Every year at the end of May, VIS Vienna Independent Shorts is all about international short films, always capturing experiences in and outside of the cinema, presenting the new and old in a lively way and showing connections within.In its 13th edition the festival continues to follow its two main directions of impact: presenting the most exciting short films of the past year in four competitive sections and reflecting the state of the world today with the means of cinema in several curated programmes in its “Focus” section – as we are convinced that the its immediacy and proximity to recent events is one of the strongest advantages of the short form.The leitmotif of next year’s “Focus” section will be ‘Fear is not an Option’, following the political events of the past months which are accompanied by a certain sense of powerlessness in view of the world’s complexity and with many existential fears – sometimes reasoned, sometimes only as a baseless feeling. The curated programmes will deal with propaganda and manipulation, with religious fundamentalism, with the ecological crisis as well as civil disobedience and utopian ideas for the future of mankind. In addition the festival also offers “Spotlight” programmes to pay tribute to filmmakers who have left their mark on the international short film scene with their outstanding works, be it recently or over many years and welcomes four European Artists-in-Residence. One of our main goals is to make international short filmmaking visible in Austria and Austrian short filmmaking visible to the world. Therefore next year there will be various networking and industry events to initiate and intensify collaborations and co-productions between Austrian and (mainly) European filmmakers/producers. As darlings of the public the festival will continue its popular Midnight Movies and special programmes from partner festivals and programmers (among others Go Short, Montréal, Sundance).