Arachnophobia

Directed by Melita Sandrin

Meta and Damjan, are having their morning coffee. Naturally, Meta falls asleep, while Damjan proceeds to add sugar to their drinks. As he pours sugar into her coffee, an unwanted visitor slips out of the sugary spoon and falls into her drink. Damjan decides it's a good chance for a prank and leaves it in. After Meta wakes up and takes a big sip, the funny surprise takes an unexpected turn that is shown through morphing, trippy visuals, illogical movement and behaviour.

Country: Slovenia

Writer(s): Melita Sandrin

Producer(s): Boštjan Potokar, Rok Govednik

Composer(s): Andrej Batič, Jamie Bathgate

Cast: Domen Sajovic, Melita Sandrin

Genres: Comedy

Aspect Ratio: 4:3

Original Release Date: 2025-06-12

Sales Pitch: This film is for people who like simple yet chaotic scenarios, for people who need to giggle a bit at the misfortune of others and for people who are fans of Jack Stauber. Key elements behind my short film are self-reflection through humour, playful experimentation, and improvisation. Under academic pressure to create a film, I leaned on simplicity and directness rather than a complex and profound idea. This presented me with a challenge and motivation to learn new skills, as well as to confront my fear. Jumping into the unknown, I decided to „mock“ my irrational fear of spiders and present it with absurdity and unexpectedness using clay in unconventional ways.

External Links: https://letterboxd.com/film/arachnophobia-2025/

Festivals Won: Flipbook Film Festival - Special mention 2025 , Festival of Slovenian film - Best student film award 2025 , First Crossings - Children's jury award, DSAF award for student animated project in development 2023, DSAF award for finished student animated project 2025

Melita Sandrin

I'm Melita Sandrin, and I'm a second-year master's student at the University of Nova Gorica at the School of Arts (Slovenia). Even before UNG, I was learning about animation and film at the School of Animated Film in Čakovec (Croatia). Currently, I'm exploring different animation techniques and media, but I've found myself mostly enjoying analogue techniques. Other than animation, I like to dip my fingers in the fields of video film, photography, new media, and design.