USA Tag Archive

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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Animation, Music Video

James Siewert Spins up a Stop Motion Tale of Capitalism’s Inevitable Downfall for Just Desserts’ ‘Tender’

James Siewert's music video whisks us from the birth of modern society, to it's capitalist systems now creaking at the seems, and it's inevitable demise.

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Documentary

Livia Albeck-Ripka & Víctor Tadashi Suárez Expose the Poison of LA’s Post-Fire Limbo in ‘Still Standing’

Turning 16mm film stock, degraded tape and suffocating silence into tools of witness, 'Still Standing' documents once intimate spaces becoming hazardous zones.

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Live Action

How a Recurring Daymare of Isolation and Gentrification Led to Lucas Murphy’s ‘You Can’t Talk to the Dude’

Lucas Murphy explains how his own anxieties of gentrification and living alone became a mysterious horror comedy that begs the question - what would 'you' do?

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Live Action

Idyllic Surroundings Mask a False Serenity and Something Far More Sinister in Nick Dugan’s ‘Foxhole’

Nick Dugan shares how a fateful trip led to his gripping story of surface beauty and stillness acting as a façade for a sinister and violent reckoning.

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Live Action

Taryn Ward Reckons With Disorientating Grief in His Quiet, Contemplative Short ‘NEST’

Immersing audiences in isolating silence, Taryn Ward details crafting his intimate portrait of a man mourning his late brother in his now empty house.

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Live Action, Premiere

Carissa Gallo Navigates Inner Turmoil and External Expectations as a Woman in Shutting Off Drama ‘Someday It Is’

Carissa Gallo explores the quiet tension of inner conflict vs outward perfection as a woman's deep malaise prompts her to flee her life for a desert motel.

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Awards, Documentary

Joshua Seftel Finds the Weight of Absence in the Specific and Small in Oscar-Winning Doc ‘All the Empty Rooms’

Stripping back commentary and even dialogue, Joshua Seftel builds a documentary film about gun violence from silence and the objects children left behind.

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