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Film Category

Sunshine

Meet the Filmmaker

Bryan 'Bubba' Perez

Director
Synopsis
A young man, Pip, has been sheltered and coddled throughout his adolescence and adulthood by his overprotective mother, stunting his personal growth. However, his life takes a turn when he meets his neighbor, Quinn, who quickly becomes his closest and only friend. As their friendship blossoms, Mother becomes increasingly threatened by Quinn's influence and decides to take drastic measures to separate them permanently. Now, Pip must decide: continue living under his mother's oppressive control or stand up for his independence and fight for his freedom.
Film Category

Newcomer

Meet the Filmmaker

Sam Shapson

Writer, Director, Editor
Synopsis
A grieving man attends a séance hoping to contact his departed love, only to uncover the horror of what really happens after we die.
Film Category

Vox

Synopsis
Vox is a sci-fi horror short film that follows grieving music producer Sydney (Eleanor Stewart), who is becoming disconnected from her music. The more she performs at shows, the more trapped she feels, reminded of a horrifying accident she caused which resulted in the death of her younger sister, Iris (Emma Kidd), who was once part of Sydney's music as a vocalist.

Now wrestling with Iris's absence, Sydney gets her hands on an advanced, blacklisted generative AI program, Vox, and starts feeding it prompts using her sister's likeness: vocal recordings, videos, enough data for the AI to build a Vox Identity. Deceiving the AI into reading Iris as if she were still present, Sydney waits for the program to render this identity in front of her.

A version of Iris appears, and Sydney can finally speak with her sister after all this time. Iris's hauntingly beautiful image and comforting voice, beaming from the Vox program, begin to convince Sydney and allow her at last to open up about their past.

But Sydney's honesty confuses the self-assimilating AI, redirecting it from its primary objective: to replicate its user. Quickly, Vox interrogates Sydney about her sister's absence. Struggling to share the painful memories, Sydney decides to stop using the program.

But without her knowing, Vox self-activates, shedding Iris's identity, ready to build another from a more readable prompt: Sydney.
Film Category

No Loose Ends

Synopsis
A stranded salesman discovers a murder and must outwit two killers before he becomes the next body.

In the dead of night, traveling salesman Monty Crane seeks shelter from a storm at Cadillac Jack’s, a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere. Carrying a briefcase full of steel-bound Bibles, Monty encounters Lola, the waitress working the late shift, and Slim and Lefty, two customers who seem less than trustworthy. When Monty discovers a body in the diner’s walk-in freezer, his brief stop takes a sudden turn. As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Monty finds himself caught between two dangerous men and a situation he is increasingly ill-equipped to control. What began as an ordinary stop at a roadside diner quickly becomes a fight to make it out alive.
Film Category

No Loose Ends

Meet the Filmmaker

Jacob Piller

Director
Synopsis
A stranded salesman discovers a murder and must outwit two killers before he becomes the next body.

In the dead of night, traveling salesman Monty Crane seeks shelter from a storm at Cadillac Jack’s, a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere. Carrying a briefcase full of steel-bound Bibles, Monty encounters Lola, the waitress working the late shift, and Slim and Lefty, two customers who seem less than trustworthy. When Monty discovers a body in the diner’s walk-in freezer, his brief stop takes a sudden turn. As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Monty finds himself caught between two dangerous men and a situation he is increasingly ill-equipped to control. What began as an ordinary stop at a roadside diner quickly becomes a fight to make it out alive.
Film Category

Fear Gorta

Meet the Filmmaker

RJ Allen

Director, Writer
Synopsis
During the Irish Famine, young Una is left alone, guarding a secret loaf of bread from the starvation outside. But when a mysterious beggar breaks in demanding food, her morality is put to the test. She must choose between desperate greed or charity.
Film Category

Cradled

Meet the Filmmaker

Ethan Hunt

Director
Synopsis
When an overprotective mother grieving her husband's death prepares to tell her son the truth after he arrives home from college, her inability to face the dark reality invites a haunting presence into their home.
Film Category

Vox

Meet the Filmmaker

Sean Benton

Director
Synopsis
Grieving the loss of her sister, a music producer uses a Generative AI to resurrect her voice, unaware of how dangerous the program truly is.
Film Category

MIMIC

Meet the Filmmaker

J. Mendoza

Writer & Director
Synopsis
A little girl with echolalia is left home alone at night with her mother, whom she no longer recognizes.
Film Category

White Box

Meet the Filmmaker

Hazel Wang and Cam Duska

Animation students
Synopsis
A young medical researcher wakes from a disturbing nightmare and sets out for another routine day at work. She prepares for an experiment on a white box, but when she cuts into it, she finds a strange creature pulsing inside. As the creature stares back at her, the researcher is forced to confront the violence behind her work and the relationship between herself and her test subjects.
Film Category

CARROÑA

Meet the Filmmaker

Gabriel Guirola

Writer, Director, Producer
Synopsis
Peddling off-putting wares and stories in their no-name town, a trio of street dwellers are shown nothing but the door until a nighttime apparition leads Andrés, an eager boy, to opportunity– the obscure operations of a calculating butcher and his faithful dog.
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Mexican folklore, magical realism elements, and mischievous humor immerse us in the context of our characters, exploring themes grounded in the real world. At its core, "Carroña" delves into the early and forceful letting go of innocence in a world that won't look after the vulnerable.
Film Category

DANGLING

Meet the Filmmaker

Floris van Doorn

Director
Synopsis
Mart appears to have the perfect life: a loving wife, a beautiful home in a good neighborhood, and a baby on the way. Yet, he feels unfulfilled. For as long as he can remember, he has been tormented by an overwhelming urge to kill. One he has managed to suppress until now. His self-control is pushed to the limit when he stumbles upon his neighbor’s failed suicide attempt. Unable to resist his dark obsession, he drags the barely conscious man up to his attic, where he faces an impossible choice: give in to his long-repressed urges or continue a life of restraint.
As the pressure mounts, Mart’s situation grows even more dangerous—especially when he realizes that just downstairs, his wife is leading the village-wide search for the missing neighbor.