IFL commends best experimental shorts of 2025 showcase

Two-week online selection of avant-garde short films sees awards distributed for the fifth annual Indy Film Library Experimental Showcase
Yann les Jours takes Best Director for emphatic boxing short Sonnet, which also scoops Best Sound Design
Thought-provoking image-deconstruction Napoli – Amsterdam picks up double of Best Film and Best Editing

Since Wednesday 20th August 2025, Indy Film Library (IFL) has been streaming some of the best experimental short films it has received for review over the last year. The films have been selected on the basis of both their storytelling and the technical skills exhibited by their cast and crew.

Now, as the showcase prepares to draw to a close on Wednesday 3rd September, IFL has announced the winners from the Experimental Showcase shortlist.

The list of accolades distributed sees Best Film handed to Wouter Hisschemöller’s slow-burning computer-generated meditation Napoli – Amsterdam, which sees two artificial landscapes assembled, and broken down. In the IFL review of the film, the production was lauded for playing with something “essential to the human experience.”

“Without the ability to knit pieces of information together into a singular, new scenario, without being able to look past what we already know to imagine what might be, there would have been no prospect of improving our lives as a species to this point – or beyond.”

The film also triumphed in the category for Best Editing, for its digital de-and-re-constructions of two iconic cities.

Elsewhere, a poll during the Experimental Showcase led another Italy-centric film to win the Audience Choice award. Te L(e)o Comando secured two-thirds of all votes, with the film’s visual time-capsule capturing the imagination of a large majority of viewers.

Best Director and Best Sound Design were both picked up by Yann les Jour‘s intensive combat short, Sonnet. In the IFL review of the film, the work was noted for underlining the rhythm of the boxing session, using nothing more than the minimalistic soundtrack of contact being made with punching bags.

Finally, student filmmaker Nelson van Herzele picked up two laurels for his film Brother, may I have some oats too? The firm took the prize for Best Cinematography for its atmospheric adaptation of a famous copypasta, reimagining the struggle between two pigs for food as a dark, Beckettian parable. Lars van der Wolf meanwhile secured Best Actor for his performance as Estragon – who desperately tries to convince his brother the pair are being fattened for slaughter.

IFL Chief Editor Jack Benjamin commented, “I would like to congratulate all the winners of this year’s Experimental Showcase on their victories – and to thank all the artists and viewers for their participation. It’s a privilege to present these films to our readers, with such a determination to give our audience spaces to escape from the noise around us, and think about life’s great questions.”

All the films selected are still available to view for free until Wednesday September 3rd 23:00 CET. The films can be accessed via the IFL website. Meanwhile, Indy Film Library is still open for its seventh year of submissions.

-ENDS-

Indy Film Library

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