Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life + short film Loynes

Institute Benjamenta is the first feature film by the legendary twin brothers Quay Brothers, after a series of internationally acclaimed stop-motion animated films. Jakob von Gunten enrolls in a bizarre, dreamlike school for servants, but discovers a closed and rigid world under the strict leadership of brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta. The film is a unique cross between animation, literary cinema, and experimental film: Kafkaesque and surreal, full of alienating expressionist sets. A dream of a film. The film is preceded by the short film Loynes. In 19th-century Liverpool, dozens of people have gathered for an absurd ceremony – a Kafkaesque trial against a corpse with no name or past. Loynes was selected for the Quinzaine des Cinéastes at Cannes 2025 and will be introduced by the film's editor, BUDA colleague and filmmaker Charles Dhondt.