from 97 countries for preliminary selection. The remarkable response once again reflects the creativity, diversity, and dedication of young filmmakers from around the world.We are grateful to everyone who shared their work with us and trusted Early Bird with their films.
Thank you, and congratulations to all the filmmakers whose films have been selected!
We are excited to present the 70 films selected for the Competition Programme of Early Bird 2026, across the following categories:
Fiction
| film | director | country |
|---|---|---|
| A Cup of Coffee | Bozhana Marinova | Bulgaria |
| Beyond the Hill | Andrea Maddalena Bernardi | Italy |
| Bloom in the Concrete | Renata Elizondo | Mexico |
| Bro | Filip Špinka | Czechia |
| Cathedral | Uroš Lakić | Serbia |
| Combustion | Arielle Legault | Canada |
| Electricks | Kryštof Kindl | Czechia |
| Fish | Amirhossein Taleshi | Iran |
| Forget | Zeynep Duru Yalçın | Türkiye |
| Freeze | Niccolò Donatini | Italy |
| Grandpa's Fur | Teodor Stoilov, Nellie Rajala | Poland |
| Happy Ever After | Chantale Fitzé | Sweden |
| Hybris | Péter Dóczé | Hungary |
| I Could Kill Her | Caro Weller | Germany |
| Immortals | Edit Nagyistók | Hungary |
| Inkubus | Reza Sam Mosadegh | Germany |
| It Might Even Be Real | Yael Bonne | Israel |
| Italiano | Mehdi Davachi | Iran |
| Let Me Cry | Wojtek Jastrzębski | Poland |
| Love, Buried in Seoul | Jongwoo Lee, Jeongwoo Shin, Jihoon Park | South Korea |
| Malpraxis | Tudor Vele | Romania |
| Memories for the Attic | Jovana Lazin | Serbia |
| Nail Flower | Eonsik Rho | South Korea |
| Nowhere | Yuli Sachs | Israel |
| One Arm | Mateo Milione | Argentina |
| Rabbit Don’t Run | Maximilian Conway, Elisabeth Jakobi | Austria |
| Sea Skin | Selena Goedeke Tort | Germany |
| Silent, almost Unnoticed | Philine Jo Hammon, Patrick Fleischer | Germany |
| Speedy! | Jiin Oh | United States |
| The Burial of the Black Cat | Maryam Esmaeili | Iran |
| The Dogleg | Piotr Szubra | Poland |
| The Favor | George K. | Myanmar |
| The Good Woman | Masha Mollenhauer | Germany |
| The Lamb in the Room | Daniel Meier | Germany |
| The Light of Mullae | Kyung-yoon Park | South Korea |
| The Red Rider | Branko Perković | Croatia |
| Till Death Do Us Part | Edoardo Maione, Alice Gnech | Italy |
| Today, Mum Died | Anis Bribi | France |
| Trance | Jona Schloßer | Germany |
| Unexpressed | Mariia Felenko | Czechia |
| Verismo | Dİse Atalan | Türkiye |
We’ve Never Been to Portugal | Milana Karaeva | Italy |
Documentary
| film | director | country |
|---|---|---|
| Beneath the Skin | Jasmine Stevenson-Leighton | Bulgaria |
| Creatures | Leopoldo Fernandez | United Kingdom |
| Housing Problem | Marko Plejić | Croatia |
| Madelin | Erika Batalska | Bulgaria |
| Middle Earth | Joanna Zabcheva | Bulgaria |
| Milk and Honey | Sara Marić | Serbia |
| Otkole | Radost Tsvetkova | Bulgaria |
| The Art of Trying | Mattis Korhonen | Sweden |
| Valentin Petrov: Rise | Samuil Zhelev | Bulgaria |
| White Veil | Žiga Ciber | Ireland |
Will you stop believing? | Maria Asenova | Bulgaria |
Animation
| film | director | country |
|---|---|---|
| Bonobo & Man | Hannah Schogger | United Kingdom |
| Dark Light | Csenge Csató | Hungary |
| Gone Out of Rails | Ryan Dimitrov | Bulgaria |
| Hotel les Pieds dans l’eau | Maya Vriens | France |
| In Thought | Csenge Ilyefalvi | Hungary |
| Lamb | Loeka Pringels | Belgium |
| Le Plongeon | Alexis Lucas, Marie-Jean Bonetti, Lucas Rea | France |
| Mom, I Am Sick | Viktotia Panova, Tsvetelina Nikolova, Natalia Angelova, Bojidara Kostova, Dara Traycheva, Denis Belishky, Ana-Maria Tsocheva, Stanka Mircheva | Bulgaria |
| Pockets Full of Pebbles | Elise Kerob | France |
| Raindrops | Filip Kirilov Karaivanov | Bulgaria |
| Susurros | Alexandra Pewinski, Marie Lombard, Florian Reignier, Emma Pluchard, Lisa Francillon, Alice Parmentier | France |
| The Body and its Stories | Mihaela Pounova | Bulgaria |
| The Endless Voyage | Rada Skumova, Suzanne Lub | Netherlands |
The Hair Tie | Kristina Venelinova Zhelyazkova | Bulgaria |
| The Long-Stocking Cake | Blagoslava Kirilova, Denislava Georgieva, Evgeni Ganchev | Bulgaria |
| The Trial | Lian Cornieux, Ingrid Lala, Agathe Arduini, Ilan Blauwblomme | France |
| Wolf Rayet | Emma Corbillon, Julie Demelle, Alexandra Ventouras, Mélanie Sthehlé, Perryne Crevier | France |