Official Selections

Saturday 8/8/2026 Block 2

After the loss of her closest friend, Clair Blyth begins to unravel. Grief closes in, her reality fractures, and she finds herself trapped at a dead end she can’t escape.

Behind Her Smile

Dir. Minda Harts

Behind Her Smile is a psychological thriller about two childhood best friends whose bond begins to fracture under the weight of unspoken envy and ambition. Sinclair Harris, once the adored high school cheerleader, is stuck in the past, while Jasmine Carter, a rising track star, is stepping into her prime. But when a suspicious accident leaves Jasmine bedridden and under Sinclair’s care, the power dynamic shifts. What begins as a gesture of friendship slowly turns into a chilling test of control, obsession, and the dark lengths people go to avoid being forgotten.

Berm

Dir. Tim Clifton

The death of a young man forces his half-siblings to confront their own inadequacies.

Breaking the Law: A Lost & Found Adventure

Dir. Sari Karplus

Armed with nothing but a camcorder and a mission to break some of America's silliest and most archaic laws, filmmaker Sari Karplus recruits her otherwise law-abiding mom and best friend for an adventure in moderate rebellion. Nearly two decades later, the footage finally became a movie—giving the statute of limitations plenty of room to do its thing.

Catalogue of Noses

Dir. Josie Andrews

"Catalogue of Noses" is a short musical comedy. It tells the story of Emily, a Jewish teen actor on the day of her scheduled nose surgery, who faces off with her mother, a plastic surgeon, and the weight of her cultural identity. Through original songs that parody 'Fiddler on the Roof,' we follow Emily’s emotional state as she navigates this decision and learns unsettling truths about the consequences of assimilation.

CHAI TEA

Dir. Punya Chatterjee

Caught between status-obsessed LA and their Muslim parents’ high standards, sisters Sara and Ruby live double lives to keep the peace. But when their clever mom plots a secret arranged marriage setup, the sisters are forced to question how authentic their lives really are.

CHEATER

Dir. Shawn Pipkin-West

CHEATER is loosely based on the El Salvadoran urban legend of "La Siguanaba." Known by many names throughout Central America. But in El Salvador, she haunts urban legends by the name of “La Siguanaba.” In the darkest of nights, she is said to take on the form of a beautiful woman to lure men, particularly unfaithful ones, out to meet their end. Right before they give in, she shape-shifts to her true form taking their lives. And if she shows mercy, it comes at the expense of their sanity.

Chris Only

Dir. Suz Curtis

Lonely house sitter Bea forms an unexpected connection with a charming stranger. When she discovers he may be dangerous, attraction gives way to suspicion. As conflicting stories emerge, Bea must decide who deserves her trust.

Damn, You Too Huh?

Dir. Bianca Francine Gantt

When a late-night visit from a former friend takes a sharp and unsettling turn, college student Deon is forced to confront past decisions and unreliable memories.

Do You Trust Me?

Dir. Jacqueline Ayala-Alonzo

Liz, a 27-year-old plus-size Latina who works as a server in her mother's Guatemalan restaurant must confront her monotonous life when a familiar face from her past, Tony, walks through the door. What begins as an awkward encounter slowly unfolds into a beautiful rediscovery of old feelings, unspoken truths and the bittersweet possibilities of love. Through a series of quiet moments, warm breakfasts, and nostalgic conversations, Liz and Tony reconnect, not just with each other, but with the parts of themselves they had buried under time, hurt and hesitation.

Eggnog

Dir. Heather Hillstrom

He just wants to spend Christmas alone, but his son's girlfriend is determined to make him some holiday spirit(s). What starts as a recipe for disaster becomes a sweet way for them to bond over a shared loss.

Fatale

Dir. John-David Minjares

Saturday 8/8/2026 Block 2

Lured down a darkened street by a stranger's gaze, a man follows her into a hypnotic dance — convinced he is the hunter, until her body speaks a language older than desire.

Flink's Pigeon Problems

Dir. Susan Fitzer, Brian Pimental

An adorable creature leaves no stone unturned trying to rescue his kingdom's pigeons.

Flocky

Dir. Esther Casas Roura

Saturday 8/8/2026 Block 2

FLOCKY is an animated allegory navigating pregnancy, exploring the connection between a mother and her unborn child. Set in a melancholic and enchanting world, the film beautifully captures the essence of love, and the poignant nature of loss.

Game Girls

Dir. Alina Skrzeszewska

Game Girls follows two women navigating life through the chaotic world of LA's' Skid Row. Tensions are fueled between the two women: while one is comfortable being a player in the underground economy of Skid Row, the other wants out.

Going Home

Dir. Alyssa Limperis, Emily Murnane

After having a shit day, a woman decides to go to her childhood home and visit her parents.

Here and There

Dir. Caleb Ellis

Throughout a series of therapy sessions (shot in a single continuous take), a young woman attempts to reconcile her past and present trauma. Only by facing her past self will she learn to move toward her future.

Holding Onto Heaven Is Giving You Hell

Dir. Medina Baydoun

Alina, a 19-year-old girl with a kind and empathetic nature, consistently finds the good in others. Seeking an escape from her mental health struggles, she becomes vulnerable to Evan, a charming yet mysterious and manipulative 21-year-old man who offers her the world. Unbeknownst to her, Evan inflicts subtle harm over time, trapping Alina in a cycle of abuse intertwined with moments of kindness, which spirals into an unhealthy addiction to his presence.

In the Light of the Afternoon

Dir. Emily Babette Gross

Filmed within the hushed corridors of a historic Los Angeles abbey, the work follows The Dreamer as she drifts through three cycles: waking life, dream, and nightmare. Each phase escalates in anxiety and disorientation, unraveling the fragile boundaries between perception and illusion. Drawing on the legacy of Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and Kenneth Anger’s Rabbit’s Moon (1972), Emily Babette Gross reimagines mid-20th-century experimental cinema for the present moment, unveiling a fractured yet luminous exploration of the multiplicity of selves.

In The Shadow of Grace

Dir. Jessica Lee Wrabel

Our stories are never fully written, and within these pages are stories of healing. In exploring the raw and real depths of the human experience, we uncover a chapter of the heart where redemption and healing meet. In the Shadow of Grace follows three individuals who share honest testimonies of mental health struggles, addiction, and family trauma. Their journeys reveal how faith carries them from brokenness into restoration, and a closing message from a local pastor reminds us that hope and renewal remain possible even in our darkest seasons.

Keepers of The Door

Dir. Folasade

A comedy about hosts dealing with the hardships of working in a fine dine restaurant in Hollywood.

Koun Srei

Dir. Linda Nguon, S√©bastien Kong

Kim, 63, raises her daughter Tam alone in a country she does not fully know. Through daily routines, silences, and misunderstandings, Tam’s unease and her place in her mother’s life slowly emerge. Through prayers and offerings to Kim’s late father, Koun Srei celebrates the beauty of everyday rituals and family memory, revealing the quiet love that connects three generations.

Life is (a) Short

Dir. Brooke Dooley

On the ten-year anniversary of her dad's death, Frankie reflects on the absurdity of content creation. She would rather end her life than make a short film about death. But is she serious? A twisted look at why we make art through the lens of grief.

Los Chucos Suaves

Dir. Adelaide Pilar Benavides

Los Chucos Suaves is a music video produced and directed by Adelaide Pilar Benavides as an homage to the late Lalo Guerrero and pachuco zoot suit era. As a music artist Adelaide is known for taking classic songs and giving them a modern west coast cumbia sound. As she did with this music video by using the old 40’s black and white movie style while integrating modern Chicano culture as well as Chicana empowerment by having all the main characters depicted as strong women in positions of power. Aside from the storyline and film style, the costume design in this video consists of over 20 custom tailored zoot suits by internationally known business El Pachuco Zoot suit; established in Fullerton, California in 1978. In the end, Adelaide aims to share with the audience a piece of the joyous and colorful culture of the Pachuco and Pachuca without even needing to use color.

Loss

Dir. Alejandra Rosales

Amy is in the hospital with her daughter Emma, who needs a heart transplant to survive. Born with congenital heart disease, Emma's condition worsened at age 14, leaving Amy stressed and consumed by worry for two years. As Emma is taken into surgery, Amy's faith wavers, and she finds herself overwhelmed with emotions. After a tearful breakdown, Amy encounters Mary, an elderly patient who offers comfort and perspective. Despite Mary's sudden passing, Amy finds solace in her words. When the doctor announces Emma's successful surgery, Amy, now wearing Emma's cross necklace, joyfully reunites with her family, feeling a renewed sense of hope and gratitude.

Love Sonnet

Dir. Tony Tacheny

Love Sonnet centers around a couple grappling with the choice to have a baby. SHAWN and ELSIE'S relationship is threatened when Elsie receives news that she has a limited time frame for childbirth. Their mutual agreement to not have children is broken as they struggle with conflicting beliefs.

Marbles

Dir. YAS GADELYA

Two brothers cross the desert to enter the United States. During the journey, they are captured by a Latino Border Patrol agent. As they are escorted through the desert, the children stop to play marbles, and the Border Patrol agent joins them. This experience will bring new meaning to their lives.

MARILYN'S DARK PARADISE

Dir. Remi Gangarossa

Before the world knew her as a legend, Marilyn Monroe endured a childhood marked by trauma and a career shaped by relentless pressures. Even so, she rose to become an icon, a respected actress, and a determined independent producer. As she confronts her past and wrestles with what it means to be enough, her time-traveling companion faces his own demons. He is tempted to rewrite history, even if it risks unraveling everything.

Mental

Dir. Suzanna Turner

MENTAL is a darkly comedic, improvisational mockumentary exploring the chaotic, heartbreaking, and absurd world inside a psychiatric hospital

Midland

Dir. Maria Margaret Wilson

Three women embark on a spiritual journey to bury the hatchet and resolve some unfinished business.

Midnight Home

Dir. Zandy Thin, Estefania Park

After moving into a new home, Sandra begins experiencing unsettling disturbances every midnight. As her roommates mysteriously disappear night after night, her grip on reality starts to unravel, forcing her to confront a truth far more terrifying than the darkness around her.

My Foot is in Heaven

Dir. Iyad Hajjaj

Wahid Najjar is a man who desperately wants to protect what is left of his family, already decimated by the loss of several children from the merciless bombs from a relentless enemy raining down deaf daily from the skies. His two remaining children, Ahmed, age 11, and daughter Samar age 9 fight to survive in a place where death is a daily reality. Food is scary but one day somewhere find some bread, so there is a brief respite for celebration. But such rebels are short-lived as another bombing attack kills Ahmed and severely wounds the little girls Samar heartbroken, Wahid is determined to see his young daughter survive; he calls upon a local doctor, who unfortunately tells the tortured father that Samara will have to have her leg and foot cut off less she will die. Most terrific of all the amputation will have to be accomplished without anesthetic. Some are the little girl screws her young courage to the post and endure the agonizing operation with Wahid always at her side. When all is said and done, Samara declares with fervent conviction: “my foot is in heaven now.“

Nova

Dir. Olivia Roberts

Miriam and JoJo, exes living in the same building, reconnect with only 27 hours left before the end of the world. Accompanied by their neighbor's dog, they decide to search for an abandoned military base, all while navigating their complicated feelings about their relationship and the looming apocalypse.

Only Here and Now

Dir. RAYMOND SINGER, MICHAEL HOPKINS

1942 and the world is at war but high school sweethearts Tom Carlson and Marjorie Hua Carlson are anxious to celebrate their honeymoon night. Tomorrow, Tom leaves for Europe to fight in the war and Marjorie begins a nursing program with the goal of medical school. While waiting for their hotel room, they struggle with the fear this first night together could also be their last.

Open All Night

Dir. Moni Wood

Set in Queens, Woodside, NYC, 1991. When Denis, played by Kevin Bohleber (Under the Influencer), a closeted Irish immigrant, is assaulted during a St. Patrick’s Day parade, he takes refuge in a quiet diner. There, he meets Molly, played by Peggy Miley (Stranger Things, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Shameless, Star Trek: Insurrection), a sharp-tongued older waitress who has her own buried regrets.

Please, Stop!

Dir. Patricia Holihan

Please, Stop . . . hurting us. When her triggers become too much, a young woman finds sanctuary in a group of similarly scarred young women. Bound by trauma, they find strength in each other to rise up and heal.

Pregnant AF 4.0

Dir. Jess Be

Three years between pregnancies and things are wildly different. This is pregnancy as seen through the lens of an exhausted mother of a rambunctious toddler, dealing with compound grief and finding that bittersweet balance between the joy of bringing a new life into this world and missing a life that is no longer here.

Serenity's Song

Dir. Christopher Andrew Schultz

A teenager balances life between school and home while taking care of her terminally ill mother as she grants her mother's final wish.

SIDRA

Dir. Edward Chen

The near future. Political upheaval has caused a post-social collapse in parts of America. Cities become epicenters of chaos and lawlessness. Sidra and her companion Freddie flee to the high desert only to be set upon by an opportunistic gang. With their car disabled and one of them seriously injured, they’ll have to find the will to face brutal odds and survive in this tense thriller.

Squash Casserole

Dir. Tobin Sanson

After an irreversible act, two sisters reckon with their lifelong dynamic that finally begins to shift.

That's My Girl

Dir. Bonnie Efird, Melissa Blue

Saturday 8/8/2026 Block 5

At a boozy, ironic “going-away” lunch, freshly single and mid-thirties Brooke — secretly in love with her best friend Kamila, who’s moving from their beloved Pasadena neighborhood to the West Side — is spiraling from her dad’s death and a full-blown identity crisis. With chaotic (not helpful) help from her wildly supportive Southern mom, Louann and surprisingly understanding ex-boyfriend Geoffrey, who’s now in a throuple with their formerly “very straight,” Disney Adult couple friends Will & Sarah, Brooke must come out and finally confess her love to Kamila before it’s too late.

The Baby Clause

Dir. Maty Young

A career driven woman fixated on become a single mom finds herself with more family and loves than she ever thought possible when a precocious preteen plays matchmaker with her jaded single dad.

The Dust of This Place

Dir. Vanessa Van Wormer

Set in the high desert of California off of Historic Route 66, The Dust of this Place follows a couple lost in the limbo of a repeating moment in time, exploring absence, presence, and how a single difference in choice can affect their future.

The Eye

Dir. Deanne Bray

In this sly comic zinger from Director Deanne Bray and Executive Producer Troy Kotsur, a hearing Hollywood casting director is having no luck casting a Deaf role, whom she thinks are inexperienced. When an actor named Frank (played by John Maucere) walks in, however, the casting director gets more than she bargained for.

The Hitchhiker

Dir. Marco Delgado

Stranded after his car breaks down, a man hitches a ride with a seemingly harmless driver, only to discover too late that his savior is not who he thinks he is.

The Last Ride

Dir. Wen Leng

This film is a haunting reflection on the vulnerability of the "stranger in a strange land." Based on actual events, it tells the story of an international student whose fatal mistake was not a lack of caution, but a deeply ingrained social grace that made her reluctant to refuse others. By focusing on this overlooked psychological vulnerability, the film reveals how criminals weaponize a woman's empathy, turning an ordinary encounter into a tragic, irreversible end.

The Other Hollywood Story

Dir. Seidy Lopez

During a brutal withdrawal in a jail cell, a homeless addict hallucinates her mother’s fatal overdose decades earlier—and must break the cycle of abandonment and addiction before she suffers the same fate.

The Seat Filler

Dir. Valeria Trunyova

Kirill, a failed Russian actor stuck in the US with an expired visa, learns that the film in which he had a small part has been nominated for an Oscar. On the day of the ceremony, he has to appear in a children's play, but he's willing to do anything to get on the red carpet. The theater director won't let Kirill leave, so after causing chaos backstage (including a fight with a mascot and an escape dressed as the Gingerbread Man), he storms the Oscars stage. But instead of the expected fame, he becomes a meme and risks deportation. However, a call from the Mosfilm casting director gives him hope that in Russia, his "disgrace" can be turned into fame.

The Turn

Dir. Ursula Rudorfer

"Cards aren't the only thing on the table." In the unforgiving world of the American Southwest, two fiercely bonded sisters hunt justice outside the law until a brutal act of vengeance forces them to confront the cost of survival, trust, and blood-soaked retribution.

THIS IS OUR TIME (duet-video)

Dir. Debra Gussin

A song of celebration reminding us that now is the time for happiness and accomplishing your goals.

This Little Piggy Goes to Market

Dir. Katherine Connor Duff

A livestream turns into a trap when an OnlyFans foot model is pushed past her limits by her demanding subscribers.

Unrequited

Dir. Chaewon Suh

Luna has a dream about her best friend Marysol whom she has been in love with for a long time. Even though Luna got rejected once before when she first confessed her feelings to Marysol, they managed to remain friends. In her therapy session, Luna describes to her therapist her complicated relationship with Marysol and her hearbreaking, even demoralizing view of love.

We Can Never Go Back

Dir. Aminah Hughes

Two old friends seek refuge from a terrifying mass-extinction event, one desperate to reunite with his family, the other pushing them both towards a utopian future.

Well(ness)

Dir. Mary Lou Sandler

Well(ness) is a 40-minute female-led dramedy about women, wellness, and the “price” of inner peace. Well(ness) asks who profits when community and connection are commodified, revealing the cost of healing as performance while questioning what it really means to be well…?

What The Crows Saw

Dir. Gina East

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's crisis is explored when a Pueblo woman enters a lone tavern in search of her missing sister. The scattering of Day Drinkers show little interest in her search. She notices Gabe, a weary Pueblo man. He, too, knows nothing of her sister but asks if she is a Lost Bird - Native American children who were forcibly removed from their tribes. Offended, she leaves Gabe and focuses her attention on an alluring Pueblo Girl who enters the tavern. The mood shifts as danger and a haunting mystery unfold.

YOU COULD'VE BEEN A NURSE

Dir. Meg Mateo