For our SHORT BITES program, we select visceral and strange works directed by the most promising talents in genre cinema, with short films that leave us in the edge of our seats..
THE HISTORY OF MONSTERS
2019 I Horror, Drama, Thriller I USA I 19 min
Haunted every night by monsters of unknown origin, an isolated woman finds a stranger in the woods and struggles between her safety and her sexual desires.
The Director
Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz is a Chilean born filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Social Communication and Audiovisual Directing from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He is a Fulbright Scholarship Award recipient and attended the American Film Institute Conservatory where he received a Master of Fine Arts in the Directing discipline. He has written and directed several award winning short films and music videos. - His work has been presented at the New York Film Festival, the Stockholm Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Screamfest Horror Film Festival among many other international events.
MILK TEETH
2019 I Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller, Suspense I USA I 13 min
In this horror-fantasy fairy tale, an orphanage spirals into mayhem when a boy discovers a shadowy creature who comes to collect more than just the children's teeth…
The Director
Felipe Vargas is a Colombian-Floridian Director in the realm of awe-inspiring magical realism: heartfelt stories with a twist of fantasy, science-fiction, or horror. Felipe's short film "The Guide", about a guardian angel-like young girl guiding a man through his first love, premiered online at DUST, where it garnered over 3.4 million views and is among the most viewed films on the platform. Felipe co-edited "Breaking Their Silence", a groundbreaking feature documentary on young women on the frontline of the poaching crisis. The film won best feature at San Diego Film Festival, and was featured on CNN, TEDx, and The Today Show. His films have screened at over 30 film festivals, winning top prizes. His Florida-based films "Summer's End" and "Vessel" were broadcast nationally on PBS. Felipe directed one of four greenlit USC Thesis Films, the horror-fantasy "Milk Teeth", and will be co-directing a feature adaptation of "Phantom of the Opera".
THE PAINTED
2020 I Horror, Thriller, Supernatural, Suspense I USA I 11 min
A man undertakes a dangerous ritual in an attempt to save his ailing wife.
The Director
Sasha Sibley is a young up-and-coming filmmaker in Los Angeles who has directed numerous short films and is currently in post-production on his first feature film The Box. His achievements have been recognized at various film festivals, among them Dances With Films and WorldFest-Houston (where he won a Platinum Remi-Award for his short film Thirteen), as well as student film festivals like the TIVA-DC Peer Awards (where Sibley took home a Peer-Gold trophy for his short, Water). He graduated in 2020 from Loyola Marymount University with a BFA in Film Production & Screenwriting.
BBQ
2019 I Teen movie, musical, futuristic I France I 20 min
Alexis Phon, 18, never left "Here", the suburbian area he grew up in. A world under supervision, where boredom nums the hearts of the youth. Yet, a new horizon exists: it's "There". Thanks to Aïssatou, who shares the same anger, Alexis will gather enough courage to leave. But here, love and freedom come at a certain price... A futuristic teen movie, sweet and sour like an autotuned rap punchline…
The Director
Born in 1990, Jeanne Mayer writes and directs for cinema and radio after studying Italian at the Lyon École Normale Supérieure. She is a writer for the radio show “Affaires Sensibles” on France Inter. After she co-founded a podcasts’ platform dedicated to sexuality, she co-created and co-directed an erotic fiction series, “Dre@m-X”, currently writing season 2. In 2019, she wrote and directed two shorts, “Macumba” and “BBQ”.
HIS MOTHER
2019 I Arthouse, Thriller, Acid Comedy I USA I 23 min
“His Mother” is an arthouse thriller about solitary motherhood. As an aspiring immigrant actress tells her story, it is soon unveiled what she herself is not aware of - that she was taken advantage of and lured into isolation from the bustling life of Los Angeles. Something disturbing and tenebrous is hidden under the layer of her seemingly normal life.
The Director
Dawid Krepski is a Polish film director based in Los Angeles. Since his early years he was fascinated by visual expression which pushed him towards creating music videos and animations. In the last couple of years he migrated towards writing and creating narrative work.
REVIVAL
2019 I Drama, Sci-Fi I Chile I 19 min
Chile, 2038. Revival is the most popular technology, a virtual reality device that allows people to relive moments from their past, as if they were there again. Émile (24), a young Haitian raising money to bring his mother from Haiti, discovers that someone is interfering with his memories in his Revival. Searching for answers, he unveils the truth behind his life.
The Director
Julio Orellana was born in 1994 in Santiago do Chile, where he has lived most of his life. At 18, giving up studying medicine, he focused on combining his tastes for composing music, making comics and narrate the historian that as a child he had shared on the Internet, making movies, video games and home videos with friends. Inspired by Fincher, Ridley Scott and Nicholas M. Refn, he looked for a style in grotesque and stylized, using the assembly comp on or main tool.
BAD HAIR
2019 I Horror I Estonia I 14 min
Insecure and balding LEO (35) has closed himself in his apartment to try hair growth liquid for fixing up his looks. The liquid causes a series of grotesque metamorphoses with his skin and hair and as Leo tries to get his bodily changes under control the evening quickly turns into chaos.
The director
Oskar Lehemaa was born 1988 in Pärnu, Estonia. Growing up in a dull small town, watching action flicks and making silly short films was the perfect escape from reality. Today these passions have become a career, as Oskar infuses his works with a love for genre, from comedy to gory horror. Regardless of the project or genre, there seems to be a common thread – a pinch of humour is always added. He has worked in the Estonian commercial scene for nearly ten years. 2019 saw the culmination of two long-running projects, the short body horror film "Bad Hair" and his feature debut, the crazy stop motion adventure comedy "Old Man Cartoon Movie".
THE MIRROR
2020 I Fantasy, Drama, Family I Australia I 21 min
When a young girl discovers a mysterious antique mirror in the basement of her ailing grandmother’s house, she accidentally opens a window between time that allows her to cross over into war-torn Nazi-occupied Poland.
The director
Joel Kohn is a writer/director/producer with over 15 years experience. He completed a Masters of Communication degree from RMIT (graduating with honours), and also has extensive industry training, such as a directors attachment with Anthony MInghella on his Civil War film ‘Cold Mountain’. He just spent 6-weeks in Tasmania for a Film Victoria director’s placement with Greg Mclean on the STAN/ABC-Disney series, ‘The Gloaming’. Alongside his directing credits in TV, Joel has made a host of award winning short films that have screened both locally and internationally. His latest short script for The Mirror won the Jewish International Film Festival - short film fund. It was also a finalist in the Screen Craft Film Fund, and the Academy qualifying Holly Shorts Film Festival. In 2017, Joel was selected for the SPA ‘ones to watch program’ and won the emerging producer SBS first-look award. He has his own production outfit, Screen Invaders, and is currently developing a slate of exciting, high-end projects. Joel is also creative director at SHERPA Projects, a leading digital content studio. As part of his role, he has helped to create and direct campaigns for premium brands like Johnnie Walker, Samsonite and Luxury Escapes.
CARMENTIS
2019 I Sci-Fi, Drama I Australia I 15 min
A grief stricken miner finds himself injured on the desolate planet Carmentis and must overcome his personal demons in order to survive, but can he get there before the planet freezes?
THE DIRECTOR
Antony Webb spent a decade of his career working in cinematography and editing before moving into writing and directing. He has worked on over 100 projects including short films, feature films, documentaries, web series, commercials, music videos and corporate videos. Antony approaches filmmaking with a commercial sensibility however he always aims to tell genre stories with solid characters and heart.
REWIND
2019 I Short I Canada I 7 min
Leo visits his grandfather who no longer speaks and finds a way to connect with him…
The director
Music videos and short films are Hugo Chetelat’s favorite formats. Director and video editor for more than 10 years, Hugo has taken part in more than 50 music videos in Lyon, France with his video collective Shoot it. Hugo moved to Montreal in 2018, where he returned to his first passion: short films.
SYNCHRONIZATION
2019 I Sci-Fi, Comedy, Horror I Poland I 19 min
In 2084, when the male sex is near extinction, four women wait for their menstrual cycles to synchronize. They all want to become mothers and there can only be one donor. When the day comes, Donor finally appears at their doorstep. During a dinner he suffers an accident and seems to be dead.
THE DIRECTOR
Anna Kasińska (born 1985) director, screenwriter and former producer based in Warsaw, Poland. She graduated in Culture Studies from Warsaw University and studied Film and TV Production Organization at Lodz Film School. She is an author of audiovisual and live performances (with i.a. Malta Poznan Festival, Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw). For five years she was working as a producer and associate director for numerous shortand full-length features and documentaries. “Synchronization” is her first film as writer/director.
PERFECT BODY
2019 I Sci-Fi, Drama, Comedy I France I 26 min
Bayta is a famous social media influencer. Once the most popular of all, she's falling from grace as opposed to Eva, the first humanoid influencer robot and against herself. Her germophobia is out of control, her body is breaking down, and she’s unable to find sexual pleasure. After touching Eva for the first time, a strange liquid starts oozing from her pores. To her, there’s no doubt: Eva is responsible.
THE DIRECTOR
Jessica Puppo studied cinema in Montpellier before joining La Fémis in 2015 in the Filmmaking department. She directed multiple films there including Tu Cultiveras La Terre, in official selection at the Gerardmer International Fantastic Film Festival in 2019. Perfect Body is her graduation film.
GOLDEN RASCAL
2019 I Fantasy, Thriller I Brazil I 29 min
“In Hope of the highest pedestal Thy castle crumbled Into infernal dust.”
THE DIRECTOR
Flávio C. von Sperling is a director, researcher, photography director and film engineer. He is a partner of the production company El Reno Fitas, based in Belo Horizonte, and collaborator of the electronic magazine Rocinante. He directed the short films Trapaceiro, Souvenirs of Mayo and Golden Rascal.
BABELON
2020 I Short, Sci-Fi I Brazil I 13 min
When an ordinary man attests the fakeness among the broadcastings and screens entanglement, a mysterious digital voice emerges to show him which secrets are hidden behind the false truths.
the director
Leon Barbero graduated in Cinema at FAAP-SP. Co-founder of an institutional and advertising video production co. in 2013, where have performed as director, screenwriter, and editor, with emphasis on the direction of the Multicam recordings of the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo spectacles (seasons 2015 and 2016). In 2019, Leon founded Joki - a production company dedicated to developing and producing his original fiction projects and, through which, Leon made his debut short film “Babelon” (2020). As a screenwriter, Leon was a semifinalist at FRAPA 2020 with the feature film project "Genesis", finalist of ROTA 2019 with "Crimson King" and of Cabiria ROTA 2019 with "God doesn't give wings to snakes".