A single room, a single take, and twelve minutes of uninterrupted observation. An intimate exploration of physical suffering, resilience, and the transformative power of music. The Auteur Cinema Archive proudly welcomes Pain is Mine (Australia) by Iranian-Australian filmmaker Farshid Akhlaghi, a profoundly intimate documentary that demonstrates how the simplest cinematic approach can produce an extraordinary emotional impact. One day. One room. One take. Following spinal surg

A new initiative aimed at promoting independent cinema is beginning to take shape. NewCinema, which combines online streaming through Whush with opportunities for international festival exposure, has made a promising start, introducing dozens of new films across documentary, fiction, animation and experimental cinema. The project aims to help independent filmmakers reach wider audiences by bringing together different forms of promotion and distribution. Through its streaming

The All African Independent Film Festival (AAIFF Africa) concluded its 2026 edition in Kigali, Rwanda, following three days of screenings, masterclasses, filmmaker conversations and awards from 15–17 October 2026. This year’s festival brought together 19 films from 14 countries, celebrating the diversity and originality of independent filmmaking from Africa and beyond. Alongside the screenings, the programme featured professional masterclasses in screenwriting, cinematography

Portuguese filmmaker André Guiomar explores everyday life, work and family responsibilities in Mozambique in Ku Handza, a 75-minute documentary coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Docs+ showcase. Produced in Portugal in 2025, the film follows three people navigating different circumstances: a father saving money for his son's birthday, a man returning to his family between war missions, and a mother who must resume working shortly after giving birth. Through these interc

Belgian filmmaker Kris De Meester explores the consequences of avoiding confrontation in A Horse in the Bed, a four-and-a-half-minute animated short coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Animated+ showcase. Written, directed and produced by De Meester, the film follows Arthur, a polite and conflict-averse man whose ordinary life is gradually taken over by an unexpected visitor: a full-sized horse that appears in his bed one morning. What begins as an absurd domestic inconv

British writer and filmmaker Vaughan Douglas Capstick explores the lasting effects of trauma and the difficulty of finding a place in society in The Castle Keep, a 20-minute experimental short coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Experiment+ showcase. Produced in the United Kingdom in 2025, the film brings together a group of strangers, each carrying experiences that have profoundly changed their lives. Through a series of personal monologues and confrontations, they reve

The closing night of the Amsterdam Independent Film Festival 2026, now in its 9th year, took place this past Saturday evening with a packed theatre. As is tradition, the festival took place at Amsterdam’s LAB111 — the cult cinema located in a former anatomical pathology hospital — where it screened an eclectic selection of independent films from local and international filmmakers. Festival Director Kris De Meester looks back: “Looking back at the Amsterdam Independent Film

There is something quietly profound about watching the seasons change. The transformation is inevitable, yet almost imperceptible from one day to the next. Leaves shift colour, familiar landscapes become unfamiliar, and the places we associate with particular moments in our lives begin to reflect the passage of time. In Equinox, Cris and Mason Skulmoski translate that experience into an animated music video that is as much about the uncertainty of the future as it is about th

Filmmakers Allison Fan and Fred Midgley explore loss, redemption and the search for renewal through movement in Something Has To Give, a six-minute experimental dance film coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Experiment+ showcase. Made in the United States in 2025, the film places its performers inside a stark, empty warehouse, using the relationship between bodies and space to explore what happens in moments of profound loss. The project also brings together two differen

The Ghent International Film Week is a one-of-a-kind film event bringing bold and original cinema to the heart of Ghent. Taking place during Ghent Art Week, the festival presents a full week of challenging and innovative films from around the world, ranging from underground discoveries and experimental shorts to striking documentaries and daring feature films. Formerly known as Obskuur, the festival has always focused on films that push boundaries. At its core is the belief t

The life and work of Pintupi artist Linda Syddick Napaltjarri are the subject of The Witchdoctor and the Windmill, a new documentary from Robert Hamilton coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Docs+ showcase. The 58-minute Australian-French production traces Syddick Napaltjarri's journey from her early life in the remote Pintupi homelands to international recognition as an artist. At the same time, the film uses her paintings and personal history to examine first contact, d

American filmmaker Jeffrey Hoyt turns the language of impending catastrophe towards the quieter crises of everyday life in Waiting for the End of the World, a 12-minute short coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Shorts+ showcase. Made in 2025, the film is described as a quiet mosaic of small-town America, observing subtle fractures in ordinary lives. Its premise grew out of Hoyt's experience of being surrounded by constant predictions of disaster in the media, followed by

The Super Shorts New York Film Festival celebrated its 2026 edition with three screening nights at Film Noir Cinema, showing shorts from around the globe. Festival curator Kris De Meester: "Looking back on this first edition, we are especially delighted by the turnout. Despite the storm that coincided with our screenings, audiences showed up in great numbers, which was incredibly encouraging. We are also proud to have put together a diverse and well-balanced programme, bringi

There is a particular kind of heartbreak that occurs not when love disappears, but when love remains and is no longer enough. Another February, the intimate one-take short from Danish filmmaker Tobias Ervolder, inhabits precisely that uncomfortable territory. The film follows a married couple on what initially appears to be a romantic hike up Himmelbjerget. But as they continue their ascent, a secret affair and years of unspoken tension begin to surface. What starts as an aff

French filmmaker Renaud Fély explores one of France's lesser-known religious traditions in The Lord’s Vineyards, a 51-minute documentary coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Docs+ showcase. Made in 2024, the film travels through some of the last monastic communities in France that continue to produce wine, examining a tradition that has survived since the Middle Ages. From Provence and the Montagne Sainte-Victoire to Languedoc and Burgundy, the documentary encounters monk

Now in its sixth year, the Connecting Cultures Program has announced the six films selected in its second 2026 round. From Sudan and Ukraine to Iran and Palestine, the selected filmmakers approach questions of war, exile, memory, love and survival through radically different cinematic forms. As selected filmmakers, each becomes a recipient of the Tarkovski Grant, an initiative that allows them to submit their work free of charge to a network of international partner film fest

The Verona International Film Festival concluded its 11th edition this week at the Multisala Rivoli, located right in the heart of the historical city center. The festival team would like to thank all guests for their enthusiasm. A big thank you also to all filmmakers for sending in their work. Out of over a thousand of submissions, 20 wonderful films from Italy and around the world made it to the final selection for 2026. Kris De Meester, festival director “The Verona Inte

Mexican filmmaker Frank Rodríguez's new feature DUOS is coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Features+ showcase, as the film begins its international festival journey. The 86-minute feature has also been selected for the Amsterdam Independent Film Festival, where it will have its European online premiere. The selection was made possible through NewCinema's festival system, giving DUOS an important early festival platform as it begins seeking further international selectio

PORTALS, an experimental short by Kathi Hendrick, Benjamin Henretig and Cornelia Hodges, will be streaming on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Shorts+ showcase. Made in the United States in 2024, the 8-minute, 32-second film uses movement, imagery and original music rather than dialogue to explore the relationship between the body, the natural world and our sense of connection to one another. Described by its filmmakers as “a journey into interbeing,” PORTALS follows two journe

French filmmaker Gabriel Chourrier turns a chance encounter outside a Paris cinema into a playful exploration of cinephilia in Reel Selves, an eight-minute short coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Shorts+ showcase. Made in France in 2025, the film begins with a simple situation. It is raining in Paris. A young man in shorts meets a young woman looking for a lighter outside a cinema. They have just seen the same film, and they begin talking. Their conversation soon turns

German psychological thriller A Short Chronicle of Murder, directed by Jochen Isensee, will be streaming on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Shorts+ showcase. Produced in 2020 and running 29 minutes, the German-language film is set in 1984 and centres on a confrontation between two men. Walther Loose is a wealthy and respected citizen whose apparently settled life is disrupted when a stranger named Leonard arrives at his home with a serious accusation: that Walther was once an