Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko – the ugliest girl in the village. Her love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste – but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke goes in for fleeting romance – for example, with the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when he finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke’s little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko’s hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself. And this is just the first five minutes of Lisa Takeba’s short-but-powerful feature debut. Just like in her previous short films, the director – who cut her teeth in the advertising world and as the writer of a video game – throws a lot of genres and techniques into the mix: from science fiction to gangster films, from hospital eroticism to animation. Hectic and absurd, but with its heart in the right place. © IFFR

Ray Romano cut his stand-up teeth at the Comedy Cellar in New York. Now, in his first comedy special in 23 years, he returns to where it all began.

The Pilliga Yowie, – or ‘Jingra’ – has haunted the Australian outback for centuries, stalking a remote part of New South Wales, where men seldom dare tread, content to keep to itself… until now. Blokish truck driver Jay and his cameraman buddy Dylan journey into the PIlliga National Park with Liz and Tammy, two good time girls they meet in a pub. Things take a sinister turn when a local legend comes out to play – complete with big teeth, sharp claws and a craving for human flesh!