For the 14th time, Budapest cinemas will once again fill with short film enthusiasts as the Friss Hús Budapest International Short Film Festival returns with a vibrant selection of the latest Hungarian and international works. This year’s program places special emphasis on emerging filmmakers and formal experimentation, while themes such as identity, human connection, and coming of age strongly resonate throughout the animation sections as well.

Over the years, the festival has become one of the region’s most important professional platforms. Alongside pitch forums, workshops, and masterclasses, Friss Hús also serves as a gateway to international recognition for outstanding Hungarian films. The festival’s awards for Best Hungarian Live-Action Short Film and Best Hungarian Animated Short Film are Academy Award–qualifying, meaning the winners become eligible for Oscar consideration.

World Premieres and International Successes in the Competition Program

Among the competition titles is Zsuzsanna Kreif’s Adgwa-Ata, which will premiere in Cannes in the coming days. Set deep within the jungle, the film follows a fierce Amazon tribe that abducts three young girls in order to transform them into members of their community. During a shaman-led initiation ritual, the girls enter a mystical parallel world where they must confront giant, vibrantly colored snakes — their own totem animals. The journey becomes both a battle against fear and a metaphor for the challenges of growing up.

Anna Katalin Lovrity’s latest film, Lemon and Marble, will also screen at the festival. The story centers on an elegant yet emotionally distant woman and her adult daughter, who struggle to connect during a trip to Italy. As the daughter gradually recognizes her mother’s vulnerability, she begins to take on a new sense of responsibility. The film is a sensitive and intimate ode to femininity, bodily transformation, and fragile forms of togetherness.

Hungarian audiences will also have the chance to see Béla Klingl’s Creation before it screens in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The film explores how a painted canvas comes to life, giving birth to playful abstract forms that each carry deeply human stories.

Éva Darabos’s newest work, Funfair, will receive its world premiere at the festival. The story follows a young woman escaping from her future into a floating cube-shaped apartment, where she discovers a portal leading to a surreal universe inhabited by strange creatures.

Also featured in the competition is Gábor Ulrich’s Hopemachine or the New Sensibilities. This four-minute experimental animation examines human emotions and the role of hope through abstract and allegorical imagery, while its immersive sound design and meditative visual style create a hypnotic cinematic experience.

A New Generation of Hungarian Animation: Graduation Films and Panorama

Recent graduates of the animation department at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) will also debut their diploma films within the festival’s competition programs, including Márk László’s Bonefuzz, Dániel Diószeghy’s Cargo Voyage, Janka Feiner’s Fire in My Pocket, and Csanád Baksa-Soós’s Night Sky Elevator.

This year also marks the launch of a dedicated Animation Panorama section, offering audiences the opportunity to discover even more exciting contemporary works. The program includes films such as Enikő Svarcz’s Ideköt, Tünde Nagy’s Ház a tengeren, Zsófia Pethő’s Inlands, and Zsófia Csánki’s Lokál–Csepel Unleashed. Additional titles include Balázs Szentesi’s Matte, Ráhel Gáti’s About the Line, Nikoletta Veress’s Each All and Every, and Holló sztori, created by Bettina Boros, Brigitta Boros, Bertalan Fendrik, Imre Zoltán Németh, Réka Pavolek, and Vince Várkonyi.

The full festival program and ticket information are available on the official platforms of Friss Hús Budapest