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APERIO (BRAZIL)
SYNOPSIS: After the death of her mother, a 10 year old girl and her father must confront grief in its most nefarious form.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Patrick Hanser
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premier
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Patrick Hanser is an emerging director and screenwriter. He has directed a few short films, which have been selected to festivals such as the São Paulo International Short Film Festival and the Oxford Film Festival, and he recently directed a documentary series in Brazil based on Byung-Chul Han’s book “The Burnout Society”. He was 2nd unit director on the Sundance selected feature film Abe, which is available on Netflix. Currently, he is developing his first feature film, “The Falls”.
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BLACK WHOLE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Taking place during a nondescript, yet nostalgic time period, Hot Department: Dark Web will take you on a journey to the strangest corners of the internet. This eight part series will present a series of interlinked sketches, centering around various character’s online browsing habits when they think no one’s watching.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery, All Audiences
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Brett Calkins is a recent graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory Directing Program where he wrote and directed five narrative short films including his thesis film, Black Whole. Before attending AFI, Brett received his BA in Media Arts from Brigham Young University where his thesis film, Penrose, was nominated for Best Short at the Utah Film Awards 2016, and an Official Selection of the LDS Film Festival 2016. Brett’s commercial directing work has been featured on the NFL Network, CBS Sports, and Bleacher Report. Brett, his spouse, and two children are based in Los Angeles.
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DADDY’S NIGHT (USA)
SYNOPSIS: With Mommy out for the night, Daddy invites over Natalie. But when his daughter Betsy wakes up afraid of a monster, can Daddy find a way to put her back to bed in time to get in bed with Natalie?
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Mild Language, Sensuality, Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Will Pinke
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Will Pinke is a writer/director from New Jersey, currently based in New York. He recently graduated from Columbia University’s MFA Film program with a degree in Directing & Screenwriting. Will’s work focuses on the collision of comedy with other genres, and aims to explore realistic human dramas within fantastic or absurd contexts. Will’s dark romantic comedy, “Family Heirloom”, premiered in 2021 at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York, and online as the Featured Short of the Week on filmshortage.com. His most recent short, “Daddy’s Night”, premiered in 2022 and is just beginning its festival run at FilmQuest.
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DARKSIDE (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: After a devastating tragedy, an astronaut struggles to complete his interstellar mission to rescue a lost crew.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Spencer Zimmerman
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct 30th @ 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Spencer Zimmerman is a screenwriter and director, known for his short films Der Jude, Emily, and the feature film The Tipping Point. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Spencer spent the formative years of his life in the prairies of western Canada before moving to Vancouver to pursue studies in filmmaking at Capilano University’s prestigious school of Motion Picture Arts.
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FUME (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A young girl finds the courage to escape her oppressor when she discovers that she is not the only victim. As her rage builds, she chooses to take action.
RATINGS GUIDE: Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Olivia Kimmel, Paul Cadenhead
GENRE: Horror, Fantastic
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct 30th @ 4:00 PM (w/ “The Ones You Didn’t Burn”)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Olivia is a Los Angeles and New York-based Cinematographer and Director. As a Local 600 Union Camera Assistant, she got her start chasing adventure all over the world, and was fortunate to learn from the wildest of people and places. She found herself swimming gear to set on a volcanic island in the Caribbean, tracking bears deep into the Adirondack mountains, and creating a VR world blending past and present on the beaches of Normandy, among other unique storytelling experiences around the world. She also worked locally on many productions including Get Out, Russian Doll, After Yang, and Search Party. She then transitioned from camera assistant to cinematographer and director, bringing with her a strong technical and emotional skillset, a nuanced aesthetic style, and an ever-important twinkle in her eye. She is interested in boundary-pushing films that have something unique to say.
Paul Cadenhead is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s directing program and an independent writer/director who is committed to eccentric, character-driven storytelling. Paul’s films often focus on themes of masculinity, family dynamics and individualism – all lined with a thread of dark humor. He is interested in discovering poignant human truths through a satirical lens. Paul’s greatest artistic influence comes from the spirit of Wyoming, where he was born and raised. Some of Paul’s previous work includes the award winning short films: The Cowboy Pecan Pie; The Marvin Family Tortoise; Chekhov’s Gun; and A Picture of Friendship During the Dark Ages
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HELLION (AUSTRALIA)
SYNOPSIS: A sleazy conman, an elderly woman, and a rabbit, come together in this horror-comedy where nothing is as it seems. Does a satanic force lurk in the shadows, or has superstition run wild?
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Mild Language
DIRECTOR: Darcy Tranter
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #3
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Darcy Tranter is a Melbourne based screenwriter/director who has recently graduated from Swinburne University of Technology with a degree in Film and Television. During his studies, Darcy focused creative practice research on the horror comedy, taking an interest in the thrilling and flexible nature of such stories. As narrative storytelling is where his true passion lies, Darcy aims to create many more tales within this reflexive genre.
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LONELY FANS (SWITZERLAND)
SYNOPSIS: Laurent is a wind turbine mechanic with a special affinity for fans. When he stays at Anais’ hotel for a night, sparks fly and the elements begin to collide.
RATINGS GUIDE: Adult Content
DIRECTOR: David Oesch
GENRE: Fantastic
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Born 1992 in Thun, Switzerland- he started working in 2012 as a freelance journalist and photographer for local newspapers (Tamedia AG) and continued to do so also for television (Joiz, SRF). In 2019, he finished his BA at Zurich University of the Arts, released three successful short films and won the Student Visionary Award at Tribeca Film Festival in 2020. Since 2020 he studies directing at Zurich University of the Arts at a MA level. He is now writing his first feature with co-author Remo Rickenbacher. Liars! – a genre film about how to fall in love with lies.
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MANTIS CLUB (USA)
SYNOPSIS: In a world where females devour males during sex, Zack, a seventeen-year-old virgin, is asked on his first date.
RATINGS GUIDE: Adult Content
DIRECTOR: Yalian Li
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct 29th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Yalian is a writer and director in Los Angeles. She completed her BA degree at Baylor University when she was 19 years old. Her USC graduate thesis film Mantis Club is currently on a film festival circuit. The film has been selected into Annapolis Film Festival, Riverrun International Film Festival, DeadCenter Film Festival, Dances with Films, and Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. It is also picked as the short film of the month at Shorted. Throughout her years at USC, she was awarded the James Bridges and Jack Larson scholarships, the Fox Fellowship Endowment, and the Irving Lerner Endowment Fund, the university’s most prestigious scholarships for students. She served as an assistant director for a Chinese blockbuster movie named “the Day We Lit up the Sky”, which scored over 20 million box office in China domestically in 2021.
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MIDNIGHT SCREAMS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Embroiled in an argument on their drive home, Derek and Jess slam into a living nightmare. What they hit isn’t dead … and very angry.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence, Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Sean Menendez
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: After getting splattered with blood on his first film, the unsatiable hunger for filmmaking began in Tampa Florida where Sean was born and raised. He enjoys creating chaotic set pieces that aim to keep an audience on the edge of their seats. If he’s not conjuring up a future nightmare, you can find him collecting some from the past. His room is quite literally a little shop of horror.
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OBLIVIO (PORTUGAL)
SYNOPSIS: A detective questions the similarities between the crime he investigates and his own actions after waking up to a dead woman, with no memory of the night before.
RATINGS GUIDE: Brief Nudity, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Ricardo M. Leite
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: USA Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Ricardo M. Leite is a director and screenwriter born in Azores, currently living in Porto. In 2021 he completed his Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Production and Directing at the School of Media, Arts and Design. His debut as a director began with a sci-fi short-film LOOP (2019), winner of the 2020 Sophia Student Award, given by the Portuguese Academy of Cinema. Oblivio is his second experience as a director.
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OST (THAILAND)
SYNOPSIS: A perfectionist scoring assistant on a horror film rush job becomes convinced she is being haunted by a spirit from the movie she’s working on.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Strong Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Abhichoke Chandrasen
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct 31st @ 3:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Abhichoke ‘Note’ Chandrasen is a screenwriter and director based in Bangkok, Thailand. He focuses on the stories of minorities, the marginalized, mental health issues and the Asian experience in international situations told through genre works. Abhichoke is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and an alumni of Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
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SWEPT UNDER (USA)
SYNOPSIS: The grisly specter of foreign military intervention and generational trauma resurfaces in the form of a rug that’s gifted to a Cambodian adoptee.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Intense Imagery
GENRE: Horror, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct 31st @ 3:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Ethan is an Asian American writer-director from Chicago with a strong devotion to telling disruptive stories in the genre space. He graduated from the University of Southern California studying Film and Television Production, and his films have screened internationally. He has worked under acclaimed producer Janet Yang and currently is an executive assistant at Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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THE BUSINESSMAN (USA)
SYNOPSIS: On the way home from school, a young girl runs into a mysterious salesman who looks to instill the fear of financial insecurity and coerce her into selling fashion magazines for him.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Nathan Ginter
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 11:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Nathan Ginter is a writer/director from Kalamazoo, Michigan, whose award-winning short films have screened across the world, including at Fantastic Fest, Flickers Rhode Island, New Hampshire Film Fest, and the Kennedy Center. Nathan was selected as a 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts and is currently a BFA film student at Pratt Institute.
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THE ERL KING (USA)
SYNOPSIS: When a young woman from a strict, colonial village suddenly finds herself seduced by an ancient woodland god, she falls into a fantastical romance that quickly threatens to consume her.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Content
DIRECTOR: Genevieve Kertesz
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: USA Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 2nd @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Genevieve is a writer/director with a penchant for stories surrounding empowerment, the female identity, and sexuality across genres. Her style aims to infuse visual components of an exaggerated reality with deep, surprising, and authentic performances. Her previous work includes the Screen Australia and Google-supported digital series NEVERNIGHT – an official adaptation of the New York Times best-selling fantasy novel of the same name. To date, the web series has reached over 240,000 views online. Genevieve is attached to direct her first feature film “THE STRANGE CASE OF EMILY WILKINSON” a psychological thriller set in Australia.
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THE LION AND THE FIREBIRD (USA)
SYNOPSIS: An early human flees her tribe, pursued by a violent warband, the Lion Men. When she is inadvertently saved by one of the last Neanderthals, the two struggle to communicate and find trust. But when the Lion Men return, they become the key to one another’s survival – and the future of humanity.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence
DIRECTOR: Daniel Byers
GENRE: Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 2nd @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Daniel Byers is an award-winning director with a passion for genre films and new storytelling technologies. His short, The Lion and the Firebird (2022), pioneered the use of a Virtual Production workflow – a first for low-budget independent film. His first feature film, Eradication (2022), was acquired at the Cannes market and released as a Tubi original in June 2022. Daniel has also worked extensively in nature documentary, and won the Wild Animal Award at the British Documentary Film Festival in 2021. Daniel is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s MFA film program, and runs the documentary studio Skyship Films and the genre film studio Dark Tower Films. He is also a writer, climber, photographer, and D&D game master.
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THE ROTTING OF CASEY CULPEPPER (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A girl battling leukemia and her single father fall into a well of paranoia when the girl experiences visions of a tumor-covered creature.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Daniel Slottje
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 7:00PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Slottje was ill as an adolescent, which originally inspired him to use storytelling as a personal outlet, and write and direct the short film, ‘The Rotting of Casey Culpepper,’ which was selected for the 49th Telluride Film Festival. Film director Gregory Nava introduced the film to a sold out audience, declaring it, the first horror film in history, to be admitted to the Telluride Film Festival’s Student Section. The film also played at Panic Fest 2022, where it was awarded Best Short Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. The feature version of ‘The Rotting of Casey Culpepper’ was one of only five scripted projects selected for the 2022 Sundance Producers Lab. Slottje’s work as a writer and director has screened at leading film festivals around the world, including Aspen ShortsFest, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Salem Horror Film Festival, Screamfest Film Festival, and Telluride Film Festival. Slottje earned his M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University in the City of New York.
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UNBIDDEN (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A family spending a weekend in a country cottage must deal with their own grief and fears, when they discover a mysterious boy in the woods that surround them.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Mild Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Andres Rothschild
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: USA Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #2
DIRECTOR’S BIO: After working many years in the advertising industry in Mexico City, Andrés moved to London with his family to study an MA in Filmmaking at The London Film School. There he experimented with the horror genre as much as he could through fiction and documentary shorts. He is now graduating with “Unbidden”, a horror short film with influences from movies such as “Don’t Look Now” (1973) to more modern films like “It Follows” (2014).
Andrés is currently developing an episode he will direct of a reboot of a mexican horror cult show.
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