Category: Films in Competition

While anticipating someone to join him, a young man takes notice of the increasingly eccentric patrons in the restaurant.
Directed by Anthony Cally (USA)

Erik Lowhouse has died. While the rest of the student body reacts to the alarming news, freshman Wolfgang (Wolfy) has trouble recollecting him. Enjoying their time off from school, Wolfy and his friends encounter a group of upperclassmen, Steve and Taylor, who have unfavorable ties to the underclassmen. Through peer pressure, Steve convinces Wolfy to join them and is arbitrarily thrown into their world of mischief.
Directed by Paul Curtis (USA)

After the death of his brother, a boy starts hearing him through the walls.
Directed by Morgan O’Connell (UK)

“Mobius Dream” is a story about a high school girl, whose monotony school life is disturbed by the encounter of a purple-hair stranger in her dream. The fact that they have the exact same earrings in the shape of mobius boosts the girl’s curiosity. This incident drives her onto a journey of self-realization.
Directed by Jinmeng Li (China)

Lizzie Boredom is a reclusive sociopath who has convinced herself she’s a television star. Following a traumatic childhood event, Lizzie locked herself away in a rickety old house that she later inherited after her parents mysteriously disappeared.

For 25 years, Lizzie’s only escape is through her own nightmarish delusions, where she’s the star of her own ghastly sitcom.
Directed by Elizabeth Theis (USA)

A mysterious young man (Vincent) gets invited to dinner by his girlfriend’s parents. What the family does not know is that their guest has come to kill them all.
Directed by Andres Jarrin (USA)

After a major family emergency results in a mental breakdown, Renee lets living her own life go in order to take care of her ailing and abusive parents. This short dark comedy explores how an emotionally isolated elder millennial with no concept of “Self Care” and an inability to compete with her successful, more favored, brother, fares in dating, breaking traumatic cycles and standing up for her own needs while living under the roof of her two very dependent parents. “Renee” provides a short, twisted, glimpse into the roles women (and particularly women of color) take on as the primary caretakers in the family, often derailing their own emotional and social trajectories out of duty to their parents. 
Directed by Demetrius Barry (USA)

“Two brothers struggle to care for themselves faced with their mother’s Heroin addiction. Based on a true story.”

This short film is the beginning of my story, based around real events that lead me being placed into foster care when I was a child. In the midst of an opioid epidemic, I made this piece because I wanted to show how addiction affected my family.
Directed by Daniel Sole (USA)

When the younger of two brothers, Cameron, has his jacket stolen, their mother Katrina sends the eldest brother, Anthony out to get it back. But as time passes, Katrina and Cameron begin to wonder if Anthony will return at all.
Directed by Brady Morell (USA)

Adventures of Turtle Taido is a Nigerian TV series about a bubbly, magic turtle on an adventure across Nigeria. In this 12-minute short, he visits Osogbo, capital city of Osun State and tours a cocoa farm with his friend Abiodun. Taido then travels to River Niger and River Benue in Kogi State, where he and his friend Usman meet friendly manatees. This is a 2018 4K (UHD) director’s cut by Artie Romero, with more characters and better animation.
Directed by Artie Romero (USA)