USA Tag Archive

Live Action

Marissa Goldman Mines the Voyeurism and Loneliness of Online Life for Off-Kilter Comedy Short ‘Max Distance’

Marissa Goldman crafts a mirror-laced world where digital loneliness turns into a surreal, tender, and darkly funny study of human obsession.

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Live Action

Grief Becomes an Addictive Vice in the Back Rooms of Julian Doan’s Surreal ‘Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart’

Julian Doan turns a Little Saigon mini mart into a purgatory where the grieving buy one last conversation with the dead beside the booze and lotto.

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Live Action

A Late-Night Senior Prank Curdles Into a Tense Class Standoff in Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz’s ‘Trapped’

Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz pit a high school janitor against privileged graduating students in their high-stakes drama that proves money can't buy class.

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Live Action

Giovanna Molina Deploys the Power of Silence and Raw Honesty Between Teens in High School Drama ‘Quaker’

Giovanna Molina reflects on her experiences of speaking truth to power and embracing silence in her short inviting us into the misunderstood world of Quakers.

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Live Action

An Otherworldly Mollusk Magnifies a Flawed Relationship in Nathan Mark Ginter’s Practical FX Short ‘Steak Dinner’

Nathan Mark Ginter's 16mm NEON & Kodak supported practical FX anti-rom-com centres a wounded, otherworldly creature as it stress tests a couple's relationship.

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Live Action, Premiere

David Liu Builds a Lifetime of History Between Lovers in His Temporally Fluid Short ‘A Song for Gracie’

Past and present blur at a Mojave gas station as David Liu's elegiac short asks what it means to carry every version of yourself into an uncertain future.

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Live Action, Premiere

Maya Winkler Explores Boobs, Existential Dread & the Absurdity of Women’s Healthcare in Off-Kilter Comedy ‘Lumps’

A breast lump scare spirals into deadpan chaos as two mid-20s women navigate the absurdities of the medical system with twisted humour and defiant joy.

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Live Action, Premiere

Ruhi Radke Crushes the Sexy Virginity Myth in Her Cringeworthy but Empowering Short for All the Wallflowers ‘Squash’

Ruhi Radke on making the unsexiest sex story ever and a representation of the first time that's funny, shaming, and ultimately a love story with herself.

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Live Action, Premiere

To Immortalize Their Love a Couple Turn to a Struggling Artist With Dark Intentions in Femke Huurdeman’s ‘Carve’

Inspired by a cute keepsake for couples, director Femke Huurdemen's writing debut is the twisted tale of an artist taking her work a little too seriously.

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Live Action, Premiere

A Teenage Couple’s Young Love Meets a Harsh and Unsettling Morning After in Liz Rao’s ‘The Truck’

Eschewing traditional car shots, Liz Rao reveals how she mirrored the restrictions of regressive laws by trapping her characters in a tense confined space.

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Live Action, Premiere

A News Anchor’s Viral Gaffe Unmasks Marriage Turmoil in Will Mayo & Ian Scott McGregor’s Comedy ‘The Mountain’

Will Mayo and Ian Scott McGregor explore the imagined melodrama behind a real-life viral video, using sharp visual storytelling to blend humour and pathos.

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Live Action, Premiere

Nicholas Finegan Cracks the Brittle Shell of Masculine Stoicism in His Intimate Neo-Western ‘Some Kind of Paradise’

British filmmaker Nicholas Finegan explores masculine vulnerabilities in American cowboy and Grindr hook-up culture in his neo-Western drama short.

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