Braga Science Film Festival 2025

<p>Last May, record temperatures provoked a glacial lake outburst. Record flooding and monsoons swept away bridges and villages below the Shisper glacier. Higher up the mountains, a semi-nomadic people called the Wakhi were leading their yaks to summer pastures. This film profiles the scientists concerned with the changes in northern Pakistan&#39;s climate change and the villagers dedicated to upholding traditional values.</p>

<p>Alan suffers from a genetic disorder called NF1. He feels inadequate, shy and uncomfortable with himself due to bumps on different body parts. As a young boy, he draws and paints himself like a superhero. He grows from a carefree, spirited kid to a conscious young adult. The story revolves around Alan and his Ah-Ma relationship. It resolves when Ah-ma benignly encourages Alan to pursue his desire to get cool tattoos that give him some confidence around his peers.</p>

<p>A futuristic political‑dystopia short film in which a referendum on transferring governmental power to an artificial intelligence algorithm ends democracy. The protagonist, Sandra &mdash; once an activist against AI rule &mdash; now witnesses the consequences and fears the loss of any remaining spirit of critical thought.</p>

<p>All Flights Will Unfold is a new documentary exploring children&#39;s palliative care, interweaving themes of nature, resilience and the human experience. Directed by Gabriela Boeri and Leticia Rheingantz, the 30-minute film is produced by Casa Arara Azul, an emerging palliative care provider in Brazil. Through intimate interviews with families and healthcare professionals, the film delves into the need for more integrated approaches to caring for children facing life-limiting illnesses.</p>

<p>After being taken from her mother, Carmenia is adopted by Amel&igrave;a, an Artificial Intelligence. Trying to win her trust, Amel&igrave;a pushes Carmenia to face a dramatic choice between reality and illusion.</p>

<p>After an inadequately tested drug has been brought to the market, evidence emerges of a disastrous side-effect that makes people aggressive. In the country of Denmark everyone needs to stay away from each other to stay safe. Two teenage girls, home alone, unaware of the disaster, are trying to survive from an intruder who only has one thought on his mind: To get into the house!</p>

<p>A news crew investigates a mysterious anomaly reported by residents of a small Latvian village, but the more questions are asked, the less clear it all gets&hellip;</p>

<p>The Arctic is the region of our planet most affected by climate change. Sea ice is melting, coastlines are eroding, permafrost is thawing, and as a result, ecosystems are changing rapidly. The animated short &ldquo;Arctic Shifts&rdquo; asks the viewer to consider the connection between our human activity and the emergence of this &ldquo;New Arctic.&rdquo; How does a breath you take affect the lives of phytoplankton in the Arctic? What happens to all the other creatures in the Arctic and around the world when the lives of these single-celled photosynthesizing organisms at the base of the food web change?</p> <p>&ldquo;Arctic Shifts&rdquo; grows from a collaboration between artist Anna Lindemann and scientist Dr. Alice DuVivier, a polar climate modeler at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The animation draws extensively from scientific research on the changing Arctic and incorporates visualizations of the Arctic&rsquo;s future climate generated using a state-of-the art global climate model. At the same time, &ldquo;Arctic Shifts&rdquo; depicts speculative futures about Arctic food webs that currently fall outside the scope of scientific simulations. The animation presents three stories about possible Arctic futures.</p>

<p>Under the burning sun, a solitary bull awaits tireless, whilst a man jumps deep into the darkest waters of his persona, in their common attempt to defeat death.</p>

<p>A tremor having no apparent origin pushes Valya towards the exterior, towards the unknown.</p>

<p>The piece offers an intimate, poetic exploration of life with an autoimmune or rheumatic condition, framing the dialogue between body and mind. It surfaces the internal struggle, acceptance challenges, and resilience required when living with a chronic health issue, reflecting on physical fragility and emotional depth</p>

<p>A series of satirical animated videos based on animal exploitation in Switzerland. &laquo; The series L&rsquo;&eacute;levage engage!, resulting from the collaboration between Marcel Barelli and the Observatoire du sp&eacute;cisme, offers a look that is as biting as it is factual behind the scenes of animal farming in Switzerland.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>Call of the Silent Cell</em>&nbsp;is an experimental film of cellular behaviour centred on the interplay between the gut microbiome, the immune system and wider concerns regarding the symbiosis of human and environmental health.</p> <p dir="ltr">The beautiful patterns of nature, as we might experience on a walk in the woods, can also be found in our bodies. <em>Call of the Silent Cell&nbsp;</em>gives you the opportunity to briefly enter this magical world as a storm breaks, revealing we are not as separated from nature as we think.</p> <p dir="ltr">In the film you journey with an old man who wanders through a forest, meditating on the fragility of his body and the environment. A storm arrives, &lsquo;not of breath and air but of cells and their signals&rsquo;, revealing a disturbance in the body, an immune system in overdrive. Emerging from the storm the old man gains a new wisdom that his bodily health is deeply intertwined with the life of the forest.</p> <p dir="ltr">The film reflects on the latest insights revealed by single cell analysis and was produced in collaboration with Human Cell Atlas members, Marcin Pekalski and Melanie Dunstan, based at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, the University of Oxford.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Call of the Silent Cell</em> is produced by Fusion Arts and commissioned by One Cell At A Time, a public engagement project with the Human Cell Atlas research initiative that is mapping every cell type in the human body. This work was funded in whole by Wellcome Trust Grant 218597/Z/19/Z.</p>

<p>Together with a Belgian research team, Kushlani Dissanayake, a young Sri Lankan scientist and mother, goes on an expedition in the waters around Sri Lanka in order to collect crucial information to protect the coral reefs from perishing. Gathering DNA-samples of corals, she tries to uncover the distribution patterns of the coral populations and their larvae. Through the professional endeavor and personal story of Kushlani, we discover the deep waters around Sri Lanka, as well as her view on motherhood, human kind and a theory on &#39;the survival of the kindest&#39;.</p>

<p>When musician Frankie Lane collapses from a sudden heart attack during a holiday in Cork, his wife Anita faces every family&rsquo;s worst nightmare. Against staggering odds, paramedic Pat McCarthy resuscitates Frankie using CPR and a defibrillator&mdash;a rare success in Ireland, where only 7% of cardiac arrest victims survive outside hospitals.</p>

<p>Crybaby Dumpventures by Raquel de Medeiros Deliberador</p>

<p>PhD student Zechariah sets off to a historical cemetery in the countryside with his lover Seda for his thesis research. On the way, they bump into something they are not aware of. This creates an enigma between the two characters. Seda will make an important decision on this journey</p>

<p>From homework to grocery shopping and from healthcare to farm life - the human experience is changed drastically by the seemingly unstoppable onset of data, algorithms and AI. But is this an improvement? Ethicist Tamar Sharon researches how digitalisation changes our lives and how Big Tech embeds itself into ever more aspects of the public domain. Do we profit from this development, or does it primarily pad the pockets of Silicon Valley giants? Sharon advocates for regulation as well as a shift in thinking so that technology once again serves the public interest.</p>

<p>Homologous recombination is crucial in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, correcting errors, and maintaining genomic integrity.</p>

<p>Dust Doesn&rsquo;t Think of Us interrogates Western bio-ontologies that privilege living, thinking beings over inert, non-living matter. Drawing inspiration from a local cemetery encountered during fieldwork in the Gobi Desert, the film blends footage by Flora Weil and filmmaker Maria Fernandez Pello to explore human relationships with nonlife &mdash; through geomantic practices, mineral collections, burial sites, and archaeological remains. The film engages in a speculative conversation with desert dust to challenge the supremacy of &ldquo;thinking life,&rdquo; suggesting that categories such as life and nonlife are culturally constructed and mutable. Commissioned for the Design in Rising Winds Atlas by Flora Weil, M+ Museum, and Design Trust, the film unfolds as a poetic meditation on the porous boundaries between thought, being, and materiality.</p>

<p>Emmy is a tribute to the german mathematician Emmy Noether. it&rsquo;s the portrait of a woman, of a scientist and the times she lived in. As she travels to paris on board of the Orient-Express, Emmy works on an equation deemed impossible to prove. The film follows her over the day, as landscapes and different emotions pass by, until her arrival in Paris and to the Congress.</p>

<p>How can exploding batteries, bowling showdowns, and electrifying animations help us understand how batteries work? Energy to Spare shows how scientists are revolutionizing battery technology for the renewable energy age.</p>

<p>Quantum entangled particles are forever linked, no matter their distance in spacetime. Some of us are connected in these mysterious ways.<br /> Like the elusive realm of physics, love often presents itself as deciphered, only to unfold a new universe when a new theory is encountered.<br /> This experimental short film tells a non-dialogue story about a relationship.</p>

<p>&quot;Estela&quot; tells the story of a curious and determined girl who, from a young age, has had one goal: to travel to space. Her life runs parallel to that of an important scientific project that will change her life, a project that will take her... where no one has gone before.</p>

<p>Fragmentation documents a dramatic scientific experiment aboard an icebreaker (the CCGS Amundsen) in maritime Quebec. A team of oceanographers and ice‑specialists deploy measuring instruments on a sea ice floe; then the ship accelerates to generate a large wave that breaks up significant ice &mdash; offering a visceral, sensory portrayal of human intervention in nature. Rather than explaining the science in didactic detail, the film preserves mystery and invites viewers to reflect on humanity&rsquo;s relationship with nature and the consequences of environmental change.</p>

<p>Arts and science go hand in hand, each combines passion, perplexity, emotion, and cold facts. Here I present my PhD in Astrobiology by Dance. Each part of my study is represented by a dance which is synced with the environment and the energy of that part of my research. I study Earth to understand Mars.</p> <p>One way of exploring potential habitability beyond Earth is done by searching for habitats on Earth to understand how the interaction between life and the environment is seen in the geology of Earth. When life first appeared on Earth, it shared a geological history with Mars, which may have had a hydrothermal habitat suitable for microbes that use sulfur as an energy source.</p> <p>However, Mars&rsquo; surface water and atmosphere slowly declined, leaving the modern surface of Mars a hostile environment. My study investigates the interaction between sulfate-rich sediments and magmatic intrusions called dikes in samples taken from the San Rafael Swell, Utah, USA.</p> <p>The sediments which formed during the Jurassic around 166 million years ago, were deposited under the Sundance Sea which covered most of modern Utah. As the sea receded, it left behind sulfate-rich salts that were then uplifted and folded by tectonic movements, mobilizing the salts into veins. These veins are similar to veins found on the surface of Mars. Finally, hot molten magma intruded into the sediments, releasing liquids that can be used as a habitat by microorganisms.</p> <p>The factors that make the area habitable are studied by taking samples and through field investigation. The samples are examined using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and a Raman laser. From the laboratory data, the liquid is reconstructed according to past and present Mars conditions, examining the potential habitability using live microbial growth experiments.</p> <p>SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman &amp; Luminescence for Organics &amp; Chemicals) is mounted on Perseverance&rsquo;s robotic arm. This will allow the San Refael samples to be compared with future Raman data from Mars and potential Mars samples when they are returned to Earth.</p> <p>The implications of my research could help find potentially habitable environments during the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at Jezero Crater where volcanic activity may have formed a sulfur-rich hydrothermal environment.</p>

<p>Great Serbian scientist Michael Pupin was raised in a small village. As a shepherd, he encountered amazing natural phenomena, which led him to the world of natural science.</p>

<p>Girls are made to make love follows a sociologist&#39;s investigation into sexuality in couples. She meets heterosexual women aged between 25 and 45. The interviews deal with experiences, desire and love, as well as norms in male/female relationships but also paths to emancipation.</p>

<p>Four children, aged 5 to 15, explore aphasia, sharing their thoughts and demonstrating how they communicate and interact with someone facing verbal expression challenges.</p>

<p>Hedgehog Windows is a documentary that explores the inner worlds of neurodivergent adults. It addresses a significant gap between research and the lived experiences of neurodivergent people, highlighting their personal stories. The film gives them a &ldquo;voice&rdquo; metaphorically and literally by using their voice recordings as the base for its storyline.</p>

<p>Luc&iacute;a and Manuel have just moved into a semi-detached house after many years of sharing a flat. Now they want to have a baby, but their only realistic option is to have a &ldquo;shared child.&rdquo;</p>

<p>A middle-aged, lonely woman, turns to an AI companion in an attempt to fill the void that has remained empty for years.</p>

<p>The work depicts a &ldquo;monumental, yet fragile and limping kinetic creature &mdash; the embodiment of Progress.&rdquo; It invites the audience to literally stand still, to pause and reflect, before continuing on their habitual rush toward &ldquo;better, more, and faster.&rdquo;</p>

<p>A drop of water precipitates from a cloud and falls on a little girl who suffers the consequences of the drought. Together they embark on a journey to reach the sea, during wihch the drop sees the problems of the lack of water that endanger the life of the girl and the rest of the community.</p>

<p>The documentary visits the world&rsquo;s only &ldquo;whale warehouse,&rdquo; where a vast collection of whale skeletons is stored. Through the eyes of host and scientists, the film explores the history of 20th‑century whaling, the dramatic impact it had on whale populations, and reflects on what humanity&rsquo;s whale‑hunting legacy means for the future of oceans and conservation.</p>

<p>A grape is eaten. It then embarks on a long and perilous journey through the human body.</p>

<p>Interplay is a 2025 short documentary directed by Sanne Rovers, featuring malaria researcher Teun Bousema. The film follows Bousema and his team in northern Uganda as they investigate the malaria parasite&#39;s life cycle, focusing on how humans infect mosquitoes. Utilizing simple tools like petri dishes and vacuum cleaners, they confront the parasite&#39;s mutations and the looming threat of drug resistance. The documentary showcases the relentless scientific efforts against this adaptable adversary.</p>

<p>KHARVAN is a mixed-media documentary exploring the coexistence between smooth-coated otters and the ancient Khazan ecosystem of Goa. Blending live-action and animation, the film delves into the unique socio-ecological balance of these human-engineered wetlands, highlighting their rich biodiversity, cultural heritage, and the challenges they face today. Through a narrative that intertwines wildlife, local traditions, and conservation, KHARVAN tells a captivating story of harmony, resilience, and the urgent need to protect the Otters living in these ecosystems.</p>

<p>The formation of Lake Baikal in Siberia is reimagined, featuring the voice of a Buryat woman who can still recall some words in her endangered Buryat-Mongolian language.</p>

<p>An educational animated short in which Looloo and her prehistoric human friends learn how to build a shelter &mdash; teaching basic prehistoric survival skills in a fun, child‑friendly way.</p>

<p>A grieving brother undergoes an experimental memory trial to reconnect with his comatose sister, only to discover a dimension where she might still be alive.</p>

<p>Lu&atilde; is an autistic boy with a hyperfocus on astronomy, and on a school visit to a Planetarium, he discovers that &quot;a wolf ate the moon&quot;. Without understanding metaphors, the 10-year-old boy begins an investigation to find out what happened to his favorite star. In a magical make-believe, Astor, the school janitor, helps Lu&atilde; discover what happened to the Moon and it shines again in the sky. P.S.: Our protagonist Davi Burg is an autistic boy.</p>

<p>&quot;Not Alone&rdquo; is an experimental 2D animated film about a cat that absorbs their twin sister during fetal development, a medical phenomenon known as chimerism. The story follows the cat&rsquo;s battle with mental health and processing a vivid fantasy world. Through the waves of pain, the sisters reunited. In the end, they both turned into stars.</p>

<p>Isolated from the outside world, Nura perseveres in her house in the middle of a barren landscape, without vegetation or water supply, convinced that she can meet her daily needs on her own. One night, her son Leon appears unexpectedly on her doorstep and tries to convince her to take part in a government resettlement project. Will Nura have to bow to the forces of nature and become one of the millions of other climate refugees, or will she manage to survive in this hostile environment?</p>

<p>A lil wound for a boy, a huge catastrophe for the organism. When a boy hurts his knee, the inhabitants of the body come to action to save the day in a microscopic (and crazy) adventure.</p>

<p>Ants, earthworms, bees, butterflies and woodlice are the heroes of this animated short. From the drawings they have made, a group of children tell us about the development, the places of life, and the roles that these insects have within the ecosystem of which they are a part.</p>

<p>My parents are these super cool adventurers, but me? Adventures are only in my video games. But guess what? This one time during my vacation in the Pyrenees, real adventures happened for real! The wild nature totally won me over, and my geeky heart was like, &#39;Wow!&#39; And you know what made it all happen? My mom&#39;s phone! Wait, wait! Let me draw it for you...</p>

<p>When the UK government ignores mounting evidence for climate breakdown, three British scientists turn to civil disobedience to warn the public themselves, risking arrest, a criminal record and their professional reputations. A window into the world of reluctant activism, Plan Z explores the power of protest when established routes of influence fail.</p>

<p>PLASTIC ARCTIC documents the issue of plastic pollution in the Arctic &mdash; combining the filmmaker&rsquo;s travels and polar‑exploration footage to show how debris and waste are affecting fragile Arctic environments.</p>

<p>Radium Madness is a psychological thriller about a young scientist developing madness from Radiation.</p>

<p>An animated short explaining cutting‑edge research aiming to design a new hydrogel inspired by natural adhesion &mdash; specifically mimicking the mucous layer that protects the colon in healthy individuals. The animation illustrates how researchers at C&Uacute;RAM are working to recreate this protective membrane with bio‑adhesive materials, translating complex biomedical science into an accessible visual story.</p>

<p>June 1971 - in a fluid landscape completely below sea level, a young biology student dies during the last year of his studies, leaving behind an unfinished scientific collection. More than fifty years later, a group of ecologists and volunteers are trying to understand and document the same environment as it is today.</p>

<p>The space industry is undergoing unprecedented transformation, spearheaded by scrappy start ups, ambitious national space programs, and bold innovators. In this documentary, we explore how simulation is revolutionizing the space sector, pushing the limits of innovation, and driving mission success in an increasingly challenging and unforgiving environment.</p>

<p>Soil is our closest alien world. STRATA INCOGNITA, is a trans-scalar and trans-temporal journey across the geographies that articulate soil as an agro-industrial infrastructure, but also as an ecosystem and a somatic archive of crimes, memories and myths.</p>

<p>A team of scientists explore the vanished island of Testerep off the Belgian coast. Traditional excavations are combined with advanced technologies, like computer simulations and sound wave analyses, to trace the coastal evolution over 5,000 years.<br /> As researchers decode the mysteries, they contemplate the symbiotic relationship between humans, technology, and our temporal landscape, offering glimpses into future virtual worlds and bridging the gaps between the past, present, and the ever-evolving role of technology in shaping our understanding of the world.</p>

<p>Vincenzo is on a first date with Sara, where he asks for help from an AI based app that prompts him what to say. Their love story develops, and then they arrange a blind date for their best friends, advising them both to use artificial intelligence.</p>

<p>Over the course of a month at sea, an international team of scientists attempt to gain insights into the Earth&rsquo;s last deglaciation period. Around 15,000 years ago, the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet destabilized and then retreated at an accelerated rate, but the reasons for this rapid deglaciation remain unclear. The Baffin Bay Deglacial Experiment (BADEX) seeks a greater understanding of this paleoclimate event, in the hopes of gaining deeper insights into climate change today.</p>

<p>When Catarina finds out that she is pregnant, she questions the responsibility of bringing a child into this world.</p>

<p>Mathilde, a young French acoustician fascinated by the power of sound, attempts to invent a new way to grieve &mdash; she seeks to travel through time via sound and &ldquo;find the souls of the departed.&rdquo; The film meditates on grief, memory, loss, and the possibility of reconnecting with those who have passed away through a sonic experience.</p>

<p>After a global catastrophe, a volcanologist and a crow live in a deserted ice desert. Driven by deep longing, he fights for survival and builds a mysterious construct.</p>

<p>A film about the history of Humanity in waves - from chaos to creation and extinction. The death of species, the search for new places, the loss of beauty. Despite the warning messages, no one cares or does anything. ✨️Nominated for best picture - Portuguese Cinema Award at the 45 th Fantasporto (2025) Porto International Film Festival.</p>

<p>A lonely robot in a small greenhouse.</p>

<p>In this charming comedy, an elderly couple are surprised with a mysterious package delivery that they never ordered. Once they discover its contents, their usual routine undergoes a significant, yet entertaining, change.</p>

<p>An animated short that delves into the biology, evolution, and social meaning of human laughter. Using engaging visuals and narration, the film explores why laughter emerged &mdash; what happens in our bodies when we laugh, and how laughter connects us as social animals. Through science-based explanations, it reveals laughter not only as a response to humor but as a deeply rooted human behavior shaped by evolution and shared community.</p>

<p>A math professor, rejected over and over again for publication, finds herself supplanted by her genius-level teaching assistant, and resorts to drastic measures to re-assert her authority.</p>

<p>A short fiction film that creates a mood of mystery and introspection &mdash; characters navigate silence, unspoken tensions or hidden truths.</p>

<p>Science can predict the trail of a wave from its origin to its end. However, the complex relationships that humans have established with nature escape its understanding. When a surfer and a wave meet, whatever can usually be explained becomes inexplicable, and science can no longer decode that passion.</p>

<p>This animated short reveals how excessive consumption of sugar and processed foods can harm human health and contribute to chronic disease &mdash; especially diabetes. Using accessible visuals, the film traces the journey from dietary choices to long-term impacts, and highlights how lifestyle changes can help prevent illness. The goal is to raise awareness about sugar&rsquo;s risks and encourage healthier habits.</p>

<p>An animated short exploring the far reaches of the universe, and the poetry behind science.</p>

<p>An inner journey through the universe of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), particularly their inability to stay still or quiet, and the feeling that they are trapped within themselves, fighting against their own view of the world and what is expected of them. After winning the Take One! with &ldquo;That&rsquo;s How it Was&rdquo; (2016), Joana Nogueira and Patr&iacute;cia Rodrigues return to Curtas.</p>

<p>Two computers exchange data all day long, until one of them has a quirky idea: it sends a joke! Is it a short circuit, a software bug? This anomaly gradually transforms their wired connection into a spiritual connection, creating a spark of humanity between the two robots, sweet and heady, which could potentially destroy their programming.</p>

<p>180 million years ago, through a chance horizontal gene transfer, ferns acquired a much needed light sensor (neochrome) that allowed them to modify and survive in low light environments.&nbsp;</p> <p>We should all be so lucky.</p>

<p>Two small cells meet and grow up in harmony, until a forced separation turns them into beings so different<br /> that they cannot continue on their journey together.</p>

<p>Ella Turner lives between pink and blue. Translated into the language of colours and their impact on mood and emotion, the film engages with colour theory, spanning physics, psychology and aesthetics while exploring social constructs and the natural world. Turner is a cyclothymic and synaesthetic journey through wavelengths, ranging from low moods to feelings of exuberance, which Ella experiences as she navigates the world.</p>

<p>Amidst harsh winter conditions, Patagonia Park Argentina&rsquo;s rewilding team works to dismantle deadly fences &ndash; enabling guanacos to continue their ancestral migrations unimpeded. This effort is part of their remarkable mission to restore the Patagonian steppe. This 12-minutes short wildlife documentary is a journey into the heart of Patagonia Park, Argentina, where the spectacle of winter migrations unfolds against the backdrop of ongoing rewilding efforts.</p>

<p>Visions of the Fungicene is a speculative approach for the articulation of new space-time frameworks on future ecosystems, which digitally/immersively shows a possible scenario of planetary terraforming (in a post-anthropocene era) co-designed from biological principles contained in the morphological patterns of various species of fungi that, guided by artificial intelligence algorithms, generate ecosystems, planetary landscapes and neo-topographies: synthetic territories that would reconstitute the current scenarios of devastation in another world.</p>