The Intro

Short films are grouped into 90 min programs. Tickets to feature films or shorts programs are $10 day of the show. An All-Access pass is your best bargain if you plan to see more than a few films.

The Venues

Theater #1
Challenger Learning Center IMAX
Theater #2
Challenger Learning Center Planetarium
Vivid Sky Theater
Theater #3
Cap City Video Lounge

All venues are accessible. Contact the venue for details.

The Legend

🍊 = A Freshly Squeezed Florida Film
🦩 = In competition for the Florida Filmmaker Award
🏆 = In competition for Audience Favorite Awards
🎬 = First-time filmmaker
✏️ = Student filmmaker
🌍 = World premiere

Award winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday, 9/1 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #2.

Saturday, 8/31 at 11:15 a.m.
Theater #1

A film by Julian Glander

Something is rotten in the state of Florida. It’s the day after Christmas, and the deadness of the year hangs in the swampy air. We’re in the suburbs with Billy 5000, an aimless teen doing his best to fill his days and fill his pockets. Billy has just dropped out of high school, and he’s content to spend his time slacking, shoplifting, and occasionally making a delivery for a food-on-demand app.

The gig economy has its ups and downs, and it brings Billy into contact with a series of oddball characters, some of them harmless and others quite menacing. But if he can pull together a quick $5k before New Year’s he’ll have what he needs to get his life on track. He’s got it all worked out.

The cosmic forces in charge of Florida have other plans for Billy. During a routine fast food drop off, he becomes the caregiver of a bizarre donut-shaped creature from another world. Things spiral from there, and Billy finds himself having to make hard choices about love, friendship, and the most important thing of all: cash money dollar bills.

It all swirls into a dreamy doming-of-age story packed with heart, humor, and banger musical numbers. Hang on to your segway, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

2024 | 90 mins | US | Color | Animated, Comedy, Coming of age

Saturday, 8/31 at 8 p.m.
Theater #3

A film by Truman Kewley

Leaked from the dark web, Daniel, an incel and would-be content creator, documents his experience during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Pursuing his unfulfilled desires with disturbing consequences. A brooding debut feature in a style reminiscent of a young Gaspar Noé, BEAUTIFUL FRIEND is an unflinching examination of “toxic masculinity and beta-male misogyny” (Stephen Dalton, The Film Verdict).

Director/Writer/Producer/Cinematographer: Truman Kewley
Producer: Ryan Hoang, Yoonie Kim, Nicole Wilson
Starring: Adam Jones | Alexandrea Meyers

2023 | 80 mins | US | Color | Thriller

Sunday, 9/1 at 4:15 p.m.
Theater #1

A film by Daniel McCabe

Filmed over the course of three seasons, GRASSHOPPER REPUBLIC follows a local grasshopper trapping team in verité style. As these modern-day prospectors push into remote forests seeking their fortune by capturing this elusive prey, we witness massive generators being hauled up collapsing mudbanks. Light posts are erected with chemically treated bulbs, casting a lurid neon green pall over the tree canopy, irresistibly attracting the swarm to their corrugated iron traps.

With otherworldly visuals, these distinct universes collide with a burst of emotion. The trappers, who have suffered through injury, sickness, and exhaustion, finally have their moment and relief washes over them. As for the grasshoppers who have been lured into a trap through unnatural trickery, their path ends in a frying pan. Shifting between these two perspectives sparks consideration for man’s relationship to nature and our collective effect on it.

2023 | 94 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Nature, Art, International

It’s Such a Beautiful Day returns to the big screen (OUR IMAX, NO LESS!) for the first time since 2012, paired with Hertzfeldt’s all-new 22 minute musical odyssey, ME

Sunday, 9/1 at 6:15 p.m.
Theater #1

Two films by Don Hertzfeldt

Dark and troubling events force Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life. In 2012, Don Hertzfeldt seamlessly edited his groundbreaking short film trilogy about a troubled man named Bill into a new animated feature film. Six years in the making, the completed picture was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand. Built in the 1940s and used by Hertzfeldt on every project since 1999, it was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world, indispensable in the creation of the story’s unique visual effects and images. IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY painstakingly blends traditional hand-drawn animation, experimental optical effects, trick photography, and new digital hybrids printed out one frame at a time. 

The film’s signature “split screen” effect was achieved by photographing the animation through tiny holes placed beneath the camera lens, with each element in the film frame individually composited through careful multiple exposures.

2012, 2024 | 84 mins (total program) | US | Color, B&W | Animation, Comedy, Art

Due to unforeseen circumstances we are unable to present this program.

Saturday, 8/31 at 2:00 p.m.
Theater #2

A film by Monica Sorelle

In Miami’s Little Haiti, Xavier (Atibon Nazaire) makes a living as a demolition worker while his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) holds down two jobs to sustain their cozy household. Their routine is tested when their son Junior (Chris Renois) returns home after dropping out of college. Xavier and Esperance struggle to relate with Junior, who is no longer interested in speaking Creole with them and harbors ambitions of an artistic career path they do not understand. Xavier aspires to buy a more spacious house for his family, but still wakes up every morning, goes to work, and dismantles his neighborhood brick by brick. Yet even as construction vehicles rumble down the block, Little Haiti remains a vibrant community with traditions and rhythms distinctly its own. Monica Sorelle’s tender feature debut is a multigenerational drama that deftly explores the relationships between immigrants and their children, the looming threat of gentrification, and the pursuit of the American dream.

2023 | 95 mins | US | Color | Drama

Sunday, 9/1 at 1:15 p.m.
Theater #1

A film by Wim Wenders

New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (WINGS OF DESIRE) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in PARIS, TEXAS, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon.

Director: Wim Wenders
Writer: L.M. Kit Carson | Sam Shepard | Walter Donohue
Starring: Harry Dean Stanton | Nastassja Kinski | Dean Stockwell
Cinematographer: Robby Müller
Music by: Ry Cooder

1984 | 147 mins | R | France | Color | Drama, Repertory

Saturday, 8/31 at 10 p.m.
Theater #3

A film by Dylan Mars Greenberg

Two sisters are thrown out of their isolation and onto opposite coasts of America by a terrifying cosmic entity. While one sister suffers from memory loss and the other is too young to understand her own past, the girls discover they possess supernatural powers as they are pursued by the mysterious and unearthly being hell–bent on their destruction. SPIRIT RISER is a genre-bending fantasy with elements of horror, comedy, action, surrealism, and martial arts from rising New York City filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg.

2024 | 98 mins | US | Color | Comedy, Horror, Avant Garde

RATS! is preceded by the 15-minute short WHO DO YOU LOVE which begins at 8:15 p.m..

Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m.
Theater #2

A film by Carl Fry and Maxwell Nalevansky

It’s 2007 in Fresno, Texas. Raphael is in county jail following an arrest for graffiti. He’s a good kid. It’s just graffiti. So you can’t blame Raphael for the events that unfold after his arrest. He’s not responsible for the sting operation, the suicide, Flophouse’s new mix-tape, Officer Williams and her delusional suspicions, the meth pipes, the FBI, the rich kids with nothing to lose, Mateo, Larry the pig, all the knives, the local aspiring TV newswoman, the plutonium deal gone wrong, or anyone who may or may not die due to that deal turning sour. None of it is Raphael’s fault, but it is his problem. The moment Raphael walks out of that cell, he’ll be stuck on this turbulent roller coaster of misguided chaos. An amusement ride that’s a joy to watch in motion, as long as you’re not the one on it.

2024 | 90 mins | US | Color | Comedy

The filmmakers are expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Saturday, 8/31 at 1:30 p.m.
Theater #1

A film by Jodi Wille

WELCOME SPACE BROTHERS unveils the true story of The Unarius Academy of Science, an extraterrestrial-channeling spiritual school in Southern California who in the late 1970s became a wildly prolific filmmaking collective under the direction of their outlandish spiritual leader Ruth E. Norman, AKA “Archangel Uriel.”

Through intimate interviews with key members of the Unarius community, including its charismatic founders Ruth Norman (known as Uriel) and her husband Ernest (known as Raphiel), it unravels the Unarians’ compelling narrative of intergalactic communication, reincarnation, and the healing power of creative expression through their elaborate science fiction-inspired public access films.

Blending archival footage, vibrant visual effects, and candid reflections from current and former members, “Welcome Space Brothers” offers a thought-provoking glimpse into a community driven by a profound belief in the transformative potential of cosmic consciousness. Ultimately, “Welcome Space Brothers” invites audiences to contemplate the intersection of spirituality, imagination, and the human quest for connection with the cosmos, revealing a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the outer limits of belief and the boundless nature of human creativity.

2023 | 101 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Sci-fi

The filmmaker is expected to be in attendance for a post-film discussion.

A Man Imagined

A film by Melanie Shatzky, Brian M. Cassidy

Pushing at the limits of non-fiction cinema, A MAN IMAGINED is a bracingly intimate and hallucinatory portrait of a man with schizophrenia surviving amidst urban detritus and decay. Made in close collaboration with 67-year-old Lloyd, this immersive documentary fable follows the jagged path of a decades-long street survivor, across harsh winters and blistering summers, as he sells discarded items to motorists, sleeps in junkyards and lapses into near-psychedelic reveries.

2024 | 62 mins | Canada | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Portrait, Art

Director: Melanie Shatzky, Brian M. Cassidy
Producer: Rohan Fernando

Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada

Sunday, 9/1 at 6:30 p.m. in Theater #2

Flathead

A film by Jaydon Martin

Late in life, Cass is drawn to his long-forsaken childhood home of Bundaberg, where he finds himself on a spiritual search for redemption.

Director/Writer: Jaydon Martin
Producer: Patrick McCabe, Jaydon Martin
Starring: Cass Cumerford | Andrew Wong
Cinematographer: Brodie Poole
Music: Angharad Van Rijswijk

2024 | 90 mins | Australia | B&W, Color | 🏆🎬 | Drama, Documentary, Portrait

Sunday, 9/1 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #3

World Premiere

It’s A Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point

A film by Daniel Kremer

“Desert, culture, counterculture.” Worlds collide in this unconventional essay film, when filmmaker, film historian, and archivist Daniel Kremer seamlessly edits Michelangelo Antonioni’s legendary but controversial counterculture art film ZABRISKIE POINT (1970) into the same narrative universe as Stanley Kramer’s madcap epic comedy extravaganza It’s a MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963). In creating these new sequences, Kremer comes to recognize that the exercise effortlessly draws cultural and historical parallels in twentieth-century American life that echo in present-day America.

Director/Writer/Producer: Daniel Kremer

2023 | 99 mins | US | Color, B&W | 🏆🌍 | Documentary, Essay, Film Studies, Art

Saturday, 8/31 at 12:00 p.m. in Theater #3

Look At Me

A film by Taylor Olson

A fictional autobiography about an insecure, awkward and lonely bisexual actor who goes on an unwitting journey of self-love in the midst of an eating disorder relapse.

Director/Writer: Taylor Olson
Producer: Taylor Olson, Koumbie, Kirsten Bruce
Starring: Taylor Olson | Koumbie | Stephanie MacDonald | Sam Vigneault

2023 | 86 mins | Canada | B&W, Color | 🏆 | Drama, Comedy, Portrait, Art

Sunday, 9/1 at 2:30 p.m. in Theater #2

That Alien, Sound

A film by Brando Topp

An alien sound wave appears to take over a woman’s body through a radio broadcast. Her disbelieving boyfriend struggles to accept her identity and save their relationship.

Director/Writer: Brando Topp
Producer: Mia Danelle, Brando Topp, David Gomez, Richard Masur, Arlie Tadesse, Sean Hokanson
Starring: Mia Danelle | Amy Hill | Richard Masur | Will Tranfo

2024 | 97 mins | US | Color | 🏆 🎬 | Sci-fi, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #3

River Obscura: Secrets Of A Blackwater River

A film by Sammy Tedder

Dark and mysterious, blackwater rivers can be intimidating to behold. This film explores a wild and remote river in Florida’s eastern Panhandle known as the Sopchoppy. Musician, composer, cinematographer and naturalist Sammy Tedder reveals this blackwater river from a perspective mostly unseen—from underwater—and along hidden tributary creeks few have explored.

Director/Writer/Producer: Samuel C. Tedder
Starring: Sammy Tedder | Sandy Tedder
Drone Footage: Matt Morgan

2024 | 55 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Documentary, Environmental, Local Interest

The filmmakers are expected to be in attendance for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the special film program Florida Gone Wild:
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #1

Sam’s World

A film by Lily Lady

SAM’S WORLD follows its main character over the course of one weekend in New York City. Sam is a mid 20s, nonbinary sex worker, who faces an impending decision related to a pregnancy. Through immersive subjectivity, the audience gains a window into a hyper niche social milieu while still relating to the universal themes of identity, jealousy and belonging.

Director/Writer: Lily Lady
Producer: Dan Labor, Howard Seligman
Starring: Annie Connolly | Riley Mac | Ajé Brown | Coco Gordon Moore

2023 | 65 mins | US | Color | 🏆🎬 | Drama, LGBTQIA+

Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #3

Unlikely Allies

A film by Anthony Pedone

In 2003, a low-level cannabis case would end Weldon Angelos’ budding and promising career in the music industry. But it would also give birth to a national movement to reform our country’s criminal justice system, uniting far right conservatives like billionaire Charles Koch and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) with liberals such as Senator Corey Booker, Van Jones and musicians Alicia Keys, and Snoop Dogg.

Director: Anthony Pedone
Writer: Anthony Pedone, Max Blecher
Producer: Mike Marangu, Michael Hollis Goldstein
Executive Producer: Marc Levin, Kevin Garnett
Starring: Weldon Angelos | Snoop Dogg | Hollis Heavy | Corey Booker | Van Jones | Charles Koch | Michael “Harry-O” Harris

2023 | 97 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Politics, Music

Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #1

World Premiere

Welcome to Jay

A film by Jeffrey Morgan

Jay is a predominantly white town in the rural countryside of northwest Florida. Ask anyone who lives in the area – black or white – and you’ll likely hear that the town simply does not welcome black people and almost no one, inside or outside the community, knows the origins of the town’s reputation. It simply persists. In 2010, Gus Benjamin, a black teen, attends a party in Jay, only to wind up dead, a gunshot from a hunting rifle through his back. Robert Floyd, a young white man, is arrested and put on trial for second degree murder. The truths that emerge rip open deep wounds from the past between the black and white communities and lead towards reckoning with a dark history of racial violence that includes a shockingly similar fatal shooting that took place almost a century before.

Director: Jeffrey Morgan
Producer: Jeffrey Morgan, Alice Brewton Hurwitz, Valery Hollinger
Starring: Alvis Lewis | Garrett Davis | Blaine Hall
Composer: Jim English

2024 | 105 mins | US | Color | 🍊🏆🌍 | Documentary, Civil Rights, Local Interest

The filmmakers are expected to be in attendance for a post-film discussion.

Saturday, 8/31 at 11:30 a.m. in Theater #2

A Body Appeared At The Lake Today

A film by Brian Ratigan

A found footage examination of what happened at the lake today. A collaborative work by Non Films. 8mm images randomly selected from found footage; poem written by Daniel DeVaughn without images; music written by John Touchton and Jeremiah Johnson without images or words.

Director: Brian Ratigan
Writer: Daniel DeVaughn
Music: John Touchton, Jeremiah Johnson

2022 | 5 mins | US | Color | Art, Experimental, Found Footage

Courtesy of Non Films

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

A Summer’s End Poem

A film by Lam Can-zhao

Shortly before the end of the summer holidays, a country boy spends his savings on his dream of a city hairstyle – with surprising results. A story about bidding farewell to childhood and the poetic end of a summer.

Director: Lam Can-zhao
Writer: Lam Can-zhao, Yupeng He, Shutong Xu
Producer: Lam Can-zhao, Tammy Tai
Executive Producer: Yana Lekarska, Jeremiah Foo
Cinematographer: Pan Wenhua
Starring: Cai Jingbo
Music: Mu Qingfeng

2024 | 15 mins | China, Malaysia, Switzerland | Chinese (Min Nan) | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Portrait, Art

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

After Mountains

A film by Julie Peley

AFTER MOUNTAINS is the story of the young Ellie, who meets Noah, another kid of her age, while visiting her sick grandpa at the hospital with her mom. Through a child’s eyes, this short will explore the themes of grief, as well as intergenerational conflicts and misunderstanding that can occur while facing a family crisis.

Director/Writer: Julie Peley
Producer: Daniela Orlando
Starring: Norah Tucker | Kenna Blackburn | Anastasia Perevozova | Richard Forbes
Cinematographer: Wenting Deng Fisher
Composer: Luis Alacan

2023 | 18 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆✏️ | Drama, Coming of age

Screens as part of the program Shorts 6: Wanderlust
Sunday, 9/1 at 4:30 p.m. in Theater #2

World Premiere

Becky And Francis Are In Deep $#!+

A film by Ethan Mitchell

Coworkers and friends(?), Becky, an engineer, and Francis, a scientist, argue over which mass-murder-capable invention they should fix before lunch.

Director/Writer: Ethan Mitchell
Producer: Elijah Newman
Starring: ZaKeyia Lacey | Grace Wu 吴晓恩

2023 | 3 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆🎬✏️ | Comedy

Screens as part of the program Shorts 4: The 850
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #1

Blues For Herold

A film by Wes Barnhill

BLUES FOR HEROLD is a surrealist drama that explores the compromised relationship between brothers, Herold and Magnus, as a golden trumpet and a world of “bliss” begins to tear them apart.

Director: Wes Barnhill
Writer: JT Rosen
Producer: Terese Chiara
Starring: Bradley Beachum | Jack Ritter
Cinematographer: Tariq Avila
Composer: Wes Barnhill, Liam Trahant

2024 | 15 mins | US | B&W, Color | 🏆✏️ | Drama, Surreal

Screens as part of the program Shorts 5: Fractured Bonds
Sunday, 9/1 at 2:00 p.m. in Theater #3

Bob’s Funeral

A film by Jack Dunphy

An estranged man secretly films his grandfather’s funeral, hoping to uncover the source of generational trauma in their family.

Director/Writer/Starring: Jack Dunphy

2023 | 18 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Comedy, Observational

Screens as part of the program Shorts 7: Doc Shorts – Portraits & Explorations
Sunday, 9/1 at 6 p.m. in Theater #3

Brice Bischoff – Bronson Caves

A film by Christin Turner

Photographer Brice Bischoff’s psychedelic photographs explore time, space, and the history of the moving image in one of the most famous locations in Los Angles California: The Bronson Caves.

Director: Christin Turner
Producer: Amy DiCesare
Starring: Brice Bischoff

2023 | 20 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Art, Experimental, Portrait

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

Cracked: The Last Egg-stravaganza

A fim by Valerie Jones Rash, Rory Smith

Claire, Todd, and Moira recount very different versions of their hometown 1994 Easter Egg-Stravaganza fundraising competition—which also happened to be the last.

Director: Valerie Jones Rash, Rory Smith
Writer: Valerie Jones Rash
Producer: Valerie Jones Rash, Rory Smith, Melanie Smith
Starring: Valerie Jones Rash | Benjamin Buchannan | Brianna Borello | Rory Smith | Naomi Hallford | Melissa Smith

2024 | 16 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 🎬 | Comedy, Mockumentary

The filmmakers are expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

Churchill’s

A film by Matt Deblinger, Nicholas Orris

A documentary about Churchill’s Hideaway—South Florida’s punk rock institution for four decades—as told by the band members, staff and regulars who used to call it home.

Director: Matt Deblinger, Nicholas Orris
Producer: Matt Deblinger, Dan Abrusci, Diliana Alexander, Stef Vidal
Starring: Dave Daniels

2024 | 17 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Documentary, Music, Florida

Screens as part of the program Shorts 7: Doc Shorts – Portraits & Explorations
Sunday, 9/1 at 6 p.m. in Theater #3

Cotton Candy Sky

A film by Michael Curtis Johnson

White Nights in Alabama. A boy, a girl, and a grown ass man — this is the way the world ends.

Director/Writer/Producer: Michael Curtis Johnson
Starring: Matt Jones | Jean Leah Atkins | Justin Arnold

2024 | 16 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Coming of age, Art

Screens as part of the program Shorts 6: Wanderlust
Sunday, 9/1 at 4:30 p.m. in Theater #2

Deaf
Sourd

A film by Roy Arida

Beirut, Lebanon. Hassan is assembling wooden boards. His wife is dead. He is building her coffin. Tamara and Rami, the children, in their twenties, are helping him as best they can to fulfill the last wishes of the deceased: to be buried in her childhood village, abandoned for more than 20 years.

Director/Writer: Roy Arida
Producer: Roy Arida, Pierre-Emmanuel Urcun, Vincent Le Port
Starring: Tracy Younes | Hassan Zbib | Hamad Baydoun | Zalfa Chelhot

2023 | 35 mins | Lebanon | Arabic | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Comedy, International

Screens as part of the program Shorts 5: Fractured Bonds
Sunday, 9/1 at 2:00 p.m. in Theater #3

Deep Tish

A film by Dave Paige

A.J.’s massage could have been better.

Director/Writer: Dave Paige
Producer: Joshua Cohen
Starring: Zack Fox | Zolee Griggs | Corey Podell

2023 | 13 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Comedy, WTF

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

The Dreamcatcher

A film by Ankit Santra

Inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, a propaganda artist Bihaan traces his journey of becoming a vermin while trying to paint a nude portrait of his lover. As a sense of infidelity penetrates his personal relationships, he is posed with a question- what is morally corrupt- art or the artist?

2023 | 16 mins | India | Bengali | Color | 🏆✏️ | Drama, Romance, Art, Experimental

Screens as part of the program Shorts 5: Fractured Bonds
Sunday, 9/1 at 2:00 p.m. in Theater #3

Dysfluency Circuit

A film by Dave Rodriguez

Human speech originates in neurological pathways deep within the brain, linking motor control centers to muscles and airways resulting in spoken language. Utilizing neural mapping models, scans of decomposing nitrate film, and bare electrical signals from analog video equipment as source material, DYSFLUENCY CIRCUIT posits a neurological landscape of the stutterer, an internal physicality constantly at odds with the ableist urgency of everyday conversation and the capitalist economy.

2024 | 6 mins | US | B&W | 🍊🏆 | Art, Experimental

The filmmaker is expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

Emily Is Missing

A film by Florian Kasperski

Clara and Sam record a video to help find their missing friend Emily. However, they are not as innocent as they seem.

Director/Writer: Florian Kasperski
Producer: Orson Rout
Starring: Kate Fisk | Emily Drewett
Cinematographer: Bojan Brbora

2024 | 9 mins | UK | Color | 🏆 | Comedy, Noir, One-take

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

Francis Bacon

A film by Darcy Cagen

When a disillusioned young woman drops out of college, she wanders around Chicago searching for meaning and connection.

Director/Writer: Darcy Cagen
Producer: Darcy Cagen, Sining Xiang
Starring: Madelyn Levine | Jennifer Estlin | Michael Joseph Mitchell | Adam Rebora | Croix Perkins

2023 | 15 mins | US | Color | 🏆🎬 | Comedy, Drama

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

Gopher Games

A film by Brent Fannin

As developers slowly squeeze every ounce of profit they can out of the Florida landscape, animals like the gopher tortoise and more than 365 creatures that rely on them are being driven to extinction. 

Director/Writer: Brent Fannin
Producer: Chase Pirtle, Brent Fannin
Starring: Chase Pirtle | Kim Titterington | Elise Bennett
Cinematographer: Lorenzo Phrasavath | James Sullivan | Nicholas Cravey
Aerial Photographers: Brent Fannin | Kristin Salisbury | Shivam Shukla | Zack West

2024 | 18 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Documentary, Environmental, Local Interest

Screens as part of the Florida Gone Wild film program:
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #1

Handle With Care

A film by Michael Glover Smith

A woman and a man go on a date, both for the first time in years. Each faces the dilemma of how open and honest they should be.

Director/Writer: Michael Glover Smith
Producer: Alyssa Thordarson, John Otterbacher
Starring: Alyssa Thordarson | Mickey O’Sullivan
Cinematographer: Pouya Shahbazi

2024 | 8 mins | US | B&W | 🏆 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

The filmmaker is expected to be in attendance for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

World Premiere

Head In The Clouds, Feet On The Ground

A film by César Oyarzabal

In the metaverse social platform called VR CHAT, players have built a society of their own that re-creates everything of real life. The filmmaker engages himself in a quest to understand what’s the appeal of having this ‘second life’.

Director/Writer: César Oyarzabal
Producer: Yiweng Qian
Cinematographer: Yinan Shi

2024 | 22 mins | US | Color | 🏆✏️ 🌍 | Documentary, Mental Health, Technology

The filmmaker is expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 7: Doc Shorts – Portraits & Explorations
Sunday, 9/1 at 6 p.m. in Theater #3

How to Sue the Klan

A film by John Beder

From Producer Ben Crump. America’s first hate group, the Ku Klux Klan, dealt out hatred and violence for over a century without penalty – until five Black women and a young Black civil rights lawyer finally forced them to pay for their crimes. The strength of these women and the groundbreaking 1982 civil case set forth by their attorney established a legal precedent that paved the road for today’s fight against organized hate.

Director: John Beder
Producer: Benjamin Crump, Cameron S. Mitchell, Raji Ramanathan
Starring: Randolph McLaughlin | Juanita Toney | Betty Lawrence Lewis | Sonya Rollins | Connie Rollins | Nate Crumsey | David Cook | Scott McCoy | Karen Dunn | Roberta Kaplan | Benjamin Crump

2024 | 34 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Documentary, Civil Rights, Law

Sunday, 9/1 at 1:30 p.m. in Theater #2

If
যদি

A film by Tathagata Ghosh

An arranged marriage tears a lesbian couple apart, but with a mother’s love, perhaps another future is possible.

Director/Producer: Tathagata Ghosh
Writer: Buan G
Starring: Adrija Majumdar | Shivamrita Chakraborty | Bimal Giri | Paromita Mukherjee | Ranodeep Nandy
Cinematographer: Sayan Biswas
Music: Nabarun Bose

2023 | 26 mins | India | Bengali | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Romance, LGBTQIA+

Screens as part of the program Shorts 1: Unveiled – Stories of Love & Liberation
Saturday, 8/31 at 2:15 p.m. in Theater #3

Keeper Of Discs

A film by André Heizer

Kevin Cole runs a video rental store in Tallahassee. What once began as his personal video collection now stands as the last bastion of aisles where so many undiscovered gems await browsing hands.

Director/Writer/Producer: André Heizer
Starring: Kevin Cole

2023 | 8 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Documentary, Arts, Local Interest

Screens as part of the program Shorts 4: The 850
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #1

Land Of Lincoln

A film by Jack Dunphy

A newly sober actress endures a Thanksgiving from Hell with her aunt’s self destructive partner, and his son, a wannabe playwright.

Director/Writer: Jack Dunphy
Producer: John Hammond
Starring: Jessie Pinnick | Biff Wiff

15 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Comedy, Drama, TV

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2

The Letter

A film by James Skinner

In 1945, a young Gambian woman treks across her country to translate a letter written in English, one that tells the fate of her fiancé fighting for the British thousands of miles away.

Director: James Skinner
Writer: Baaba Sillah, Christopher Marchant
Producer: Baaba Sillah, James Skinner
Starring: Isatou Barry

17 mins | Gambia | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Period, International

Screens as part of the program Shorts 5: Fractured Bonds
Sunday, 9/1 at 2:00 p.m. in Theater #3

Life Inside The Seed

A film by Spencer Hopkins

A glimpse into the curious little magic that happens throughout town one day, from predawn to nightfall. We bounce between real and surreal views at life in a small city, its people, and its moments.

Director/Writer/Cinematographer: Spencer Hopkins
Producer: Spencer Hopkins, Jamia V.M. Wright
Starring: Dennis Brewer | Jimmy Maguire | Nathan Williamson | Jamia V.M. Wright | Connor Flynn | Helena Sadvary | John M Maiers | Grace Elsen | Blurry Monroe | Sarah Reid Vineyard | Matt Demayo | John Stevenson | Leah Alexis | Mika Fowler | Ashley Hopkins
Original Score: Steve Leacock

2023 | 38 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆🌍 | Comedy, Drama, Sci-fi, Art, Local Interest

The filmmakers are expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 4: The 850
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #1

The Man In The Blue Suit

A film by Evan Patrick Adams

Charlie, a lone ranger, must protect Sarah from harm. As a result, Charlie becomes targeted by The Man in the Blue Suit. To protect Sarah, Charlie must overcome his limitations. Will Charlie discover who the Man in the Blue Suit is and save the woman he loves from danger?

Director/Writer: Evan Patrick Adams
Producer: Tyler Kirkpatrick
Starring: Robert Francis | Avrielle Korti | Jason Chimonides

2023 | 6 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆✏️ | Comedy, Student

Screens as part of the program Shorts 4: The 850
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #1

Manger

A film by Jimmy Joe Roche

A feral prophet of gutter wisdom takes the viewer on a walking tour along the periphery of an American city while offering a frenetic retelling of the Book of Genesis.

Director/Writer: Jimmy Joe Roche
Producer: Matt Porterfield
Starring: Michael J. Rogers | Jarod Hanson | Alix Fenhagen
Cinematographer: Tyler Davis
Composer: Dan Deacon

2024 | 10 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Art, Experimental, Portrait

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

World Premiere

Methuselah

A film by Nathan Sellers

Rooted in a childhood memory, METHUSELAH examines the exploitation of trees and their haunting dual role, as silent witnesses and unwitting participants, in humanity’s long history of violence.

Director/Writer: Nathan Sellers
Producer: Nathan Sellers, Jamal Hodge, David Kennedy
Starring: Jordan Mullins

2024 | 4 mins | US | B&W, Color | 🏆 🌍 | Horror, Experimental, Art

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

Night Milk

A film by Tiger Hornby

A troubled lesbian, experiencing intrusive sexual thoughts, confronts her girlfriend and the men of her nightmares.

Director/Writer: Tiger Hornby
Producer: Kian Benjamin, Brendan Brulon
Starring: Cricket Brown | Betsey Brown
Cinematographer: Hunter Zimny

2023 | 13 mins | US | Color | 🏆🎬 | Drama, Romance, LGBTQIA+

The filmmaker is expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 1: Unveiled – Stories of Love & Liberation
Saturday, 8/31 at 2:15 p.m. in Theater #3

Patient

A film by Lori Felker

Fiction, reality, the private, and the performed overlap on a routine but emotional day at a medical center.

Director/Writer/Producer: Lori Felker
Starring: Ronna Trapanese | Rainy Armstrong | Naymyo Win | Sabra Michelle | Melvyn Marcum | Suzan Kurry | Lydia Nyachieo | Kathleen Tissot

2023 | 20 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Hybrid, Portrait, Observational

The filmmaker is expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 7: Doc Shorts – Portraits & Explorations
Sunday, 9/1 at 6 p.m. in Theater #3

Save The Flea

A film by Michael J Ruiz-Unger

With their family stores being threatened by developers, teenagers Miguel and Rosa embark on a first date to search for a mysterious booth which holds an ancient good luck charm that can save the flea market from permanent closure.

Director/Writer: Michael J Ruiz-Unger
Producer: Ale Marie Odriozola
Starring: Armando Bernal IV | Sofia Torres-Monclova | Alvin Aki | Tom Copeland | Nathan Parra

2023 | 18 mins | US | English, Spanish | Color | 🍊🦩🏆 | Comedy, Drama

Screens as part of the program Shorts 6: Wanderlust
Sunday, 9/1 at 4:30 p.m. in Theater #2

Say Something

A film by Tanner Hirten

Joseph Gladwell, a new college student with debilitating social anxiety has the unfortunate fate of becoming an overzealous Psychology major’s new project. Will he manage to survive her onslaught of out of the box teaching?

Director/Writer/Producer: Tanner Hirten
Starring: Vincent Amiel | Nicole Davis

2024 | 10 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆✏️ | Comedy, Mental Health, Student

The filmmakers are expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 4: The 850
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:30 p.m. in Theater #1

Sincero

A film by Robyn Stoop, Jolaya Gillams, Yinzhi (Peter) Pan

SINCERO follows a formerly incarcerated graffiti writer on his journey to becoming an established portrait muralist. Santa Ana is the city that graffiti artist Sincero calls home. Sincero now fights for his art to be respected by using community approved walls to commemorate the forgotten heroes that call Santa Ana home. A film centered within the heart of Santa Ana, Sincero is founded on the basis of the word’s meaning: sincerity.

Director/Writer/Producer: Robyn Stoop, Jolaya Gillams
Director/Cinematographer: Yinzhi (Peter) Pan

2023 | 11 mins | US | Color | English, Spanish | 🏆✏️ | Documentary, Portrait, Art

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

The Stage

A film by Raymond Smiling

A documentary exploring performers in niche subcultures; from a female Muay Thai fighter, to a no ring death match wrestler, to vampire clown drag performers.

Director: Raymond Smiling

2024 | 18 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Portrait, Sports, LGBTQIA+

Screens as part of the program Shorts 7: Doc Shorts – Portraits & Explorations
Sunday, 9/1 at 6 p.m. in Theater #3

Stargazing. A Dialogue On Creation Between Serial Silence-killers

A film by Niccolò Buttigliero

Lying in total darkness, two young immortals discuss whether it is time to create the world once again. A cosmogonic screwball comedy.

Director/Writer: Niccolò Buttigliero
Starring: Letizia Alaide Russo | Lorenzo Tombesi

2023 | 7 mins | Italy | Italian | Color | 🏆 | Experimental, Romance, Art

Courtesy of Eden Studios

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

Superman Doesn’t Steal

A film by Tamika Lamison

Based on true events, SUPERMAN DOESN’T STEAL is a coming of age story, set during the 1970’s Atlanta child murders- as seen through the eyes of 9 year old Harriet and her brother, who are fascinated with superheroes. However, when they experience a troubling series of events, the impact on their family leaves emotional scars and causes them both to grow up fast as they redefine their definitions of heroes, villains, and yes – even Superman.

Director/Writer/Producer: Tamika Lamison
Producer: Chris Beal, Dominque DeLeon, Carol Shine, Ben Ephraim
Starring: Ellis Hobbs IV | Jordyn McIntosh | Tamika Lamison | Mustafa Shakir | E Roger Mitchell | Mark Totty | Kellen Boyle

2023 | 19 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Drama, Coming of age

The filmmakers are expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the program Shorts 6: Wanderlust
Sunday, 9/1 at 4:30 p.m. in Theater #2

World Premiere

Tigers Of The Sky

A film by Ian Edward Weir

We venture deep into the secret world of the Great Horned Owls and discover their majestic nature while experiencing the poetry in the trees.

Director/Writer/Producer/Cinematographer: Ian Edward Weir
Producer: Farnaz Khoshbakht

2024 | 18 mins | US | Color | 🍊🦩🏆🌍 | Documentary, Environmental, Local Interest

The filmmaker is expected to be present at this screening for a post-film discussion.

Screens as part of the Florida Gone Wild film program:
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #1

The Triangular Door

A film by Dylan Mars Greenberg

The last survivors of an obliterated culture search for spiritual bondage in a reality show from hell. Shot on Super 8 film and narrated by Guy Maddin. Featuring Adam Green as the Earth’s salesman.

Director: Dylan Mars Greenberg
Starring: Guy Maddin | Ella Smith | Jac Bernhard | Jesse Yungbei | Viruscella | Elijah Eason | Octavia Leona Köhner | Matt Ellin | Reg Bloor | Damon Beirne | Max Husten
Music: The Flushing Remonstrance

2024 | 9 mins | US | Color | Experimental, Comedy

Screens before the feature film Spirit Riser on Saturday, 8/31 at 9:45 p.m. in Theater #3

Unsettled

A film by Bella Thorne

A young man is drugged and abducted from a gay club, escapes and seeks to bring his tormentors to justice in a deeply conservative Bible Belt Oklahoma.

Director/Writer: Bella Thorne
Producer: Jen Gatien, Eddie Alcazar
Starring: Jason Parks | Chris Zylka | Chris Santos | Bella Thorne

2024 | 15 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Thriller, Biography, LGBTQIA+

Screens as part of the program Shorts 1: Unveiled – Stories of Love & Liberation
Saturday, 8/31 at 2:15 p.m. in Theater #3

Wayfinding

A film by Bob Sacha

What happens if you turn the page in the book of your life and it’s blank?  The journey of two artists who learn to navigate from here to there in an uncertain world through loss, change and art.

Director/Producer: Bob Sacha
Producer: Lisa Lee Freeman
Composer: Irwin Fisch

2024 | 12 mins | US | Color | 🏆 | Documentary, Portrait, Art, Mental Health

Screens as part of the program Shorts 2: Artistic Visions
Saturday, 8/31 at 4:00 p.m. in Theater #2

Who Do You Love

A film by Max Gottlieb & Lorin Doctor

A couple in the midst of a breakup goes on one final road trip.

2024 | 15 mins | US | Color | Drama, Thriller

Screens before the Spotlight film Rats!
Saturday, 8/31 at 8:15 p.m. in Theater #2

Woke At Night

A film by Ben Majest, Rick Darge

WOKE AT NIGHT depicts the onset of an ambiguously romantic relationship between a left-brained data scientist and an empath; as challenges in communication reveal themselves, the future of their relationship becomes less clear even as their understanding of each other deepens.

Director/Writer/Producer: Ben Majest
Director: Rick Darge
Writer: Lucy Blehar
Starring: Emma Orelove | Ben Majest | Chris Parker
Cinematographer: Michael Kellogg
Composer: Jacob Yoffee

2021 | 14 mins | US | Color | Comedy, Romance

Screens as part of the program Shorts 3: Bittersweets – A Comedy Collection
Saturday, 8/31 at 6:15 p.m. in Theater #2