Theme of inspiration

17th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival

“Shift your gaze to the unseen”

If something is not visible, does it really exist? What brings it into view? Who decides what is placed within the frame? What is included and what excluded from the collective memory? And when something finally becomes visible, what is our gaze upon it? Is there only one way to witness a situation, a place, a memory, the past, a person, a relationship, a conflict?

This year, we explore the architecture of the gaze.

Our experiences, our memories, and the social environments we inhabit determine what enters our field of vision and what remains outside the frame. What becomes visible is rarely neutral. It is shaped by dominant narratives, inherited stereotypes, and structures of power that silently decide which stories are worth noticing and which are left in the margins.

So, what about the realities that exist around us and yet remain unseen?

The quiet lives behind closed doors; Identities that develop while challenging the social norms;  Communities that coexist within our societies but remain invisible to the dominant gaze; Forgotten places; Underground scenes; Abandoned villages; Hidden memories; Experiences that are visible to those who live them, yet remain unnoticed by the many.

And what happens when the unseen finally becomes visible?

In a world saturated with images and information, visibility does not always mean understanding. Sometimes the most important stories are not hidden — they simply lie outside the frames through which we have learned to look. ‘What we actually see’ is questioned. When dominant powers decide what is in the frame, ‘what we decide to see’ becomes a political act.

Does visibility bring recognition, discomfort, resistance, or transformation? 

For this edition, we invite filmmakers to turn their gaze towards the unseen: the overlooked stories, the hidden perspectives, the parallel realities that exist within our shared social landscape but rarely reach the center of attention. We welcome films that question the limits of visibility and challenge the dominant ways of seeing, by revealing what has been ignored, silenced, or forgotten.