Location: Amphitheatre, Youth Centre Split (Ulica slobode 28)

Time: 29 November, 8:00 PM

The 25 FPS Festival comes to Split with a special screening of award-winning films from its 22nd edition. Following its stop in Rijeka, the festival arrives in Split on 29 November, offering local audiences a chance to experience a selection of outstanding experimental films recognised by the festival’s juries and audience.

The programme features five films exploring a wide range of subjects and cinematic approaches, from the transformation of images and the legacy of colonialism to the relationship between nature, memory and human presence.

SCREENING PROGRAMME:

Opera, directed by Igor Zelić (Croatia, 2026, 19 min)

A cinematic collage created through the layered manipulation of a single light source, transforming space and perception. The film explores how images can conceal reality and what happens when they can no longer do so. Winner of the Refleksi Grand Prix.

The Recce, directed by Daniel Mann (UK/Germany, 2026, 15 min)

Starting with a location scout’s test footage in Uganda and an exchange of emails, the film reveals provocative connections between cinema, land and colonial imagination. Blending the fiction of filmmaking with the fiction of nation-building, it reflects on colonialism, past and present. Winner of the Grand Jury Grand Prix.

When Flowers Dream of Us (حين تحلم بنا الزهور), directed by Robert Minassian (Lebanon, 2025, 5 min)

In a landscape devastated by an explosion, once covered in red flowers, only ash and memory remain. A voice in the lost language of birds addresses the earth, asking whether it can still hear. When we are gone, will the flowers bloom again — and, if they do, will they remember us well enough to dream of us? Winner of the Grand Jury Grand Prix.

Upside-Down Feet (Pies al revés), directed by Elodie Arpa (Switzerland, 2025, 19 min)

In the Colombian Amazon, perspectives drift between water and forest, revealing subtle connections between flora, fauna, the environment and the local community. Through an immersive sensory experience and an intricate soundscape, the film explores the fluidity of these relationships and transforms our perception of place and its inhabitants. Winner of both the Grand Jury Grand Prix and the Critics’ Jury Award.

Abandoned Gardens, directed by Tomislav Šoban (Croatia, 2026, 16 min)

This poetic experimental film documents the life cycles of plant-covered spaces inhabited by animals as they await the possible return of humans. Using time-lapse photography, the film reveals the rhythms of nature that usually remain invisible to the human eye. Winner of the Audience Award.