Writer/Director: Anatolii Umanets
Producer: Valeria Marienko
Country: Ukraine
Project Type: Short
Overview: A young woman in a big nice house creates the design of the apartment while a very gloomy delivery man delivers the pizza at night. What do they have in common and how does she affect him...
Director Statement: After a long searching of the story for the first film, I decide to keep it simple as possible. The main goal was not to create something deep and smart, but just to try the whole process of creating a movie and see how it works. After getting the same experience I decide to take it as a base for the story and later improve it by passing time. It was very tricky without any knowledge, manipulate a script. But in the visual part, I was sure how it should look like. As being an artist I did a lot of concept art, sketches, and even animation to understand how scenes are working. VFX I decide to do by myself to control the whole visual aspect. The story and main character are based on my observation of my friends . The main question for me is disapproval of somebody. Here the main character is the only one who looks happy and bright but why she is happy, gives us dissonance and everybody decides on their own.
Director/Writer/Producer: Jeff Schubert
Key Cast "Vanessa": Roni Davis
Key Cast "Charlie": Jeff Schubert
Country: United States
Project Type: Short, Drama
Overview: Jeff Schubert was born and raised in New York City and now resides in Los Angeles CA. He believes in the sentiment of the late college basketball coach, Jim Valvano, in that you should aspire to think a little, laugh a little and cry a little everyday. In the projects Schubert creates and works on he figures if he can help the audience accomplish two out of those three, that is not bad.
Director Statement: I was inspired to make It's Not Me, It's YOU! to snap people out of this. If we can see and laugh at this dynamic in the film, my hope is that it helps in a small way with starting a dialogue about how to communicate about differences. Because the current paradigm of everyone canceling those they disagree with is not working.
Director/Key Cast "George M. Cohan": Jon J Peterson
Writer: Chip Deffaa
Producer: Peter J Sellers
Country: United States
Project Type: Feature, Drama, Musical, Period
Overview: The spirit of George M. Cohan periodically revisits the stages of his triumphs of over 100 years ago - whether those stages still exist or not - to tell his story.
Director Statement: Early on in the pre-production, I found myself landed with the roles, not only of the actor in the piece, but of the film’s director and producer. I took it all onboard gamely and learned so much from this experience. Hoping to direct more and perhaps produce more for others in the future, if the projects excite me.
Director/Writer: Shauna Ludgate
Producer: Emmanouil Zervoudakis
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: A ragtag gang of pets in a pet shop dream of adoption.
Director Statement: Pet Shop is a story about a group of pets who live in a pet shop, and long to be adopted.
Director: Krishna Ashu Bhati
Writers: Krisha Ashu Bhati, Eva Habermann
Producers: Eva Habermann, Alexander König
Country: Germany
Project Type: Feature
Overview: Mona, her husband Theo and daughter Hanna live in an idyllic villa on the outskirts of Berlin. When the attractive 18 years old daughter of a friend comes to visit, the profound problems and fragility of the small family reveal, as a tragic downward spiral takes its inevitable course.
Director Biography: Krishna Ashu Bhati was born in 1980 in Berlin. Being partly Indian, partly German, his movies are inspired by two very different cultural backgrounds. He started writing and directing at the age of 24. His first feature film BITTER SÜSS has won several awards and the script has been sold to the US for a remake. DIE WAHRE SCHÖNHEIT/THE UGLY TRUTH is his second feature film and his first script in cooperation with Eva Habermann.
Director: Sebastian Kuder
Writer: Nichole Gonzalez
Producer: Katerina Zacharakis
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Short, Student
Overview: On planet Mars, the last survivor of a dying alien life-form must find a mate to continue the survival of the species.
Director Statement: "Planet Mars" is Sebastian's first film.
Director/Writer: J. Large
Producer: Kirsten Mercier
Country: United States
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: A sketch show providing a glance into the daily life of a bird.
Writer/Director/Producer: Yoshinobu Nakamura
Country: Japan
Project Type: Short
Overview: Horror with the motif of "a ofuda that should not be peeled off". Don't peel it off... Unless you solve it, it's obsessed with where it's pasted. A group of horrors that began when people who visited an abandoned village and tried their luck brought back "ofuda that should not be peeled off."
Director Statement: What we wanted to create was a simple horror. Horror movies have curse rules, key items, and horrifying ghosts. And the ghost visuals also have her history and meaning. This movie is only a part of the story of the world we made. I want to draw a story that I couldn't draw again. And I'm interested in how people outside of Japan will receive it.
Director: Shauna C. Murphy
Country: United States
Project Type: Documentary, Student,Short
Overview: Worldbuilding is the creative practice of constructing a new paradigm and place. Walk through the process of worldbuilding from the perspective of a child’s imaginary world, as well as from a writer’s craft perspective - and the overlap between. Learn the best practices for worldbuilding from the specialists pioneering this area of study; psychologists Dr. Marjorie Taylor and Dr. Keith Oatley, as well as editor Jeni Chapelle, and award-winning authors Linda Sue Park, Eliot Treichel, and Jordan Ifueko.
Director Statement: When I first began research for Worldbuilding in the fall of 2020, I looked into various authors and specialists who had already studied the craft of worldbuilding for young audiences. I quickly realized that any introduction to this art would be incomplete without the perspective of a child's own imaginary world. The more I studied the worlds and characters that children created for themselves; some strange and mysterious - and others delightful and kind, I found that these imaginary places and people allowed for the children to step into who they truly were. Seeing a young person's perspective made me realize I had only scratched the surface to unlocking the potential of worldbuilding - the true potential lies in the unique imagination of the reader. I've realized the best worlds paint a larger perspective - and that perspective allows us to become who we truly are.
Director: Aleksa Ristovic
Writers: Aleksa Ristovic, Giovann Attard
Producers: Aleksa Ristovic, Tania Ristovic
Country: Malta
Project Type: Short
Overview: A deep spiritual journey starts in pursuit of the right place to leave a mark in the world we live in.
Director/Writer: Paloma Zhu
Producer: Daniel Rowe
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: When an origami kiwi dreams of flying in the clouds, his friends decide to help him.
Director/Writer: Nico Falcone Georgiadis
Producers: Nico Falcone Georgiadis, Kimmo Salmela
Country: Sweden
Project Type: Short
Overview: We take a walk to find a way, to find the answers or just a cigarett to calm us down. Are we connected without knowing it... captured in a mixed of realities in the promenade of life? Some stories can not fade away while we are moving close to one onother but in the same times close can be far away in a crossroads of realities.
Director Statement: The Promenade about life captured in a promenade and in a crossroad of realities. A mixing way of objectivity when life chalange us and remind us that there is many realities walking close to us and we all have a personal story when the blues hit us stright from life it self. We can be close but so far away in the same time in "The Promenade"
Writer/Director/Producer: Alan Hamwan
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: A freelance journalist has been kidnapped and thrown in the boot of a car. Only the flare of his lighter can illuminate his claustrophobic prison in this speeding car. He searches desperately for any way he can escape. With time running out and hope almost lost, he will indeed be making an example, but maybe he can get one last message of hope out before the end and a final act of defiance.
Director Statement: My interest in filmmaking dates back to my childhood. I graduated MA in film producing, University of South Wales, UK, in 2010. As I worked closely with the Producer, I have developed certain skills in producing film and would like to learn more about it.
Director/Producer: Christian Grüner
Country: Germany
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Overview: Angelo Volpini turns music score pages for pianists. His job is not to attract attention. When the applause sounds after the concert, he disappears behind the stage without anyone noticing. His name does not appear in any program booklet.
Director Statement: Dedicated to the people working in the shadows.
Writer: DANNY ALEX
Country: United States
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Drama
Overview: In Scandinavia, before the birth of the Christ God, the last of Odin's human bloodline must fight to save his people from those that seek to extinguish his lineage.
Writer Statement: If you measure people by their mind, you will rarely go wrong.
Director/Writer: Rina Naganuma
Producer: Jyunichi Sugiyama
Country: Japan
Project Type: Feature
Overview: A woman who has lost a lover and suffers from a taste disorder knows the secret habit of a young man in a florist who can not overcome the death of someone close. This film depicts the daily journey of two people trying to overcome the death of someone close, who are brought together by flowers.
Director Statement: Whether a person could really understand another person has been an ongoing theme of my recent work. To really understand another, one must completely know, and believe in the other person. This is a very difficult proposition, and fulfilling the requirements to completely understand another takes considerable courage. I suspect that it is impossible, and do not believe that I could do it. However, I challenged myself to make this film, as it is my desire to enable others to understand me.
Director/Writer/Producer: Bill Slovick
Cinematographer/Editor/Sound Designer: Bill Slovick
Country: United States
Project Type: Short, Student
Overview: A missing woman. A troubled man. A dark wood full of mystery. What moves among the trees? What secrets lie buried? And what comes creeping in the dead of night?
Director Statement: With this film, I aim to create a purely cinematic experience. Without dialogue or camera movement, I tried to strip away all pretensions of entertainment and focus entirely on composition, editing, and sound design to tell a story. The film was shot with natural lighting, MOS, and its sound effects and score were patched together using a combination of field recordings and Creative Commons 0 sound clips available for free on freesound.org. I attempted to show what’s possible for a film production team of one to accomplish utilizing the benefits of modern digital technology on a minuscule budget. The budget expanded six-fold when the film was awarded a post-production grant, and I was able to collaborate with color and sound professionals to fully realize my vision.
Director/Writer: Molly Babington
Producer: Stevie Stedman
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: The Moon is sleeping peacefully when it has a rude awakening from an earthly intruder.
Director Statement: I wanted to create a short, fun film, imagining the Moon as a character who isn't too happy about the earthly objects invading his peace and quiet. He just wants to be left alone.
Director: Daniel Fitzgerald
Composer: James Rogers
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Short
Overview: Get up early, eat a healthy breakfast, have a great day! Right?
Director Biography: I was born and raised in Australia, living in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, then moved to the UK to start a freelance career in motion graphics in London. I've now started a small independent animation studio in my new home town of Rochester, UK, and Earlybird is our first animated short.
Director/Writer: Hassan Raza
Producer: Hassan Raza, Yusuf Bhaimia
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Long Short
Overview: Zaara Aslam has lived a sheltered life. Having retreated into her fantasy life has helped her become a talented young filmmaker, but has left her real world skills somewhat underdeveloped. This inadequacy leaves Zaara in many tight spots in life and things are only further complicated by the tricky and thorny relationship she shares with her family members. None of these human matters matter one little bit to the greedy, unscrupulous bailiff that is Harvey Caress, who pays Zaara’s family a visit.
Director Statement: My inspiration for making Zaara comes from having watched two films - Amelie and Ida. Their stories, characters, cinematography, music or lack thereof, just stuck with me. I simply had to make Zaara in order to stop thinking about them. Although I loved all aspects of these films, what ultimately stayed with me was the thing that was common between both films. And that was the fact that both protagonists were dreamers. Zaara is no different.
Directors: Lee, Chien-Cheng , Yang, Chi-Sheng
Country: Taiwan
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: Mr. Chang Ling-Wen, a film collector nicknamed "Film-Wen". Anything related to films is his goal of collecting, especially all kinds of film relics and old projectors. He has metalworking skills, so even if the old antique in disrepair lacks parts that will never be produced, he can create new parts with his skills and make an old antique reborn. He has collected from young age to present, even building a projector by himself. He has become a professional collector. He is very grateful to the teacher who encouraged him to keep working in this interest, and the shooting of this documentary also presents the process of looking for his teacher. He has a dream. He hopes that there will be a place where he can take good care of these film relics collected from all over the world, so that these objects will have a home and never wander outside.
Director Statement: Five years ago, due to the problem of projector, I met Mr. Chang Ling-Wen through a friend's introduction, and knew that he is so passionate about films. I’m also an enthusiast of collecting film-related objects, so I’m really happy to find a pal. I have benefited a lot from the mutual exchanges in the collections. After visiting many treasures of Mr. Chang, I began to wonder how he started to collect film cultural relics with perseverance, what the difficulties and processes were, and what plans and ideas he has in the future. Thus, the “Film-Wen” shooting project was launched.
Director: Dan Sadler
Key Cast "Teddy": Wyatt Unger
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: After a catastrophic crash, Teddy and Walter make their way back to civilization, bonding as they go.
Director: TJ Penton
Writer/Producer: Rich Hevner
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: Henry Jackson is a soldier impacted by the emotional toll of war. After returning home and now suffering from PTSD, he finds himself in for the fight of his life trying to save his marriage and even his mind. But unknown to him, things take a sudden dark turn for the worse.
Director: Jake Balfour-Lynn
Writers: Jake Balfour-Lynn, David Wayman
Producer: David Wayman
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: A cabbie navigates his way through another night of picking up kinky couples and small talk serpents.
Director: Daniel Sadler
Writers: Erica Rowe, Wyatt Unger, Charlie Henry, Brian Booker
Producers: Erica Rowe, Wyatt Unger
Country: United States
Project Type: Dark Comedy, Silent, Short
Overview: A helpful podcast to guide to a man through life.
Writer: A. S. Templeton
Country: United States
Project Type: Short Script
Overview: As an act of proxy revenge, a little girl is given a book filled with unexpectedly vivid illustrations.
Writer: Thomas Behe
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Thriller, Noir, comedy
Overview: Mainstream social is DEAD! Content censorship, sponsored spam, cancel culture and inciter-banning means everyone who's anyone is on the dark web. And no one knows it better than Tucker Scott. Rampant cyberbullying. Fake news trolling. Spying, voyeurism and privacy invasion. This is Contraband, the ruthless entrepreneurs’ digital underground - where profit-hungry mobs prowl city streets filming violent events to satisfy society’s demand for sensational content. But when activists hack Contraband giving control to any influencer with the most followers, it's complete chaos as everybody chases the money and fame of being number one!
Writer Statement: Imagine activists hacked FACEBOOK, and their computer virus STRIPPED ownership from Mark Zuckerberg - shifting the app’s complete control to Kim Kardashian, Ronaldo, Justin Bieber or to whoever else is the most-followed influencer, in real time? Then imagine this all happened on the DARK WEB version - where financial rewards and unpoliced power is even higher. What do think people could do to get to #1?
Writer: Tiffany Colling
Country: Canada
Genres: Drama
Overview: One man's fight to find his true identity. Years of killing to avenge his wife's death have taken a toll on him. He wants to start over but needs to find who he truly is first.
Director/Producer: Daniel Lucio Arese
Country: Italy
Project Type: Animation, Experimental, Short
Overview: Les Dieux Changeants is an experimental short film which depicts the destruction and collapse of ancient Greek and Roman statues. It creates a visually intriguing legacy: the static millenary beauty of those marbles being suddenly put into motion by a physical event, the hit of a bullet. Realized with refined CGI, philosophical and thought-provoking, the meaning of Les Dieux Changeants is left open to interpretation.
Director Statement: In this regard, Les Dieux Changeants is a work I'm particularly proud of. It synthesizes many of the things I acquired through those years into what I feel as a more mature equilibrium. It also corresponds to a personal turning point in life with the intention to explore new creative directions for the years to come. I tried to realize this short film with a simple, essential approach, well crafted CGI and a philosophical meaning meant to be left open to free interpretation for everyone. I hope to reach people to offer some hint for reflection, inspiration and provoke thoughts, as well as giving an unusual view on some of the most notable gems of Western artistic and cultural heritage.
Director/Writer: Cynthia Cazanas-Garin
Producers: Wen Ou, Yichien Lee
Country: United States
Project Type: Short, Student
Overview: A screenwriting professor who always has a hard time believing in his students’ screenplays ends up trapped in a story that everyone else finds impossible to believe.
Director Statement: The Implausible depicts an artist who - led by intolerance and ego - devalues artists' work. Humans, especially trained filmmakers and instructors should avoid any attempt to put art and artists into a box. Art comes from a subjective process that cannot be measured, explained, formulated, quantified, much less judged.
Writer: DANNY ALEX
Country: United States
Genres: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Adventure, Action, Horror
Overview: An emotionally damaged Navy Seal and a gifted scientist, fight to save the remnants of society after a weaponized organism spreads, leaving the population with basic predatory animal instincts.
Writer Statement: If you measure people by their minds, you will rarely go wrong.
Director/Writer: JD MAY
Producers: JD MAY, NICK MESSMANN
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: HELIGOLAND : Life Under a Black Sun is a 1970s style SCI FI Short Film (PART I) visually inspired by Kenneth Anger’s “Lucifer Rising”, Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and E. Elias Merhige’s “Begotten”. Written & Directed by JD MAY. HELIGOLAND begins to unravel the origins of the Men in Black and Humanity’s confrontation with the Cosmic Filter.
Director Statement: Writer-Producer-Director of Cosmic Horror and 70s SCI-FI Film Projects inspired by Tarkovsky, Merhige, Friedkin and Lovecraft.
Writer: Jaik Andino
Country: United States
Project Type: Feature Screenplay
Overview: After a traumatic childhood, the loyalty of two best friends is put to the test to discover how far they are willing to go to find the love of their lives. Two hopeless romantics are searching for love in their 30’s. Despite having been best friends their whole lives, Jaik and Wyatt are still struggling with being with and without each other. After their group date colossal failure, Jaik and Wyatt realize they need professional help. A Matchmaker, Callie, and her Native American social media expert, Maeve, set Jaik and Wyatt on a zany quest that will test their bravery (and friendship). 2nd Date is fueled by an electrifying soundtrack of new hits and old favorites synced to everything from monster truck mudding to death-defying leaps while being chased on horseback. While rooting for the hearts of these two young men, we see love persevere throughout the story, praying that one day, after all of the chaos, it makes its way to Jaik and Wyatt to get their 2nd Date.
Writer Statement: “I want to be able to create and bring stories to life that reach into the soul, demand discussion and ultimately bring people from all walks of life together through the woven thread that binds us all, our emotions.”
Writer: Mike Meier
Country: United States
Project Type: Television Script
Overview: The internet company “Tolkoya” was set up by the maverick CEO Vasili Romanov with an ulterior purpose--to influence the entire population. All begins to unravel when a journalist, Mirko van Aspern, searches for the next big story and begins to follow a presidential candidate. Mirko gets help from Malene Eriksen, a former employee who is wheelchair-bound after she was severely injured in an attack meant to kill Tolkoya’s CEO. Movies have identified many threats to humanity - such as alien invasion and disease. But there may be an even greater threat: mind control. In fact, it is almost here. If social media companies take their data tracking to the next level, they can condition their users like Pavlov’s dogs. Now these companies don’t just sell targeted advertising, they sell conditioned responses. “Whose conditioned responses are they selling?” you might curiously ask. Yours.
Writer: Glenn Lissner
Country: United States
Project Type: Short Screenplay
Overview: Samuel tells his friends the horrors his grandfather Isaac suffered at a concentration camp during the holocaust and how he took revenge against a sadistic Nazi prison guard named Heinrich.
Writer Statement: This short, mostly set in a concentration camp, culminates in the origin of a supernatural, malevolent force.
Director: Kristina Moschella
Country: Australia
Project Type: Short
Overview: After getting separated from her boyfriend. Alex is left alone, lost and injured in the middle of a dry and dangerous Australian forest. Inspired by true events.
Director Statement: I want to tell stories that not only have meaning and make the audience think but most importantly entertain and make the audience feel. I am really passionate about creating and telling new stories that Australians have never seen on their screens before that have worldwide appeal.
Director: Monica Dzikowicz
Writer: Ian Foyle
Producers: Alexander Williams
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Animation, Short
Overview: Meet Len, Cindy, Lucy and the "Float Folks" as they party at the old fishing hole.
Director Statement: The Float Folks is a teaser/trailer for a TV series about a gang of fishing floats who live in a pond with their aquatic friends. It is a series aimed at a pre-school audience.
Director/Writer/Producer: Chrishantha Surith Fernando
Country: Australia
Project Type: Short
Overview: This is a story about a hard-working trolley collector who is given some grace by a homeless man during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Director Statement: My biggest challenge was to make a film production in Australia as a migrant. It took so much struggle and perseverance to achieve my goal. I came across various barriers and obstacles one after the other. Finally, I reached my goal. Now, I look forward to sharing my cinematic statement with the audience worldwide to celebrate our human spirit. I have left it to the audience to get to know a little bit of the human nature of the two characters in our film. They are not actors but real people in our society. This short note is a humble invitation to all the film festivals worldwide to be part of this short film and share An Orange with your eye.
Director/Writer/Producer: Lilian Fu
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Animation, Short
Overview: Migratory birds are under threat - how can we help?
Director Statement: Every year millions of migratory birds are killed traveling to and from their mating and feeding grounds. We need to act now in order to save this precious natural resource before it vanishes for good. "Birds Connect Our World" was made entirely during the Corona lockdown.
Director/Writer/Producer: Will Oates
Music: Connor Askin
Country: Isle of Man
Project Type: Short
Director/Writer/Producer: Richard Daniels
Country: United States
Project Type:Experimental, Short
Overview: “Sleep comes more easily than it returns.” ― Victor Hugo
Director Statement: "The Pandemic Dances” flows from my previous dance-on-camera pursuits. Sheltered at home due to pandemic, miles apart from and grappling with my mother’s final days, I created a small dance for her utilizing at-hand elements of lighting, sound, set. This first film is leading into a series seeking to capture the character of the moment in which we're living through intimate dances in interior settings - my first effort to capture autobiographical work on film in movement and imagery.
Director/Writer/Producer: Piero Cannata
Country: Italy
Project Type: Short
Overview: The wind in your hair, a distant music, the sound of the sea. Just a summer day.
Director Biography: Piero Cannata, screenwriter and director, was born in Palermo in 1974. After attending a course in film and theater directing, he began producing horror and dramatic short films, appreciated and awarded in various international festivals. His works, imbued with a strong pessimism and a melancholy irony, speak of human beings and their weaknesses, but also of hope and desire for redemption.
Director/Writer/Producer: Mike J. McAllister
Country: United States
Genres: Drama, Dark Comedy
Overview: A man attends his own funereal and shares his final moments with his loved ones.
Writer Statement: This always sounds like a pretentious artist cliche, but this film really came to me in a dream. In fact, it was a dream I had many times from 2012-2013. It was so unusual that it's one of the few dreams I bothered to write down the following morning. The result, nearly ten years later, is a personal short about regrets, grief, depression, and the extremes of poor coping mechanisms. And how it affects others. But with my usual dark sense of humor. I think my therapist will have a field day with this one.
Director/Writer: Rina Naganuma
Producers: Viroj Suttisima, Pannawish Taechakriengkrai, Pimsupak Jirasittidhamrong, Wiwat Rattanakorn
Country: Thailand
Genres: Drama, Human, Fantasy
Overview: A Story of Love, Secret and Redemption. Nok, a broken girl, failed in dancing audition. She goes to a northern Big Mountain to recover from pain. Yatika is the name of the place and there is an old couple lover to meet. The mysterious wife acts like a child and the husband has a secret. Nok learns that the wife suffers from dementia but still tries to be happy. Nok find a way to get over from pain and to free herself to dance again.
Director Statement: This film is a Thailand and Japan co-production. Born in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, I met Chiang Rai, a city in the northern part of Thailand. I drew a universal theme of "happiness" in this city where the language and culture are completely different. It is a story in which characters who suffer from "memory" and "talent" and face each other look at what happiness is.
Director/Writer: Carl PA Nilsson
Producers: Carl PA Nilsson, Daisy Kosmider
Country: Sweden
Genres: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Overview: In post apocalyptic Sweden, Elin longs to escape her life as a stripper at a local club. When she meets the troubled musician Erland, who at first glance seems to be her ticket out of there, she has no idea that her life is about to turn into a nightmarish fight for survival.
Director Statement: I will not make a statement unless you demand it. Then I might consider something.
Director/Writer: Colin Finlay
Producers: Colin Finlay, Mark Malloy, Heather McClintock
Country: United States
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: Hearts Road was photographed in 95 countries and produced over a period of 30 years. It represents one man's journey of evolution, his deep spiritual growth and ultimately his return to the seat of his soul. Transformative and prodigal, it also becomes a journey for every one of us. Take your innermost mind and, through his eyes, and his lens, discover a world that few have ever seen.
Director Biography: My photographic career, is owed to the people, the landscapes and the animals that I have knelt before. I am witness, I am empathy and I am compassion. I honor all of those with whom I have shared time with in this beautiful world. I am who and what I am because of you. One word exemplifies each and every breath that I take on this earth, and that word is gratitude. I have been blessed with many awards and accolades, Tiffany Crystal Eagles, Emmy nods and a Knighthood. At the heart of my journey is the evolution of soul, transcendence. I'm simply in pursuit of living an authentic life. One filled with the joy of love, music, photographs and the written word. The effortless search for the divine in all that we do.
Director: Ganesh Sharma
Writer: Peter Lay
Producers: Makenna Guyler, Peter Lay, Ganesh Sharma
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Overview: A strict Nigerian mother and her son, Olu, make a pit stop at a bizarre petrol station where she finds out he’s not quite the Christian boy she thought she raised...
Writer Statement: My goal with this short film was to use my director’s eye to the best of my ability. Now that the film is finished, I can confidently say I accomplished this goal. Previous experience from my last short film, ‘Devil’s Dust’ (2019), as well as the music videos I’ve directed have allowed me to develop the skills needed to create a distinctive vision for this story. I feel that working on ‘An Evening With Mum’ from pre-production, to the very end of post-production, has helped me become a better filmmaker and I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given!
Director/Writer/Producer: Stephen Paul Cooke
Country: Australia
Type: Short
Overview: Letter from Bobeyan is a fictional story, based on historical events that occurred on 24 June 1850 in the Bobeyan Valley, now Namadgi National Park, to the south of Canberra. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the incident, and there is very little information about the details of what occurred on that day. Our film takes those events from 1850 and introduces Gracie, a modern day explorer who comes across a letter, and embarks on a journey to find the truth.
Director Statement: So much of our local history remains unknown. Even when it is known, there is usually so few details, that it leaves you wondering, why? We delve into the events that are not widely known, researching, establishing what facts there are, and weaving those historical aspects into a storyline that involves fictional input enabling the telling of a compelling story. I love the rich and broad history of this region, dating back many thousands of years. The more recent stories that we look to bring to the audience through film, establish a link to the past, a look back in time. For a local Canberran, these stories take me back in time, and through our fabulous cast and crew, enable the viewer to experience the hardships, challenges, and the odd good time of those early pioneer settlers to the region. As an avid bushwalker, I hope these stories will inspire people to go out into our local national park, explore, and experience history, but also nature at its best.