Suddenly, we’re half way through April – and our 2025 festival is just two weeks away.
We will begin with an international showcase on the 2nd of May, at 16:00. For the first time, Indy Film Library is hosting a selection of shorts from around the world in a cinema – partnering with Amsterdam’s Filmhuis Cavia to put 11 movies on the big screen.
Later, also on the 2nd of May, at 19:00, we will also present two blocks of fantastic shorts from the Netherlands and Belgium at Filmhuis Cavia.
Then, on the 3rd of May, we will cross the city to Supermercator, where we will put on a second day of films to close out our 2026 showpiece. Starting with a feature documentary at 16:00, we will then screen a short programme of music videos from 18:00, before closing with two more Benelux blocks of films in competition.
Tickets for both days are selling fast – but there is still time to book your seat for all of the events. You can get yours for both our physical and digital events via the Indy Film Library tickets page, where there are breakdowns of both sets of programmes.
Tickets: Day One – Filmhuis Cavia
Tickets: Day Two – Supermercator
To whet your appetite for the upcoming feast of films, here’s what our reviews had to say about some of this year’s selection:
Hi from a mayfly (2025) – Short Narrative
Filmhuis Cavia, Saturday 2nd May, 16:00
“Hi from a mayfly is a sweet story about a mayfly that becomes human. It does not aim to win any film awards, but it definitely aims to win your heart, and it will most likely succeed. It is easily watchable before going to bed, or on your break from work, and that is part of its charm.
The premise is simple, and that’s its beauty. The protagonist finds a man in the lake, who claims to be a mayfly. She then confesses that she knows mayflies only live for 24 hours, and promises to make the most out of the day for the both of them.”
Wat we achterlaten (2025) – Short Narrative
Filmhuis Cavia, Saturday 2nd May, 19:00
“The story follows the guarded and careful Iris (Kiki Mettler), as she takes a trip across the Netherlands with Mila (Sophie Anne Timman), her free-spirited childhood friend.
“Along with May Bresser’s writing, the performances of Timman and Mettler must be commended here. Because both are expected to run the emotional gamut by the end of the story – but neither succumb to the need to resort to melodrama to showcase this range. They imbue their characters with subtlety and restraint, even in moments where they are at their rawest, meaning the highs, lows and idiosyncrasies of their on-screen relationship have weight, and authenticity at all times.”
Glock ’45: The Movie (2025) – Short Documentary
Filmhuis Cavia, Saturday 2nd May, 21:00
“As a manifesto in support of following your dream, however bafflingly out of place it might seem, and highlighting the importance of collaboration and friendship to realise those goals, this is a likeable, tightly edited short – which will likely leave its audiences keen to become part of the family at Glock’s next live show.
Through the charting of the creation of a song in the midst of the band, Hukker makes us feel part of things – and reconnects us with that part of ourselves that loves the act of creation – not just serving up the creators, or something created as a product to passively consume.”
Pick You Up at 6: Be Here (2025) – Music Video
Supermercator, Sunday 3rd May, 18:00
“Often when we have received music videos, there has been a disconnect with what we see and hear, either stemming from misunderstandings or a lack of communication… What it might really boil down to is authenticity. When people use art to work through the peaks and troughs of their own lived experience, it can be the most powerful driving creative driving force there is… Built around two of Zoë Love Smith’s own tracks – the lo-fi ballad be here and Loneliest Man (produced in collaboration with May) – the film builds them into a lyrical soundtrack for a visual meditation on cycles of self-destruction, family and forgiveness.”
Nur Geträumt (2025) – Short Narrative
Supermercator, Sunday 3rd May, 19:00
“Voices on the radio echo around an unseen car interior, the unmistakable bass reverberating the tragic news throughout the space. Somewhere in the Netherlands, a road is closed due to a traffic incident, with the dispassionate voice-over offering advice on how to avoid disruption. Throughout the extremely short amount of time it runs for, we gain sudden glimpses into people’s deepest fears and feelings, but which immediately fade to the back amid the insistence of ‘normal’ life.
In the wake of every tragedy, we are encouraged to keep our heads down – life must go on. But often this is at the expense of thinking about how the social expectations we keep our noses to the grind for; might actually contribute to the distant horrors the radio informs us about. As the name might suggest, Sando Heijnen’s Nur Geträumt (in English, Just a Dream) plays with this weird emotional disconnect – and leaves us wondering how healthy, or natural, any of it really is.”
Narcissus (2025) – Short Narrative
Supermercator, Sunday 3rd May, 21:00
“Narcissus’ entire self-value seems to be based around what other people think of him. As he desperately goes through the motions in the bathroom, buttoning and unbuttoning his shirt, parting his hair on every side, his desperate eyes speak of a man so out of touch with himself that he yearns for others to see him, and tell him who he is. But even when he gets it, this outsourced, surface-level respect only dooms him to further disappointment.
“From top to bottom, this is a stunning piece of work, which draws inspiration from mythology, without simply resorting to making a played-out, literal modernisation of it. Marlena Stam is a writer-director to watch for the future – especially if she manages to shirk the ‘difficult second album’ trope as easily as the ‘it takes time to find your voice’ one.”