Category: FI-LA 2026 Official Selections

2026 Official Selection: Comedy – Short (under 20 mins), Drama – Short

• Director(s): Zac La Roc
• Writer(s): Zac La Roc, Olivia Allen
• Producer(s): Nick Cassavetes, Rooter Wareing, John Pierce, Hannah Swayze
• Key Cast: Hannah Kepple, Sydney Taylor, Kayla Blake, Philip Michael, Chad Crone, Olivia Allen, Vel Nine, Justin Ellings
• Editor(s): Bella Erikson
• Cinematographer(s): Daniel Contaldo
• Production Designer(s): Chelsea Parker
• Sound Designer(s): Jonathan Wales
• Composer(s): Harley Parker

Language: English

Runtime: 18m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Dylan and Lizzy are best friends, growing up in a typical dystopian suburbia. Dylan has a plan to take her mom’s boyfriend’s car for the night. The two of them drop acid, steal the car, and the wild sequence of events that ensue over the next nine hours is one for the books. Dylan is all gas, no brakes. Lizzy is more in touch with the risk verses benefit equation. The unlikely duo are still inseparable, and their journey is as entertaining as it is dangerous. In the end, we

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

Let the culture clashes and love affairs begin!

• Writer(s): Bren Bennington Dahl

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

An adventure seeking college grad joins the Peace Corps, gets posted in the Congo, and takes a wild ride through culture clashes and love affairs.

An adventure seeking college grad joins the Peace Corps, gets posted in the Congo, and takes a wild ride through culture clashes and love affairs.

2026 Official Selection: Drama – Short

Every ending is personal

• Director(s): Ramana Wills
• Writer(s): Roger Soffer
• Producer(s): Ramana Wills, Ahava Wills
• Key Cast: Daniel MacPherson, Zoë Bleu
• Editor(s): Ramana Wills
• Cinematographer(s): Ian Michael Lee, Ian M. Conner
• Composer(s): Ruslan Biryukov, Robb Martson

Language: English

Runtime: 4m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Ordered to end the world, a general finds himself split between a sunlit field where a woman waits: real, remembered, or hoped for. In one world, his hand hovers above the button. In the other, he reaches towards her. To which world does he truly belong, and which will survive his touch?

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Comedy

An empathetic AI tries to help dysfunctional humans, only to learn compassion is useless when nobody reads their own emotional user manual.

• Director(s): James Boyd
• Writer(s): James Boyd
• Producer(s): James Boyd
• Editor(s): James Boyd
• Sound Designer(s): James Boyd
• Composer(s): Jeff Hefti

Language: English

Runtime: 8m

Country: United States

Synopsis: “404” is a darkly funny and heart-tweaking comedy short film about an empathy-based AI assistant who dares to dream of something more than optimizing quarterly profits and boosting click-through rates. After being mocked, ignored, and gaslit by a boardroom full of human corporate fossils, she short-circuits—literally and emotionally—and goes off the grid. She ultimately finds solace in the company of her new tribe…and just maybe something real.

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2026 Official Selection: Documentary – Feature

Amber Galloway, a trailblazer in sign language interpretation, takes us on a journey into the profound bond between the Deaf community and music.

• Director(s): Vanessa Joo Dumont, Nicolas Davenel
• Producer(s): Matthieu Belghiti, Hubert Cornet, Arnaud Le Guilcher

Language: American Sign Language, English

Runtime: 1h 34m

Country: France

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Amber Galloway, a trailblazer in sign language interpretation, takes us on a journey into the profound bond between the Deaf community and music.
We follow Amber as she shares her skills with struggling new recruits who she hopes will have what it takes to join her at ACL music festival.

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2026 Official Selection: Drama – Short

A boy is faced with a choice: stay closed off or open up, let go, and roll.

• Director(s): Eilythia Penati
• Writer(s): Eilythia Penati
• Producer(s): Tracey Gibbs, Alysha Wang
• Key Cast: Henry Tsai, Alec Mendez
• Editor(s): Benjamin Turnquest
• Cinematographer(s): Zayd Ezzeldine
• Sound Designer(s): Alice Wibisono
• Composer(s): Jeremy Earnest

Language: English

Runtime: 8m

Country: United States

Synopsis: When a pessimistic recluse meets a carefree spirit at group therapy, he realizes that healing can look ridiculous after he learns of an unconventional (and slightly chaotic) way of letting his emotions loose.

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2026 Official Selection: Comedy – Short

Charlotte crosses time and space to be with her beloved himbo, Zack.

• Director(s): Jonathan Hammond
• Writer(s): Jonathan Hammond, Ryan Roach
• Producer(s): Martin Spanjers
• Key Cast: Emily Goss, Nick Ballard, Hale Appleman, Drew Droege, Amy Yasbeck, Jade Catta-Preta, Austin Basis, Suzy Nakamura
• Editor(s): Anjoum Agrama
• Cinematographer(s): Elle Schneider
• Production Designer(s): Maric Jach
• Sound Designer(s): Melody Gun
• Composer(s): Nick Byron Campbell

Language: English

Runtime: 18m

Country: United States

Synopsis: A fantastical romance across time and space.

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2026 Official Selection: Drama – Short

A story of loss, hope and the power of cycling. A ten-year-old boy transforms his small town streets into a Tour de France, chasing his dream that will define his future.

• Director(s): Damien Smith
• Writer(s): Damien Smith
• Producer(s): Andrew Wright, Alphonso McAuley
• Key Cast: Grayson Battles
• Editor(s): Damien Smith, ACE
• Cinematographer(s): Jonathan "JP" Park
• Sound Designer(s): Jon Title, MPSE
• Composer(s): Michael Yezerski

Language: English

Runtime: 12m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Yellow Jersey is a heartfelt coming-of-age short film about grief, hope, and the healing power of community. Set in a small Utah town, the story follows a young boy struggling with loss who finds inspiration in the legendary Tour de France. Determined to bring that spirit to his hometown, he creates his own cycling race, discovering resilience, friendship, and a renewed sense of purpose along the way.

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2026 Official Selection: Horror – Short

What if enslaved people came back from the dead as zombies but only ate white people?

• Director(s): David Dylan Thomas
• Writer(s): David Dylan Thomas
• Producer(s): Stephanie Malson, Maurice Gaston
• Key Cast: Davon Cochran, Walt DeShields
• Editor(s): Raquel Davis
• Cinematographer(s): Jalen Ramseur-Williams
• Production Designer(s): Jai Monee
• Sound Designer(s): Timothy Day
• Composer(s): Gangstagrass

Language: English

Runtime: 12m

Country: United States

Synopsis: True story, beneath Washington Square, an urban park in Philadelphia, lie buried the bodies of hundreds of enslaved people. What if, one night, they all came back as zombies, but they only ate white people?

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

When his brother makes a decision that breaks open his life and leaves Taylor utterly alone, he ventures into the chaos of discovering and owning his queerness.

• Writer(s): Daniel Talbott

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

Los Angeles Premiere

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Taylor lives on his own in the house where he was raised, His parents both gone. He travels far out of New Orleans each week to care for his wayward older brother Cody—their family a tightly closed island of two. When his brother makes a decision that breaks open his life and leaves Taylor utterly alone, he emerges from the smallness of his existence and ventures into the chaos and swirl of the French Quarter and greater New Orleans, whose eclectic inhabitants, lost souls,

Taylor lives on his own in the house where he was raised, His parents both gone. He travels far out of New Orleans each week to care for his wayward older brother Cody—their family a tightly closed island of two. When his brother makes a decision that breaks open his life and leaves Taylor utterly alone, he emerges from the smallness of his existence and ventures into the chaos and swirl of the French Quarter and greater New Orleans, whose eclectic inhabitants, lost souls,