THE SAD GIRLS OF THE MOUNTAINS:
Four depressive teenage girls withdraw from patriarchal society to start a new life in a mountain hideout. Isolated from society, they transform their misery and melancholia into pornography for their web project “The Sad Girls of The Mountains” and use the money they earn to fund their survival and to support Kurdish militia groups. The girls see their sadness as an act of countercultural resistance and want to weaponize the so-called male gaze. The arrival of two reporters intending to make a documentary about them changes the dynamics in their feminist micro-utopia. A mockumentary stuffed with witty social criticism.

Best Austrian Short:
Progressive Touch, Michael Portnoy, Austria, 2020, 12:49