17-25 April 2026
NATIONAL COMPETITION SECTION

Cypriot Films

Diversion

Glocal Images, National Competition

MARINOS KARTIKKIS

96' 
• 2025
  • Cyprus

Kostas is a policeman who is struggling financially, so he often steals jewellery from the dead he carries to the morgue. One day, he steals a cross from a deceased elderly woman who happens to be the grandmother of his girlfriend, Elena. Kostas hides the cross along with other stolen jewellery in a box located in a kitchen cupboard. One night, when Elena spends the night at his apartment, she discovers the box, and things start to get complicated.

Awards:

  • Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actor Awards, 7th Boden International Film Festival, Sweden, 2026.

Hold Onto Me

Glocal Images, National Competition

Myrsini Aristidou

102' 
• 2025
  • Cyprus • Denmark • Greece • United States

It’s summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he has been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond, imperfect yet poignant.

Awards

  • Audience Award – World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Sundance Film Festival, USA, 2026.

Maricel

Glocal Images, National Competition

ELIAS DEMETRIOU

120' 
• 2025
  • Cyprus • Greece

A Filipino domestic worker is called to take care of an elderly couple in a Cypriot mountain village. What begins as a simple caregiving task gradually exposes a web of silent resentment, emotional dependency and unspoken histories, forcing her into the delicate, unsettling space between obligation and intimacy.

Awards:

  • Best Director, Best Feature, Best Producer, Best Cinematographer Awards, South East Asia International Film Festival, 2026.

Motherwitch

Glocal Images, National Competition

Minos Papas

104' 
• 2026
  • Cyprus • North Macedonia • United States

Eleni, a scorned painter in Cyprus in 1882, attempts to resurrect her dead children, but instead awakens the Kalikantzari creatures of Cypriot folklore. Now she must find a way to overcome her grief and anger and dispel the curse that has befallen her village.

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