Short Encounters

INTRODUCING THE PRESIDENT OF OUR JURY TEAM: ALEX LORA CERCÓS
The 5th edition of Short Encounters International Film Festival brings together a team of BOLD visionaries. Each member of our jury brings a unique lens to storytelling, ensuring our selection celebrates bold voices, innovative craft, and unforgettable emotion.
Alex Lora is an award-winning Disabled Spanish filmmaker based in New York; a Fulbright scholar and 2025 Spanish Academy Award winner, with over 100 international awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and recognition as a 2025 Oscar® finalist. His films have screened at major festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, Shanghai, IDFA, Rotterdam, San Sebastián or Málaga. He has won 9 New York Emmy® Awards for his work at CUNY TV and was a nominee for the Student Academy Awards in 2012. He is known for blending cinematic artistry with deep social impact, exploring themes of class, race, identity, immigration, and disability. Alex is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

INTRODUCING THE JURY TEAM: GUEST JUROR - BRIGITTE POUPART
The 5th edition of Short Encounters International Film Festival brings together a team of BOLD visionaries. Each member of our jury brings a unique lens to storytelling, ensuring our selection celebrates bold voices, innovative craft, and unforgettable emotion. Brigitte Poupart is a multidisciplinary artist, theater director, actress, artistic director, playwright, and filmmaker whose boundless creativity has left an indelible mark on Quebec’s cultural landscape. Trained at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, she has built a career that defies categorization, seamlessly navigating theater, cinema, performance, and digital arts with equal mastery. A visionary in the performing arts, Poupart has directed and co-founded Transthéâtre, producing bold, original works such as Le Défilé des canards dorés (1998), Babel (2002), Cérémonials (2004), and the immersive multidisciplinary spectacle Jusqu’à ce qu’on meure (2022–2024), which toured internationally, including performances at Nuits de Fourvière (Lyon) and La Villette (Paris). Her theatrical repertoire spans intimate dramas like Anatomie d’un Su***de (2024) to large-scale outdoor productions, including L’Édifice (2003) and L’Autoroute (2006). A fearless collaborator, she has worked with provocative artists like Dave St-Pierre (Un peu de tendresse bo**el de m***e) and the satirical collective Les Zapartistes, while also directing major musical performances for festivals such as the Festival d’été de Québec and the Montreal Jazz Festival, collaborating with artists like Patrick Watson, Louis-Jean Cormier, and Karkwa.
In cinema, Poupart has made her mark both in front of and behind the camera. She earned a Gala Québec Cinéma acting award for her role in Les Affamés (2018) and starred in Philippe Falardeau’s Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar (2011) and Renée Beaulieu’s Les Salopes, ou le sucre naturel de la peau (2018), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). (more information about Brigitte will soon be available on our website, currently being renewed).)

INTRODUCING THE JURY TEAM: GUEST JUROR - ALEXNADER AARØEN PEDERSEN
The 5th edition of Short Encounters International Film Festival brings together a team of BOLD visionaries. Each member of our jury brings a unique lens to storytelling, ensuring our selection celebrates bold voices, innovative craft, and unforgettable emotion. Alexander Aarøen Pedersen is a composer, arranger, pianist, and musical director with a distinguished educational and professional background in film scoring, orchestral music, and theatrical productions. His training includes a First Class Honours Master’s in Scoring for Film and Visual Media from Pulse College, a Bachelor’s in Jazz Piano from Tromsø Conservatory, and elite programs such as the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop (selected from 350 international applicants) and the Los Angeles Conducting Intensive at Warner Brothers Studios, where he studied under industry legends like Conrad Pope (Harry Potter, Star Wars). Pedersen’s career highlights include composing the opening work for Bodø 2024 – European Capital of Culture, performed by the Arctic Philharmonic; scoring the Sundance 2025-premiered short film Em and Selma Goes Griffin Hunting, which earned Best Original Score awards at Filmquest and Short Encounters International Film Festival; and creating music for acclaimed productions like The Invisible People at Norway’s National Theatre. A recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Steve Kaplan TV & Film Studies Award and the Sparebanken Nord-Norge Talent Scholarship, he has also arranged for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), directed children’s performances, and contributed to festivals, blending classical, jazz, and contemporary influences into his evocative, genre-spanning work.

New Critical Analysis on “Missing Meaning”, an entirely mobile-created film, composed through a constellation of AI-driven applications. Directed by Vasco Diogo (analysis by Kiriakos Kotsinis)

New film review, on Andrés Hernández Covarrubias' short film “Old Well”. Thank you for reading. Viejo Pozo - Short Film