After multiple festival rejections, a director revises his intensely personal short film about generational trauma, the Holocaust, and suicide, transforming it into a painful, blunt and funny analysis of the both the film and of his life.

Demon Box

End of the Line features music by Jessie Montgomery performed by Duo Concertante paired with visuals depicting one person’s journey from lockdown in a city to finding solace in natural landscapes.

End of the Line

On a dark walk home, a young woman calls her loved ones to protect her from the threat of violence. This doc from Sheridan student Minerva Marie Navasca is a meditation on fear, and on the burden of responsibility placed on women and girls to protect themselves against unseen threats at all times, from all places, and especially at night.

Guardians

During the last months of the Iranian revolution in 1978, escaping opposition soldiers were hunted, but one soldier finds support in a chance meeting.

Brother

After a woman loses her husband to a heart attack she begins to suspect his death may not have been from natural causes. With the help of a device that allows the dead to answer yes or no questions, Violetta interrogates her husband for the truth.

Spiricom

Elsa is looking to hire a realtor and pits two potential agents against one another in a series of challenges. Montreal director Auclair-Doucet’s motto is “stay weird” and you'll see here he’s doubled down on his mission.

Watercraft

A wannabe film director becomes embroiled in a battle against the laws of time and space when his attempt to recreate the iconic photograph-only time travel film, La Jetée, spirals out of control. A wonderfully weird film.

Time Traveling Through Time

A germaphobe struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder attempts to manage his fears, but things get complicated when a new virus comes to town.

Chimeras

A young man struggles to prove his own humanity after he finds himself unable to tick the “I’m not a robot” box in an online CAPTCHA test. A hilarious short that drives home the mystery of what makes us human.

CAPTCHA

Snapshots in time show a lone man — Hawkins’ husband — as he builds, tends and harvests a circular garden enriched by the bounty of seaweed and fish that he gathers from the shore. “The interplay of one man and the plants and animals around him is my story and my metaphor for the inescapable circles that direct our lives,” says Hawkins.

Circle of Truth

A hooded figure looks down on a city ravaged by war, granting peace and sleep to frightened people living in hiding. But a mother searching for her daughter refuses to rest until her child is found. Gorgeous animation and story that, while heartbreaking, fills you with a unique stillness.

Night

A man returns home to attend the funeral of a past love. When he receives a package she left for him, it takes him down a road of long-forgotten memories and a classic haunting romance. Made through the First Time Filmmaker Program from NIFCO.

Attar of Roses

This powerful short freezes time just before an firing squad execution in Italy in the summer of 1944. An impressively-choreographed long-shot takes us through the story of the day, revealing moments of violence, fear, and regret.

Closed to the Light

Newfoundland violin and piano classical team Duo Concertante perform a moving piece by Dawn Avery, and director Nicola Hawkins accompanies with striking mixed media imagery.

Eternal Return

A law student is in his room, unable to study for an exam he knows he’s going to fail. So? He heads to a bar with a plan to drink a coffee to double down and focus. Great performances and dialogue here make for a delightful film that explores instant gratification and the liberating feeling of letting go.

A Night in the Cósmico

After their father’s suicide attempt, adult siblings Maja and Maximilian meet to clean their father’s house before his discharge from hospital. A deeply personal film by Swedish filmmaker Henrik Dahlbring that blends live action and animation, and shows the different reactions to trauma and the rifts that can happen because of it. We’re proud to host the international debut of this moving, understated short.

Shards

Two sailors help a lady in need get back into her house, but when they return later they discover things were not quite what they seemed. Based on a story by Dale Jarvis, this film has a charming ghost story style.

The Lady at Number 16

Newfoundland’s Duo Concertante perform the Juno-nominated classical composition “Coeur À Coeur” by Canada’s Alice Ping Yee Ho. This piece is conceived as an imaginary conversation between two voices: exchanging inner thoughts, and it pairs beautifully with the footage of northern gannets at Cape St. Mary’s.

Free Fall

On a summer morning, 6-year-old Chichou plays by herself in an apartment filled with remnants of violence. Reste shows the resilience of Chichou’s imagination despite being surrounded by a complicated reality. The film is powerful and restrained, and features an excellent performance from the young lead, Maëllya Gauvin.

RESTE

Director Myriam Vaudry of New Brunswick was born with a rare genetic condition that affects her bones and weakens her skin. It also affects her self esteem. In this short film she joins forces with a visual artist to help her not only come to accept the body she has, but to celebrate its unique beauty.

Mosaic

This story, inspired by Vancouver director Vivian Cheung’s own experience of losing her father at a young age, features an imaginative young girl who sets out to fold a thousand cranes while her father is in hospice. Although the film revolves around dying, it’s really a film about growing up in a hospital or hospice setting — including the joys and oddities.

For Roy

A Canadian veteran who served in Afghanistan turns to music to help him in his battle with PTSD and to raise awareness of veteran suicide and mental health. A deeply important conversation, expertly navigated by emerging director Yoni Collins.

Lanterns Flicker

An unexpected friendship blossoms when a 65-year-old woman moves in with a younger man. When she confesses she is recently widowed, her roommate helps her process her grief. A beautiful short, told with humour and warmth, about the power of unexpected friendships.

Her Home

Poor hedgehogs! In cold weather they huddle together for warmth but their pointy spines prevent them from getting too close. A quick animated collage music video from talented local animator and musician Shan Pomeroy.

Hedgehog Dilemma

Struggling with his own climate anxiety and grief, psychotherapist Anderson Todd thinks about what it means to live in a world that's dying.

Feeling the Apocalypse

7-year-old Juice has one mission: to help Grandma Lovely retain as many memories as possible to halt her early-onset dementia. A heartwarming film about a beautiful intergenerational friendship.

Young People, Old People & Nothing in Between

An animated film that will give you butterflies! On her way home from a lovely café date, a woman finds reminders of her date in every little thing. She falls in love with the Chicago winter night around her, and dreams of the date ending differently.

Kiss 'n' Ride

Based on a poem by the same name by New Zealand writer Paula Harris, this four minute film is blocked with powerful images depicting a whirlwind romance that has yet to happen and is destined to not end well.

to my next lover

Struggling to make ends meet, a single mother caters the funerals and weddings of the rich. But her daughter has different ideas about her mother’s job.

Sampo

After the death of his wife a musician makes a dark deal, trading away his hands and his ability to play the piano to bring her back to life. But the hands he receives as replacement, they have a mind of their own. Fantastic animation and detailed, expressive models make this film a riveting retelling of the 1924 silent horror classic The Hands of Orlac.

Malakout

In a mysterious old house, a young girl has not left her dark room for years. When a social worker enters the house to save the girl’s life it suddenly becomes clear why she’s been locked away. A wonderfully creepy film from Iranian filmmaker Amir Karami with excellent set design and makeup effects.

THE BLOODY FAMILY

France, 1350. In the midst of the Black Plague, a monk returns to a monastery after a long pilgrimage. As he struggles to readjust and find his place, an intruder breaks into the monastery, and he discovers — all too late — that a new evil has followed him back.

STIGMATE

Canada

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