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CALL CASTING (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Call Casting is a single continuous shot comedic thriller about a voice over artist whose neurotic concern about his talent and employment stability while recording a commercial takes him down a bizarre winding journey as he seems to lose contact with the producer clients on the other side of his headset, sparking his worst fear that they aren’t happy with his performance and may have left to “call casting” to replace him, but as he exits his sound booth to find out why they seem to be ghosting him mid take, he quickly realizes he may have bigger problems than losing his voice over gig.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Dylan Bruno & Kasper Vejlø Kristensen
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 10:00 PM (w/ “Murder, Anyone?”)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Dylan Bruno and Kasper Veljø Kristensen are friends and aspiring producing partners. Dylan Bruno was seen on 5 seasons of the CBS crime drama Numb3rs, in Saving Private Ryan, Taken 3 and numerous other TV shows and films.
Kasper Vejlø Kristensen is an experienced filmmaker who has been producing TV series, commercials, short films and music videos for over 20 years. He has created videos for Lukas Graham and Aqua of ‘Barbie Girl’ fame and is one of the masterminds behind the wildly popular series The Stunt Comedy Show.
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CANCELED (USA)
SYNOPSIS: On Halloween night, an arrogant TikTok influencer refuses to acknowledge her cultural appropriation of Mexican culture as strange things happen in the shadows.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Language, Intense Imagery
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 4:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Christopher is a Latinx filmmaker originally from Selma, CA. Early on, Chris saw how stories can fight injustice, so he gravitated to cinema and received his MFA from USC. He brings an outsider perspective to directing A-list talent (The Rock, Wayne Brady, Jack Black), and brands (Netflix, T-Moble, Twix, Kroger, GrubHub), studios (BuzzFeed, Roku, Funny Or Die, Viacom). He teaches directing at USC and is a cohort of FREE THE WORK/GS&P’S RESIDENCE program.
His films have screened at Hollyshorts, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Cinequest, Cleveland International Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival and more, and have won multiple awards. ASSIMILATED has been a finalist in the ScreenCraft Film Fund, Slamdance, Oaxaca Film Festival. It was a 2nd Rounder at Austin Film Festival, a semi-finalist in Killer Shorts, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices, and the Official Selection of Coverfly Pitch Week. ASSIMILATED is in the top 1% of Coverfly projects.
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CHECKPOINT (USA)
SYNOPSIS: After mysteriously awakening in a barren alien landscape, a self-serving prisoner must conquer a series of grueling trials in order to reunite with his lost love.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Jason Sheedy
GENRE: Sci-Fi, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 3rd @ 6:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Jason Sheedy is an independent film director, screenwriter, and editor who has created award-winning short films, as well as the horror feature, Patient, which went on to air with Showtime. His screenplays have landed him various placements with Killer Shorts, Screencraft, Stage 32, Film Empire, Scriptapalooza, Slamdance, and the Finish Line Script Competition. In addition to his film work, he is also the Senior Editor for Bark Bark, a full-service production company working with top brands and networks.
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CHICKS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A girly slumber party unravels when a shy teen becomes the center of a bizarre nighttime ritual.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Geena Hernandez
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Nov. 5th @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Geena Hernandez is a young Latina filmmaker born and raised in vibrant South Florida. She loves to tell bold femme-driven stories that push the boundaries of genre and mix humanity with hilarity. Geena was awarded the WAVE Grant by multi-Sundance winning studio Wavelength Productions for her debut short film CHICKS, which she is also developing into a feature film. Outside of film, Geena loves to travel and will never turn down an opportunity for karaoke.
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CODE ONE EIGHTY SEVEN (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Two detectives investigate a potential homicide with strange unexplainable evidence.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Buz Wallick
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Buz Wallick was born and raised in the California town of Paradise, where he was weaned on a diet of David Fincher and John Carpenter. Buz has the unique experience of being a self-taught artist who has worked on over 100 projects across the country in the last 15 years. Buz uses his broad understanding of film production to do what he loves: create stories through the lens of the camera.
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CONVERGENCE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: At the edge of a black hole, in the midst of a mission to save humanity, an astronaut discovers something that will forever change him.
RATINGS GUIDE: Adult Content
DIRECTOR: Zechariah Thormodsgaard
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 1:30PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Convergence is Zechariah Thormodsgaard’s directorial debut. Previously, Zechariah has worked as VFX Supervisor on projects such as the SyFy channel original, “Hover”. He produced two feature length films currently scheduled for release in Fall 2022, “Bitcon” directed by Matt Osterman (400 Days, Ghost From The Machine) and the upcoming Paramount film starring Guy Pearce, “The Infernal Machine.”
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CREAK (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A man investigates creaking sounds happening in his apartment to discover not everything is as it seems.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: David Parker
GENRE: Horror, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Tuesday, Nov. 1st @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Director, writer and editor Dave Parker, originally from Vermont, fell in love with movies after seeing King Kong at the age of five. After attending the University of Southern California, he started working in the promotions department for Charles Band’s Full Moon Entertainment which culminated with him directing his first feature “The Dead Hate the Living” in 2000.
After several years focusing on documentaries for such studios as MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Disney, he directed “The Hills Run Red” for Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment in 2009. Following that, he directed a segment of the Saturn Award-winning horror anthology “Tales of Halloween” as well as the unscripted psychological thriller “It Watches”. When he’s not directing, Dave works as a television and film editor for companies like A&E, The Travel Channel, Shout Factory, and Lifetime.
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CREATOR (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A computer designed to flag violent internet content starts creating its own, with the inventors as the subjects.
RATINGS GUIDE: Language, Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Andre LeBlanc
GENRE: Horror, Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Andre LeBlanc is a Canadian-American visual effects artist, contributing to films such as ‘How to Train your Dragon’, and the hit Netflix series ‘Love, Death & Robots’. In 2014, he was nominated for a Visual Effects Society award for his work on ‘The Croods’. As a writer and director, he has a passion for creating short films that explore technological progress and the fallibility of human nature.
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CREEP BOX (USA)
SYNOPSIS: After his wife’s suicide, a scientist tries to use new technology to determine if there is life after death. But some things are better off being put to rest.
RATINGS GUIDE: Language
DIRECTOR: Patrick Biesemans
GENRE: Horror, Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Oct. 28th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Patrick Biesemans is an Iranian/Filipino American filmmaker based in New York, currently in development on projects the feature-length version of Creep Box.
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CRUISE (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: We’ve all received scam phone calls, but what about the person making the calls? Cruise is a dark workplace satire about a hapless telemarketer trying mightily to give away a free cruise. And if he fails, there will be dire consequences.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence
GENRE: Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 29th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Sam Rudykoff grew up in New York City, and began working on film sets as a teenager. He currently lives in Toronto, where he works as a copywriter, and has contributed to multiple award-winning creative campaigns. In 2018 he directed the comedy web series Newly Single Gamer.
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DANA (SPAIN)
SYNOPSIS: After being attacked one night, Diana decides that something must change.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Lucía Forner Segarra
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 29th @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Screenwriter, director and producer of Marta (2018), with 168 international selections and 22 awards (shortlisted for the Goya awards), and of Creo que te quiero (2016). Dana is her third short film, premiered at Sitges 2020.
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DEFRIBRILLATOR (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A woman comes back in to her apartment after a mysterious night in the woods.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Madeleine Coghlan
GENRE: Horror, Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Madeleine Coghlan is a Los Angeles based actor/director. She delights in the strange and the macabre and is committed to telling female led horror stories where the final girl is also be the monster under the bed.
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DEMON BOX (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: The Nazi from his grandfather’s story haunts a suburban boy in this exploration of multi-generational trauma.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence , Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Sean Wainsteim
GENRE: Fantastic, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Nov. 5th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Filmmaker Sean Wainsteim is the survivor of one (1) plane crash and one (1) art school. For over twenty years, he’s made commercials, television, music videos, documentaries, animation, robots and photography for Nickelodeon, Sony, Budweiser, Nike, The Rolling Stones, The History Channel, IFC and MTV2. Sean is the proud recipient of grants from BravoFACT!, MuchFACT!, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Arts Council, countless design awards and was MUCHMusic Video Awards’ Director of the Year.
In his personal projects, Sean often uses magic-realism to explore intersections between generational trauma and storytelling. Sean is currently in post production on ALTERATIONS, his first narrative feature film. Filmed in his grandfather’s home, ALTERATIONS uses fairytale imagery and themes to explore his grandfather’s journey from a war refugee to a sweatshop tailor.
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DEVOURED (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: A man struggles to escape the monster in his bed.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Thomas Chretien
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Thomas Chretien is a French Canadian filmmaker. His background in the animation industry gave him a strong visual style, which can be seen in all his films. He co-directed the award winning animated short Le Gouffre in 2014, and his first horror short Red Moon won the Best Short Film award that the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in 2019. Devoured is his latest, and most ambitious project yet.
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DOMESTIC BLISS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A woman with a surprise up her sleeve hopes to get a commitment-phobic man to propose.
RATINGS GUIDE: Language
DIRECTOR: Jennifer Scott and Nicole Townsend
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday Nov. 4th @ 11:00AM
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DYSTOPIA (NORWAY)
SYNOPSIS: Forget reality shows and Instagram beauties; a young girl’s fantasy becomes the playground for a gang of women set to create the perfect man, one lim
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Laura Ugolini
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 5:00 PM (w/ “Follow Her”)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Laura Ugolini is an Italian writer and filmmaker based in Oslo. After completing her studies in Cinematic Arts at the University of Rome, she worked as assistant director for several years. The love for genre movies started at the age of seven when she watched David Cronenberg’s The Fly . Laura aims to tell unexpected stories grounded in absurdism and humour. DYSTOPIA is her second short movie.
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ERIC (UK)
SYNOPSIS: Joshua finally gets to meet Eric, the beloved dog of a girl he’s been dating. As the evening evolves, Josh begins to get a sneaking suspicion that Eric isn’t your typical house pet.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Mild Language, Brief Nudity, Sensuality, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: David Yorke
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 29th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: David Yorke is a multi-award-winning director and lead creative, raised in Birmingham and currently living in London. He has over 15 years of experience in short films, music videos and broadcast television. He studied film production and graduated with a degree in 2008, and then worked as a freelancer on various projects, including feature films, music videos, adverts and corporate and promotional projects. Acquiring skills in camera, editing, writing and directing led David to make many of his own short films and music videos.
His films have gained great success and have been selected at festivals worldwide, including BIFA, BAFTA and OSCAR qualifying festivals. David is also part of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew and has won several awards for ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director’ for his films WE, SAFEKEEPING, EJECT, FORESIGHT and CLOUDS. His work has also been featured on David Reviews, Shots, 1.4, Directors Notes, Omeleto and Film Shortage.
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EVICTED (SWEDEN)
SYNOPSIS: A surreal film that embodies the feeling of being evicted.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Adam Onishi
GENRE: The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #4
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Writer & director based in Stockholm Sweden. Working in the film industry has an assistant director and Script supervisor with in Swedish tv drama while creating shorts on the weekend.
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