Jaz is an agency worker given a simple task, to stay overnight at a student housing accommodation. There are just two problems; the weird lighting, and the unexpected coworker.

https://www.instagram.com/BarnabusWalsh

What motivated you to make this film?

I’ve been in love with horror films since I was far too young to be in love with them (namely A Nightmare on Elm Street, I got in young enough to consider Freddy’s Dead a highlight of the series.) The full-length version of The Lights was born when I grew tired of horror protagonists never being believed in their films, and wanted to create something where they actually had a support network.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

From the original idea? It’s probably been seven years, after I met the best leading lady you could ask for in Fern Taylor. For the short film itself, between one and two years.

How would you describe your film in two words!?

Weird Lights.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Our DoP/Cinematographer/Technical Boy Ash Betton is also in a pretty successful band and was called away to the other end of the country after the session musician his band was using dropped out. Thankfully we had a fairly long scene with a fairly simple set-up to shoot next and our Sound Operator Lauren Stokes knew Josh Bowker, who was more than happy to help out.

There are 5 stages of the filmmaking process: Development. Pre-Production. Production. Post-Production. Distribution. What is your favorite stage of the filmmaking process?

I think development was the only one without the looming threat of insanity or a mental breakdown so by process of elimination it would be that one. I like to wear a lot of different hats but if I could only do one part of the filmmaking process going forward, it would be writing.

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Conversation with the co-writer/co-director and star of the award-winning short film MEMORIA OBSCURA. Connor takes a deep dive as his experiences working as an actor in Los Angeles and auditioning for roles, and how he collaborated with co-director David Christopher Nelson on this film.

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Memoria Obscura, 5min., USA
Directed by David Christopher Nelson, Connor Ryan
In a world where memory erasure is a legitimate industry, the underground black market known as Memoria Obscura serves as a hub for stolen and repurposed memories.

Get to know Connor Ryan

What motivated you to make this film?

My motivation comes from multiple aspects. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with Dave, which was a major reason. Beyond that, I want to create films I believe are currently missing in the industry and bring back the 80s–90s cinema I grew up with.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

About a year and a half.

How would you describe your film in two words!?

Connor: Bad Ass

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Connor: The biggest challenge was the final scene. Dave and I spent months refining it to get the look and ending just right. Once Dave composited the background, everything clicked, and we successfully landed the ending.

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Requital, 3min,. UK
Directed by Ande Case
A short Animation of how history repeats itself. Frustratingly.

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?
The original idea was from my partner who talked about history repeating itself. We despise inequality, that people so wealthy they will never want for anything still end up being so cruel and disgusting. The worst of us. They have the ability to end hunger, disease, homelessness yet they always end up being fascists who only want to visit cruelty upon others.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
About 6 months from script to final version as Lucy, the animator, was very kindly developing this film in between all the other work she had on and, due to budget, we had to rethink some scenes and visuals.

How would you describe your film in two words!?
History Repeats.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Finance, it’s always finance. I have reached a point where ‘funding streams’ are some fairy tale old filmmakers tell newbies about how good it was in their day

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Terrence and Aisha hesitate to forfeit aspects of their relationship after a recent breakup. As their continued bond begins to threaten new relationships, they are forced to confront their willingness to move forward.

What motivated you to make this film?
I originally wrote and directed the first edition of “When It’s Over” in 2019. While that short film was semi-autobiographical, I was intrigued by the idea of a narrative that focuses on how the characters deal with the aftermath of a relationship. With that central idea in mind, I crafted this version of the film to explore what happens when two exes refuse to cut ties completely and the different ways their decision could affect both them and the people around them. 

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
I began plotting out the idea and characters in late 2018, and the film premiered in 2022. 

How would you describe your film in two words!?
 Sneaky Familiarity…

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
During post-production, I almost lost the entire film when the drive holding all of my files suddenly crashed. I was on the verge of a panic attack, as I was worried that all of the work I had done over the course of 4 years was swirling down the drain (not to mention all of the amazing contributions from the actors!). Luckily, I was able to salvage all of the files with the gracious support of the good folks at Best Buy’s Geek Squad! 
In general, post-production and editing was by far the biggest challenge. The writing came naturally, and directing was fun because I already had a pretty clear vision in mind. Putting all the pieces together in post was taxing not only because it’s tedious work, but because I felt a lot of pressure to get it right for the sake of all the work I’d already invested in making the film. In the end, though, a valuable lesson was learned: make sure you back up every file!

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BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS, 14min., USA

Directed by Trisha Lynn Furhman

Of all people exotic dancers understand money can’t buy happiness. So where does it come from? This question sets Robin on a personal journey that takes her deep inside her desires and across the country; encountering hurricanes and personal loss of people she thought were just clients and coworkers. These events cause her to accept some hard truths not only about herself, but also about her industry.

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

This story needed to be told to help remove the stigma from exotic dancing. Not everyone who dances is doing it as a side hustle to prostitution or to scam men out of thousands of dollars. We are performers in every sense of the word; we are here to entertain people in our magical world where problems and inhibitions are left at the door. Strippers are perfectly capable sales professionals who capitalize on gender roles while exploiting society’s natural appetite for the female body and attention. Because of our job we are comfortable with nakedness and naturally shy away from honesty for the safety of ourselves and our families. This is out of the norm and incredibly intriguing to the outsiders, therefore my goal was to bring in outsiders and help them understand exotic dancers because I feel that if we all just took the time to listen to one another we would be able to grow closer and stronger.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

I started pre-production in May of 2020 and finished post-production June of 2025; 5 years and 1 month.

How would you describe your film in two words!?

Unhinged….Raw

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

I might be my biggest obstacle. Being a post production crew of 1 there was no one to be accountable to, no one was waiting on me to finish my part so they could do theirs. No investors asking for an update or pressuring me to provide a return on their investment. There was just me and the commitment I made to myself that everyday I’d do something to progress my film forward, one step everyday toward my goal.

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Nothing Sticks, 1min., Netherlands
Directed by Roze Elisa, Kuba Szutkowski

What motivated you to make this film?

I wanted to make something funny that we can all relate to – awkward dates and missed opportunities. I signed up for a 1-min film challenge, got selected and developed the awkward dance between the two along the way.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to
make this film?

About 2 months. The actual sourcing a crew, filming, editing and making it ready only took a month.

How would you describe your film in two words!?

Missed opportunity

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Getting the perfect crew in the timeline we had: a month. I wanted this to be as good as it could be, and we all know that the crew makes the movie. I ended up with incredible people, and I am very grateful.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking
about your film in the feedback video?

So fun!! Really glad to hear the words “relatable” and “funny”. That was actually what we wanted and seeing that people can relate is a blessing and a curse (we all want you to have good dates!).

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Come the Nightfall, 23min,. USA
Directed by Tom Michaels
A wealthy licentious offers a lift to a beautiful femme fatale in the middle of a deserted road with a shocking aftermath.

http://www.orzelfilms.com/

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My project, “Pieces of Me”, is a self-reflection of my emotional journey from self-doubt to self-acceptance. There are always moments in life where we feel confident we can complete something, but then encounter an obstacle and feel self-doubt. Eventually, we accept the weaknesses in ourselves, overcome the obstacle and gain confidence again.

What motivated you to make this film?
Coming from a medical background, it took a tremendous amount of effort to transition into the design and animation field. There were many moments when I struggled to keep up with other artists and questioned
whether I belonged in this industry. That emotional vulnerability during periods of transition is what inspired the film. It became a way for me to express how self-identity can shift, break, and ultimately reform through
personal experiences—showing that every struggle contributed to shaping me into the stronger person I am today.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
Took me quite some time! I illustrated and animated the textures, and this part of the process required the most effort. Overall, the film took about three months to complete.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
I guess the biggest challenge was figuring out the transitions. I designed each frame individually based on the script, so connecting them in a way that felt coherent and emotionally fluid was difficult. I ran into
several technical hurdles when animating, which added to the complexity.

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Film Synopsis: After serving time in prison for a crime that shattered her family, a mother returns to reconnect with her estranged daughter for the first time in fifteen years, only to realize that her daughter is on the verge of moving overseas to start her own family.

Project Links

•  Instagram

1. What motivated you to make this film?

It initially started with me, wanting to challenge myself to craft a short film with emotional depth and compelling characters. As a director, I am always interested in exploring relationships on-screen in unconventional settings. I also had almost nothing to show for my work before that other than a short 3-minute scene I directed during COVID, so I was eager to prove myself. After brainstorming, I became interested in exploring the theme of forgiveness and the relationship between a mother and a daughter. As the script developed, I felt a deep connection to the story, and that further pushed me to make the film.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

The screenplay itself took me almost 10 months to write and re-write. The pre-production and production were about 6 months due to so many scheduling conflicts, and post-production for about 6 months. So almost two years! 

NAFKOT - YEARNING, 70min., Israel, Documentary
Directed by Malka Shabtay
An Israeli Anthropologist traveling throughout Amazonia to meet the descendants of the Moroccan Jews who immigrated to this region since 1810. Together they are sharing their unique story of resilience and persistence in this special part of the world, as well as their daily lives and their deep feelings towards their Jewish origins, which sometimes still exist only in their hearts.

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

I worked with the community two years before we did the film. i did my research to understand their story..and after two years they were ready to share their story with the world.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Since we started the shooting until completing it took very intensive two years.

How would you describe your film in two words!?

Life mission

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

The biggest obstacle is to do a film with a hidden community, oppressed and full of fear. to get their trust and collaboration and belief that the film will help in their struggle.

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Turmoil – Chapter One, 6min., Lebanon
Directed by Sary Andre El Asmar
A young woman lives between two worlds: Europe, where she’s built a life, and Lebanon, the home she can’t stop longing for. Torn between memory and desire, she drifts back and forth, riding the emotional rollercoaster of exile, identity, and belonging.

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

What motivated me to make this film was the complex feeling of belonging and displacement that many Lebanese expats carry. I started filming randomly with no clear plan.
When my friend, who lives in Germany, came back to Lebanon we spent many days together, and after that i began to sense the constant push and pull, the urge to return to her home but at the same time the desire to leave again. For me home is where your roots are, but it’s also where safety feels uncertain. The film became a reflection of living between two places, two lives, and two versions of what “home” means.

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Well actually, I have been shooting randomly for about 1 year and a half. I am a sea lover and mountain lover. So I used to shoot randomly every time I went out. But the idea of putting those shots into the final product took me like 3 months.

How would you describe your film in two words!?
Wandering Roots

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
Emotional breakdowns

There are 5 Stages of Filmmaking: 1) Development. 2) Pre-Production. 3) Production. 4) Post-Production. 5) Distribution.
What is your favorite stage of the process and why?
4) Post-Production because this process is where the real story telling happens , where I can put all my emotions and meanings to start to take shape.

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Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c35q4I1NZss

When an unnamed virus begins to kill off human males, a family takes refuge on a sailboat in hopes they can escape the virus.

Get to know the writer:

What is your screenplay about?

This story, like all of the stories I seem to write, is about my daily agony knowing one day I will have to say goodbye to my only Son, and figuring out how to make the most of the little things in life that bond us and my family.

The story itself is about an unnamed, new virus that is causing a mass die-off of human males. A father takes his wife and young daughter to his own father’s sailboat on the Atlantic Ocean to try and evade the virus.

What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Drama.

Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

If I can pull this film off, it has the potential to be visually stunning, relying on the simplicity of a sailboat, human drama, moments of levity, grief, and elation. My attached actors, the stellar and criminally underutilized John Conway and a fantastic tiny powerhouse of an actress, Mila Rose, have the ability to push you far into the reaches of emotion. I am looking forward to working with a very intriguing, talented actor, Heidi Danea Crane who is also signed on.

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Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttk712qLnB0

When a bitter nobody becomes convinced that Tom Hanks is the cosmic reason his life sucks, he drags a new friend on a chaotic cross-country mission to confront destiny-and maybe punch America’s dad in the face.

Conversation with Evan Neill on screenwriting, and the art of storytelling.

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Conversation with Co-Director/Co-Writer of the multiple award winning film “Memoria Obscura”, David Christopher Nelson, on the making of the film and filmmaking in general.

Synopsis of film: In a world where memory erasure is a legitimate industry, the underground black market known as Memoria Obscura serves as a hub for stolen and repurposed memories.

David Christopher Nelson is an award-winning filmmaker whose talents are as diverse as his projects. A native of Los Angeles, David has been working independently since 2015, shaping himself into a well-versed visual storyteller with a passion for editing, cinematography, and directing. He strives to bring each story to life with cinematic depth and emotional clarity.

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An actor faces the dilemma of going back to her roots in Austria in pursuit of her vocation and belonging or staying in the UK for love. ‘To be or not to be’ is the question within the question: 'Is love as important as belonging?'

https://www.instagram.com/alinejewell/

Conversation with director/actor Aline Jewell. Star Katarina Gerlich and co-star Alex Crockford.

Director Statement

With CHOICES, I delve into a character-driven story that explores the themes of belonging, language, love, identity, and self-assurance.
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An insecure Korean-American woman struggles with old resentments against her beautiful best friend, exposing the impossible beauty standards that caused them.

https://www.instagram.com/iwishiwere_pretty/

Conversation with actor/director Hanah Chang & Producer Quand C. Robinson

Director Statement

I Wish I Were Pretty is not just the title, but also a phrase I have constantly thought since I was old enough to understand that with beauty comes power. Many of the elements included in this story are inspired by my personal experiences. One of my constants while growing up was hearing my mother say to me that I would be prettier if I had “ssanggeopul” (double eyelids). I will never forget the drunk customer from my bartending days who asked me to bring him a pretty server. And more recently, when my father saw a K-Pop music video and asked if that is the kind of thing I want to do, his then-girlfriend said “that is for the young and beautiful.” These experiences were painful, and I wanted to redeem them by turning them into part of my art.

The struggle to feel that we are enough is felt across all genders. As I was revising the script, I sent it to a family friend in the film industry in Korea, only to find out he had just recently undergone plastic surgery. I both hate that he felt that he had to make that choice and understand it. After all, I can understand how much emotional turmoil he had to suffer for him to decide to permanently alter his physical appearance.

Because I know how important representation is both in front of and behind the camera, I hope this film will be inspiring specifically for folks who work in the industry. I am so proud to state that I made this film with a crew of mostly womxn/people of color from beginning to end!

For these reasons and more, I believe this film will be impactful, influential, and monumental. There are already many Korean dramas and movies about beauty standards, but the story typically begins after the protagonist undergoes plastic surgery. My intention with ‘I Wish I Were Pretty’ is never to judge anyone who chooses that, but to provide a fresh take and a different way to deal with what we have internalized. And my hope is that we will learn to be kinder to and more accepting of ourselves as we are.

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Heal avec Delphine, 30min., USA

Directed by Delphine Breyne

Heal avec Delphine is a deeply personal docuseries that follows individuals navigating life after cancer, trauma, alopecia, and other challenges. Each episode invites viewers into a powerful journey of reconnection and renewal—beginning with an intimate look at the person’s world, followed by a transformative beauty restoration at Delphine’s atelier, and ending with a meaningful surprise to mark their new beginning. Through heartfelt storytelling, emotional connection, and light-touch artistry, the series introduces a new era of beauty and healing, where feeling truly seen becomes the start of renewed self-confidence, emotional healing, and personal transformation.

https://www.instagram.com/delphineeyebrowcouture/

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The Way Back Home is a two-minute poetic film that unfolds underwater, where a woman’s expressive movements accompany a powerful monologue on identity, womanhood, and self-ownership — written, directed, and narrated by the filmmaker herself. As the performer drifts through silence and resistance, the voice rises against the weight of judgment and expectation — reclaiming scars, softness, and the right to become. A cinematic meditation on finding one’s way back to the self.

https://www.instagram.com/angyaklyjammal/

Director Statement

The Way Back Home is a film I created from a place of deep honesty — not just as a director, but as a mother, a woman, and a human being who has lived through motherhood, silence, pressure, and transformation.
After completing the film, I sat with my daughters and told them: “I want you to watch this film when you are 20, again when you are 30, and again when you are 40.” Because this is not just a short film — it’s a piece of my story that I want to leave behind for them. A reminder that pain, scars, and growth are part of becoming. That they are allowed to own their voice, their truth, their transformation — no matter what the world tries to impose.

With a single performer, a voiceover, and the silence of water as its backdrop, this film holds everything I wanted to say to them — and to the women who might need to hear it too.

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The Call is a powerful documentary that breaks the silence around firefighter mental health, offering an unflinching look at the trauma, PTSD, and suicide crisis facing first responders. Through raw interviews, real-life stories, and behind-the-scenes access to firehouses in New Mexico, the film explores the emotional toll of a profession associated with bravery, but rarely with vulnerability.

http://thecalldocumentary.com/

Conversation with directors Laura Boyd Owen, Charles Edwin English.

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The Inga Tree Model 2025, 10min., Honduras

Directed by Adam Wakeling

The Inga Alley-Cropping pilot is in year 13 in rural, northern Honduras and has impressive results for carbon sequestered and avoided--876,000 tons in 12 years--trained and assisted by an all-Honduran team, 500 smallholder families have planted over 3 million native, nitrogen-fixing trees on steep, highly degraded land. The clearing/burning stops when a family plants their alley (a process that destroys 200,000 acres a day).

http://www.ingafoundation.org/

https://www.instagram.com/ingafoundation/

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