UCLAxFilmFest 2026

UCLAxFilmFest 2026 Official Selections Screening

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22 films in package
UCLAxFilmFest Welcome
Breaking the Tide
When two teen siblings, driven by their father's unfulfilled dream, compete in a dangerous game of dares in the ocean, a rising swell tests their limits and their bond -- until one dare goes too far.
Mean Goals
An adorkable gay Latino joins an LGBTQ soccer team to bond with his father, struggling with Alzheimer’s over their shared passion for the sport.
Fender
A paranoid high school grad must convince her friends they’re being followed.
Dreamer
A nine year old girl orphaned in the desert after a failed border crossing survives through a single act of compassion and unknowingly reunites decades later with the officer whose kindness changed her life.
Debbie Walks Her Duck
Debbie walks to the nail salon, oblivious to the crises unfolding around her.
My Only Friend is a Robot Named Beans
Ruby finds her lonesome routines disrupted when she makes an unlikely new friend: a mail-order robot.
Veidar
Events go awry when a suspended police officer confronts a creepy loner and discovers a hidden truth.
A Peculiar Morning
Inspired by a chance encounter, a grieving woman must grapple with her agoraphobia to see what lies outside her lonely little world.
Cottonmouth
A Black grad student gets cold feet about bringing her white girlfriend on a research trip to visit the Cottonmouth Plantation.
Escape Artist
Can the World's Greatest Escape Artist escape an uncomfortable conversation?
Memoria Obscura
A struggling screenwriter’s life unravels as he desperately tries to recall a brilliant idea interrupted by a fire truck.
Anxiety
When a couple meets for their first date, two unwelcome but familiar guests do all they can to sabotage the connection.
Deliberate
Desperate to make sense of the past, a young woman returns to the only man who ever truly knew her - and who crossed every line to do so: her former high school teacher.
Baggage
A snappy absurdist comedy set in a world where everyone brings their Baggage to their first date in the form of actual suitcases.
Budget Paradise
Filmed and set in Oakland, CA, Budget Paradise follows a Black, non-binary painter as they search for space and permission to exist within their hometown.
I Don't Care
A newlywed couple, who are now caregivers for the husband's dementia riddled mom, seek guidance in a caregiver support group only to find the advice they receive to be the unexpected.
Mi-Mi Shu-Shu
After a tragic accident, a grieving mother transforms her private loss into public advocacy, confronting a broken system that has quietly failed thousands of children—and forcing a city to reckon with what it abandons when it cuts corners on care.
When Memory Turns into Sound
Exploring the relationship, the history, and the future of two luithers in Philo/Mendocino, CA.
Take Care
A woman deliberately injures herself just to be in the care of a particular ER nurse.
Closed captions available
Sound and Vision
She’s coming…..any minute now….he’s not nervous….it’s a good day to play guitar.
Millstone
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Synopsis


In an isolated future, Ruby (newly 25 and seriously lacking a social life) finds her lonesome routines disrupted when she makes an unlikely new friend: a mail-order robot. Ruby is forced to learn lessons from her new robot friend: the power of opening up, the importance of platonic intimacy, and how to quell that anxious voice in the back of your head that wonders why anyone would want to be friends with you. But in learning these lessons, she realizes it might mean outgrowing her new friend.


Director's Statement


I started developing this film during the height of the pandemic, as I was reflecting on isolation and the importance of human connection. As I watched the rapid advancement of AI, remote work, and “convenient” technologies that make our lives increasingly individualized, I was drawn to imagining a future in which technology helps humans become better humans. What if there was a robot that was designed to bring out the best in us?


Crew

 


Anika Kan Grevstad (Director / Writer) is a biracial (Chinese/White) director based in Los Angeles. Her work explores themes of isolation and belonging through a lens of genre, humor, and hope.

 

Her narrative and documentary shorts have screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals nationwide, including LA Shorts, Provincetown, and LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. Her short film WHAT WE FIND IN THE SEA won Best Short Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES received the Special Jury Award for New Voices at LAAPFF. Her documentary HELEN PASHGIAN: VISIBLE INVISIBLE was featured as an LA Times Short Doc. Her latest short, MY ONLY FRIEND IS A ROBOT NAMED BEANS, starring Midori Francis, won the Enderby Entertainment Filmmaking Fellowship at Austin Film Festival.

 

Anika has directed work for LACMA and Dropout TV, and was a 2023 recipient of the Hedgebrook screenwriting residency. With a background in documentary cinematography and editing, she brings a holistic, craft-driven approach to directing. Recent credits include DP and Editor on LOVE, LIZZO (HBO Max) and DP on THE JOB OF SONGS (DOC NYC).

 

Anika is drawn to emotionally nuanced, intimate stories that center underrepresented perspectives while exploring universal themes. 


Behind the Scenes


  • Runtime
    13:25
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