Skip to main content
Mother of Dawn film image; close on a knitted skull

Mother of Dawn

Mãe da Manhã

VIFF Short Forum

In the dead of night, a hungry creature searches for food — until something breaks the cycle.

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Belgium/Brazil/
Finland/Portugal

Year

2024

Language

In Portuguese and English with English subtitles

Links
Content Warning

Graphic violence

18+
9 min
Animation Experimental & Avant Garde LGBTQIA2S+ Shorts
Re:Anima Joint Masters Programme

Credits & Director

Screenwriter

Clara Trevisan

ANIM

Clara Trevisan

Editor

Clara Trevisan

Original Music

Pedro Cassel, Vini Albernaz

Clara Trevisan headshot

Clara Trevisan

Clara Trevisan is Brazilian multimedia visual artist whose work focuses mainly on animation and illustration, primarily within the realms of fantasy and the imaginary. In 2024, Trevisan finished a master’s degree in the Re:Anima Joint Master program, resulting in the stop-motion short film Mãe da Manhã (Mother of Dawn). The short film was produced with a small budget using objects and puppets built by the director from found and reused materials, including the main character, a giant puppet as big as a human torso.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Sinners

Dir. Ryan Coogler
137 min

2025's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Dir. Mary Bronstein
113 min

A harried mother (Academy Award nominee Rose Byrne) clings to an unhelpful therapist (Conan O’Brien) as she struggles to cope with her daughter's mysterious illness in Mary Bronstein’s darkly comedic psychological drama.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Islands

Dir. Jan-Ole Gerster
123 min

In this sly, engrossing mystery, a dissolute English tennis coach in a Canary Islands holiday resort falls under suspicion when the husband of a beautiful guest disappears after a night of heavy drinking...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Holding Liat

Dir. Brandon Kramer
97 min

An intimate, moving film about the parents of one of the Oct 7 Jewish hostages taken by Hamas, and their campaign for a speedy, peaceful resolution to the crisis. Winner: Best Documentary, Berlin Film Festival

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

All That's Left of You

Dir. Cherien Dabis
145 min

Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards, All That's Left of You makes the most of its epic format to chronicle seven decades of Palestinian history while tracking the psychological impact of cycles of exile and oppression on three generations.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

L'Étranger

Dir. François Ozon
122 min

Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre