2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Animation
A Duck’s surreal journey in its quest for bread, or something more.
Director(s): Nick Zweig
Producer(s): Noah Pardo
Key Cast: Marianna Hersko, Ben Bishop, Richard Micheals, Nick Zweig
I am Duck
Grillo
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Documentary
The topic of recidivism is told through the narrative of David, who has been in and out of prison his entire life, but through re-entry and gang intervention services like Homeboys, he has found redemption and grace.
Director(s): Dima Puchkarev
Producer(s):Dima Puchkarev
Key Cast: David Zamudio, Aya Gruber, Greg Boyle, Shia LaBeouf
Country: United States
FRANKS IN HELL
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Animation
In a surreal suburban hell, Frank lives through eternal loops, until a self discovery forces him to break away from his nightmare.
Director(s): JOHNNY GALVAN
Writer(s): JOHNNY GALVAN
Producer(s): JOHNNY GALVAN
Key Cast: Michael Malconian
Country: United States
Los Angeles Premiere
Dark Matter
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama
A disabled wheelchair user tries to solve the biggest question in physics, a solution to the theory of everything, while struggling with the cigarette butts and other rubbish falling onto his apartment balcony from the neighbours above.
Director(s): Leo Berkeley
Writer(s): Leo Berkeley
Producer(s): Leo Berkeley
Key Cast: Leo Berkeley
Country: Australia
Los Angeles Premiere
Damned
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Horror
After a father fails to remove his ankle monitor, he’s pursued by his parole officer and a hellbent demon who’s after his soul.
Director(s): Lukas Anderson
Writer(s): Lukas Anderson, Elio Andres
Producer(s): Alexus Es
Key Cast: Cole Kelley, Courtney Powell-Walker, Everett Anderson
Country: United States
Cut All Trees
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama
A novelist dissatisfied with life and marriage explores her desire and asks for an affair.
Director(s): Olivia Lige Wuri
Writer(s): Olivia Lige Wuri
Producer(s): Anna Yuxing Lei, Yunyi Zhu
Key Cast: Danielle Keaton, Christopher Dietrick, Charlie Townsend
Country: United States
World Premiere
Chromatography
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Sci-Fi
Two sisters confront their differing views on genetic engineering as they prepare to leave Earth with the final human survivors.
Director(s): Michael Vaughn Hernandez
Writer(s): Darren Bailey, Renée Veronica Freeman
Producer(s): Renée Veronica Freeman, Michael Vaughn Hernandez, Kally Khourshid
Key Cast: Renée Veronica Freeman, Folami Williams
Country: United States
World Premiere
Carter
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Horror
In this H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, Carter, a grief-stricken young man, and his mentor Warren, an elder female professor of the occult, search for a portal to the underworld in an abandoned cemetery.
Director(s): Xander Copp
Writer(s): Meg Rodgers, John-Paul Kaczur
Producer(s): Xander Copp, Bradley Cherry, Adam Schoales
Key Cast: Carson MacCormac, Elizabeth Saunders, Brian Quintero
Country: Canada
Los Angeles Premiere
Becoming an Oyster
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Animation
Becoming an Oyster is a haunting animated journey through a boy’s eyes, where grief, addiction, and a crumbling planet intertwine in a surreal search for healing and meaning.
Director(s): Elizabeth Schneider, Michael Covello
Country: United States
Los Angeles Premiere
Baby Husband
2025 Official Selection: Short Film – Comedy
A beleaguered wife discovers there’s more to her husband’s immature antics than meets the eye.
Director(s): Cate Fogarty
Writer(s): Cate Fogarty
Country: United States
World Premiere
