Tiger Short Competition
The power of short. An expert jury hands out 3 equal awards each year to films selected for the Tiger Short Competition.
Short films can be found at many places during IFFR: as part of video installations, preceding feature films and, naturally, in combined programmes. Films between 1 and 63 minutes long, from all over the world. There are fiction films, experimental work and documentaries. Short films prove that filmmakers play with a whole range of cinematic forms and ideas.
The short films have their own competition at IFFR. What differentiates it from the Tiger Competition for feature-length films is the fact that it’s not just for young and upcoming talents; all filmmakers have a chance at winning. 20 shorts are competing for three equal Tiger Short Awards at IFFR 2025, each worth €5,000.
Tiger Short Competition Jury 2026
A list of images
-
Sammy Baloji
Sammy Baloji lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels. Since 2005, he has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After his studies in literature and human sciences, he began to work as a cartoonist and later specialised in video art and photography. In 2008, he co-founded the biennale at Lubumbashi with Gulda el Magambo bin Ali. Baloji’s work is an ongoing investigation into the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as questioning the impact of Belgian colonisation. His use of archives allows him to manipulate time and space, juxtaposing old colonial narratives with contemporary economic imperialism. His video works, installations and photographic series highlight the ways in which identities are shaped, transformed, perverted and reinvented. His feature film L’arbre de l’authenticité screened in IFFR’s 2025 Tiger Competition, winning the Special Jury Award.
-
Anka Gujabidze
Anka Gujabidze is a visual artist from Tbilisi who has worked in photography for 17 years, a practice that shaped her deep sensibility for social issues, the environment and contemporary stories. She recently became a filmmaker. In 2024, she completed her first film Temo Re (IFFR 2025), composed entirely of black-and-white photographs, an elegy where stillness itself carries the rhythm of life. Temo Re received the Tiger Short Award and the KNF Award at IFFR 2025, as well as the SFCC Critic’s Award at Brive Film Festival, and has since been traveling to festivals around the world. Her earlier works trace lives and places often overlooked, revealing resilience within decay, defiance within silence, and beauty within impermanence
-
Jukka-Pekka Laakso
Jukka-Pekka Laakso has been the festival director of Tampere Film Festival since 2002, and shares the responsibility of strategic planning and programming with a co-director. He has been a member of more than 70 film festival juries, including Edinburgh International Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival, and has been an expert at Berlinale Talents and at the European Film Academy’s ‘A Sunday in the Country’. Laakso has also given lectures and training at a number of universities. He acts as the executive director for Pirkanmaa Film Centre in Tampere, a non-profit organisation which runs an art-house cinema, distributes films in Finland and works with media education. He is also a member of the European Film Academy.
Past winners
2025
- Merging Bodies by Adrian Paci
- A Metamorphosis by Lin Htet Aung
- Temo Re by Anka Gujabidze
2024
Crazy Lotus (Thailand) by Naween Noppakun
Few Can See (Ireland) by Frank Sweeney
Workers’ Wings (Kosovo) by Ilir Hasanaj
2023
Natureza Humana by Mónica Lima (Portugal, Germany)
Tito by Kervens Jimenez and Taylor McIntosh (Haiti)
What the Soil Remembers by José Cardoso (South Africa, Ecuador)
2022
Becoming Male in the Middle Ages by Pedro Neves Marques (Portugal)
Nazarbazi by Maryam Tafakory (Iran)
Nosferasta: First Bite by Bayley Sweitzer and Adam Khalil (USA)
2021
Maat by Fox Maxy (USA)
Sunsets, everyday by Basir Mahmood (Italy)
Terranova by Alejandro Pérez Serrano and Alejandro Alonso Estrella (Cuba)
2020
Apparition by Ismaïl Bahri (France)
Communicating Vessels by Maïder Fortuné and Annie MacDonell (Canada)
Sun Dog by Dorian Jespers (Belgium, Russia)
2019
Wong Ping’s Fables 1 by Wong Ping (Hong Kong)
Ultramarine by Vincent Meessen (Belgium/France/Canada)
Freedom of Movement by Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani (Germany/Italy)
2018
Mountain Plain Mountain by Araki Yu and Daniel Jacoby (Spain)
Rose Gold by Sara Cwynar (USA)
With History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 4 by Korakrit Arunanondchai (USA)
2017
Rubber Coated Steel by Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Lebanon/Germany)
El cuento de Antonia by Jorge Cadena (Colombia/Switzerland)
Sakhisona by Prantik Basu (India)
2016
Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD by Mark Leckey (United Kingdom)
Faux départ by Yto Barrada (Morocco)
Engram of Returning by Daïchi Saïto (Canada)
2015
Things by Ben Rivers (United Kingdom)
La fièvre by Safia Benhaim (France)
Greetings to the Ancestors by Ben Russell (USA/South Africa/United Kingdom)
2014
La isla by Dominga Sotomayor and Katarzyna Klimkiewicz (Chile/Poland/Denmark)
Giant by Salla Tykkä (Finland, Romania
The Chimera of M. by Sebastian Buerkner (United Kingdom)
2013
Janus by Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands)
The Tiger’s Mind by Beatrice Gibson (United Kingdom)
Unsupported Transit by Zachary Formwalt (Netherlands)
2012
Generator by Makino Takashi (Japan)
Big in Vietnam by Mati Diop (France)
Springtime by Jeroen Eisinga (Netherlands)
2011
Stardust by Nicolas Provost (Belgium)
Pastourelle by Nathaniel Dorsky (USA)
Jan Villa by Natasha Mendonca (USA/India)
2010
Atlantiques by Mati Diop (Senegal/France)
Wei Wen (Condolences) by Ying Liang (China)
Wednesday Morning 2 A.M. by Lewis Klahr (USA)
2009
Bernadette by Duncan Campbell (UK)
Despair by Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov (Russia)
A Necessary Music by Beatrice Gibson (UK)
2008
Ah, Liberty! by Ben Rivers (UK)
As I Lay Dying by Ho Yuhang (Malaysia)
Observando el cielo by Jeanne Liotta (USA)
2007
Video Game by Vipin Vijay (India, 2006)
Hinterland by Geoffrey Boulangé (France, 2007)
The Flag by Köken Ergun (Turkey, 2007)
2006
Beginnings by Roy Villevoye (Netherlands, 2006)
Rabbit by Run Wrake (United Kingdom, 2005)
Who I Am and What I Want by David Shrigley & Chris Shepherd (United Kingdom, 2005)
2005
Interlude by Joost van Veen (Netherlands)
Nuuk by Thomas Köner (Germany)
Veere by David Lammers (Netherlands)
Special mention:
Fare bene Mìkles by Christian Angeli (Italy)