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A magical take on a true story, The Queen's Flowers is an animated short adventure for kids that follows Emma, a native Hawaiian girl in 1915 Honolulu, as she makes a special gift for the last monarch of Hawai`i, Queen Lili`uokalani.
Project type: Animation
Director: Ciara Lacy
Producer: Concepcion Saucedo
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The Residents of 8264 Oakland Ave is the story of a queer, chosen family, in Milwaukee, whose home is bought out to be a strip mall.
Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director: Rhea Bozzacchi
Actor/Producer: Molly Ragen
Cinematographer: Mike Maliwanag
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Alma feels she's finally found an escape from her uncomfortable family life when she joins an underground world of circus performers, but as she becomes the muse of its enigmatic ringmaster, the creative fantasy devolves into a prison that feels uncannily familiar...
Project type: Fiction Short
Director: Maya Albanese
Producer: Rebecca Maar
Producer: Lisa Crnic
Director of Photography: Caleb Heymann
Costume: Kit 'Pistol' Scarbo
Production Designer: Rene Vas
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Set in Córdoba, Argentina, The Rise is an absurdist comedy about a teenage girl stuck in a gas station line with her mom and grandma before fuel prices spike. Caught in family and social tensions, the film reveals how self-absorption can blind us to the world and our role in it.
Writer/Director/ Producer: Maria Belén Poncio
Producer: Eva Cáceres, Ana Lucía Frau, Vindhya Gupta
Cinematographer: Marcos Rostagno
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In 1950s Wisconsin, fearless and unyielding teen Deb sets out to prove her father’s suicide was no accident—only to unearth a chilling Nazi conspiracy lurking in her all-American hometown. As she fights for the truth in a place that prides itself on decency, she discovers that the real enemy isn’t across the ocean—it’s been hiding in plain sight.
Director: Tim Boissey
Screenwriter/Producer: Sara Dahmen
Producer: Sevier Crespo
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In a dystopian world, what are the rules for survival?
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Amanda Renee Knox
Lead Actor: Taylor Owen
Director of Photography: Michael Phillips
Sound Designer: Ben Wilkins
Composer: Esin Aydingoz
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The Running Kind is a fast paced, kaleidoscopic, dark comedy that tells the story of Cary, an unhappy screw up, who decides to fake his own death rather than watch his only friend die of cancer.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Kephren Palmer, Norris Palmer
Producer: Maria Paula Quesada, Gabby Fiszman
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To save his family from financial ruin, a desperate man hires the Russian mob to kill him for the insurance, but when they take his money yet leave him alive, he’s left broke, humiliated, and in way over his head.
Writer/Director: John Washburn
Producer: Nelson Isava
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In the midst of a brutal revolution, an Iranian woman taken to an otherworldly prison with only her dismembered eye as a method of sight transforms into a symbol of hope and resistance against a totalitarian regime in a harrowing journey of defiance.
Co-Writer/Director: Ariya Akhavan
Co-Writer/Producer: Anjini Taneja Azhar
Executive Producer: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Alambic Production
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After being arrested in an FBI sting and labeled a domestic terrorist amidst the Ferguson protests, a once-promising student, father, artist, and activist leader comes home to his life and family after 6 years of federal incarceration. With over a decade of intimate footage, this film bears witness as Olajuwon questions the tactics and label of “Black Identity Extremist” used to put him away and learns to reconcile his tumultuous past with his hopeful future.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Bobby Herrera
Producer: Aaron Bowden
Producer: Damon Davis
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In 1952, a prominent Soviet scientist was arrested and pressured to sign a confession to save his family. Later, the Soviet regime executed him for telling the truth by openly criticizing the director of the science academy who adamantly promoted pseudo-science.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: W. Y. Geng
Producer: Becca (Suh-Hee) Han
Cinematographer: Ming Jue Hu
Art Director: Eleanora Figueroa Steiner
Editor: Anya Khusnatdinova
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A working-class father and his daughter making food deliveries become trapped in a high-society home, forced to confront a horrifying secret that threatens both their lives and their bond.
Writer/Director: Joey Long
Producer: Ashley M. George
Producer: Nik Dodani
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Upon adoption, filmmaker Elizabeth Jacobs was the only baby out of her fellow adoptees to not receive a single piece of information about her family background. Now, twenty one years later, she returns to Cambodia for the first time since childhood in order to uncover the truth about her adoption, as she is determined to find out why, and why her.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Elizabeth Jacobs
Producer: Breanna Lynn
Assistant Director: Phoebe J Yung
Director of Photography: Britney Bautista
Sound Technician: Shorif Suhel
Cinematographer: Corey Clark
Sound Technician: Noah Penkrat
Cinematographer: Shalyn Delhaes
Gaffer: David Fernandez
Executive Producer: Darsh Thakker
Executive Producer: Avi Zephyra
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From unknown migrants to international pop-stars - we will explore how various refugee artists have risen above and triumphed over the disparate and desperate circumstances of their lives.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: David Henry Gerson
Producer: Odessa Rae
Executive Producer: Katherine LeFrak
Executive Producer: Ondi Timoner
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A single father finds out his teenage daughter just got her first period so he goes into an adventure through an endless sanitary towel shelf to try to help her the best way he can.
Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer/Producer: Gabriela Lima
Producer: Kevin Aguirre
Co-Producer/Production Manager: Ana Luiza Leite
Editor: Rafael Franco
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In a bar in Beijing, a man and woman share an unexpected connection that reveals a deeper, hidden bond between them.
Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer: Stephanie Cheng
Producer: Petrus van Staden
Co-Producer: Clarissa Zhang
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An impromptu late-night house tour for an unsuspecting landlord spirals into chaos and terror. What starts as a seemingly innocent showing with a mysterious woman takes a sinister turn.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Nick Kostelnak
Producer: Justin Grohowski
Executive Producer: John Kostelnak
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When a supernaturally gifted 60 year old performer (Ken'ichi) is fired and humiliated by his acting manager, he quits his Hollywood career to work at an old school Japanese restaurant. Through wisdom and tough love from his elderly boss (Nene), Ken'ichi rediscovers his internal magic, leading to the surrealist performance of a lifetime on an unexpected stage: the hibachi grill.
Director/Producer: Ko Massiah
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Mitchell (Lamorne Morris) races full speed into the desert in his 77' Lincoln Town Car with his best friend Steve (Kyle Shevrin) riding shotgun, a leather-bound book of the dead at their feet and a trunk full of problems.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Shea E. Butler
Producer: Fiona Hardingham
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A documentary film that explores beauty pageant culture through the lens of a former contestant.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Mandi Reno-Matarrese
Producers: Joseph and Phillip Matarrese