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SHORTLIST

Bestiary
France / Drama / 13 minutes
Director: Paul Van der Stegen
Writer: Paul Van der Stegen, Mathieu Landais
Producer: Hubert Mechin
Cast: Pauline Druenne, Julie Nicola, Rabia Ben Abdallah
When the girl they call "the dog" leaves their school for good, Pauline and her gang decide to choose for themselves a new pet hate, in spite of their friend Julie’s warning. Among unspoken words, rivalries and impulses of violence, this infernal quest might turn everything upside down.

Bird
United Kingdom / Drama / 10 minutes
Director: Maya Asha Kotecha
Writer: Malise Rowland
Producer: Liam Bitton, Grace St George
Cast: Drew Hylton, Zhaion Prince, Tyan Ward
Maya Kotecha is an up and coming director from North London who has a fascination for telling coming-of-age stories that tackle the intricate balance of fantasy VS reality. During her 3 years at LSA she has worked on all fields of film making, with a specialist focus on camera, lighting and sound. She is now ready to embark on the biggest project of her career by promoting into the role of director, with the mentorship of Joe Wright and Stephen Woolfenden.

Brightside
USA / Drama / 3 minutes
Director/Writer: Anabelle Corneau
A PSA on spreading the awareness of school shootings.

Bus Stop
USA / Animation / 3 minutes
Director: Jordan Chang
Bus Stop follows a boy’s morning routine from waking up to leaving on the bus to school, and all the activities in between. The repeated actions reflect the monotonous and constant cycle of morning routine, but through the days, seasons, and years, reveals the safety, satisfaction, and comfort of repetition.

Caught Up
USA / Drama / 8 minutes
Director: Luke McKinley
Writer: Luke McKinley, Alejandra Acosta, Adam Rodriguez
Cast: Kourtney Ann, Aubrey Smith, Cesar Renteria
Influenced by her wild best friend, a teenage girl seeks to get revenge and expose the boy who wronged her.

I'm Thinking About Becoming A Plant.
USA / Drama / 8 minutes
Director/Writer: Orson Ford
Producer: Andrea Ramirez Romo
Cast: Paul Moore, Jennifer France, Rosvita Rauch
When Alan Berch, a hermit lost in self discovery, receives a mysterious letter from a friend he is gradually coerced into believing his life could be simpler as a plant.

Kandyland
USA / Drama / 9 minutes
Director/Writer: Kiki McKenzie, Hope Hudson Morcomb
Producer: Kiki McKenzie, Hope Hudson Morcomb
Cast: Kiki McKenzie, Hope Hudson Morcomb
When 27 year old Amy “Kandy” Anderson’s Candyland obsession and “professional career” begins to hurt the lives of her family members and her own with her crippling debt. Her sister Deb intervenes in hopes to turn her life around, and hopefully help her sister to let go of this candy crush.

Maya
USA / Drama / 8 minutes
Director: Sophie Harasha, Yezy Suh, Hanna Kuster, Austin Gil
Maya, an adopted teenager, struggles to understand her cultural identity and relationship with her mother after discovering her hidden baby photos.

Reminders of You
USA / Drama / 11 minutes
Director/Writer: Drew Duncan
Producer: Passion Washington
Cast: Katie Freshman
...

Return
USA / Drama / 5 minutes
Director: Kat Dubrow
Cast: Tessa Maryott, Heather Dubrow, Terry Dubrow
An independence-craving teenager brings up her desire to move out to her controlling parents.

Room
USA / Animation / 9 minutes
Director/Writer: Ian Dani Kim
Producer: Ian Dani Kim
Cast: Ian Dani Kim
A teenager struggles with depression and social anxiety, expressing it through locking himself in his imaginary room where his life plays out. The film is shown from the boy’s perspective in his “room” showing how real life events affect him in it.

Sharing the Floor
USA / Drama / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Lily Brooks O'Briant
Producer: Lily Brooks O'Briant, Julia Garcia, CB Liffer
Cast: Lily Brooks O'Briant, Julia Garcia, Emma Rosales
Sharing the Floor is the emotional journey of three teen girls who find support in one another while each copes with the stress, anger, pain, and isolation from having a parent who is an addict.

The Sound
USA / Drama / 5 minutes
Director/Writer: Cole Willis
Producer: Cole Willis
Cast: Amira Willis
A three-song guided film that follows a young dancer who in the wake of an upcoming performance overcomes emotions of tension.

Starstruck
Israel / Drama / 19 minutes
Director/Writer: Jonathan Gotlib
Producer: Itamar Kolker
Cast: Maayan Bloom, Yarin Oron, Nati Kluger
When a young boy's dreams of becoming a comic artist are shattered by a bully, he turns to a life of playing the recorder and grows up to be the best recorder player in the world.

The Tell-Tale Heart
Ireland / Horror / 8 minutes
Director: Max Hendrickson
Cast: Joseph Miller, David Hendrickson, Marc-Ivan O'Gorman
A stop motion re-telling of the classic Edgar Allen Poe short story, in which a man is driven to insanity by the presence of his older companion's pale blue eye.

A Dishonourable Death.
United Kingdom / Drama / 12 minutes
Director/Writer: Blok
Producer: Gareth Francis
Cast: Christos Lawton, Roger Thomson, Claire Rafferty
A Dishonourable Death” is a darkly comic, debut short film, satirising traditional manifestations of honour through a warped masculine lens… exploring varying degrees of prejudice across the board: class, race, sex and the perception of ’the hero’. The film toys with the concept of heroism.

A Matter of Choice
United Kingdom / Romance / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Louis Norton Selzer
Producer: Emily Everdee, Dārta Vijgrieze
Cast: Will Merrick, Lydia Wilson
After unexpectedly finding a connection in the waiting room of an assisted-suicide clinic, Mallory and Drystan are left with a choice: do they stay or do they go?

A Night of Gharam
United Kingdom / Drama / 15 minutes
Director: Michael Gamarano Singleton
Writer: Hassan Abdulrazzak
Producer: Agatha EzzedineIvy Shen
Cast: Agatha Ezzedine, Nathan Altai, Sofia Assir Danu
Iman, a niqab-wearing woman, is fed up with her cheating husband. At a shopping mall an opportunity presents itself for her to impersonate another man's wife. This takes her on an unexpected adventure of self-realisation.

Aero Orange
Canada / Animation / 11 minutes
Director: Marcus Benny Feher
Writer: Marcus Benny Feher, Dan Tonkin
Producer: Marcus Benny Feher
Cast: Joe Zieja, Yong Yea, Julia McIIvaine
Captain H’Orange leads a reconnaissance mission over hostile coordinates with his fruit aeronauts when suddenly
he and his team come under fire and their newest member; Airman Apple is taken hostage by the evil General Onion.

Against the Silence
Germany / Documentary / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Martina Chamrad
Producer: Franziska Heinemann
"Against The Silence" focuses on the Uyghur community in exile. After the tightening of Chinese measures after 2015 in Xinjang, most Uyghur*ins in exile no longer have any contact with their families in Eastern Turkistan. They do not know if they are alive, dead or imprisoned.

Ageusia
USA / Drama / 18 minutes
Director/Writer: Will Schneider
Producer: Alex Janiuk, Wesley Orlowski, Claire Rennard
Cast: Courtney Hart, Steve Archer, Chandra Michaels
A depressed lunch lady finds new meaning in her mundane life when she falls for a troubled janitor.

Alas
Kazakhstan / Horror / 24 minutes
Director: Kairat Temirgali
Writer: Talgatbek Abishev, Daler Murzagaliyev
Producer: Nurym Aidingali
Cast: Almagul Kazikhan-Sagyndyk, Aigerim Akkanat-Mustafa, Maksat Zhakyp
Rakhia, a young woman with a secret, agrees to become a surrogate mother for a wealthy married couple. The three of them move to a secluded mansion to hide the surrogacy from the public eye, but soon Rakhia begins to feel the presence of a sinister and supernatural force in the house.

An animal
France / Drama / 27 minutes
Director: Kévin Lameta
Producer: Laurent Helas, Hugo Becker
Cast: Louis Memmi, François-joseph Culioli, Marie Murcia
...

Another Dead Sailor
United Kingdom / Drama / 10 minutes
Director/Writer: Jack Lennard Willoughby
Producer: Sandra Spethmann, Joeseph Goldman, Lucy May Miles
Cast: Geoff Bell, Ben Tavassoli, Kyle Jon Shepard
A modern fable about a sceptical young Smoker who has been sat in a busy pub listening to his drunk Conspiracy Theorist friend’s countless outlandish beliefs.

Any place
Mexico / Drama / 13 minutes
Director: Minerva Rivera Bolaños
Writer: Fanie Soto, Minerva Rivera Bolaños
Producer: Zoar Zamora Flores
Cast: Litzy Ruiz
In a society where children are not heard and traditions are not to be questioned, the peaceful life of a 5-year-old is disturbed by a terrible event that forces her to find a way to recover peace and save her loved ones.

The Army We Had
USA / Documentary / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein
Producer: Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein
Nearly 20 years after their deployment to Iraq was captured in the documentary film Gunner Palace, veterans grapple with their younger onscreen selves to make sense of a war that has yet to be fully reckoned with.

The Art & Craft of Smile
Canada / Comedy / 10 minutes
Director/Writer: Marta Borowski
Producer: Rielle Ramos
Cast: Lucy Margey, Michelle Nolden, Chris Sandiford
A miserable dental intern's views, on the nature of genuine happiness, are challenged by the characters at her aunt's dental practice 'The Art & Craft of Smile'.

Ashes
Australia / Comedy / 13 minutes
Director/Writer: Georgina Haig
Producer: Dean Francis, Georgina Haig, Daisy Betts-Miller
Cast: Georgina Haig, Michael Caton, Michala Banas
Bereft after the loss of her beloved Dad James, Frances misses the appointment to pick up his ashes. Through a bizarre posthumous prank, can James rectify his daughter’s habitual lateness, even after he’s gone? A darkly comedic story about grief, tough love and the unexpected ways those who have passed continue to influence us.

Ashkasha
Spain / Animation/Sci-fi / 6 minutes
Director/Writer: Lara Maltz
Producer: Lara Maltz
Ashkasha is a living being guided by curiosity. This causes her to lose her head and get trapped in the depths, where is submerged on a discovery journey.

Bad Vintage: A Randy Tale
USA / Comedy / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Ben Élie
Producer: Ben Élie
Cast: Shélah Larson, Quyne Mariah, Saskia Baur
A magical realist comedy about romance in our times, family baggage, and a mischievous talking car. San Francisco Bay Area millennials Lenny and Quinn have a hot date; Randy the vintage love-bug steers them way off-course, and Trent is very upset about not being invited. It's a "check yourself before you wreck yourself" trip where everybody learns a little something about how to get along.

The Ballad of Maddog Quinn
New Zealand / Action / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Matt Inns
Producer: Matt Inns
Cast: Maggie Pirie, Jed Brophy, John Bach
An unlikely outlaw wreaks hell across the dusty dystopia of The State on a wild quest to save what is held most dear, but things aren't always what they seem on the desolate wasteland frontier.

Before Nightfall
France / Drama / 27 minutes
Director/Writer: Hervé Freiburger
Producer: Paviel Raymont
Cast: Paul Hamy, Héloïse Bousquet, Elisa Lasowski
A lonely and desperate man no longer uses the precious gift that allowed him to heal people. Reluctantly, he agrees to help a woman and her young daughter who is tormented by nightmares of the end of the world. Together, on a freezing night, they face an anguishing darkness.

Bent Out of Shape
USA / Animation / 3 minutes
Producer: Ringling College of Art and Design
"Bent Out of Shape" follows the story of a dull, square woman and her child living in a dull, square world. However, when a bright, circular neighbor moves in next door, the square woman begins to feel that her lifestyle is being threatened. Even worse, she worries that her child may be affected by the circular neighbor's influence..

Blood
Australia / Drama / 10 minutes
Director/Writer: Vathana Suganya Suppiah
Producer: Daljinder Johal
Cast: Bairavi Manoharan, Shruthi Yasothan, Neelam Bakshi
Shanti finds blood in her underwear at the worst possible time. Against the backdrop of a Tamil coming-of-age ceremony
where fertility is celebrated, menstruation is shunned and infertility is silenced, Shanti struggles to keep a secret.

Botox Fiction
France / Drama / 4 minutes
Director/Writer: Yoann Kimfoko
Producer: Yoann Kimfoko
Cast: Typhaine Barthelemy
The story takes place in the distant future. In a world with an extremely and egocentric system, which promotes appearances, glory and power. power. A world where human beings have no limit in their greed.

The Bridge
USA / Animation / 4 minutes
Director: Gabriel Agustin Freire
With music from the legendary artist Lou Reed 'The Bridge' is a short film about mental and animal health inspired by a real life-saving friendship

Burn Out
United Kingdom / Comedy / 14 minutes
Director/Writer: Chloe Culpin
Producer: Charlotte Beaumont, Anna Sophia Duff
Cast: Anjli Mohindra, Harriet Cains, Andrew Joshi
Heena, on the brink and desperate to get out of her soul-less, money driven job, goes on a midweek pub session with her co-workers where they all descend into animalistic chaos.

Buzz
United Kingdom / Animation/Sci-fi / 10 minutes
Director: Bryn Chainey, Andrew Brand
Writer: Bryn Chainey
Producer: Alastair Clark
On a prairie millions of miles from home, a grumpy space farmer is having trouble with one of her hive: a robot bee called Buzz that keeps going rogue. After failing to reprogram the mischievous bee she follows him into the belly of a volcano and discovers something that will change life on Mars forever.

Call Your Mom
USA / Comedy / 8 minutes
Director/Writer: Isaac Garza
Producer: Rebecca Mendoza
Cast: Isaac Garza, Pete Parson
Pete needs to call his mom.

Canary
Canada / Animation / 12 minutes
Director/Writer: Pierre-Hugues Dallaire, Benoit Therriault
Producer: Sébastien Moreau
A young boy named Sonny works in an underground coal mine with the adults, taking care of the canary that detects deadly methane gas. He teaches the bird to play dead to prank the men, risking their lives for a moment in the sunlight above.
Captive
USA / Drama / 24 minutes
Director/Writer: Preston Peterson, Jason Boesch
Producer: Preston Peterson, Jason Boesch, Jessica Thorne
Cast: Bruce Davison, Brendan Sexton III, Amari Cheatom
An elderly trapper revisits his dark past as a serial killer when he's taken hostage by two fugitives in the wilderness of Montana.

Caramelle
Italy / Animation / 12 minutes
Director: Matteo Panebarco
Writer: Marianna Panebarco, Matteo Panebarco, Camilla Panebarco
Producer: Panebarco, Mediterraneo Cinematografica
“Caramelle” [Italian for Sweets] is a short film that tells the tale of the inextricable tie between three generations: father/grandfather, daughter/mother, grandson/son.

Carrion
USA / Drama / 22 minutes
Director/Writer: Yvonne Zhang
Producer: Sarah Frances Hartley
Cast: Cindy Zhu, Katerina Hung, Ty Chen
In an isolated desert motel, a young girl digs up a rotting carcass. Later that night, something mysterious is unearthed in her mother.

Cataract
Denmark / Drama / 24 minutes
Director/Writer: Jonatan Egholm Keis
Producer: Emma Lykke, Jonatan Egholm Keis
Cast: Carla Viola Thurøe, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Johannes Kuhnke
In a highly original tale of overlooked and marginalized existences, a woman robs a gas station with her nearly-blind younger brother only to catapult herself into a claustrophobic tick-of-the-clock race for a new set of lenses for his eyes.

Charlie's Freedom
United Kingdom / Drama / 13 minutes
Director: Rachel Tillotson
Writer: Carol Younghusband
Producer: Georgina French, Katherine Press
Cast: Olivia Pentelow, Clare Perkins, Stacha Hicks
Charlie’s Freedom is a gritty, sensitive short film with two parallel timelines that contrast Charlie’s struggles as a teenage carer with a mysterious day in her future.

Charlotte by Rose Rose
France / Music Video / 4 minutes
Director: Noé Pradel-Fraysse
Writer: Benjamin Bouquet, Noé Pradel-Fraysse
Producer: Pierre Le Boulc'h, Samuel de Gunzburg
Cast: Agnès Tassel, Philippe Dumas
A couple in there 60's lose their passion and love for one another. But one day, Charlotte sees a TV advert for a magic ring, she hopes this will spark a second flame in her relationship..

Childish Deano
Australia / Animation / 24 minutes
Director: Dean Thomas, David Ferrier
Writer: Dean Thomas, David Ferrier
Producer: Amanda Reedy
Cast: Dean Thomas
CHILDISH DEANO is an Australian short-form animated comedy series about a rambunctious 8-year-old boy who's blissfully unaware of how broken the world around him is.

The Chromakey Man
Belgium / Drama / 14 minutes
Director: William Samaha
Writer: William Samaha, Zoltan Adorjan
Producer: William Samaha, Dylan Klass
Cast: Alexander Arnold, Camille Voglaire, Vincent Santamaria
Dan always wanted to be an actor, but instead of achieving his dreams, he ends up a chromakey technician on movie sets. Covered in a bright green suit from head to toe, he is stuck in a rut until he gets offered an audition and the possibility to step into the limelight. The opportunity is potentially life-changing, and this absolutely terrifies him.

Clone
USA / Thriller / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Ryan M. Kennedy
Producer: Atit Shah, Kiowa Gordon, Tyler Markham
Cast: Alex Breaux, Kiowa Gordon, Devika Bhise
In the future, every U.S. citizen has the right to own one clone of themself. Clones have no rights and can only become citizens if emancipated by their original human. After 30 years together, Alex suddenly elects to emancipate his clone Richie, but his closest friends begin to question his true intentions.

Close your Eyes
France / Drama / 7 minutes
Director: Manon Bérardengo, Audrey Defonte, Léo Depoix
Writer: Manon Bérardengo
Producer: Carlos De Carvalho
A heavy secret and oblivious parents.

Daisy
Sweden / Comedy / 14 minutes
Director/Writer: Torbjörn Edwall
Producer: Matilda Höög, Daniel Hargot
Cast: Peter Mörlin, Emma Broomé
Two dairy farmers go out looking for a cow gone missing. Their search leads them deep into a mystery that will have them questioning themselves and their place in the milky way.

Dancing with Rosa
Spain / Drama / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Robert Muñoz Rupérez
Producer: Robert Muñoz Rupérez
At 84 years of age, Rosa realises that she no longer has the strength to take care of her daughter Eva who has Down syndrome, and she struggles to decide whether or not to put her into a care home. In this intimate portrait, we follow Rosa’s pain of indecision and her unique way of coping.

Dandelion
USA / Animation / 4 minutes
Director/Writer: Ling Zhao, Zhengwu Gu
Producer: Ringling College of Art and Design
In a dystopian world, a coal-burning robot working on a mine one day finds something that he has never seen before - a dandelion.

Dark Cell
France / Thriller / 25 minutes
Director/Writer: Jean-Michel Tari
Producer: Jean-Michel Tari
Cast: Alain Figlarz, Juliette Tresanini, Jonathan Pineau Bonetti
Two convicts in an orbital prison are doing what they usually do, which is to say, not much. Suddenly, two panicked guards armed to the teeth burst into their cell. The guards tell them that the orbital prison has just been invaded by blood-thirsty zombie-type creatures.

Dead Whistle Stop
United Kingdom / Thriller / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Sean Mckenna
Producer: Jamie Macdonald
Cast: Kate Dickie, Tauren Steele
Daniel’s not going to the office today. A dying man asked him to deliver a letter. Though he’s not sure who the dying man was or where the person he’s delivering it to is. Or what, if anything, it has to do with his new neighbours, The Illuminated Brotherhood of the All Seeing Eye.

Death Drive
Australia / Horror / 6 minutes
Director/Writer: Rob Boyd
Producer: Anthony McGann, Rob Boyd
Cast: Cassie Osborne, Morgan Ortt
A young man drives along a country road in his new sports car, until he is waved down by a stranded mysterious woman, with a love of speed and a lust for death.

Departure
USA / Drama / 8 minutes
Director/Writer: Sam Siske
Producer: Mckinnis Calderala
Cast: Liz Atwater, Iain Tucker
A young woman races to save her partner in a daring attempt to get him off world.

Descend
Mexico / Drama / 19 minutes
Director/Writer: Alejandro Aguirre Tanus
Producer: Mitzuko Villanueva Paulette
Cast: Paulina Gaitan, Amancio Orta
Ivanna is dazed, confused, and with no recent memory in the middle of the road, next to a stranded car. Her instinct leads her towards the dirt road, where she finds an abandoned truck. A mysterious and ill-looking man surprises her while she inspects the pickup and offers to give her a ride, although she doesn't know exactly where she's going. During the journey, she starts regaining her memory and remembers the woman she's searching for. The man also seems familiar to her, increasing the tension and suspicion that he might be the one who could clarify all her doubts and, at the same time, be her downfall.

Digital Echo
Canada / Animation / 5 minutes
Director/Writer: Felix Zheng Wu
Producer: Felix Zheng Wu
Cast: Felix Zheng Wu
In the animated film "Digital Echo," we follow the story of Alex, a talented but overworked individual who spends most of his days glued to his computer screen, immersed in his work. Frustrated with the increasing demands of his job, Alex stumbles upon an advanced artificial intelligence technology designed to assist with various tasks.

Displaced
USA / Documentary / 27 minutes
Director: Gil Cates Jr
Producer: Gil Cates Jr, Michelle Shnaider
Cast: Petro Kovalchuk, Olga Kovalchuk
‘Displaced’ is a heartbreaking story about the Kovalchuk family, who were among the first refugees to arrive in America after fleeing Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion.

Dramaquin 500mg
Greece / Drama / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Alexis Mourtzanos
Producer: Alexis Mourtzanos
Cast: Maira Gravani, Laertis Malkotsis, Andromache Fountoulidou
In a world were depression and sadness are the norm, Sophia, a young woman, suffers from happiness and joy. To confront that and blend in, she tries the new promising pill Dramaquin 500 mg. The effects are unpredictable…

Dream Maker
Turkey/Iran / Sci-fi Drama / 14 minutes
Director: Mohsen Mehri Darouei, Milad Kiaei
Writer: Mohsen Mehri Darouei
Producer: Mohsen Kiaei, Abbas Abbasi
Cast: Reza Robatjazi
A man causes his daughter's death in an inadvertent incident. In order to ease his guilty conscience he tries to replace the bitter memories of his past life with fabricated sweet ones.

Dusty Do Good
United Kingdom / Drama / 15 minutes
Director: Jack Hughes
Writer: Jack Hughes, Billy Mullaney
Producer: Daniel Simmons, Jack Hughes
Cast: Godwin Hodges, Dean Ridge
A young boy with Down’s syndrome escapes his troubled home life through an old cowboy TV show and models himself on the main character. He roams his estate as a righteous lawman, but things take a darker turn when he runs into a local gang.

Emily's Mountain
Israel / Action / 22 minutes
Director/Writer: Tal Somech
Producer: Tal Somech
Cast: Daniel Zahavi, Efrat Boimold, Libby Koriat
Emily celebrates her 6th birthday on a magical trip with her family and is slowly exposed to the horrifying reality that her parents are trying to conceal from her using modern technology and entertainment systems.

The End Of Winter
China / Drama / 23 minutes
Director: Zilin Bi
Writer: Xiangyi Shi, Mengyan Shen
Producer: Mengyan Shen
Zhang and his wife lived in Northeast China at the end of last century. They struggled hard for a brighter future. But a grain of sand of The Times, falling on every ordinary person's head, is a mountain. At the ferry of fate, Zhang can only choose to go with the flow.

Essentials
USA / Drama / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Allison Torem
Producer: Eva Fabray, Allison Torem
Cast: Austin Pendleton, Allison Torem
Schlepping home from an ill-conceived grocery haul in early lockdown, Vivian is interrupted by a senior citizen who makes a corny joke on his nightly walk.

Finding Our Wild
USA / Documentary / 16 minutes
Director: Sid Gopinath, Aditya Joshi
Producer: Sid Gopinath, Aditya Joshi
Cast: Prabha Gopinath, Sid Gopinath
Finding Our Wild is a doc short made in collaboration with REI-Co-Op. On a long overdue camping trip, Prabha and his son Sid find themselves working through feelings about immigration, fatherhood, and aging.

Flutter
USA / Animation / 6 minutes
Director/Writer: Adam Reed Levy
Producer: Bradford Simonsen, Adam Reed Levy
Cast: Alfred Molina
Jerry, a hummingbird of a different feather, must stand up to a hungry house cat in order to keep the flock together.

Gene's 6th Symphony
USA / Animation / 6 minutes
Director: Jordi Garcia
Writer: Jordi Garcia, Gene Bicknell, Rick Silanskas
Producer: Rick Silanskas, Larry Wilhite
The original animated short "Gene's 6th Symphony" is based on a true story and was born with only six notes of music that became a symphonic magical story that defines true love and a life-long journey ending with a hope that lives forever

Getting Used to Loneliness
Korea / Animation / 12 minutes
Director: Pyoung won Seo
Cast: Hoyeon Choe
A big hole gets made in Sung-joon’s heart after he becomes alone. An unfilled emptiness dominates his daily life, and one day, Min-seok, a senior at the company, takes Sung-joon to the badminton court.
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Giddh (The Scavenger)
India / Drama / 24 minutes
Director: Manish Saini
Writer: Manish Saini, Ashok Sankhla
Producer: Radhika Lavu
Cast: Sanjay Mishra, Vaibhav Biniwale, Raj Vithhapura
The old man found himself tossing his son's clothes away after watching his pyre burn all evening. He died young, succumbing to an illness and perhaps also because of hunger. The son was gone, the old man still lived as did his hunger.

Hair or No Hair
Canada / Drama / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Janessa St. Pierre
Producer: Janessa St. Pierre, Geoff Manton, Graysen Sangster
Cast: Janessa St. Pierre, Quincy Thomas, Shaun Morse
A young black woman has been hiding behind wigs for years until her Alopecia is exposed publicly. She uses this experience as a catalyst to break free of the shame she feels towards her baldness.

Half-witted Gnus Are A Myth
Switzerland / Comedy / 12 minutes
Director/Writer: Marie-Anne Hafner
Producer: Marie-Anne Hafner, Daniel Hertli
Cast: Ursula Stäubli, Harul Ulrich, Jürg Plüss
Dystopian messages are coming from the smoke-filled radio studio. On the street, resistance takes its course. Advertisers discuss ways of spelling prosperity and equality.

Happy Graduation
United Kingdom / Horror / 19 minutes
Director/Writer: Robert Harold
Producer: Spandana Patanaik
Cast: Kelsey Cooke, Jamie Sefton
A young woman is literally haunted by her future at her university graduation party.

Harvey
Canada / Animation / 9 minutes
Director/Writer: Janice Nadeau
Producer: Marc Bertrand, Christine Noël, Pierre Méloni
Told through the eyes of a child with an overflowing imagination, HARVEY is a poetic, luminous look at bereavement and coping with the loss of a parent.

Hearsay
USA / Drama / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Banban Cheng
Producer: Sheena Alexis Suarez
Cast: Vivian Ahn, Jessica Lee, Eleven Lee
Set in a Chinatown beauty salon, "Hearsay" follows Lili, an outgoing and talkative hairdresser who gets herself in trouble when she gossips about a customer.

Heir of the Galaxy
Germany / Drama / 28 minutes
Director/Writer: Daniel Holzberg
Producer: Joseph Zedelmaier
Cast: Sebastian Griegel, Jule Ronstedt, Ercan Karacayli
A former child star from a popular sci-fi blockbuster tries to redefine himself twenty years later. But paparazzi, hate comments and his controlling mother won't let him forget a childhood in the spotlight.

Home
Korea / Horror / 13 minutes
Director/Writer: Jae-hee Jeong
Producer: So-ye Paeng
Cast: Yeong-ji Cho, Mal-bok Yang
A woman sorts belongings of her deceased mother. Uncanny phenomena occur in her house, and she recalls memories of her mother.

Hope
Singapore / Drama / 13 minutes
Director: Yvonne Lim
Writer: Kup Sin Ong
Producer: Molby Low
Cast: Natalie Mae E-En Tan, Adele, Yvonne Lim
A teenage girl misunderstands her mother’s intention to send her away and starts to display rebellious acts in school.

Horologist
Malaysia / Animation / 6 minutes
Director/Writer: Jared Lee
Producer: Eilin Lim
Cast: Steven Bones, Suling Chan, Gabriel Noel Pountney
Obsessed with time, Sand found a way to sell time itself. While his rich customers stay young, they never question Sand's discovery and the source of their youth. Find out in 'Horologist'.

How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying.
United Kingdom / Drama / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Tania Emery
Producer: Tania Emery, Joe Elliott, Byron McNally
Cast: Henry Goodman, Indra Ove, Charlie Rawes
BRANDING GENIUS Nic Goldstein is on the edge. His business is on the brink of collapse, his young wife is missing along with the company coffers, and his only hope is to win the Next Big Pitch, a new biscuit from China that is destined to knock the Digestive off its perch.

I Do Not!
USA / Drama / 15 minutes
Director/Writer: Yasmine Asha
Producer: Navid Navid, Lidiya Korotko
Cast: Lidiya Korotko, Navid Navid, Savannah Southern-Smith
When an overwhelmed bride runs away from her mother-pleasing groom at their wedding, the couple's culturally different families play the blame-game, unfolding each others secrets and lies...
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Il Fait Beau ( the weather is nice)
Netherlands / Drama / 19 minutes
Director/Writer: Leonardo Cariglino
Producer: Coen Van Berkel, Leonardo Cariglino
Cast: Michael Muller, Saraluna Zoric
The young french expat Jean lives isolated and alienated from human contact. But a dear voice message from his mother urges him to leave the house.

In Her Dream
China / Animation / 3 minutes
Director: Dan Wong
IN HER DREAM depicts a story of a girl who decides to release the balloon she has been holding tight to.

In The Matchbox
USA / Horror / 11 minutes
Director: Mike Rae Anderson
Writer: Jermi Little
Producer: Jermi Little
Cast: Hawthorne James, Chad Ayers, Davis Osborne
Uncle Wendell shares a centuries old family secret with his great nephews. If the secret gets out, it can effect and infect the entire world. Literally.

Incognito
India / Thriller / 25 minutes
Director/Writer: Ravi Muppa
Producer: Ravi Muppa
Cast: Vikram Singh, Ayushi Nema, Dev Chauhan
A lonely motel receptionist makes an extra buck by selling the hidden-cam videos of his unsuspecting guests on the internet. But when one such guest turns out to be a young girl at risk of being trafficked, he faces a crisis of conscience.

Klette
Belgium / Drama / 17 minutes
Director/Writer: Michael Abay
Producer: Nina Payrhuber
Cast: Jennifer Heylen, Anne-Laure Vandeputte, Stella Kitoga
The 26-year-old Morgane still lives with her mother, has not yet completed her studies, and her love life doesn’t get beyond one-night stands.

Knight of Fortune
Denmark / Drama / 25 minutes
Director/Writer: Lasse Lyskjær Noer
Producer: Christian Norlyk Larsen, Kim Magnusson
Cast: Jens Jørn Spottag, Leif Andrée, Jesper Lohmann
The loss of a loved one, the grief, the risk of yellow skin, and a coffin, that is too much for Karl to face.

Let Sleeping Bears Lie
Sweden / Drama / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Oskar Willers
Producer: Oskar Willers, Shazi Özdemir, Sara Larsson
Cast: Hannes Meidal, Sofia Karemyr, Julia Marko-Nord
The night after Alex, a married father, fortieth birthday party, there is a knock on his door. There stands Hanna, a former girlfriend, soaked with a present in her hand.

Life: 8th Chapter
Poland / Drama / 23 minutes
Director/Writer: Bartłomiej Skupień
Producer: Bartłomiej Skupień
Cast: Bartłomiej Skupień, Briana Croitoru, Alicja Miśkowiec
A small-town family's happiness is at stake when alcoholism and ambition collide.

Lunatics
United Kingdom / Drama / 19 minutes
Director/Writer: Florian Kasperski
Producer: Nathan Matthew Legger
Cast: Cassandre Wallace, Emily Drewett, Natalia St John-Porther
A group of students with learning disadvantages break into school to erase all grades before their final submission – Ocean’s 11 meets The Breakfast Club.

Mångata
Germany / Drama / 16 minutes
Director/Writer: Maja Costa
Producer: Antonio Padovani, Mario Nuzzo
Cast: Stefany Fruzzetti, Ayo Aloba, Afnan Ehoran
Little Alya and her father are crossing the Mediterranean Sea on a boat that takes them from Africa to Europe in search of a safe place to call home.

Marionettes
Australia / Animation / 10 minutes
Director/Writer: Prajdnik Awasthi
Cast: Namrata Shrestha, Anoushka Pandey
The fate of marionettes is sealed as they are stuck inside a cycle of suffering; the mother questions their existence to the god and supplicates for liberation from an unfortunate tradition.

The Meeps - Love Louder
USA / Animation / 3 minutes
Director: Olivier Staphylas
Producer: Michelle Jurado Staphylas, Varunee Santa
Cast: Lamar Morris
Music video of Love Louder by the band "The Meeps"

Melon Head
USA / Drama / 13 minutes
Director: Aurora Iler
Writer: Aurora Iler, Robbie Ryde
Producer: Aurora Iler, Amy Toomey-Cook
Cast: Aurora Iler, Nick Hardcastle, Cooper Alexis
Harper (Aurora Iler) is a straight A student who thinks she knows what's best for her.

Mgzavrebi - Waltz
USA / Music Video / 10 minutes
Director/Writer: Lado Kvataniya
Producer: Egor Solomatin, Alexander Medvedko, Margarita Sayapina
Cast: Achi Makalatia, Veronika Kalandarishvili, Dato Dvalishvili
Dramatic story of souls’ reincarnation, captured on antique movie cameras among antique Georgian villages, high in the mountains and lost in the mists of time.

Momma's Boy
Canada / Comedy / 8 minutes
Director/Writer: Sonny Atkins
Producer: James Swalm, Dan Slater, Adam Booth
Cast: Krista Bridges
...

Most of the Time We Are Just Waiting
Canada / Drama / 20 minutes
Director/Writer: Molly Shears
Producer: Michael Mandarano
Cast: Aubree Field, Piers Bijvoet, Fegan DeCordova
Set to the backdrop of her suburban town’s evacuation, Thirteen-year old Nora enlists the help of the boy next door to search for her apathetic big sister, who has snuck out to party with an older boy with questionable intentions.

Mother
Ukraine / Drama / 20 minutes
Director: Salomon Ligthelm
Writer: Salomon Ligthelm, Joshua Sullivan, Luca Degani
Producer: Daniel Linnik-Zhuravliov
Cast: Chris Galust
"Mother" tells the story of Vitaly Ivanov - a miner on the Ukraine/Russian border who discovers a ringing phone - and tragically so much more - in his backyard.

The Noble Guardian
USA / Documentary / 39 minutes
Director: Anna Coren
Producer: Anna Coren, Bahman Naraghi, Kasia Neiman
Cast: Mahbouba Seraj
Mahbouba Seraj had what every other Afghan wanted. A US passport and protected passage through the frenzied masses that had descended on Kabul International Airport in late August 2021, desperate to flee Afghanistan and the brutal Taliban regime that had just seized power, following the US withdrawal.