The Circle of Life

An unexpected cast of characters takes center stage: high school students at a boarding school, a young man terrified of the dentist, an Alien trying to disguise as a human, and more. Moving between the personal, the social and the existential, this selection of Israeli animated shorts from the past year turns everyday fears, desires and absurdities into bold, funny and intimate cinematic worlds

Cycle of Life | Amit Barkani | 2025 | 7 min.
Jeff and his friend Horse are walking through a grove when suddenly Jeff steps on a rotten apple. He kicks it away, and in return, Horse turns him into an apple seed. Jeff is forced to learn about the Cycle of Life while going through the different stages of an apple tree.

NSFW | Shacham Rubin, Tom Kariv | 2025 | 2 min.
An endless daydream between deadlines and finish lines, capturing the absurdity, effort, and sweat - nine to five. The film expresses the alienation and loneliness of modern life, turning everyday existence into an ongoing confrontation between desire and limitation. Much like the adrenaline of sports, the free market challenges individuals to outshine their rivals in the relentless pursuit of fame and success.

Dentophobia | Dina Spivak | 2026 | 7 min.
While suffering from a trapped wisdom tooth trying to get out, Meg grudgingly decides to go to the dentist to get it pulled. There, she must embark on an inner journey inside her own mouth, where she must face the cause of her pain, and learn what it takes to truly heal.

Light Tower | Dima Tretyakov | 2025 | 7 min.
In a city plagued by storms of darkness, a stranger brings a miraculous light. But when the city’s watchman discovers its power, he claims it for himself, with unexpected consequences.

Roll [with] It | Tony Danilhenko, Shahar Loni | 2026 | 9 min.
Tony, Denis and Drina, three Soviet immigrant teens, meet behind the boarding school bushes to share a leftover cigarette, before each embarks on a musical journey toward fulfilling a dream.

I AM FINE | Osi Wald | 2025 | 4 min.
Animated diary entries from 2022-2025 - years of protest and war. Through loops of domestic routines and dreams extracted from abstract stains, I create fragile bubbles of sanity, attempting to exist within a fracturing reality without normalizing the horror, questioning what lies behind the automatic answer, 'I am fine'.

Zoning Area 51 | Evyatar Toledano | 2026 | 6 min.
A lone alien lands on Earth, disguises himself as a human, and infiltrates the neighbors' Friday night dinner. There, in his failed attempts to fit in, he discovers a big secret and learns what it really means to be human.

Dreaming in color | Ariel Toffler | 2026 | 4 min.
Over the course of a single night, we follow the dreams of different members of one family.