2021 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Director: Anthony Gainer

Running Time: 13 mins 42 secs

Block 3

State/Country: Texas

Description:  Living in a time where abusive fathers and bullying are common place, a boy defends that he did what was right. Always searching for the right way to live, the realities of life surround him.  At 12 years of age, he is forced to now become a part of an adult world. The boy must immediately figure out how to live as A Good Man, regardless of the consequences.  

Director: Ximena Rios

Running Time: 15 mins 49 secs

Block 2

State/Country: Canada

Description:   After losing her only child in a freak car accident, Sharon Frank’s life quickly and completely falls apart. One night at the bar she runs into Daniel Roi, who’s innocent interest allows Sharon to walk in the land of the living again. In the end, Sharon is forced to make the hardest decision of her new life; return home to confront her past and witness the damage her leaving caused.

Director: Devin Montgomery

Running Time: 10 mins 16 secs

Block 3

State/Country: Oklahoma

Description:  After an outbreak of monsters being reported, a man must fight to survive and help save his sister. 

Director: Jason Vandygriff

Running Time: 12 mins 12 secs

Block 4

State/Country: Texas

Description:  After a job gone bad, small time gangster Charlie McNulty sits alone having a 3am drink at a local dive bar. A visit by his mentor, Frank Fretelli, makes Charlie begin to question his own sanity, as the world closes in on him.

Director: Lala Costa

Running Time: 5 mins

Block 4

State/Country: California

Description:  In a world where the word "great" is horrible, "bad" must be good. Two Beverly Hills cops, Puerto Rican and Mexican, use their imagination to escape their everyday patrolling duties and explore the benefits of mask wearing and stay at home orders during the 2020 pandemic. Bad Cop Bad Cop En Quarantine. A realistic PSA for folks in denial. 

Director: Larry Foley

Running Time: 6 mins 48 secs

Block 3

State/Country: Arkansas

Description: Bass Reeves was a brave African American U.S. Deputy Marshal who rode for Judge Isaac Parker out of the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, commissioned to hunt down and capture outlaws hiding in Indian Territory. Reeves worked for thirty-two years as a deputy marshal--the only marshal to begin with Parker's court and last until Oklahoma statehood in 1907. 

Director: Orson Cornick

Running Time: 4 mins 7 secs

Block 2

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: As a girl drops from the sky onto a crowded beach, a mysterious man drives at breakneck speed towards her. 

Director: Mat Braddy

Running Time: 17 mins 27 secs

Block 3

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: In an iron-age society, Bryana, a pregnant hunter, loses her husband to pestilence. Exiled from home, she hunts for a hermit believed to have magic and demands to know why he does nothing to help. Unfortunately this god has been far from idle... 

Director: Christine Veverka 

Running Time: 7 mins

Block 2

State/Country: Georgia

Description: In Dung Love, we join a little beetle and his precious dung ball on a long and treacherous pilgrimage. Puddles become lakes, and pebbles become mountains. Our tiny hero braves the towering grass, a searing blacktop highway, and one very hungry bird, all while keeping his smelly cargo safe. 

Director: Josue Rivas

Running Time: 10 mins 13 secs

Block 5

State/Country: Oregon

Description: Indigenous scholar and poet Lyla June challenges the status quo when she decides to run for House of Representatives in New Mexico’s District 47. Future Ancestor follows her through a 7-day “fast for the future” on the steps of the Capitol building. Fueled by prayer and bone broth, Lyla is an unlikely candidate who reveals a new vision for leadership, urging us to “think seven generations ahead.” 

Director: La'Chris Jordan

Running Time: 14 mins 43 secs

Block 4

State/Country: California

Description: A young, black couple’s anniversary takes a bittersweet turn when a police officer pulls the husband over on a questionable traffic stop. Inspired by true events. 

Director: Jesse Cowan

Running Time: 9 mins 20 secs

Block 5

State/Country: California

Description: Can a young boy survive the supernatural creatures of the wild with nothing but a bow and his wits? With his clan totem at his side, Little Wolf just might stand a chance. 

Director: Dinh Thai

Running Time: 8 mins 28 secs

Block 2

State/Country: California

Description:  A light-hearted comedy about the sweetest fiancé giving her boyfriend the best birthday present ever.

Director: Speak Now Productions

Running Time: 4 mins 23 secs

Block 1

State/Country: Oklahoma

Description: Ciara battled anxiety, depression, a violent relationship, and an eating disorder during her teen years. She wrote "Messy Parts" with an understanding that every single person has a story of hardship. Her hope with the song is that we would all remember to be compassionate with others, because you never know what someone is going through. 

Director: William Tyler Wiseman

Running Time: 17 mins 51 secs

Block 1

State/Country: California

Description: Peter spends his nights drinking in his truck, and his days rebuilding the family still with his niece (Amaya). Despite tradition, Peter makes Amaya hide it from her father (Thomas). One night Amaya finds Peter stumbling drunk into the house. Despite her concern he forces her to hide his obvious problem. 

Director: Daniel Humphrey

Running Time: 19 mins 10 secs

Block 5

State/Country: Minnesota

Description: A short documentary about a man's struggle with substance abuse. He recounts the beginnings of his abuse, his childhood, recovery, and his relationship with his children. 

Director: Bryan Taira

Running Time: 17 mins 48 secs

Block 2

State/Country: California

Description: In 1973, the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, made a joke that toilet paper was going out of stock. By the next day, stores across the country were completely sold out. This is the story of the first day of the toilet paper crisis.

Director: Adam Rubin/Dan Lior

Running Time: 10 mins 5 secs

Block 4

State/Country: Israel

Description: Pathfinder is a tale about the human spirit. The film follows six world-class slackliners (Highliners) on a mission deep into the Norwegian mountains to attempt something that's never been seen before: Walking a thin line, elevated in the vastness between two colossal cliffs, illuminated only by the mystical northern lights. 

Director: Marcus Newman

Running Time: 13 mins 2 secs

Block 5

State/Country: Canada

Description: The middle of nowhere seems the perfect location to dispose of a corpse. But the middle of nowhere calls all sorts. Fresh in the act of burying her victim, a killer is caught red handed by a hovering drone. Covering up her crime just became a whole lot more bloody complicated. 

Director: Reagan Elkins

Running Time: 6 mins 55 secs

Block 5

State/Country: Oklahoma

Description:  The duo searches for truth on their journey away from their past towards redemption. 

Director: Milo Becker

Running Time: 4 mins 10 secs

Block 1

State/Country: California

Description: An opossum must run from the law following a violent confrontation over a bag of chips.

Director: Jonathan Irwin

Running Time: 4 mins

Block 3

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: In the near future, the problem of domestic chores will be solved by artificially intelligent cleaning droids. Every home will have at least one. This short tells the story of an old cleaning droid - a ROB 9000 domestic model - as he passes a boring Tuesday alone in an empty house, waiting for his owners to return.

Director: Chris Noltekuhlmann

Running Time: 4 mins 58 secs

Block 1

State/Country: Germany

Description: Nguyen Van Chuc lives under the bridges on the Saigon River. Driven by a small outboard motor, he goes out onto the river every day. His mission: He fishes the bodies of suicides out of the water so that they can be given a proper burial. 

Director: Lance McDaniel

Running Time: 14 mins 33 secs

Block 4

State/Country: Oklahoma

Description:  Send Me Wings tells the story of a woman who inherits a church in her hometown, returns to sell it, and discovers a sick boy staying there, forcing her to confront her past and her purpose. 

Director: David Lilley

Running Time: 8 mins

Block 3

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description:  A gang of notorious sock-headed criminals commit the biggest bank heist of their careers. Things start to fall apart when they find out an undercover cop has infiltrated their ranks. 

Director: Dan E. Tibbs

Running Time: 4 mins 20 secs

Block 5

State/Country: Oklahoma

Description: Paruresis is a phobia in which a person is unable to urinate in real or imaginary presence of others. Those who suffer from it know it by another name, Stage Fright. 

Director: Glen Matthews

Running Time: 9 mins 14 secs

Block 3

State/Country: Canada

Description:  A lonely janitor must make a choice when a vampire attack leaves him the sole caretaker of an orphaned, and possibly monstrous, infant. 

Director: Johnnie Semerad

Running Time: 6 mins 2 secs

Block 1

State/Country: New York

Description: Two ill matched garden statues fall in love in this animated exploration of the battle between spiritual enlightenment and physical desires that we all go through. An imaginative take on what happens in your garden when you’re not looking. 

Director: Stefan Ruiz

Running Time: 9 mins 34 secs

Block 1

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description:  A horror/thriller short film that follows the story of a young man who has washed up on a desert island following a shark attack. He soon discovers that he is not alone but the occupants on the island are not there to help him. 

Director: Daniel McMellen

Running Time: 20 mins

Block 1

State/Country: California

Description:  A summer job changes everything for a young man in Indiana. 

Director: Sarane McDougall

Running Time: 9 mins 53 secs

Block 5

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: When a postman falls for a woman on his round he makes it his mission to win her heart and protect her, but his intentions are not as honourable as he believes. 

Director: Courtney Dixon

Running Time: 11 mins 24 secs

Block 4

State/Country: Georgia

Description: A silent killer that can be heard around the world - a heart attack is the leading cause for death for both men and women in the United States. If your body is an engine then the heart is it's fuel pump. This short documentary disassembles a moment in professional funny car driver, Paul Lee's life, as his career comes to a sudden stop. This is a story of recovery, rehabilitation, and revival. 

Director: Josh Farrell

Running Time: 5 mins 21 secs

Block 2

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: When Brett rejects Sophia’s attempt to break up with him the couple set out on a series of challenges to decide the fate of their relationship. From fruit fights in the living room to nerf gun roulette in the garden the couple battle it out to decide once and for all, should they be together? 

Director: Leon Oldstrong

Running Time: 3 mins 51 secs

Block 1

State/Country: United Kingdom

Description: In our current system, there are very real beneficiaries who profit from divisions such as the divide between Africa and China. It’s up to all of us to heed the warnings held within isolated incidents of bias and sound the alarm on deeper structures of oppression.

Director: Dana Alink

Running Time: 6 mins 48 secs

Block 4

State/Country: Netherlands

Description:  A raccoon cub is determined to get rid of the plastic trash overwhelming her island. She explains her plan to fix the problem once and for all to the woolly and whiskered villagers of Tidy Town. A big city wolf responsible for the production of said plastic comes to help, but not in a way our little cub would like. 

Director: Sawyer Pasma

Running Time: 9 mins 59 secs

Block 2

State/Country: Indiana

Description:  A buffalo preserve in northern Indiana is home to over 250 wild bison (also known as "buffalo"). Their human caretakers share their passion for the United States' national animal, and its importance to the nation's history and future.