Writer: A. S. Templeton
Genre: Drama, Action, Sci-FI
Country: United States
Project Type: Television Script
Overview: A mythical creature raised as human must team up with a delusional federal agent and a motley crew of sentient species in order to save Earth from space alien invasion.
Director/Writer: Valerie Knill
Producers: Valerie Knill, Juliana Pfeifer
Country: Germany
Project Type: Short, Drama
Overview: Heartache, cocaine and dreams: The chronicle of a one-night-stand.
Director Statement: We follow "Linda" and "René" during a club night in Berlin. Both are in life situations that do not meet their inner needs. They go to a party to feel free and to compensate what they otherwise miss. The concept behind it is to show the impact of the problematic life conditions through the protagonists' attempt to escape. They work as hidden forces that guide and steer the two through the night. It turns out that the problems of the two are caused by a person for whom they adjust their lives. After Linda and Rene get clear about it in the morning, both decide to continue the same. Behind the two people they follow is a concept of a lifestyle. For René, his dead father symbolizes the ideal of a diligent, successful worker. Linda's boyfriend embodies the archetype of an artist who denies the claims of society.
Director/Writer: Bill Haney
Producers: Bill Haney, Jennifer Pearce, Tim Disney
Country: United States
Project Type: Feature, Documentary
Overview: Today, Jim Allison is a name to be reckoned with throughout the scientific world, holding a 2018 Nobel Prize for discovering the immune system's role in defeating cancer. But for decades he waged a lonely war against the skepticism of the medical establishment and the resistance of Big Pharma. This is the astounding true story of one warm-hearted, stubborn man's visionary quest to find a cure for cancer. Narrated by Woody Harrelson.
Director/Writer: Edsta
Cinematographer: Corbett Jones
Producer: Fesal Jaber
Country: United States
Project Type: Thriller, Drama, Short
Overview: After the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, and people are getting back to their lives, Mark, a vaccine skeptic, soon realizes that he has no other choice but to take the vax.
Director/Writer/Producer: Robert Sigl
Key Cast "Haunted Man": Robert Sigl
Country: Germany
Project Type: Short
Overview: A man's descent into madness while isolated in a lengthy Corona lock-down.
Director Statement: CORONOIA 21 was shot entirely on a Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone on a zero budget. Because we were only two to three people while filming we could spontaneously shoot and take advantage of the rare snowfall in Munich. Due to the very small time window during these kinds of snowfalls in our region we had to act promptly. In a professional production of a narrative film these "panoramic" wide shots of the nocturnal city wrapped in heavy (and real!) snow flurries including the actors acting in it would not have been possible.
Director/Writer: Andrew Abbiw
Producers: Andrew Abbiw, Jennifer Aline
Key Cast "Eve": Jennifer Aline
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Short
Overview: A woman suffering from insomnia seeks help from a sleep therapist to improve her way of life.
Director Statement: Fuelled by my passion for thought provoking storytelling, I am dedicated to creating art-house pieces that delve into the human psyche. Through character driven stories, I hope my content challenges your thoughts and invokes emotions that stay with you long after the credits roll.
Director: Oliver Gallagher
Writers: Oliver Gallagher, Shauna Ludgate
Producer: Emmanouil Zervoudakis
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: A candle threatened with being snuffed out by a leaky water pipe goes on a journey to save his home.
Director Statement: CandleWick is a film about a candle who goes on a journey to save his home.
Writer: Jack Denyer
Directors: Jack Denyer, Niall Kerry
Producer: Sam Holmes
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: A comedy short about Sunday League football and men's mental health.
Director/Writer/Producer: Pablo G. Herrero
Composer: Pablo G. Herrero
Editor: Pablo G. Herrero
Country: Spain
Project Type: Animation, Short
Overview: Hope disappeared by hiding in the same box where the great human evils were. This is the story of how a child (Love), an old man (Time) and one who balances life and death (Hades) try to recover Hope with the help of an unexpected visitor.
Directors: Ralph Isenberg, Joe De La Fuente
Writers: Ralph Isenberg, Joe De La Fuente
Producer: Ralph Isenberg
Country: United States
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: This film continues where the “Discovery of Santos”; the second documentary in the “El Gringo Schindler” series left off. The third movie tells the heartbreaking story of four children, all minors and citizens of the United States, forced to fend for themselves for eleven months while their mother found herself exiled in El Salvador for making a simple human error. The mother broke no immigration law but simply read an immigration form wrong. The fact that the mother had already been in the United States for seventeen years under “Temporary Protected Status” and her renewal for an additional year was already approved was completely ignored by the United States Government.
Director Statement: "It has been my humble honor to save one starfish at a time in hopes that humanity will one day cease to stumble upon a beach of starfish in need." Ralph Isenberg is El Gringo Schindler. "It is right. It is wrong. Then there is the right thing to do." unknown. "The rest is silence" William Shakespeare from Hamlet
Writer: Gozie Ndolo
Director/Producer: BRANDON LEE W.
Country: United States
Project Type: Horror, Comedy, Dark, Short
Overview: UNO OUT is a Dark Comedy that takes on a whole new meaning when a group of friends gather for April’s birthday party/game night. The game starts in a typical black-folks fashion, trash talking, made up rules and slamming cards. However, the game takes an unexpected turn when somebody mysteriously dies. Now the group must play to the end and hope their game strategy keeps them alive.
Writer Statement: Showcasing black stories is an assignment attached to the journey of my life. It is simply amazing how black culture is unexplainably connected. From our food choices, lifestyle, even the way we play board games, therefore, I decided to showcase that with a humor/horror twist in this short film "UNO OUT". This project is the first film that I've solely produce, directed, and edited. This experience has been a true testimony of faith. I've learn that God provides where He guides.
Director/Writer: Rickey Bird
Producers: Rickey Bird, Rachel Bird, Chess Maxwell
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: A woman is trapped in her house at the beginning of a snowstorm. Her neighbor is obsessed with her and seizes the opportunity to fulfill his fantasies.
Director Biography: Rickey is known for his guerilla-style filmmaking and his creativity with little to no budget. Rickey has a love for filmmaking and it shows in all his work both on and off-screen. He has also written a book, Cheap Movie Tricks: How to Shoot a Short film for under $2,000. His hope to help other low-budget filmmakers achieve their dreams of making movies no matter how big their idea.
Writer/Director: Shenaaz Suliman
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: A curfew is imposed on a town in the far-North Canadian Arctic as a mysterious predator is feared to be on the loose.
Director Statement: Amarok is a teaser/trailer for a series I am developing about a First Nations police detective in the RCMP in Canada's far North.
Director/Writer: GNASSOUNOU KOFFI CHICO
Producer: MAMZAMBI ART VIDEO
Country: France
Project Type: Feature
Overview: LISE, IN HER TWENTIES, IS MADLY IN LOVE WITH BENJAMIN OF THE SAME AGE. BUT THE GUY HAS EYES ONLY FOR GLORIA. SHE PREFERS TO WAIT BEFORE MAKING UP HER MIND.ELISE AND BENJAMIN ARE PART OF THE GROUP OF 6 WHO REGULARLY CHALLENGE THE GROUP OF 5 YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE DISTRICT BY THE GOSPEL SONG. WHO WILL WIN THE GREAT COMPETITION OF THE GOSPEL SINGING BIENNIAL ORGANIZED BY THE TV CHANNEL LITEMOTIV? BENJAMIN HAS RECEIVED A VOCATION TO BECOME A PASTOR, HE IS COACHED BY THE VERY STRICT PASTOR G. AN UNEXPECTED EVENT IS GOING TO UPSET THE COMMUNITY. WHAT IF THE ANSWER IS FORGIVENESS AND REPENTANCE?
Director Biography: Chico Koffi GNASSOUNOU is originally from Togo. In France since 1987, he is married with Nadine and they have three children. After his secondary education in Togo in Africa, he left Togo for a life of adventure which led him to Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Nigeria and finally to France. He found work in a cleaning company where he climbed the ladder. He does not hesitate to do training on the side. He became the company's purchasing manager. He is also a storyteller, author and composer, choir director of a Gospel choir, pastor and actor. Since his childhood Chico Koffi GNASSOUNOU spent his free time inventing and writing stories, but it is in 2001 after a redundancy of the company where he worked that he was able to join the GRETA of Puy en Velay. He will leave with a certificate recognizing the training of: Polyvalent Technician in audiovisual and comes out straight after his first short film.
Writer: Jonathan Glendening
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Comedy, Family
Overview: TA naive young actor over-shadowed by his drama college rival and facing eviction, is forced to abandon his dreams and get 'a proper job'. How is he ever going to succeed as an actor, and get the girl if he's serving ice-cream to school-kids. A comedy about finding yourself and chasing the dream.
Writer Statement: Is it giving away too much to say that I once had to give up my dreams and become an ice-cream man?
Director/Writer: John Manna
Producers: John Manna, Simon O'Keefe
Country: United States
Project Type: Drama, Comedy, Short
Overview: Forty years after graduation, three High School friends reunite to fulfill a pact to dig up a coffee can they buried containing predictions and secrets written by their younger selves. The contents spark revelations about their past, while potentially changing the course of their futures. This short, narrative film challenges the widely held belief that "you can never go back" while exploring tough questions of whether it's ever too late to chase a dream.
Director Statement: One advantage of being a first time director & writer later in life is my ability to infuse an appreciation for how fleeting life is, how important old friendships can be, and reflect on whether it's ever too late to chase a dream. **Spoiler Alert*** I am proof the answer is no, and without question, it is all about the journey. I am smart enough to surround myself with incredible talent, many of them are young up and coming artists, and collaborating with them has made this journey priceless for me.
Director/Writer/Producer: Sandra Osawaru
Country: Nigeria
Project Type: Feature
Overview: The lives and struggles of Micheal an aspiring artist, Frank an unemployed graduate and Sade a teenager mirrors the travail of ordinary people in the Nigerian society and how we would have a better society if only we all show love with our words and actions.
Director Statement: I have been passionate about film making since I was a child and I have always hoped to impact lives and change societal narrative through filmmaking. I am delighted to present Silent Murder at a time when the world needs a lot of healing, people giving up on dreams and aspirations and people taking their lives because they feel less of themselves. We can change the narrative if we show love through our actions and words. However, the major challenge in making this film was limited access to funds.
Director: OLUWASEYI THOMAS
Writer/Producer: MICHAEL HANCOCK
Country: United States
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Overview: A two-time cancer survivor reflects how the art of Aikido serves as a lifeline in processing mental and physical recovery
Director Biography: Oluwaseyi Thomas, “OT”, is deeply passionate about all things film. His major strength is his ability to think beyond ‘great visuals’, and managing teams in collaborative environments. As a Creative Director, he enjoys being an active part in the writing and pitch process, because he believes early understanding from pre-production is key for an effective DP. OT’s love for photography has greatly influenced his proficiency in both the world of motion pictures and still photography. Graduating from Full Sail University in Florida with a Bachelor's in Film and a Master's in Entertainment Business, he relishes working with inspiring people in collaborative environments, on narrative films, music videos, commercials, and branded content films.
Director: Yeong R. Chen
Key Cast "Phil Tchernegovski": Phil Tchernegovski
Country: Taiwan
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: In 1998, Phil Tchernegovski, a New Zealander drifted alone in Taiwan to look for his missing son. Although his son was never found after many fruitless searches, Phil gained love and friendship from many Taiwanese. Kindness between people is regardless of nations and races, and it’s a human nature that touches us all. This documentary tries to trace a father’s journey for searching his beloved son, and tries to present how he recovered from his initial pain of losing son and turned it into his love for Taiwan at the end.
Director Statement: Kindness between people is regardless of nations and races, and it’s a human nature that touches us all. This documentary tries to trace a father’s journey for searching his beloved son, and tries to present how he recovered from his initial pain of losing son and turned it into his love for Taiwan at the end.
Director/Writer: Marco Marchiori
Producer: Mercedes Matji
Country: United States
Project Type: Short, Drama
Director Statement: It Never Rains in L.A. is a passion project, developed over the year and that deals with a strong and powerful topic: trauma and the ways to cope with it. The film intends to take the viewer in one way and abruptly change that with a twist in the end, exploring the way the main character (Charlie) dealt with his traumatic experience.
Director/Writer/Producer: Beatrix Haxby
Key Cast “performer”: Beatrix Haxby
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Experimental, Music Video, Short, Student
Overview: The dark elusive shadow, Hangs on your heel, Festers in the gloom. You try to hide your shadow But see it not, Obscured by the light.
Director Statement: Cirque De La Lune is a 4 minute long piece of gymnastics and calisthenics based video performance art that was shot in my student accommodation basement. I made it during the penultimate module on my Fine Art BA; all of my brainstorming and production notes can be explored via the website link. It deploys an artistic framing device wherein the basement represents my subconscious, the exercises I perform represent the push-pull dynamics of the psyche, and the shadows on the wall represent the Shadow side of my psyche, in the Jungian sense. I enlisted 1 other person to take videos of me on the test shoot and 3 people to help me on set with the filming, lighting and production assistance. Apart from this, everything else is my own doing.
Director/Writer/Producer: Joel Barkley
Country: United States
Project Type: Animation, Experimental, Short
Overview: In a world filled with so much struggle and strife, more and more we feel a greater need to escape life's daily demands, but with so many restrictions and lockdowns with Covid19 our positive mental health suffers. The Universe Beyond Time offers unrestricted travel for the heart and soul, effectively releasing each individual to "get out" to not only see the world, but the multi-verse as well. Here we are all free to fly. A 15 minute vacay to be sure. Get your ticket here and head for departure gates to bliss.
Director Biography: There has never been a greater need to assist others suffering from anxiety and depression. Universe Beyond Time has been designed to be a universal therapeutic aid for all people. With ear buds in and screen in place anyone can experience 15 minutes of peace and release. All may benefit. All may heal.
Directors: Christopher R. Owens, Alyssa Dann
Producer: CESO ENTERPRISES, INC.
Music: Christopher R. Owens
Country: United States
Project Type: Experimental, Music Video, Short
Overview: When will the "last" time be the LAST time? Chris Oledude's single "George Floyd" has now been re-presented in the powerful video, "George Floyd: Say Their Names." America's struggle for equality and fairness throughout law enforcement parallels those struggles faced by minority groups in every society where the majority feels empowered to disregard civil and human rights. The powerful protests that erupted worldwide after George Floyd's murder in May, 2020, are celebrated here. The enduring power of Black women as determined healers of a torn community is celebrated here. The victims had names. We honor their lives by saying their names. The pressure for change must continue. No justice? No peace!
Director Statement: CHRISTOPHER R. OWENS: It is a tribute to her commitment and fortitude that Alyssa was able to complete her good work on her first 'professional' video while simultaneously starting her freshman year at Sarah Lawrence College during the COVID pandemic here in New York State. I don't know if I could have done that.
Director Statement: ALYSSA DANN: As we completed "George Floyd: Say Their Names," however, it became so clear that we had created something special -- more of a short film than a simple music video -- more of an "experience" than a "moment." When someone whispered the phrase "film festivals," we paused and agreed to explore some more. Wow! Neither Chris nor I had any idea that there was a world of music video and short film festivals where GEORGE FLOYD: SAY THEIR NAMES could be shared. Now, we are truly grateful for the opportunity to be part of these events.
Director/Writer: Aleksandar Tomovski
Producer: Djolev and the arts
Country: Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Project Type: Short, Student
Overview: The film uses a theory of quantum paradox that throws the foundations of observed reality into question. In parallel, the main character (a ballerina) is dancing a black swan variation, alone on a dark stage and empty theatre. Through her dance, we are getting visual representation of the main thesis in that quantum paradox theory - "..In the absence of observers, our universe is dead. "This stresses out the situation in which the stage performing artist are during the Covid-19 pandemic, where they are not preforming or just exercise in empty theatres, with no audience (or observers) to witness the art they are making. And so the director is asking - Imagine being artistic masterpiece, for one perfect minute in space and time, and by nobody seen. Do you truly exist?
Director: Victor van Aswegen
Producers: Victor van Aswegen, Rudolph Willemse, Emma Willemse
Country: South Africa
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: An artist explores in her work the nature of the traumatic experience of the loss of a home. Rooted in the personal experience of displacement she has suffered herself, her work resonates in her own country with its history of forced removals and around the world in an age when record numbers of people have been forcibly displaced by conflict, violence and human rights violations.
Director Statement : One of history’s abiding themes is the forced displacement of people from their place of settlement, sometimes by natural events, more often than not by some form of violence perpetrated upon them by other humans. The subjective, traumatic experience of the loss of home – one of the two main subjects of this film – is an experience as ancient as the human sense of home itself, of rootedness, connection, belonging to a place. It is also, in our time, the lived experience of more people than ever before. When we started principal photography on Displaced on 9 August 2017 it was against the grim backdrop of a record 65.6 million people forcibly displaced from their homes. Never before, reported the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, had so many people been affected by displacement, having fled persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations...
Director: David Darg
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: A fisherman and a young mother have a chance encounter on a pier when their lines become tangled. But in this story of a mother’s desperate love for her child, there’s more beneath the surface.
Director Biography: David Darg is an Oscar nominated and Emmy winning director, cinematographer and film editor. He received critical praise for his documentary Body Team 12 which garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 88th Academy Awards. Darg is the co-founder of RYOT a US media company acquired by Verizon in 2016. He was named one of Esquire Magazine’s "2012 Americans of the Year" for his work in Haiti as well as a "Hollywood Maverick" by Details magazine for his documentary work in crisis and disaster zones. In addition to his Academy nomination and Emmy awards for directing, Darg is an Emmy winning editor having won in 2017 with Body Team 12 and nominated in 2018 with Fear Us Women. In 2020 Darg received the SXSW Adobe editing award for “You Cannot Kill David Arquette”. His films have won numerous film festival awards including Tribeca where he has premiered 5 documentaries. In 2019 Darg was Oscar nominated as a producer on the documentary Lifeboat. His commercial work includes branded content for Gatorade, Sony Ericsson and commercials for Uber, Harley Davidson and P&G. Darg spent over a decade as a first responder to natural disasters. He lived in China for 1 year following the 2008 Sichuan quake and lived in Haiti for 2.5 years after the quake there. As a journalist and photographer Darg has been published in National Geographic, BBC, Reuters and numerous US publications. Darg is the recipient of the 2015 Nelson Mandela ‘Changemaker of Peace’ award.
Writer: Darren Haskins
Country: United States
Project Type: Short Script
Overview: Bingo Miller wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital from a two year coma to a world thats changed for egocentric social media influences. As he searches for authentic people he must keep his guard up before he is swallowed up by technology in la la land.
Writer Statement: If you don't try you don't know.
Writer: A. S. Templeton
Country: United States
Genres: Fantasy, Family, Drama, Adventure
Overview: Lured into what they think is a VR game, girl-boy twins find themselves trapped in a fantasy dimension, fighting for their lives to defeat a sinister menace to the real world.
Director/Writer/Producer: Daniel D. Moses
Country: Unated Kingdom
Project Type: Comedy, Drama, Short
Overview: Did we ever stop to think how the lockdown would hinder the work of spies in the middle of a pandemic? With government restrictions keeping people off park benches, Fisher (may not be his real name) tries to adapt to the new reality, finding the things he took for granted, like having a secret conversation in a public space with his contact Penny, more difficult than before. A comedy about connection, friendship and community, all de- classified just this once.
Director Statement: When the government temporarily banned sitting on park benches during the worst part of the pandemic, my initial (and most important) thought was how hard that would make it for spies to do their job. I wanted to tell a story about loss, the small freedoms, identity, friendships. We took for granted those small things however fleeting, so this is about finding humanity in a time of chaos and discombobulation and what a faff it is operating under restrictions, including making this film.
Director: Leigh Ann Vicoli
Writer: Nick Mahoney
Producer: Jeff Klehamer
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: Julien Cotswold is a young and arrogant college professor whose job is in jeopardy when his class has minimal enrollment and one of his students challenges his teaching authority.
Director Statement: I am excited to make my directorial debut with "Chasing Shakespeare." I would not be in this position without my amazing crew and cast, especially Nick Mahoney, Jeff Klehamer, Adam Clark, and Brandon Tyler.
Writer: David L. Anderson
Country: United States
Project Type: Short Screenplay
Overview: Landon Stone heads up a rugged, grisly logging operation. After recruiting help from a temp. service he gets more than he bargained for when inept, city boy P.J. joins in.
Director: Laura McMahon
Writers: Michael Bateson-Hill, Aaron Kilkenny-Fletcher
Producers: Michael Bateson-Hill, Aaron Kilkenny-Fletcher
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: Mockumentary film following Stephen, a reformed serial killer, in his new, clean life. Happy in love, supporting others in recovery, Stephen offers a window into his unconventional philosophies and attempts to reflect on his past misdemeanours. But will his colourful past catch up with him?
Director Biography: Laura McMahon is an award winning writer, director and performer. In 2019 she won the Edinburgh TV Festival's New Talent Award and was nominated for Manchester Pilot Light's Best Comedy Award. This work was picked up by Comedy Central, whom she Associate Produced for on a couple of projects last year. She is a BAFTA Crew Writer/Director for 2018, 2019 and 2020. Laura gained her first finalist credit just nine months into stand up as The Stand's New Act of the Year competition and has since worked with Soho Theatre on their Comedy Lab Plus Program. She was a semi-finalist in So You Think You're Funny and has written for The Guardian Film Blog. In 2020 she won South Kensington Comedy Club's 'Go New York' Stand Up competition which sent her to gig in New York. She has scripted comedy work in development with Rusty Penny Productions. She has had work screened at the BAFTA Qualifying London Short Film Festival and has been in the top 20 of the Funny Women Film Award 2018, 2019 and 2020. Her 2019 Edinburgh show was selected for the Historical Preservation of the Fringe Archive's for the Museum of Scotland.
Writer: Nicola Green
Country: Australia
Project Type: Feature Screenplay
Overview: Based on true events, this is the story of three lives intertwined; a 1960's London sporting hero turned gold thief, a sick child and a grieving daughter, determined to uncover her family's secrets, finding far more than she ever could have bargained for.