Category: Films in Competition

After the sudden death of her parents, a young girl finds a portal to an alternate world in which they are still alive and must choose whether to live with them or stay with her brother.
Directed by Hadley Hillel (USA)

In the snow-covered ruins of 24th century Toronto, AEGIS, a humanoid war machine, leads a team of five robot-bound digital-humans into the real world (aka the “E-X-T”) to retake an enemy-occupied server installation vital to the survival of their digital homeworld.

During an attempt to ambush a large pack of enemy controlled war-drones, AEGIS recalls an interrogation with the enemy’s founder, an extremist named KYM MINAMOTO…AEGIS’s mother.

As AEGIS fights for her life in the real world, she recalls the emotional fight for her identity in the INT (the digital world), as she and her mother argue over the true nature of humanity and inclusion of digital-persons within it.
Directed by Adrian Bobb (Canada)

A boxer falls into a dark abyss after accidentally killing his opponent in the ring. 
Directed by Jorge Carvajal (Mexico)

A foreboding encounter with an enigmatic Southern landowner by an independent film director and his lead actress while scouting a location for their film.
Directed by Michael Wade Johnson (USA)

“Overcome” is the story of a former NFL player who must regain his job after dealing with family trauma.
Directed by Anthony Janssen (USA)

When their car breaks down, a couple is forced to address the growing distance between them.
Directed by Dylan Calder Stein (USA)

Late at night in the Oval Office of the White House, Obama falls asleep and begins to relive his undergraduate days in LA as a writer of poetry. To Obama’s horror, Charles Bukowski appears and claims to be his literary father. Bukowski also takes an interest in Michelle (the last of the three characters) and tricks Obama into thinking he is about to become sick on the presidential seal carpet. Obama wakes, the actual Michelle sends him off to bed, and that is the end of it. Or maybe not.
Written by James Fitzmaurice (UK)

Jane is a film that explores how warped perceptions of love manifest out of a traumatic childhood. The story centers on the unhealthy relationship between the two main characters Jane and Valerie and how their sense of self and dysfunctional love develops as they become close.
Directed by Wai Lam Cheung (USA)

Do the values that we got from our parents define who we are? 
This is the story of a hard-working family in an Israeli suburb in the seventies. 
The father cannot deal with problems at home and escapes to alcohol and sex. The mother tries to keep the family together at any price but does not acknowledge her kids’ feelings. Each parent uses their kids to their advantage while giving them responsibilities they cannot hold. The kids try to imitate their parent’s behavior in order to survive. 
We follow the family’s reality from the kids’ point of view, the lays and manipulation of the adults, the messages they deliver to their children, those that will make them how they are. 
Catching the mouse, isn’t always the same.
Directed by Liat Akta (Israel)

Tyree Evans is an uptight, judgmental attorney on his way to work. He gets held up at gun point by ex-con Andre Jefferson, who is just trying to stay out of jail for good. The two end up having a day they both will never forget. At the end, they learn a little more about each other and life in general.
Directed by Bryan Bostic (USA)