Independent Shorts Awards

Two men. One battling addiction, the other his past, mend their broken relationship over a game of chess.
Directed by Elyes Gabel (USA)

“Bound” takes viewers inside a prison with no cells, where the destinies of those sentenced to servitude are bought and sold, and their jailers bear the names Addiction, Abuse, and Manipulation. This fictionalized retelling of a true story plays out through the eyes of one young victim as she tries to break free of the drug addiction and brainwashing that’s been forced upon her and boldly sprints down a path that will either lead to freedom or a greater torment than she has ever known.
Directed by Daljit Kalsi (USA)

Directed by Will Moffett (USA)

Year 2098, a strange incident got Mercury closer to Earth. Cosmic radiations caused by Mercury’s presence hit the surface of Earth slowly killing everybody. Jess finds herself obligated to harvest fresh resilient blood to survive.
Directed by Pierre Edelmann (France)

Legendary producer/guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie/Suzanne Vega) performs a prayer of hope for us living through these divided times. Recorded live at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC after the horrible tragedy in Charlottesville, VA, August 12th, 2017.
Directed by Joeann Calabrese (USA)

A glimpse into the reality of a work-from-home career, two women; one type-A and the other a bit of a hot mess, are forced to work together while keeping themselves entertained and on task in a world filled with distraction.
Directed by Max Moore (USA)

An estranged middle-aged father arrives back into his childhood town after 20 years for the first time. He attempts to reconnect with his son, whom he abandoned as a toddler, over a high stakes pool game. The son is not aware of the stranger’s true identity. As the game progresses, the tension mounts and the conversation crystalizes both men’s emotional states and how they dealt with abandonment. Haunted by their past, a reconnection is questionable whether there is a future between them or not.
Directed by Margaux Hemard (Australia)

Hatcha’s husband, Suleiman, and son, Mustafa, run away from home on September 12th, 1980, the day Turkish military coup happen. On the same day in the morning, there outbreaks a fowl plague in the village, and Hatcha sends her daughter, Elif, along with the surviving chickens away to the neighboring village. Hatcha stays home alone with her daughter, Özlem, sick in bed, and waits for Elif, Mustafa, and Suleiman. The winter is around the corner to overtake the village. The snowfall time is about to come.
Directed by Cevahir Çokbilir (Turkey)

Comfortably seated in his armchair, Jean, a dreamer of about fifty years, smokes his pipe in front of a chimney fire when suddenly the ghost of a woman he does not know appears to him.
Directed by Néret Alexis (France)

Thinky constantly lip syncs his music, so an irritated god makes the singer fart uncontrollably. But eventually Thinky learns his lesson and begins to use his fart as a superpower.
Directed by Thinky Siqi Xiao and Majik Jingwei Zhou (USA)