Focus: Shared Shores
INTERFILM Festival
10 - 15 November 2026
10 - 15 November 2026
Focus: Shared Shores
Shared Shores brings together films set on the margins—on shores and at crossings, in places where the familiar ends and the unfamiliar begins, or where, for a moment, the two become one.
Beyond constructs—nation-states, religions, categorizations—we find individuals who, independently of one another, find the same answers to similar questions. Shared desires, emotions, struggles, fears—states of being that know no boundaries.
People have crossed oceans, overcome borders, brought memories with them; they have arrived or long to arrive. In it's 42nd edition INTERFILM's focus is on what happens in the spaces in between—what fills them and allows them to grow together again.
The focus section is organized into five programs and is also reflected in other sections of the festival.
Parand Laghai & Irit Neidhardt dedicate their program “Revolutionary Women of West Asia” to the women involved in the current movements, revolutions, and conflicts in Iran, Palestine, and West Asia. In “Lingering States,” curators Amelia Umuhire and Davood Madadpoor explore states of limbo, uncertainty, and liminality as an emotional aggregate.
Jason Ryle & Amee Le curated the “Arctic Circle Witness Program” presenting the work of the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund and Arctic Indigenous filmmakers who document their communities’ struggle for survival and for a future worth living.
Sofia Jamatte & Jean Jean dedicate their two programs "Urban Voices Singing Across the Shore" and “Tides of Resistance and Memory” to the shared yet distinct history of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. One island, two systems and languages, stories, realities, and identities.
Something connects us, even if the words to describe it fail us. Identities flow across geographical and political boundaries; solidarity emerges despite all adversities: An ocean between two continents can be an insurmountable obstacle—or a passage, a bridge. It all depends on our perception and possible points of access.
Amee Le is a Vietnamese-French-Canadian film producer and production manager from Hanoi, Vietnam. Raised in a family of artists, she began her career in circus performance before transitioning into film and arts administration. While based in Toronto, she held several leadership roles in the arts sector, including Festival Director of the Mayworks Labour Arts Festival and Operations Manager at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Now based in Marseille, France, Amee is producing multiple projects while working in project management roles with the Indigenous Cinema Alliance and the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
is an independent producer, curator, story editor, and arts consultant based in Toronto, Canada. Through his mother, he is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation (Manitoba). From July 2010 to June 2020, Jason was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE, an Indigenous-run organisation mandated to support Indigenous filmmakers and media artists. In this capacity, Jason oversaw all operational and artistic activities of the annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest showcase of Indigenous screen content. He also oversaw the organisation’s year-round initiatives, international partnerships, and special projects, including On-Screen Protocols & Pathways, an influential framework for film and television production, and the 360 VR series 2167. Under his leadership, imagineNATIVE became the global hub for Indigenous film and an integral part of the Canadian industry.
Since his departure from imagineNATIVE, Jason has focussed on his practise as a screen-content producer and film programmer. In March 2022, Jason joined the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as an International Programmer. He currently programmes narrative features from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Global Indigenous Cinema (non-Canadian). Beginning in 2013 until 2020, Jason was an Advisor for Indigenous films at the Berlinale. He also oversaw the Indigenous Cinema stand at the European Film Market from 2015-2020, which promoted features and shorts made by Indigenous filmmakers to international sales agents, distributors, and festivals. In February 2021, Jason received the Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. The award is bestowed to Canadians whose work has in some way enriched the understanding and appreciation of film in their native country.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
Amélia Umuhire, born 1991 in Kigali, Rwanda is a filmmaker and artist living in Berlin and Kigali. In 2015 she wrote and directed the award-winning web-series “Polyglot,” in which she follows the lives of young, deracinated London- and Berlin-based Rwandese artists. Her short film “Mugabo” is an experimental short film set in Kigali. It was screened at MOCA Los Angeles, the Berlin Biennale and many more. In 2018 Amelia Umuhire produced the Prix Europa nominated radio feature Vaterland for the German radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She was a Villa Romana and Civitella Ranieri Fellow and is currently working on her first feature film.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
Born and raised in Tehran, Davood Madadpoor is a Berlin-based curator and photographer. With a background in visual arts and curatorial studies from Florence, his practice aligns with Sumac Space, mapping how artistic practices operate and can act as forms of world-building and speculative forces. In particular, future fictioning as a way of reimagining contemporary realities shaped by transition, constraint, and shifting socio-political landscapes. Through Sumac Space, which centers on contemporary art from West Asia and its diaspora, he develops exhibition programs and publications that emphasize critical thinking in art practices. He has previously worked with Villa Romana and the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
Irit Neidhardt is an author, curator, and film educator specializing in the fields of cinema and the Arab world. She focuses on aspects of Arab societies and politics, the history of Arab cinema in Germany, and various facets of European-Arab cooperation. Since 2002, she has run mec film, an international distribution and sales company for films by Arab directors.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
works in film literacy, as well as in curation and cultural management, and curates for festivals such as Berlinale Generation. She is the co-initiator and project lead of CineConnect. Her work focuses on restructuring processes that critically address discrimination and power dynamics. Strengthening communities is particularly important to her, which is why she co-founded jü_misch. She is also deeply engaged with current societal developments, which is why she is pursuing a career as an AI project manager.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
is a Haitian-Dominican actor, director and producer based in Quebec, his work explores identity, memory, migration and intercultural dialogue. Trained in film directing at EICTV and acting in Santo Domingo, he co-founded Soup Joumou Films, AZUEI, ACÚ and the Organic Theater Group. His films have screened at major festivals including Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto and he has produced documentaries such as God Willing, Yuli, 1964: Simityè Kamoken and Printemps Now. He has also worked as a trainer, speaker at leading universities and served as both a festival juror and curator.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
Prior to living and studying film in Santo Domingo, she balanced her studies in Cultural Studies and Philosophy in Berlin with diverse work and internships across a range of cultural spaces, galleries, independent venues and film festivals. During her time at Interfilm (2022–2024), she worked happily in venue management, film distribution and was also part of the viewing team.
Selection Committee: Focus: Shared Shores
