Friday
SHORTS BLOCK 1
Brave Rebel Army
Director/Writer Michelle D’Alessandro Hatt
Canada
After a terrifying incident on campus involving one of their own, four young women seek justice by taking matters into their own hands.
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Autonomous
Director Jennifer Mosier
Writer Elizabeth Butler
Canada
After Drew stands Melanie up for a date, she and her friend Alyssa decide to get away for the weekend. Drew is not what he seems but, like everyone, he's just looking for love.
Untainted Sky
Director/Writer Madeline Bradley
United States
Within the confines of an extensive underground Machine, a curious mechanic encounters a stranger from the surface. Defying the strict obedience to the Machine, he is driven to learn more about this outsider.
The Rabbit Ballet
Directors/Writers Aalia Khan, Kelsey Prudente, Samuel Rodarmel, Layne Sovereign
United States
The Rabbit Ballet is an animated, multimedia student short film that deals with change, control, and choice.
Deep Clean
Director/Writer Lisa Franek
United States
A woman deep cleans her house, no mess left unclean.
The Witchening
Director/Writer MK Kopp
United States
A babysitter dismisses a child's bedtime story about a vengeful witch, but soon learns it's all true...
SHORTS BLOCK 2
Salt Circles
Director/Writer Vanessa M. H. Powers
United States
Betty, a high school student from a strict, traditional family, discovers that she is pregnant. She finds help in an unlikely ally, Emma, her sullen goth classmate, who suggests they summon a demon to remedy the situation.
TUNE OUT
Director/Writers Daphne Sardis
United States
Tormented by insomnia and hypersensitive to sound, a young illustrator takes drastic measures to tune out the world undergoing a radical procedure- surgically fusing a pair of headphones to his head.
Penelope
Director Fiona Rene
Writer Seriina Covarrubias
United States
Penelope is a darkly comedic short about an undead misfit with “female Beetlejuice” energy who wakes up on her 666th day with one job: build an army of the undead to make her father proud. But after sleeping through most of her mission, she scrambles to recruit anyone she can—an angry neighbor, a pair of stoners, and a morose boy next door she just might have a crush on. When her father arrives, unimpressed with her ragtag recruits, Penelope is forced to face the crushing weight of his expectations.
She Fell From Space
Director/Writer Seriina Covarrubias
United States
Cooper, a burned-out tattoo artist recovering from the LA fires, has his world upended when a spaceship crashes in his backyard and a fierce alien woman, Lyra, emerges. As he tries to hide her from his emotional neighbor Jimmy and rule-obsessed HOA enforcer Whitney, Cooper is pulled into suburban chaos and unexpected connection, learning that just when life seems surreal enough, the universe always has more to drop from the sky.
FEATURE FILM
Sunny
Director/Writer Silke C. Engler
Germany
Ray has promised Sunny a digital detox weekend in nature before they say goodbye to their old-fashioned smartphones forever and get a more modern implant. A gigantic solar flare wipes out all technology on Earth and Sunny and Ray are forced to find their way back to the city without any technological tools. They meet Liz, who saves their lives and wants to show them the way to the city. But in a world where nothing is the same as they knew it, questions of trust and loyalty arise.
Saturday
SHORTS BLOCK 3
Happily Never After
Director/Writer Tamara Hernandez
United States
After overdosing and blacking out, a woman awakens to find her household devices, including her coffeemaker, vibrator, toothbrush, Siri, and more, speaking to her and each other. Blending surreal comedy and absurdist horror, Happily Never After asks whether technology can ease our loneliness or only intensify it, reminding us that even in solitude, we are never truly alone.
Cheap Meat
Director/Writer JP Bradham
United States
Rex finds out the hard way how it feels to be treated like a piece of meat.
Full of Good Men
Director/Writer Mollie Shourd
United States
After a Halloween party he can't remember, Theo must reconstruct the events of what happened while battling strange bodily changes...including an insatiable thirst for blood.
Mark & Mara
Director/Writer Nikki Wantz
United States
In Mark and Mara, a tense and psychological horror short, a woman named Mara orchestrates a trap for her former camp counselor, Mark, who raped her when she was a child. Posing as a single mom on a dating app, she invites him to a secluded home under the pretense of having a young daughter he might be interested in. As dinner unfolds with eerie civility, Mara drugs Mark and confronts him with his crimes. The film culminates in a shocking, cathartic act of vengeance, exploring trauma, justice, and the cost of survival.
The Bones Exist
Directors Kelsey Bollig, Matthew DuVall
Writer Matthew DuVall
United States
In the unforgiving wilderness of 1850s Alta California, a dwindling group of gold prospectors encounters a feral boy who forces the men to confront the horrors lurking in the woods and the sins of their past.
SHORTS BLOCK 4
Hot Tuna Meltdown
Director Colin Hodgson
Writer Julie Akeret
United States
So a princess walks into a diner and meets a guy with clocks on his socks. What could go wrong?
Hot Tuna Meltdown is a short film that’s funny and allegorical, whimsical and cautionary: Is it about humans poisoning the earth, or the power of one unusual mind to sense the fear and beauty and magic in the world?
'Rubbers'
Director/Writer Cat Davies
United Kingdom
A neurodivergent woman who struggles to form relationships explores her private passion for stationery to unlock her explosive fantasy world. A comedy fantasy…with a dark twist, where the pen is mightier than the sword.
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Take Back
Director Alyssa Scott
Writer Claire Duncan
Australia
In 1970's Australia, a young woman, overwhelmed by inner demons and at her breaking point, embarks on a journey to reclaim her power and identity.
Sous Vide
Directors Luke Van Garza, Martha Louise Van Garza
Writer Sarah Brandt
United States
After attending the funeral of her Scandinavian fiancé's mother, an American woman must decide whether to honor the mother's last wishes by partaking in a time-honored family tradition.
Fort Valor
Director/Writer Heidi Moneymaker
United States
Fort Valor is a high-octane action comedy that blends big stunts with real heart. It is a story about finding common ground and rediscovering family in the most unexpected way.
SHORTS BLOCK 5
Dead Weight
Director/Writer Virginia Root
United States
Grace (ALEXANDRA RENZO), a solo female backpacker, unwittingly survives an apocalyptic event while in the wilderness. She resolves to live out the rest of her numbered days in peace until she encounters Aaron (GRIFFIN NEWMAN), a fellow survivor with a very different philosophical take on the end of the world.
Princess Princess
Director/Writer Ilena Mita
United States
After the loss of her best friend, Sophie tries to finish the period romance they started writing together. However, when Sophie's grief becomes too much to bear; the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur...
Nova
Director/Writer Olivia Roberts
United States
Miriam and JoJo, exes living in the same building, reconnect with only 27 hours left before the end of the world. Accompanied by their neighbor's dog, they decide to search for an abandoned military base, all while navigating their complicated feelings about their relationship and the looming apocalypse.
IMDB
Bless Me Father
The Volunteer
Director/Writer Charlie Beimers
United Kingdom
In a bleak, industrial future where humans have exhausted Earth's resources, one volunteer's search for a plentiful new planet yields an unexpected dilemma.
SHORTS BLOCK 6
Alienated
Directors/Writers Tamara Hernandez
United States
Alienated is a dark sci-fi coming-of-age story about a troubled teenage girl who discovers a strange, greenish-blue growth on her shoulder at a high school party. What begins as an embarrassing secret soon unravels into a terrifying revelation: she is an alien hybrid, the product of a covert extraterrestrial breeding program. As her powers awaken, she is forced to confront not only her fractured sense of identity but the chilling reason she’s always felt like she didn’t belong.
Eviction.
Director/Writer Ashes Homon-Rahall
United States
A woman attempts to advocate for herself in the hellscape known as the American Healthcare System, only to take matters into her own hands.
We Regret to
Inform You
Director Michelle Bossy
Writer Zina Wilde
Greece
Set in a dystopian near future where everyone is provided with a 24-hour warning before their death by the government, Mariam receives such a call from Bob, a real-life operator that is on his first day on the job, informing her of her final day.
TRAILER
A Violent
Flammable World
Director/Writer JC Farris
United States
In a dystopian world, a dispirited headhunter reaches her breaking point against the mysterious authority that forces her to kill and feed on those deemed undesirable.
Fiore
Director/Writer Bridgette Neil
United States
A man finds himself caught in a loop of uncertainty after touching a single flower lying on the ground. Little does he know he could be the very thing that solves a mystery that's been weighing on the heart of a small town for over a decade.
FEATURE FILM
Sunshine Girls
Director/Writer Madeleine Hicks
United States
SUNSHINE GIRLS follows the story of Elaine Hamilton, a timid woman nearing her 30th birthday who must make the difficult choice between motherhood and medically induced photosynthesis. In a world that is quite literally suffocating, society has become dependent on the oxygen-producing Sunshine Girls to sustain life. Within the confines of this organization (part new-age adult summer camp, part dystopian prison) Elaine learns that falling in love can take your breath away.