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A BEAVER’S TALE (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: At the time when beavers reigned over the lands of Quebec, invaders from a distant realm arrived and imposed their regulations, proscribing all sweet elements. With remarkable resourcefulness, the beavers were compelled to adapt, leaving us a legacy from which we still benefit today.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: William Cardinal & France Rodrigue
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 28th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: William Cardinal is a passionate filmmaker from Quebec, Canada, with a deep interest in digital arts, using special effects to present innovative perspectives. A devoted enthusiast of fictional realms, William draws inspiration from reality to narrate socially conscious stories within surreal worlds.
She is embarking on her directing journey with the animated short Dents l’temps, and the ambition to keep sharing inspiring and humorous stories in the future.
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A PAW OVER DARK (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A washed up actor performs night after night in a grimy theater to a nearly empty audience. However, everything changes when a clueless dog jumps on stage.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Intense & Scary Imagery
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Screening on EO App – Animated Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Dorian and Marisa are a directing duo from San Jose State University’s Animation & Illustration program. With a love of the weird, the uncanny, and the offbeat, the two hope to beguile and terrify you with their work. Director Statement We wanted to combine our love of retro, alternative animation with the real struggles we face as young creatives trying to break into the industry. The film is a reflection of our feelings about art and our complicated relationship to it.
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DANDELION (USA)
SYNOPSIS: In a dystopian world, a coal-burning robot working on a mine one day finds something that he has never seen before – a dandelion.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 28th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Ling and Gu are two recent graduates from Ringling College of Art and Design, majoring in Computer Animation. They are passionate about making good stories, explore interesting concepts, and apply what they learned into the industry.
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DECAY PROCESS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: Short animation depicting what happens upon death. Intentionally unpolished. the “skip-motion” combined with the sound mix adds an essential atmosphere of unease that starts this journey through Hell.
RATINGS GUIDE: Strong Violence, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Joel Harlow
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: World Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 2nd @ 11:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Academy Award-winner JOEL HARLOW is one of the most innovative makeup and special makeup artists and designers in American motion pictures. He has proven himself to be one of a very few number of artists who is able to span the world of makeup effects design and creation to the world of on set makeup application. With his company Morphology Inc., Harlow has worked on some of the industries most popular tent-pole films to date.
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DEMONS IN THE CLOSET (GERMANY)
SYNOPSIS: A resident is challenged by demons from another realm in his closet.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence
DIRECTOR: James Smith
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 3rd @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: James Smith, born on March 20th 1996, is a filmmaker with a passion for stop motion animated films. He’s been creating stop motion films for over ten years. In 2022 he was interviewed by two TV stations about his stop motion art. His award-winning horror short film Monster Encounters (2020) was screened at over 55 international festivals. His dedicated passion for horror films continues with his 2023 stop motion film Demons in the Closet.
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DRIFTER (BELGIUM / NETHERLANDS)
SYNOPSIS: A metaphorical journey of human wandering. The story of an astronaut detached from his space station, taken into an infinite drift throughout the universe. Freed from time and space, DRIFTER is confronted with the void, he takes a dive into the unknown, in search of the ultimate freedom.
RATINGS GUIDE: Brief Nudity, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Joost Jansen
GENRE: Sci-Fi, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Oct. 28th @ 11:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Joost Jansen graduated with the award-winning animated documentary Yves at Sint-Lukas Brussels in 2007. Currently based in Brussels Joost Jansen mainly works as art-director / director, his DNA is to be found in both artistic author films as in more commercial projects for a wider audience. His animated shorts A battle for peace and I love Hooligans have won international awards and his specific visual style has found its ways in very diverse projects, global and local.
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FORLORN (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A mercenary treasure hunters breaks into an ancient forgotten city, and encounters an entity she did not expect.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Alex St. Pierre
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 1st @ 11:00 AM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Drawn to the art of storytelling at a young age, Alex St. Pierre has pursued film and animation his entire life. Born in Chicago, Alex is now an accomplished visual effects artist with more than a decade of experience working in Hollywood. Currently, Alex is spearheading the use of Unreal Engine in major motion pictures, creating pipelines and crafting fully realized CG worlds to help realize a filmmaker’s vision before a single camera begins to roll. When not on set, Alex is busy writing and directing his own films, in hopes of inspiring others and to show that by harnessing new technology the only barrier to filmmaking is finding a story to tell.
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IN THE HEAT (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: When a bruised and battered man claiming to be Santa Clause is arrested for the murder of a child, the interrogating officers uncover a story more bizarre and horrific than expected.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Mild Language, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Sam Chou
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Nov. 4th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Sam began his career as an animator on the feature films Osmosis Jones and Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights. He co-created and directed the web series Crime: The Animated Series, which premiered at both Sundance and TIFF and won Best Series for Adults at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2014. His last film, VRDLK: Family of Vurdulak, premiered at Fantasia Film Festival and won the best Animated Short at FilmQuest as well the Audience Choice Award at Lusca Fantastic Film Festival.
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INNERMOST (CHINA)
SYNOPSIS: The story follows the emotional entanglement between a long-lost chivalrous couple and a person with regenerated organs starting from a fight for a mystic magic lyre.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Adult Content
DIRECTOR: Caochong Maing
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Screening on EO App – Animated Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Caochong Maing, a stop-motion animation director and founded Kytoon Studio, producing stop-motion animation for many customers such as Disney. At the same time spare no effort to expand the direction of original animation.
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L’ABATTU DES VENTS (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Alone on a secluded island, a lightkeeper is prisoner of his own madness.
RATINGS GUIDE: Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Félix-Antoine Garneau-Chouinard
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Oct. 27th @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: The “L’abattu des vents” team was formed in 2019, after the second year for the team members at the Baccalauréat en Art et Science de L’Animation of the Laval University. Having all worked together on different animation projects during school, they decided to team up for their graduation project. It is their passion for experimental cinema, immersive atmosphere and their desire to create a unique visual universe that guided them through the production of “l’Abattu des vents”.
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LANDS OF STEEL (BELGIUM)
SYNOPSIS: Lands Of Steel is a CGI-animated short film about genocide through the eyes of a mindless robot, set in an apocalyptic world
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Sensuality, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Cyril Vrancken
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Oct. 26th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Cyril Vrancken is a rising filmmaker from Belgium who completed his studies at Luca School of Arts in 2023. He gained recognition for his short film “Power Up,” which was chosen for the Pensacon Short Film Festival in 2022. Now, he’s back with a new project titled “Lands Of Steel.”.
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LAS NOGAS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: 500 years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain – the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Catya Plate
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Screening on EO App – Animated Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: German/Spanish born Catya Plate came to New York through a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate studies at School of Visual Arts. In 2009 she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her characters to life through award winning handcrafted stop-motion animated films. In 2023 she received a NYC Women’s Fund Grant Award by NYC Mayor’s Office(MOME)and New York Foundation for the Arts(NYFA)for Las Nogas which premiered at the Oscar-Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival and won the GREEN PLANET AWARD for Best Environmental Film.
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LORD (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Environmental disasters, wars, and epidemics led to the near destruction of human civilization. The survivors of the disaster have built new cities and settlements and battle mutant foes for supremacy.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity, Adult Content, Intense & Scary Imagery
GENRE: Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 2nd @ 11:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: ALJOSHA KLIMOV, a Russian creative based in Germany, Co-Created this series Red Iron Road and selected and adapted the original short stories into English for episodic production. Aljosha was a Producer and a Co-Director of the award-winning animated feature film, FIRST SQUAD: The Moment of Truth (2009), a co-production between Canadian studio Molot Entertainment and Tokyo-based Studio 4°C.
HIROFUMI NAKADA co-directed the award-winning animated feature film, FIRST SQUAD: The Moment of Truth. Nakada’s background includes Key Animator and Animation Director at Studio 4°C and Nippon Animation, as well as Animation Director and Character Designer on the game CATHERINE, for PS3 and Xbox360.
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MIDDLE WATCH (UK & CZECH REPUBLIC)
SYNOPSIS: As World War Two draws to a close, a sailor aboard ship on the Indian Ocean must do his duty. Watch must be kept, the horizon scanned for enemy craft and the bubble trails of deadly torpedoes, launched by stealthy submarines. Haunted and scarred by conflict and the loss of fellow shipmates, our sailor’s task is the Middle Watch, or the graveyard watch, as old mariners call it. But, as he goes about his duties, in the small hours of the morning, his routine is shattered by an encounter that could tip the balance of his delicate state of mind.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: John Stevenson
GENRE: The Beyond, Fantastic
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Oct. 26th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Based in Los Angeles, John Stevenson is an English / American Director probably best known for his work with Pixar and Dreamworks. In 2008, he won an ‘Annie’ and was nominated for an Oscar for directing Kung Fu Panda. Aiesha Penwarden is a BAFTA nominated Indonesian-English Director and Story Artist based in London. Middle Watch was her debut (co)directorial film. Since then, Aiesha has worked as a Story Artist for animated commercial and TV productions. Currently she is Head of Story for an unannounced animated feature film.
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MOTHERSHIP: THE AWAKENING (USA)
SYNOPSIS: An intergalactic being wakes up on a barren planet with no memory of who he is or where he comes from. “The Awakening” is a short excerpt from the animated miniseries MOTHERSHIP, currently in development at the Nathan Love animation studio in New York.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Joe Burrascano
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Virtual Screening on EO App – Animated Shorts Block #5
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Producer/Director Joe Burrascano is the founder and executive creative director of animation studio Nathan Love, based in New York.
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NO. 8 REPORTING (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Citizens from the well-fed, fenced off city can only venture beyond the walls on a train that distributes humanitarian aid. One reporter is determined to find out what really happens outside the city.
RATINGS GUIDE: Language, Violence, Adult Content, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Matthew Lyon & Aljosha Klimov
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Nov. 3rd @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: MATTHEW LYON is an animation industry veteran of 25 years, a multi talented creative producer and animator. He created and developed the 2019 feature Arctic Dogs, and has since became Chief Creative Officer of Lakeside Animation Studios. For 18 years he has taught animation at Centennial College’s Digital Animation program in Toronto.
ALJOSHA KLIMOV, a Russian creative based in Germany, Co-Created this series Red Iron Road and selected and adapted the original short stories into English for episodic production. Aljosha was a Producer and a Co-Director of the award-winning animated feature film, FIRST SQUAD: The Moment of Truth (2009), a co-production between Canadian studio Molot Entertainment and Tokyo-based Studio 4°C.
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P.F. CHANG’S SIGNATURE RICE (USA)
SYNOPSIS: When Gary is fired from his job giving out free samples and replaced by a robot, he feels like the world is ending – and it turns out he’s right.
RATINGS GUIDE: Mild Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Content
DIRECTOR: David Gantz
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Comedy
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Friday, Oct. 27th @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: David Gantz is a director, editor, and animator based in Los Angeles
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REGULAR RABBIT (IRELAND)
SYNOPSIS: The good name of a seemingly regular rabbit falls victim to an unstoppable tide of disinformation.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Eoin Duffy
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 2nd @ 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Eoin is an independent director of animation. Originally from Ireland, Eoin now lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. His films have taken the top prize at over two dozen film festivals, alongside nominations at the European Film Awards, the Canadian Screen Awards, and the Irish Film and Television Awards. In addition to a shortlisting for the 86th Academy Awards.
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THE DARK ODYSSEY 2: ICE NEXUS (USA)
SYNOPSIS: A skeptical astronaut discovers a lost spaceship and gets tangled up in a dangerous journey to a mythical space-time portal, in search of the Inventory of the Mind.
RATINGS GUIDE: All Audiences
DIRECTOR: Michael Lavine
GENRE: Sci-Fi, The Beyond
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 1st @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Esteemed rock photographer Michael Lavine, renowned for his iconic portraits of musicians such Kurt Cobain, Notorious B.I.G, and David Bowie, has been making his own brand of visually unique images of celebrities for over 30 years. Michael has written and directed several dramatic short films. His short “Weekend Away” (starring Sophia Takal) played at numerous festivals. And his latest project “The Dark Odyssey 2: Ice Nexus” a metaphysical sci-fi stop motion animation short film is playing at festivals around the world now.
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THE FOREST KING (CANADA)
SYNOPSIS: Within the tunnels of a soulless technocratic system, a father struggles to save his son from the consciousness harvesting power of the metaverse.
RATINGS GUIDE: Adult Content, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Lubomir Arsov
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Regional Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Thursday, Nov. 2nd @ 2:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Lubomir Arsov works as an animation writer/director. In 2017 he released his first award-winning animated film, “IN-SHADOW: A Modern Odyssey”, exploring the fragmented unconscious of our world. Professionally, he has worked in production and IP development for Netflix, Warner Brothers, Blue Sky, Mattel, Disney, House of Cool, among others.
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THE VOICE IN THE HOLLOW (USA / COLOMBIA)
SYNOPSIS: An African fable of sisterhood, envy, and ancient evil.
RATINGS GUIDE: Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Content, Intense & Scary Imagery
DIRECTOR: Miguel Ortega
GENRE: Horror
PREMIERE STATUS: Utah Premiere
SCREENING DATE: Saturday, Nov. 4th @ 5:00 PM
DIRECTOR’S BIO: Miguel Ortega (half M.T studios) is a Colombian Film Director, creature designer, and cinematographer with over 15 years of experience in top VFX studios such as Digital Domain, Phil Tippett Studios, and Rhythm & Hues. His work includes contributions to Hollywood blockbusters like Thor, The Mist, Underworld, A Night at the Museum, Godzilla 2, and Krampus. Miguel’s directorial debut with Tran Ma, “The Green Ruby Pumpkin,” and follow-up short “The Ningyo” have earned over 35 international film festival awards.
He has been recognized as one of the Rising Stars of Animation by Animation Magazine and has been a featured speaker at FMX, Siggraph, and Annecy. Miguel’s expertise has been published in multiple books and magazines. When not working on films, he shares his knowledge as a professor at the Gnomon School of VFX in Hollywood, California.
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