Programa

In the 1970s, the Ukrainian animation studio Kyivnaukfilm produced a popular series of animated shorts titled How the Cossacks…, directed by the master animator Volodymyr Dakhno. The protagonists were three comedic Cossacks who embarked on various adventures. Each episode placed them in a different context: helping peasants, taking part in the Olympic Games, traveling to other countries, or fighting enemies. Its visual humor and lack of dialogue made it accessible to audiences of all ages and languages. It became a classic of Soviet animation and an endearing symbol of Ukrainian popular culture. In this 2025 edition of our festival, we are bringing back the second installment, dedicated to how the Cossacks played football.

Sylvie and Karim have been thinking it over a lot — at every breakfast and on every trip from the toilet to the shower. They are ready to invest the money they earned scrubbing toilets and cleaning the Bellevue Hotel in Sylvie’s ultimate dream: signing a national football player.

High in the Karakoram mountain range, Karishma, a young Wakhi woman, leads a women’s football tournament, defying the patriarchal norms of her community while drawing on her grandmother’s wisdom to empower the mountain girls and fight for a fairer world.

Faced with the loss of his job and the emigration of his best friend, Benny forms an-impromptu Sunday League football team to cling to the past, sparking a chaotic romance with his flatmate.

After a life-changing accident, George Dowell finds his purpose by transforming the football club and team of his childhood, Worthing FC. The film documents George’s first-hand account of living with a disability, as he pursues a career while fighting for his club’s promotion.