UFFB 2026: SHORT FILM COMPETITION - PROGRAM 1: HOMEWARD

What does it mean to move homeward when home has been occupied, transformed, or left behind? These films follow uncertain passages across physical, emotional, and temporal distances: a man chooses to remain in his threatened hometown; a son waits for news from his mother in occupied territory; a child attempts to return home through the mechanical body of a robotic dog; and a granddaughter reaches across decades to reconnect with a family history shaped by displacement and war. Homecoming is no longer a single movement toward a place, but a fragile negotiation between memory and absence, grief and continuity, those who remain, those who return, and those who can return only through remembrance.

HOMECOMING 19’ Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk, Ukraine 2026
A few years after fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion, a boy returns home via a robotic dog, his mechanical avatar, which he controls from his room in Poland. Through this remote presence, he relives memories and reconnects with his past — a connection that now depends on a fragile video stream that could be cut off at any moment.

UNAVAILABLE 20’ Kyrylo Zemlyanyi, Ukraine, 2025
Serhii, a young man who fills his days with volunteer work, loses contact with his mother living in occupied territory. When his mother finally decides to evacuate, he learns that a humanitarian convoy from his hometown has been destroyed in a bombing raid.

APOCALYPSE YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW, AND THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW / APOKALYPSA VCERA, DNES, ZÍTRA A POZÍTRÍ 20’ Anastasiia Bonadyha, Czech Republic, Ukraine, 2025
Through the story of Bohdan, an ordinary man living in Nikopol, the director explores why some people choose to stay in their homeland even when every day might be their last. Bohdan's quiet strength lies in his unwavering faith and ability to find meaning in life, no matter what challenges each new day brings. The film contemplates humanity, resilience, and belief in the face of an unfolding apocalypse.

MY GRANDMOTHER IS A SKYDIVER 13’ Polina Piddubna, Ukraine 2025
Alfyia, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother's safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.