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BACKSPACE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: In the farthest reaches of BackSpace, Hunter and Mono search for a lost pod containing the coordinates to a blackhole.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Strong Language
DIRECTOR: Nick + Lexie Trivundza
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Nick + Lexie Trivundza are an award-winning directing duo. Their work has screened at Film Festivals around the world and their client list includes the biggest brands in the world.
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BEACON (USA)
SYNOPSIS: After a freak accident, a mechanic is forced to evacuate to the desolate planet below unaware his ordeal is only just beginning.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence, Strong Language, Adult Content, Intense Imagery
GENRE: Horror, Sci-Fi, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: I’m a 2D animator from Dayton Ohio that loves horror and scifi and wants to see more of it animation.
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BLUE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Our protagonist Jules looks up to the stars and wonders if we will ever get to explore the worlds and galaxies we are yet to see, or even begin to imagine. Love and exploration are the central themes that bind the story together. And, of course, there are some intergalactic villains along the way.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 6:00 PM (w/Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: A lifelong music lover and guitarist, Rob has also collaborated with Depeche Mode, creating the tour visuals for their 2017 world tour, and most recently has worked personally with Lady Gaga, using Unreal Engine to create and direct 8 minutes of real-time animated content for her year-long Las Vegas residency.
With a natural drive for creative collaboration, over 20 years Rob has worked with some of the world’s leading filmmakers, directors and cinematographers, from Hoyte Van Hoytema (Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet) to Wally Pfister (Batman The Dark Knight, Inception). He describes the experience as “the world’s greatest film school”, and today he applies this on-set knowledge with real-time technology and Unreal Engine to translate his vision for the stories he wants to tell and share.
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BUZZKILL (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Tune in to the blind date woes of Rick and Becky (who has something in her eye…and her closet).
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Peter Ahern
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 3rd @ 11:30 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Peter Ahern is an award winning artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He currently works as a 2D animator, director and designer on a wide variety of commercial, music video and television projects. Additionally, his short films and illustrations have reached audiences across the world via prestigious festivals, exhibitions and publications.
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DOUBLE TROUBLE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A wizard and knight duo embark on an adventure to double their wealth with the help of a magic spell.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Brendan Casey
GENRE: Fantasy, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 6:00 PM (w/Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Brendan Casey is a 3D Character Animator and 3D Generalist. After receiving a BFA in Creative Technology from Virginia Tech in 2018 he went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts in Animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design. It was here that he directed and animated Double Trouble for his master’s thesis. Brendan now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a 3D character animator in the video game industry working on Hogwarts Legacy at Warner Brother Games.
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EVERYBODY GOES TO HOSPITAL (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Based on her mother’s experience of getting an emergency appendectomy in 1963, Tiffany Kimmel’s EVERYBODY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL is a haunting stop-motion animated incision into childhood trauma, interpreted with a poet’s eye.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Kimmel
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 3rd @ 4:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Tiffany Kimmel is an American film writer/director. After making her filmmaking debut with the stop motion animated short film Everybody Goes to the Hospital (2021), she produced her first feature documentary, On God’s Campus (coming 2023), on religious exemptions.
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FETCH (NEW ZEALAND)
SYNOPSIS: On an isolated space station, when a man loses the will to live, his big hearted dog overcomes his own anxieties to save them both.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Sam Gill
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 9:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Fetch is born from my own experiences with mental health, and is very much an ode to – and love letter to! – faithful hounds everywhere. In 2014, I had back surgery which left me bedbound for nearly two years. I was very lucky to have family support, but most critically, I was very lucky to have canine support. Every morning, my dog George would wake me up with a nuzzle and a lick to the face. He’d drop a tennis ball by me, and we’d play fetch from my bed. He made sure I started every day with a smile. Without that, I’m not so sure I’d be here to type this to you now.
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ORMUR (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A man kills another for a piece of meat
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Einar Baldvin
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Einar Baldvin was born in Reykjavik Iceland. His handmade macabre films have played all over the world to much acclaim.
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POX (AUSTRIA)
SYNOPSIS: In a burned out shack in the great American dust bowl, a pox rages through a pioneer family.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Adult Content, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Simon Young
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Simon Young hails from the corn fields and now defunct video stores of rural Ohio. His love of horror led him to Pittsburgh, PA where he studied special effects make-up and monster building. He would later attend and graduate from Vancouver Film School’s animation dept. He currently lives in Vienna, Austria and spends every spare moment creating trash horror animation.
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RED GAIA (SOUTH AFRICA / USA)
SYNOPSIS: A bio-engineered android, the last survivor on post-apocalyptic Mars, searches for spiritual meaning as the mortality of life draws near.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Brief Nudity
DIRECTOR: Udesh Chetty
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 9:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: South African, born and raised, now based in Los Angeles. Passionately immersed in Design, Directing and Visual Effects.
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ROSE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A spirit in the form of a moth arrives at an abandoned house, where it breaks the fantasy of a young girl’s ghost who has convinced herself she is still alive. The little girl chooses to say goodbye to her life on earth, and to follow the spirit to the afterlife.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Joe Jacobs
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #1
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Joe Jacobs is a 22-year old digital artist and animator. He recently graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts where he majored in Animation & Digital Art. He now works as an environment artist at Insomniac Games.
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SAVJ (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Tank the eldest of eight siblings, grapples with the memory of the moment his family was torn apart. Foraging for survival alone in a forest, the children fear a dangerous force. But what lurks in the darkness is true evil. Narrated by Corey Feldman.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Tank Standing Buffalo
GENRE: Horror, Fantastic, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #4
DIRECTOR’S BIO: As a child Tank Standing Buffalo got a job selling cotton candy at the circus. When the crew packed up and left, he ran away and met them at the next town with big dreams of a life-long career with the traveling show. The carnies wouldn’t accept him so Tank followed his big top dreams as a young man, designing and building traveling haunted attractions and his own traveling sideshow. A compulsive creator, Tank draws, paints, carves, tattoos, and makes tiki mugs, props, puppets, movies, and more. Tank works relentlessly on his own self-directed film projects as well as many commissions. Ancestors on his mom’s side followed the underground railroad to the Potawatomi of Caldwell First Nation who helped them escape slavery.
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SELF ACTUALIZATION OF THE WEREWOLF WOMAN (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: A werewolf thinks she has her life figured out until a late night chance encounter changes her mind.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence
GENRE: The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 6:00 PM (w/Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Conall Pendergast is a writer, director, illustrator, and animator. He directed and animated the films “Dot,” “The Cyclops Diet”, and “Self-Actualization of the Werewolf Woman.”
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SLASHER SQUAD (AUSTRALIA)
SYNOPSIS: Home alone with a killer on the loose, a young woman must test her limits to survive the night.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Nathan Stone, Stuart Campbell
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 29th @ 8:00 PM (w/#chadgetstheaxe)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Nathan and Stuart are a long-time writer/director team and the owners of boutique VFX studio Double Barrel in Western Australia. They have a passion for storytelling, dynamic visuals and genre films.
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SURFACE DEEP (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A young girl lives in a sheltered, underground society. As she makes the dangerous journey upwards, the village Elder’s fear mongering speech leads her to commit horrible actions.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: John Donaldson
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 9:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: John Donaldson is a Director and CG Layout Artist from Dallas, Texas. He has worked for studios such as Pixar, Big Grin Productions, and Kitestring. Currently, he is working at Gearbox Studios in their Cinematics Department.
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THE BLACK RECAT (ITALY)
SYNOPSIS: A stop motion adaptation of a most famous novel by Edgar Allan Poe: The Black Cat.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence
DIRECTOR: Paolo Gaudio
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Monday, Oct. 31st @ 6:00 PM (w/Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Paolo Gaudio is a director, screenwriter and animator. For years he has been engaged in experimenting with animation techniques such as stop motion, cut out animation and computer graphics. In 2003 he graduated in Philosophy at Unical (University of Calabria) and in 2005 he graduated in motion-picture direction at Nuct (New University of Cinema and Television), inside Cinecittà Studios. “Fantasticherie di un passeggiatore solitario” marks his debut in the feature film with which he wins 14 international awards. In 2018 he received the Nastro d’Argento as best animated short film for “Looney Foodz!”. He actively collaborates with the Rainbow Academy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome to train new professionals in the sector.
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THE BOY WHO WOKE UP DEAD (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Joey Pratt woke up dead today, but that won’t stop his family from loving him. This sweetly elegiac short about death, grief, and enduring is the directorial debut of longtime genre screenwriter Sean Keller.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Sean Keller
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 4th @ 11:00 PM (w/Breathing Happy)
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Keller is the screenwriter of Dario Argento’s GIALLO, Chelsea Stardust’s ALL THA WE DESTROY and is the creator of the KILLER SOUNDS OF HALLOWEEN album series.
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THE FALL (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Leafie is a plucky little maple leaf who loves to groove. But when their latest performance takes an unexpected turn, the harsh realities of the season come crashing down.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Desirae Witte
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Nov. 5th @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Desirae Witte is a Vancouver-based story artist, and the writer and director of the 2021 award-winning animated short film “The Fall”, starring Brian David Gilbert. Desirae has created storyboards for both TV and feature animation projects including the upcoming animated feature adaptation of “Animal Farm” directed by Andy Serkis, Netflix/BRON Studios animated feature “The Willoughbys” directed by Kris Pearn, as well as several other series for clients such as DreamWorks, Netflix, and SYFY. The Fall is her first short film.
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THE WELL (UK)
SYNOPSIS: When a shy teen reveals a secret well to three ‘friends’ they get a terrifying reminder to always be careful what you wish for…
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Peter Stanley-Ward
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 2nd @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: An international award-winning film maker. Peter’s short film LITTERBUGS received multiple awards on the worldwide festival circuit and qualified for both OSCAR and BAFTA nominations. His hit horror web series SHELLEY has accumulated over 10 million views on YouTube for Crypt TV. More recently, Peter has been developing projects with Epic Games using the Unreal Engine to explore the future of visual storytelling. His most recent work, The Well, was awarded the Epic Games MegaGrant
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VRDLK: FAMILY OF VURDULAK (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: A traveller is caught in a snowstorm that’s forced to take shelter with a poor Serbian family. When the family warns him of “beasts” that hunt in the night, he is quick to dismiss their fears as superstition and fairy tales – a mistake he won’t make twice.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence, Language, Intense Imagery
DIRECTOR: Sam Chou
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Sam Chou is an award-winning series creator and director. His films have been screened at global festivals, including TIFF, Sundance, and Fantasia Internation Film Festival. Sam developed and directed the comedy series City in Crisis and The Wrong Block for Mondo. He directed the kid’s action series Max Steel: Team Turbo (Mattel), and Kody Kapow, (Universal Kids). He co-created and directed the web series Crime: The Animated Series, which premiered at Sundance and TIFF and won Best Series for Adults at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2014.
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WELCOME (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A lonely, poor little girl was invited by mannequins into a luxury clothing store in the midnight. But the little girl has no idea what price she need to pay later.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense Imagery, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Yanglu Hu
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Exclusive – Virtual Shorts Block #4
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Yanglu He was born in Beijing, China in 2000. Because she grew up with parents who encouraged her to care about society, her love of doing volunteer work grew tremendously. Throughout her life, Yanglu has always been fascinated by TV shows, film, and animation about the fiction and non-fiction world. Consequently, she was attracted to animation. Sia Du was born in Guiyang city, Guizhou Province, China in 2000. She received a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design with a major in Computer Animation in 2022.Telling a good story, telling the story well is the most important part of animation in Sia Du’s view. She also enjoys studying the art of storytelling and composition in older films. In college she found her favorite part of the animation process and decided to become a storyboard artist.
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YOUR BATTLE OF MINE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: This film is a visual representation of relationship struggles, and how the ego seeks to destroy everything it touches. It hurts us and the people we love most.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Amr Sharaki
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Sunday, Oct. 30th @ 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: My name is Amr Sharaki. I’m an Egyptian-American born in Oregon, USA, and raised in the Middle East. I love everything challenging & creative! I studied Computer Animation in Orlando, Florida, and worked in some of the world’s biggest Film. Game, & TV studios. And I’m currently a Pipeline Technical Director at an Animation studio. I’ve never been much of a planner, so I’m playing life by ear and seeing where the flow takes me.
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