PÖFF 2016

Moody teenager SAKURA shares a small house with her mother and brother, next to the US military base in Yamato, Japan. Her only dream is to become a famous rapper like the American hip-hop stars she admires. She spends most of her time writing personal rhymes but a crippling stage fright makes her unable to perform in front of an audience. Out of the blue, the daughter of her mother's American boyfriend's, REI, arrives from California to spend some time with them. This unexpected arrival will at first turn SAKURA into a state of turmoil but she will soon realise that she and REI have much more in common than what she initially thought.

Set in the early 1990s, the telling and retelling of a friendship between three teenagers, as a police investigation prompts disparate memories.

An in-depth look at the life and work of avant-garde musician, Frank Zappa.

An underprivileged teenager bonds with his young cousin while facing off against a vicious bully.

A documentary on the collaborative relationship between New Orleans based songwriter/YouTube star Samantha Montgomery and composer/video artist Ophir Kutiel.

A young girl studies classical ballet. As a young woman she turns to modern dance and choreography.

When her life crumbles around her, teenager Lena loses herself in the depths of the internet and social media, as she begins to chat with the mysterious Noah.

Shortly after delivering a patient to an understaffed hospital, a police officer experiences strange and violent occurrences seemingly linked to a group of mysterious hooded figures.

Acclaimed writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must battle for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred when David Irving, a renowned denier, sues her for libel.

Thousands of kilometers apart, three young migrants undergo mental, emotional, and physical transformations in order to survive the violence of their new worlds.

A kindhearted 17-year-old in the American Southwest turns to prostitution to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.

Two teenage boys cycle 160km on stolen bikes pursued by police to find a missing bale of cocaine worth 7 million euro. Set around the real event of Ireland's biggest cocaine seizure in 2007 of 440 million euro.

A wealthy art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a symbolic revenge tale.

Benjamin is a teenager on annual holiday with his parents in Spain. During this holiday he meets the attractive and intriguing Annabel. Together with Annabel, he is about to embark on a dangerous adventure. One that he will never forget.

An All-American college star and his beauty queen wife watch their seemingly perfect life fall apart as their daughter joins the turmoil of '60s America.

Sonia is convinced that only jihad will get her and her family to heaven. Melanie plays the cello and wants to change the world, but after the death of her grandmother, she falls under the influence of a recruiter on the Internet.

Manuela and Olmo meet again in a future as they had promised fifteen years earlier as teenagers, when they lived their first love.

The rise and smash success of Elite modeling agency founder John Casablancas is chronicled in this biography of the man who invented the supermodel.

A 12-year-old boy rebels after a brutal government labels his father a traitor and imprisons him.

In a country famous for its success in international beauty pageants, three young women are fighting to participate in their nation's most celebrated cultural institution. But obtaining a place in the Miss Venezuela contest is no easy task. Women must endure grueling diets, consent to intensive plastic surgery, and find the resources necessary to transform themselves from ordinary citizens into famous and illustrious Misses. To Be a Miss is a character-driven documentary that takes the viewer through the inner workings of Venezuela's renowned beauty factory, revealing the risks and rewards associated with this multi-billion dollar industry while exposing what nationalism, personal ambition, and the influence of mass media has meant for women in the country.

"Family Lies" by Valentin Kuik and Manfred Vainokivi is a relationship drama about elephants in the bedroom and skeletons in the closet, about small and big deceptions, half-truths and set-ups that can be found in every family's secret chronicles.