We are warming up the engines!
The Festival will take off on December 1st, 2025 and the full selection will be available until January 31th, 2026 on Swiss Air Lines’ flights.
The Flying Film Festival is the first film festival of short documentaries and doc-animations taking place entirely in the air on Swiss Air Lines aircraft.
The Flying Film Festival was created by artistic directors Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa with the objective of taking into the sky a short movie festival.
The festival was launched in 2015 to give an alternative to film programs usually shown in airplanes.
In recent years, the team has expanded with the arrival of Dunja Keller as operational director and Andrea Giovarruscio as festival assistant.
The festival takes place on a biannual basis, from December through January, onboard Swiss Air Lines long haul flights.
The program is curated and by invitation only. Each film selected will receive a fee.
The festival mainly presents recently released creative short ani-doc and documentary.
Audio language: original
Subtitles language: English
No premiere requirement
The Flying Film Festival is aware of the impact of air travel on the environment.
We chose to continue to have this special festival in the air, on SWISS long haul flights because we consider it a platform given to filmmakers to be seen by a large public, many of them not regular shortfilm festival attendants.
Our carefully curated selection of short movies is meant to offer the travelers an addition to the usual entertainment program, and give them welcoming insights on relevant topics of today.
Also, as we bring the films on board, to the public (and not the public to the festival) there is no additional travel to the venue, no additional catering, no additional infrastructure to be included in a carbon footprint.
Festival Organization
Festival Director
Francesca Scalisi & Mark Olexa
Operational Director
Dunja Keller
Festival Assistant
Andrea Giovarruscio
Mail: flyingfilmfestivalgiovarruscio@gmail.com
Flying Anidoc Award – first edition
In 2023 we established a collaboration with Fantoche International Animation Film Festival and this year, for the second time, we assigned the “Flying Anidoc Award”.
This year, Dayan Aliprandi, student at CISA school in Locarno, joined our team and together we reviewed the short anidocs showcased at Fantoche 2025. After a lively debate, we selcted one winner: “Shadows” by Rand Beiruty. The director received our award in Baden on September 7th. As a result of this partnership, the film has been included in the selection for our upcoming festival. We are especially grateful to director Ivana Kvesić and the Fantoche Festival team for making this collaboration possible.
The beautiful artwork we gifted to the director was designed and created by the artist: John Mandeep Singh of the CREAHM Atelier in Fribourg.
The Festival landed at school
In late spring 2025 we renewed the collaboration with Eikon Interactive Media Design school, based in Fribourg, Switzerland.
Starting from the concept of “reality” and “flight”, the students created some short videos: check them out on the festival’s Facebook and Instagram pages! Thanks to Eikon for giving us and their students the opportunity to experiment and create together!
Movies for Airplanes a Flying Film Festival Podcast
Up in the sky, we take short documentaries and animadocs on Swiss Air Lines’ flights.
Down on earth we interview some directors of the last edition. Short film and podcast made with love! Listen to our podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcast.