Film Invasion – L.A. & Lima

2026 Official Selection: Featurette – SciFi

In a dystopian future, a grieving scientist discovers Earth exists within a single neuron. He launches a desperate quest across space and time to find his son.

• Director(s): Raphael Buisson
• Writer(s): Raphael Buisson
• Producer(s): Raphael Buisson, Jack McMann, Kip Thorne, Rafael Maman, Hsiao Shih-Chun
• Key Cast: David Alan Graf, Kip Thorne, Ranen Warren, Jessica Park, Alan Aymie, Tamara Becker Cimmerian, Christian Haines

Language: English

Runtime: 22m

Country: United States

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, a grieving scientist discovers Earth exists within a single neuron. He launches a desperate quest across space and time to find his son.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Short Film

An anxious man who struggles with asthma meets the woman who takes his breath away.

• Director(s): Erika Carsella
• Writer(s): Erika Carsella
• Producer(s): Erika Carsella
• Key Cast: Brooke Emerick, Annie Tank

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

World Premiere

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While eating alone at a diner, a socially anxious man believes his insecurity and embarrassment cost him a chance at connection, unaware that the women he idolized may be far more like him than he ever imagined.

While eating alone at a diner, a socially anxious man believes his insecurity and embarrassment cost him a chance at connection, unaware that the women he idolized may be far more like him than he ever imagined.

2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

An executed serial killer’s soul infects store mannequins as a grieving teen must survive a locked-in party to escape the killer before he finishes his ritual for Hell’s power.

• Writer(s): Warren Proulx Jr

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

In 1987, occult serial killer Nikolas Holcomb dies by electric chair, trading his soul to the Devil. Instead of gaining hellish powers, his spirit is trapped inside the plastic mannequins of Reilly’s Department Store. Teen Kara—whose sister was Nikolas’s last victim—sneaks into the store with friends for a graduation party. The mannequins come alive, hunting the teens to finish Nikolas’s ritual. Facing her sister’s killer, Kara fights back, destroying him for good.

In 1987, occult serial killer Nikolas Holcomb dies by electric chair, trading his soul to the Devil. Instead of gaining hellish powers, his spirit is trapped inside the plastic mannequins of Reilly’s Department Store. Teen Kara—whose sister was Nikolas’s last victim—sneaks into the store with friends for a graduation party. The mannequins come alive, hunting the teens to finish Nikolas’s ritual. Facing her sister’s killer, Kara fights back, destroying him for good.

2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Short Film

Father knows best, son knows better?

• Writer(s): Chris Paseka

Country: Not Specified

After a health scare, an Archie Bunker-like father and his gay son struggle with connecting. Are they exactly alike or worlds apart?

After a health scare, an Archie Bunker-like father and his gay son struggle with connecting. Are they exactly alike or worlds apart?

2026 Official Selection: Comedy – Short

While at a funeral for an uncle he barely knew, Jonathan must sneak out to avoid more uncomfortable conversations and to make it the party of a lifetime.

• Director(s): Michael Rojo
• Writer(s): Michael Rojo
• Producer(s): Jane A Rogers, Emmanuel Salgado
• Key Cast: Michael Rojo, Jane A Rogers, Spencer Kramber
• Cinematographer(s): Emmanuel Salgado
• Composer(s): Zach Spound

Language: English

Runtime: 11m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Jonathan has a problem: the hottest party of the year is happening on the exact same day as the funeral of an uncle he barely knew. Determined not to miss out on the party, he launches a series of lies in an attempt to sneak out of the funeral. Faced with the regret of a relationship never explored, he learns that some opportunities can’t be rescheduled—and some goodbyes deserve to be heard.

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2026 Official Selection: Comedy – Short

Sometimes you have to get the blame off of you.

• Director(s): Alex Sovoda
• Writer(s): Alex Sovoda
• Producer(s): Jessica Dimento, Chet Oshima
• Key Cast: Will Duncan, Haley Stiel, Maria Smal, Leo Reilly, Wes Dunlap
• Editor(s): Alex Sovoda
• Cinematographer(s): Steven Xie
• Sound Designer(s): Matt Rollins
• Composer(s): Zach Michel

Language: English

Runtime: 18m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: A friend starts stealing from others at a game night, and then makes matters infinitely worse.

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2026 Official Selection: Drama – Short

Built like a cadavre exquis, the film assembles dreams, memories, and ruptures into the portrait of a man whose death gives birth to the truth he never dared to live.

• Director(s): Lorenzo Sterzi
• Writer(s): Lorenzo Sterzi
• Producer(s): Aurélien Kik
• Key Cast: Yves Jacques, Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, Émile Auger, Luis Oliva, Danielle Barbeau, Lorraine Pintal, France Castel, Bénédicte Décary
• Editor(s): Yvann Thibaudeau
• Cinematographer(s): Jean-Francois Noël
• Production Designer(s): Élie Arsenault-Boisvert
• Sound Designer(s): Christian Rivest
• Composer(s): Georges Dimitrov

Language: French

Runtime: 11m

Country: Canada

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Constructed like a cadavre exquis, the film unfolds in fragments, between dream and reality, revealing the many facets of a fractured identity. A posthumous coming-out where a man’s death becomes the birth of his truth.

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2026 Official Selection: Comedy – Short

Two anxious roommates fight over the most hallowed of queer spaces…the bathroom.

• Director(s): Ricki Romano
• Writer(s): Ricki Romano
• Producer(s): Lauren Skelton, Ricki Romano
• Key Cast: Lauren Skelton, Ricki Romano
• Editor(s): Jet Harris
• Cinematographer(s): Alexandra Geneviève Agar
• Production Designer(s): Arushi Mathur
• Sound Designer(s): Joseph Vnuck

Language: English

Runtime: 7m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Aster is a freshly-out trans girl exploring her evolving sexuality. Sophie is a bisexual woman with too many hot Feeld dates to count. As Aster crashes out over the significance of doing a ~certain~ sexual act for the first time, Sophie tries to reassure her, only to begin spiraling over her own romantic pining. In this dramedy of queer femme friendship, these not-quite-old-not-quite-young women trade insults, reassess 90s rom-coms, and–-most importantly–-hold each other up.

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2026 Official Selection: Sci-Fi – Short

Psychic Hominids will answer life’s greatest questions, if you can catch one.

• Director(s): Dylan Dugas
• Writer(s): Eddie Fritts Tomaselli
• Producer(s): Dylan Dugas
• Key Cast: Sydney Rose Walker, Bianca Stein
• Editor(s): Dylan Dugas
• Cinematographer(s): Dylan Dugas
• Production Designer(s): Rachelle Flauta
• Sound Designer(s): Mike Gallagher
• Composer(s): Aaron Olson

Language: English

Runtime: 12m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Sir Charles and Barbrix work through an unusual roadblock in their relationship while Sir Charles tries to capture a hominid in pursuit of answers to life’s greatest questions.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

The road back to God runs through the shadows.

• Writer(s): Samuel L Taylor

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

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When a devout young preacher’s faith is shattered by a traumatic childhood tragedy, his attempts to rebuild his life as an adult are upended by haunting visions, supernatural warnings, and the reemergence of unresolved guilt, forcing him to confront the demons of his past… before they destroy his family.

When a devout young preacher’s faith is shattered by a traumatic childhood tragedy, his attempts to rebuild his life as an adult are upended by haunting visions, supernatural warnings, and the reemergence of unresolved guilt, forcing him to confront the demons of his past… before they destroy his family.