Cyprus Film Days International Festival runs from 17 to 25 April at Rialto Theatre in Limassol and Zena Palace Cinema in Nicosia, bringing together daring narratives, personal stories and artistic explorations from around the world.
Glocal Images — International Competition
At the heart of the programme is the Glocal Images international competition, showcasing filmmakers from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds whose work tackles identity, social transformation and human relationships.
Nino (Pauline Loquès, 97′, 2025, France). A coming-of-age portrait following a young man in Paris during the three days before a defining moment in his life, during which his doctors assign him two missions that send him on a journey through the city and back to himself.
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (Ivona Juka, 137′, 2024, Croatia/Canada/Poland/Cyprus/Bosnia-Herzegovina). Four close friends who fought as Partisans in the Second World War reunite sixteen years later as established filmmakers, only to find their lives and careers threatened by a state official.
Hysteria (Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, 104′, 2025, Germany). When a burnt Quran appears on a film set, the shoot takes an unexpected turn and the crew is plunged into chaos.
Forastera (Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, 97′, 2025, Spain/Italy/Sweden). Set in Mallorca, a family gathers at the ancestral home after the death of their grandmother. The teenage granddaughter Cata’s grief takes an unexpected turn when she begins, almost instinctively, to inhabit the role of the deceased.
Sink (Zain Duraie, 87′, 2025, Jordan/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/France). A mother navigates her relationship with her son as he struggles with mental illness, in a film that probes the limits of endurance and family love.
Lust (Ralitza Petrova, 77′, 2026, Bulgaria/Denmark/Sweden). A corrections officer is confronted with a past she thought she had left behind, in a drama exploring the darker sides of desire and human isolation.
Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Morad Mostafa, 120′, 2025, Egypt/France/Germany/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/Sudan). A 26-year-old domestic worker from Sudan living in a central Cairo neighbourhood witnesses tensions between African migrants and local gangs.
Life in a Beat (Amerissa Basta, 93′, 2025, Greece/Cyprus/Bulgaria/North Macedonia/Montenegro/France). A young woman working in an Athens supermarket loses her job and discovers she is pregnant, forcing her to confront difficult choices.
Cypriot Competition
Hold Onto Me (Myrsini Aristeidou, 102′, 2025, Cyprus/Denmark/Greece/USA). Eleven-year-old Iris is carefree on the streets with her best friend when she learns her estranged father has returned to town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to meet him, she tracks him down to an abandoned shipyard where he has withdrawn.
Motherwitch (Minos Papas, 104′, 2026, Cyprus/North Macedonia). In 1882 Cyprus, a neglected painter attempts to resurrect her dead children and instead awakens the Kallikantzaroi of Cypriot folk tradition, setting a curse upon her village that she must now break.
Maricel (Ilias Dimitriou, 120′, 2025, Cyprus/Greece). A Filipina domestic worker takes on the care of an elderly couple in a mountain village in Cyprus. What seems simple at first becomes an invisible power game where the boundaries between need, fear and intimacy grow fragile.
Diversion (Marinos Kartikkis, 96′, 2025, Cyprus). Kostas, a divorced police officer with financial troubles who transports bodies to the mortuary, steals a cross from an elderly woman he is called to collect. He soon discovers that the deceased was the grandmother of his partner.
Viewfinder — Snapshots of Contemporary World Cinema
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino, 133′, 2025, Italy). The story of Mariano De Santis, President of Italy, a widower and devout Catholic who, as his term draws to a close, must make two critical decisions on presidential pardon requests. Winner of the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and the Brian Award at Venice 2025, and Best Film and Best Screenplay at Chicago International Film Festival 2025.
Yes (Nadav Lapid, 150′, 2025, France/Cyprus/Israel/Germany). Set in Israel in the aftermath of 7 October, a jazz musician and his dancer wife offer their art and bodies to whoever will pay as they try to survive in a country in crisis. The musician is tasked with an absurd mission: composing a new national anthem. Premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
Sound of Falling (Masha Schilinski, 149′, 2025, Germany). Four girls grow up on an isolated farm in northern Germany across different decades. As their stories unfold, what connects them slowly surfaces, blurring the line between past and present. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes 2025.
All That’s Left of You (Cherien Dabis, 145′, 2025, Germany/Cyprus/Palestine/Jordan/Greece/Qatar/Saudi Arabia). When a Palestinian teenager is swept up in a demonstration on the West Bank, his mother looks back over their family’s history in a journey full of hope and struggle. Winner of the Golden Gate Award for Best Fiction Feature and the Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature at San Francisco International Film Festival 2025, and Jordan’s official submission for the 98th Academy Awards.
Cinemas of Dissent
Μέρες του ’36 (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 100′, 1972, Greece). The murder of a trade unionist in a crowded square points suspicion at Sofianos, a disgraced former police informant, who takes a visiting MP hostage in prison and threatens to kill him unless he is freed.
Oh, What Happy Days! (Homayoun Ghanizadeh, 107′, 2025, Iran/USA/France/Canada). An actress on the verge of losing her family estate is forced into a live video call with relatives living in exile. As long-buried secrets surface, the reunion becomes a reckoning with the past.
Leila and the Wolves (Heiny Srour, 90′, 1984, UK/Lebanon). In contemporary London, a Lebanese woman prepares a photography exhibition highlighting women as unsung heroes of political conflict, journeying through real and imagined landscapes of Lebanon and Palestine.
Common Ground — Special Screenings
Invincibles / Neporazitelní (Daniel Pánek, 118′, 2025, Czech Republic/Cyprus/Slovakia). The lives of a successful advertising executive, a retiring coach and a rising athlete intersect unexpectedly during a major sporting event.
Utopolis (Vladimir Šubotić, 82′, 2024, Greece/Luxembourg). One night in Athens, a young refugee working on a construction site meets a neighbourhood watchman who blames migrants for his troubles. Suspicion turns to pursuit as both men are forced to confront their fears and their pasts.
The festival also includes a Children’s and Young People’s programme, special presentations and parallel events for industry professionals and audiences alike.
Full schedules and information on parallel activities are available on the festival website and social media.
Tickets
€5 per screening | €30 season pass (all festival screenings) Free for students with valid student card Free for schoolchildren (children’s programme) Free for disabled cardholders
All screenings, except the children’s programme, are for audiences aged 18 and over. All films screen in their original language with Greek and English subtitles. The Cypriot competition will also carry Turkish subtitles.
