67th TIFF: the films of the NextGen section

The 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival celebrates young people’s perspectives through its NextGen section. Nine feature films and seven short films from around the world will be screened a limited number of times as part of TFF’s educational screening programme (in person and online), giving students and teachers across Greece the opportunity to enjoy original and moving cinematic experiences, meet the directors and talk with them.

As part of the section, TFF presents morning educational screenings for schools at the Stavros Tornes screening room (Warehouse 1, Port), as well as in Stavroupoli and Sykies, in collaboration with the Municipalities of Pavlos Melas and Neapoli-Sykies, respectively. In addition, most of the films in the programme will be screened during the 67th edition as part of the Kids Love Cinema and Teens Love Cinema initiatives for parents and children. Admission is free for children and teenagers under the age of 18, with a complimentary ticket required.

The films of the Next Gen section:

Bytes Away From Home

Nickolas Theofilos Tsironis

USA, 2026, 6΄

Age: 14+

A young woman drifts between the noise of the digital world and the silence of nature, drawn into a surreal encounter that forces her to question what is real, what is ‘’made up,’ and where her true self belongs.

Hotel Oblique

Merlin Flügel

Germany, 2026, 8΄

Age: 12+ (available online)

A budgie finds itself in a luxurious wellness hotel that promises stressed birds peace and relaxation. But, between the lulling sound of the fountains and the soothing massages, it longs only to return to the safety of its cage. Hotel Oblique deals with the tension between autonomy and belonging, between leaving familiar structures behind and searching for orientation in unfamiliar surroundings.

Tutti

Rong-Zuo Zhuang

Taiwan, 2026, 19΄

Age: 8+ (available online)

Rong-chen is a struggling member of the recorder team. After repeated mistakes during rehearsal, her teacher warns that she may not be allowed to join the upcoming performance. One afternoon, she meets Shao-yu, a classmate who has just told the teacher he must quit the team because of his weak lung capacity. Admiring his playing, Rong-chen asks for help. Shao-yu hesitates, but offers a few suggestions — suggestions that turn into lessons, and lessons that turn into days of shared practice and laughter. As Rong-chen’s music slowly takes shape, she begins to sense that Shao-yu’s reason for quitting may not be what it seems.

Iron Boy

Kids Love Cinema - 15/11, 13:00, Tonia Marketaki theater

Louis Clichy

France-Belgium, 2026, 90’

Age: 12+

In rural France, Christophe (11) tries to live up to his rigid and distant father on the family farm. But the young boy starts to lean over and collapse without warning — on the tractor, at school, at dinner... A doctor finds the solution: Christophe must wear an iron corset to keep himself upright. Forced to reinvent his life away from the farm, Christophe discovers a new passion for music, meets a new friend, and follows her into his first mischief. But will any of this really fix what is out of balance?

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!

Andrea Szelesová

Czech Republic-Slovakia, 2026, 13’

Age: 8+ (available online)

In the clouds high above Earth lies a mythical playground where the young generation of Greek goddesses, gods and monsters come together to play. Among them is Yios, a little boy with a shining sun on his head which he has inherited from his father, the god Helios. While his father’s crown creates beautiful patterns, Yios is struggling to control his shine. His rays explode in unexpected directions, creating trouble and making the other youngsters avoid him. Despite his eagerness to belong, the mishaps keep piling up and the situation escalates: the other kids devise a mean prank which leads to Yios falling from the clouds, all the way down to Earth. In this strange and unfamiliar place, Yios meets someone entirely unexpected.

Brave Cat

Kids Love Cinema - 15/11, 14:00, Olympion theater

Gabriel Osorio

Chile, 2026, 92΄

Age: 8+

Kona, a teenage wildcat, lives with her mother and grandmother in the forest – the same forest where the Man, a solitary, black-clad and vengeful figure, uses trained and feral dogs to trap animals and exploit them in the floating circus he runs for those who can afford the spectacle. When Kona’s mother falls into his trap, Kona sets out to find her, joined by a three-legged puppy and a bear who has escaped the circus. The first feature by Oscar-winning Chilean filmmaker Gabriel Osorio may sound like a familiar children’s adventure, but it is also an allegory for the abductions, disappearances and killings that have scarred Chile and the rest of Latin America. A lyrical animation for children and adults about love, resistance, and forgiveness, as gentle and as sharp as a wildcat.

The Little Hotel Detective

Julia van Braak

Netherlands, 2025, 21΄

Age: 8+ (available online)

At the start of the holiday, eleven-year-old Billie is thrilled to finally spend some time with her mother, Estella, a busy hotel owner. But when a secret hotel inspector checks in, everything changes. Billie turns into a detective, determined to uncover the inspector’s identity and win back her mother’s attention.

Will You Care If I Die?

Teens Love Cinema - 14/11, 14:00, Frida Liappa

Rojda Sekersöz

Sweden, 2026, 113΄

Age: 13+ (available online)

When youth worker Nic crosses paths with Elijah, a troubled teenager with undeniable basketball talent, he sees more than just a boy in need of help. Determined to steer him away from a destructive path, Nic takes Elijah under his wing, risking personal and professional boundaries to help him realize his potential both on and off the court. Will You Care If I Die? is a moving and hopeful drama about an unlikely friendship, based on Nicolas Lunabba’s praised autobiographical book of the same name.

Learning To Breathe Under Water

Kids Love Cinema - 14/11, 17:00, Stavros Tornes theater

Rebekah Fortune

Ireland-UK-Netherlands, 2026, 95΄

Age: 10+

Eight-year-old Leo lives with his dad and a giant shark, which crashed through the roof of their home. Yes, you read that correctly. The shark is Leo’s best friend, to whom he can confide all his secrets. He can’t really talk to his dad; he must be missing mum, who’s been gone five years now. Then Anya the au pair bursts into their lives, and their world suddenly changes. It’s more cheerful and Leo discovers that the metal shark doesn’t have to be his only friend. An enchanting film for parents and children about how to talk together and how to grieve together. About how the world of adults is sometimes hard to understand, and how children’s opinions really should be taken seriously. And, above all, it’s about learning how to breathe again.

I Matter

Teens Love Cinema - 13/11, 20:00, Stavros Tornes theater & 14/11, 16:00, Tonia Marketaki theater

Alina Şerban

Romania-Germany-Belgium, 2026, 100’

Age: 15+

Rebeca, a young Roma girl, is on the verge of being kicked out of her orphanage. She clings to the hope that her father's release from prison will finally give her a family, unaware that growing up will demand more than she ever imagined.

A Family

Teens Love Cinema - 08/11, 17:00, Stavros Tornes

Mees Peijnenburg

Netherlands-Belgium, 2026, 89΄

Age: 16+

Fourteen-year-old Eli and 16-year-old Nina are both suffering in the breakdown of their parents’ once loving marriage. In the battle for custody, the siblings must express their wishes, fears and feelings to a judge. While Nina wants to get away from the family as soon as possible, Eli longs for everything to return to how it was before. Their desires are miles apart. Told in two chapters, the film follows the same three weeks twice: first from Nina’s perspective and then from Eli’s. These mirrored timelines reveal how the same moments can be lived, felt and understood in entirely different ways. Eli and Nina retreat into their own isolated worlds until Nina begins to realise that her younger brother has been carrying the same weight all along, quietly, invisibly, beside her. He has always been there; it is only now that she is truly seeing him. Eli, meanwhile, comes to understand that Nina’s turning away from him was not a rejection but an act of survival and she has been struggling as much as he has. Beneath their opposing choices lies the same longing: for love, recognition and emotional security. A Family reveals how love can fracture under pressure but still find its way back home.

Gugu’s World

Teens Love Cinema - 13/11, 15:00, Pavlos Zannas theater & 15/11, 13:00, Pavlos Zannas theater

Allan Deberton

Brazil, 2026, 93΄

Age: 15+

Gugu is an almost-twelve-year-old boy who dreams of becoming a soccer player and lives under the loving, open-minded care of his grandmother Dilma, whose warmth gives him space to simply be himself. In their small community by the Araújo Lima reservoir - now slowly drying up and exposing the ghostly remains of a submerged town – the pair share a quiet but powerful bond that shields them from the disapproval of Gugu’s father and the community around them. As old memories resurface, subtle changes begin to unsettle their routine: Dilma becomes increasingly fragile, and Gugu, determined to keep their world intact, begins to worry about losing the only safe space he’s ever known.

Autokar

Sylwia Szkiłądź

Belgium-France, 2025, 18΄

Age: 12+ (available online)

In the 1990s, eight-year-old Agata leaves Poland for Belgium, alone and terrified, clutching a letter meant for the father she's left behind. When her pencil rolls away under the bus seats, chasing it pulls her into a hand-drawn, storybook world where fellow passengers become half-human, half-animal creatures, some comforting, some frightening. Drawing on her own childhood as a young immigrant, director Sylwia Szkiłądź paints migration through a child's eyes, using warm, textured 2D animation that feels lifted straight from a picture book. A small, tender journey that turns fear into wonder – proof that courage can fit inside a child’s imagination.

Saba

Liron Topaz

USA-UK, 2026, 10’

Age: 8+ (available online)

In an abstract, symbolic world where gravity is reversed, a unique bond forms between a grandfather and his grandson. As Saba, the grandfather, guides the boy through this surreal reality, a violent storm strikes, snapping one of the ropes that anchor their home to the ground – and with it, their life together. In the words of its creator, this is “a poetic animated short about a world where everything alive remains grounded, while everything else slowly drifts upward, toward the other side. At its heart, the film is about our shared longing for one more moment with the people who shaped us and made us who we are. It explores how their influence remains part of us, even after they are gone. Ultimately, Saba is about accepting that we cannot hold on forever, while finding a way to carry those connections forward as we continue our own journey.”

Splish Splash Forever!

Natascha Beller

Switzerland, 2026, 87΄

Age: 8+

Pola (11) wants to save the swimming pool SPLISH SPLASH from being closed so that her best friend will come back. Her friend’s parents, who ran the café, emigrated when the pool was shut down. But her friend does not return, and Pola learns to let go of the past and stand up for a greater cause. In the end, she has not only won the fight for the pool, but also gained new friendships.

Concrete Kids

Saulius Baradinskas

Lithuania, 2026, 20΄

Age: 14+ (available online)

Growing up in a Soviet-era housing block, Rokas never really walked home – he survived it, one street fight and gang threat at a time. His only way out is his voice: he sings in a choir, the one thing that's truly his. But in a neighbourhood where being different makes you a target, that same voice gets him branded a snitch, hunted by the very kids he grew up with. Lithuanian director Saulius Baradinskas turns his own teenage memories into a musical drama unlike any other, building tension to the swelling rhythm of Ravel’s Bolero as Rokas faces one impossible choice: keep singing, or fight back. Equal parts brutal and beautiful, it's a coming-of-age story for kids who never got a playground. World premiere at IFFR.