Watersprite 2024
Nominees
We are delighted to announce the selected films for the fifteenth edition of Watersprite. This year’s programme consists of 36 films selected by volunteer judges and jurors from a record-breaking 1762 submissions.
A total of 46 filmmakers have been nominated for awards, the winners of which will be announced at our Awards Ceremony on Saturday 2nd March 2024.
All nominated films will be available to view online from February 23 - March 8 and will be screened in Cambridge on March 1 and March 2. Tickets will be released in the coming weeks.
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ALLÉGRESSE
Serge, a funeral agent, finds himself entrusted with the custody of his daughter, Inès, as well as the ashes of a stranger.
Seven.One Studios Fiction Nominee: Gillie Cinneri
Country: Belgium
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BITS
A short animation exploring the surreal beauty of nature and biology.
Animation Nominee: Rosa Sawyers
Country: UK
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BY FIRE
Anya is a wide-eyed uncorrupted understudy who has to replace the actress she idealises in the role of Medea, as she navigates within a morally distorted theatre company.
Cinematography Nominee: Evan Bridges
Country: UK
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CLOUDY
While avoiding a conversation with his mum, Elliot encounters a peculiar little creature in need of his assistance!
Sound Design Nominee: Lee Zhaoheng Ryan
Country: Singapore
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COMMON GROUND
When Dylan returns from university to his rural childhood home he faces a decision between his duty to the land and his desire for freedom.
Screenplay Nominee: Solomon Smith
Country: UK
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DADDY
A young woman rents a dad for one evening.
Casarotto Ramsay Directing Nominee: Ella Knorz
Country: Germany
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DO YOU SEE ME IN THE CAMERA (湖水(Hushui))
An independent filmmaker meets Xiaojie at a LGBTQ event. She keeps following and recording Xiaojie's life, until she dies in an accident.
Original Film Music Nominee: Zheng Liu
Country: China & UK
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DROWN THE NAME (Ahogar el nombre)
A woman awakens in her subconscious but does not recognize it. The incessant search for a sphere that will give her back what she has lost will lead her to a power struggle that seems to have no end.
Union VFX Experimental Nominees: Verónica Albornoz, Muriel Sago and Florencia Silva
Country: Argentina & Venezuela
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FOUR DEATHS
The story of a man told in four episodes where each one revolves around a death.
Screenplay Nominee: Roger Alsina Uribe
Country: UK
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HARVEST
A raw and visceral exploration of the director's personal journey harvesting eggs in the midst of uncertainty around motherhood.
Documentary Nominee: Sophia Seymour
Country: UK
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HOMEMAKER
Renee loses herself in a controlling relationship and the abuse she suffers gets worse until she is utterly trapped.
Wychwood Media Social Impact Nominee: Ciara Kerr
Country: UK
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HUBBLE'S LAW (Hablo desnis)
A mute guy struggles to fit in at a construction site. Tensions rise among the workers when a colleague gets badly injured.
Casarotto Ramsay Directing Nominee: Arnas Balčiūnas
Country: Lithuania
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IDRISSA ABARA
Idrissa, an ill scrap-metal collector living in Barcelona, gets back in touch with his roots when he discovers an unusual object amongst the garbage. As his health worsens, his creativity takes shape.
United Agents Performance Nominee: Jorel Paranoidomm
Country: Spain
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IN THE ROUGH (Matter Sommer)
13-year-old Linus, the son of success-oriented German-Lithuanian parents, begins to question the values of the adult world when he meets the fisherman Arūnas during a holiday in Lithuania.
Cinematography Nominee: Leon Hörtrich
Sound Design Nominees: Auksė Jurevičiūtė, Marius Pakštas
Country: Germany
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LULLABY FOR THE LOST
A sleeping man’s fading memory of his late Mother unravels through a recurring, hypermnesic dream that reverberates and transforms throughout his life, tracing from his final dream back to his first.
Union VFX Experimental Nominee: Tom Potter
Sound Design Nominee: Haydon Anderson
Country: UK
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MUM'S SPAGHETTI
MC mastermind Poppy and her beatboxing border terrier Snoop are the new kids in town – and they’re ready to make their reputation known. Straight As and bubble baths are their way of life – but when confronted by an older crew en-route her first day at school, Poppy quickly changes her tune.
Animation Nominee: Lisa Kenney
Production Design Nominee: Luke Stronach
Country: UK
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NEAR LIGHT
A young man, convicted murderer, has a chance of redemption when he enters the best Italian university of economics, going back and forth from prison to university every day.
Documentary Nominee: Niccolò Salvato
Country: Italy & UK
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NOHAM
The day of the family Christmas party, 7yr old Noham is dropped off by his father at a hotel where he is reunited with his mother, whom he hasn’t seen since she moved out of the family home. During this particular afternoon, Noham tries to unravel the mystery that lies behind his mother’s isolation.
United Agents Performance Nominee: Stanislav Duvetter
Country: Belgium
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NØKKELBARN
Young Erik is forced to make a family-fracturing decision.
Seven.One Studios Fiction Nominee: Sindre Mangen Haram
Country: Norway
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ON PURPOSE (META)
Early spring in a lonely village. An 8-year-old girl Mėta struggles to find help for her injured dog. Mėta’s journey raises questions about guilt and collective responsibilities of the community.
United Agents Performance Nominee: Elena Vasiliauskaitė
Country: Lithuania
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PARADISE EXPRESS
Naomi is accompanying her terminally ill mother to undergo euthanasia in Switzerland. As the moment to say goodbye approaches, their walls of laughter and denial begin to crack.
Screenplay Nominee: Neta Benyamini
Country: Israel
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PLASTIC TOUCH
Lucy has to choose between freedom and who she is in love with.
Salon Editing Nominees: David Beliën, Leonor Segovia
Country: Spain
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REMEMBER?
An old divorced couple with Alzheimer’s see each other for the first time in 10 years.
Costume Design Nominee: Florence Earnshaw
Country: UK
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SONG OF THE TADPOLE
The heart-warming life story of a girl and her pet tadpole.
Original Film Music Nominee: Louis Marlowe
Country: UK
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SONG OF THE WAVES (LE CHANT DES VAGUES)
Wychwood Media Social Impact Award Nominee: Colombe de Vallavieille
Country: France
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SUITCASE
Far from his own homeland, a Kurdish refugee lives in his suitcase.
Production Design Nominee: Saman Hosseinpuor, Ako Zandkarimi
Country: Iran, USA
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THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (Il compleanno di Enrico)
A discovery of horror.
Salon Editing Nominee: Francesco Sossai
Production Design Nominee: Paula Meuthen
Cinematography Nominee: Giulia Schelhas
Country: Germany & France & Italy
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THE GLOBE TROTTERS
With the help of his friends, a terminally ill young man lives out his bucket-list, though not in the way he expected.
Costume Design Nominee: Gabriel Snyder
Country: USA
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THE HOUSE OF RESIDUE (La Maison des résidus)
The architecture logs of the WIPP nuclear waste disposal from 2030 to the year 10,000.
Union VFX Experimental Nominee: Noah Jachez
Country: France
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THE LAST SKIERS
A precious statement on the fragility of nature, told by a generation of Italian skiers who have seen the slopes they learned to ski on turn into arid, yellow hills.
Documentary Nominee: Veronica Ciceri
Country: Italy & UK
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THE STEAK
A birthday ceremony preparation gets upside down as something horrible takes place.
Seven.One Fiction Nominee: Kiarash Dadgar
Casarotto Ramsay Directing Nominee: Kiarash Dadgar
Country: Iran
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THE W(HOLE)
A 2D animated allegory based on my BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) experience and self-healing process. It is about a girl who finds a hole in her body and embarks on a journey of filling it.
Original Film Music Nominee: Aalisha Jaisinghani
Country: USA
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TO THE MOON AND BACK (月見ごこち)
A story about birth and death.
Animation Nominee: Shuqin Li
Country: Japan & China
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VIC
Vic is an influencer. A pornographic video depicting her appears online. She posts: deepfake! For real?
Salon Editing Nominee: Luis Schubert
Country: Germany
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WALKING IN THESE SHOES
A social justice inspired post-motem tribute to the late HIV activist Derek Yee, long-time volunteer of Casey House, who was denied admission to the HIV-specialty hospital during his end of life and died alone at home
Wychwood Media Social Impact Nominees: Samuel Lopez & Christian Hui
Country: Canada
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WHAT LIES BETWEEN US
When two lovers wake up tangled in wildflowers in the middle of nowhere they must navigate the landscape and their insecurities as they struggle to confess how they feel.
Costume Design Nominee: Victoria White
Country: UK
To get in touch with any of our nominees please email producer@watersprite.org.uk