Short Film
WAIFF Grand Prix 2026

Costa Verde

SiftCine selected 2026 12 min 13+

In 1990s Corsica, a boy unboxes his first camera and begins recording a summer with his grandparents. What starts as play becomes an intimate archive of gestures, landscapes and small wonders, revealing the quiet magic that memory and childhood can find inside ordinary family life.

Open on Vimeo ↗

About this film

Costa Verde is seen through a boy who receives his first camera during a summer with his grandparents in 1990s Corsica. At first, filming is a game: he experiments with the device and records the house, the landscape and the adults around him. Gradually, the footage becomes a chronicle of small wonders and family rituals that might otherwise disappear.

The film’s magic is rooted less in a conventional fantasy plot than in childhood perception. Memory, imagination and affection make ordinary moments feel enchanted. By documenting his grandparents, the boy also discovers that a camera can preserve a presence. The short moves from playful experimentation to an intimate family archive, blending home-movie nostalgia, visual diary and gentle fantasy. Official descriptions do not identify a single climactic twist; the emotional arc lies in recognizing that the everyday becomes precious once it is recorded as memory.

Synopsis

In 1990s Corsica, a boy unboxes his first camera and begins recording a vacation with his grandparents. What starts as play becomes an emotional archive of gestures, landscapes, and small wonders, until domestic memory seems to reveal a quiet magic hidden inside everyday life.

Complete Description with Spoilers

Costa Verde adopts the viewpoint of a boy who receives his first camera during a summer with his grandparents in 1990s Corsica. At first, filming is both technical discovery and play. He tests framing, watches the adults, and records the house, the light, the outings, and events that seem extraordinary to a child even when everyone else considers them ordinary.

As the images accumulate, the camera stops being merely a toy and becomes an instrument of memory. The film takes the form of a vacation chronicle, valuing family rhythms, small rituals, and moments that would otherwise disappear. The magic announced by the premise does not need to be understood as a literal fantasy system. It emerges from childhood perception and from the way memory, imagination, and affection transform the familiar.

The arc is driven less by conflict than by a change in the boy's way of seeing. By documenting his grandparents, he learns that filming can also preserve a presence. The result combines family movie, visual diary, and gentle fantasy, making the summer feel both immediately lived and already remembered. Official sources do not describe a specific final twist. The complete emotional meaning lies in the movement from playful experimentation to an intimate record of what time will inevitably carry away.

Narrative Sequence

  1. The boy receives and unboxes his first camera.
  2. He begins filming a vacation with his grandparents in Corsica.
  3. Tests and playful experiments become a diary of small events.
  4. A child's perception turns everyday gestures into signs of magic.
  5. The footage acquires the value of family memory and emotional preservation.

Themes

  • childhood
  • family memory
  • grandparents
  • nostalgia
  • home movies
  • the magic of everyday life

Additional Credits

  • Creator: Léo Cannone
  • Production Association: New Forest Film
Creator
Léo Cannone
Format
Short Film
Released
2026
Genres
Drama, Experimental, Fantasy
Distinction
WAIFF Grand Prix 2026
Selection
Human curated