The lineup of 11 international short films includes five world premieres and features a majority of female directors.
Narrowing down a record-breaking number of submissions, the Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea IFF) has announced the 11 international short films competing in its Red Sea Shorts Competition for 2025. This year’s selection, featuring six female directors and five world premieres, highlights the diversity of voices and cinematic expressions emerging from across Asia and Africa. The films come from South Africa, Malaysia, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kyrgyzstan, Chad, India, Georgia, Kenya and, for the first time, Myanmar.
The chosen titles will screen during the festival’s fifth edition, taking place from December 4 to 13, 2025, in the historic Al Balad district of Jeddah. They will compete for honours in the Yusr Awards, to be presented at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Reflecting the festival’s expanding reach, Red Sea IFF received a record number of submissions this year across all categories, including over 840 international short films from Asia and Africa. Notably, entries surged from East and Southeast Asia, following the inclusion of those regions in last year’s submissions.
The selected short films tackle themes that range from displacement and mental illness to alienation, family conflict, and historical reckoning, spanning scripted, documentary and hybrid storytelling formats.
Among the highlights is Cold Calling by Myanmar’s Yuzana Win, a tense exploration of capitalism and survival under political unrest, and India’s Dropless by Anamika Pal, which follows a mother’s desperate act during a family funeral. Four Wise Monkeys, by France-based Chinese filmmaker Xin Wang, revisits a true story that shatters a community’s silence, while Guardian of the Well from Chad’s Bentley Brown and Tahir Mahamat Zene examines drought, loss, and resilience at the desert’s edge.
Malaysia’s In the Valley by Han Loong Lim captures a child’s fleeting confrontation with change and time, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Nsala by Mickael-Sltan Mbanza reflects on colonial legacies through archival and contemporary imagery. From Kenya, Shandra Apondi’s Our Brother tells a moving story of family tension and sacrifice, and Georgia’s The Men’s Land by Mariam Khatchvani follows a woman defying patriarchal inheritance traditions through the power of her voice.
In The Seventh Month, Kyrgyz filmmaker Aizada Bekbalaeva examines womanhood and secrecy in a society bound by tradition, while Vultures by South Africa’s Dian Weys portrays chaos and desperation in the aftermath of a crash. Rounding out the lineup is China’s What Remains by Xiao Yan, a quietly observational piece revealing unexpected truths in an ordinary fast-food setting.
With this international lineup, the Red Sea IFF’s 2025 Shorts Competition continues to affirm its commitment to discovering bold, original filmmakers whose work bridges cultures and redefines contemporary storytelling.
