Independent Shorts Awards

“Italians By The Bay” examines how the lives of immigrants have changed from leaving their homes in Italy to moving to the Bay Area. With the current events going on in Italy and Italian being the fastest dying language in the United States, this documentary touches the cultural dynamics, motivations, and difficulties of uprooting their lives and to start anew. The rich history of Italian immigrants in the Bay Area is celebrated, looking into their astonishing contributions to our current society.
Directed by Annalisa Siagura (USA)

Sal, Guido and Gabriella are thrown out of the UFD (Universal Federation of Deities) when they are caught insider trading. They now contemplate their future.
Directed by Rokk Lattanzio (Australia)

Marlon West is an Effects Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He did a push-up for every person killed in gun violence in 2018. Each morning he checked the total of gun deaths on Gun Violence Archive. He subtracted the prior day’s total and came up with a number of push-ups to do that day.

Each set of push-up was posted on social media in a modest attempt to raise awareness of and in small tribute to lives lost.

The videos were done in Los Angeles, CA – St. Louis, MO, – Chicago, Il – Shanghai, China – Guwahati, India. 

The following is a second or so of each set. They were done from January 2, 2018 to January 1, 2019. 365 days.

14,533 total gun deaths. 
Directed by Marlon West (USA)

Andy can’t afford to rent an apartment so he settles for a place that is affordable but when his wife comes to visit him she finds the place is much more creepy than they both thought!
Directed by Stephen Kessen (USA)

The indigenous and the white man united by the same fight. 
A poetic fresco on the state of the planet that depicts the First Nations man fleeing the ecological and humanitarian disaster since the conquest of the Americas. 
Anything for the Ones We Love is a musical film with indigenous pianist Salvador Chavajay as the messenger.
Directed by Louise Marie Beauchamp (Canada)

When a retired Stalker is faced with few options to save his dying wife, he is willing to escort his old friend Stocks and a group of explorers back into a mysterious area now called the Zone even if it means risking life and limb.
Directed by Glenn Lawrence McDonald (USA)

Heartbroken and grief-stricken, a widowed father, who lost his only son, finds a scapegoat in the emergency dispatcher whom he had a brief interaction with. When he sees an opportunity to remind her how fragile life is, his intended threat becomes a reality. 
Written by Debby Huvaere (USA)

An alternative introduction to the often misreported city of Calcutta in Eastern India. Episode one focuses on British Rule and the monument to the British Empire – The Queen Victoria Memorial.
Directed by Ranjan Das-Gupta (UK)

The man has been experiencing a weird phenomenon recently. He falls asleep without noticing when the sun dips below the horizon. Meanwhile, the woman is in the similar, but totally opposite situation. She is only conscious during nights. When the sun rises, she faints.

Still, there is something that makes their peculiar routine more mysterious. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. They hear someone knocking the wall everyday. Trying to find out the source of this sound, the man and the woman finally realize the way to return to normal days…
Directed by SeoHyeon An (South Korea)

I never expected to be betrayed by the love of my life.
Directed by Austin Taft (USA)

A young man’s life goes completely wrong, and he must find a way to deal with his frustration.
Directed by Giovanni Galindo (USA)

Emily has a lost tampon inside of her, and has no choice but to find it herself. As it turns

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One son is dead. The other is disabled. And her husband is doing time. But Nancy DiMartino finds a golden opportunity that will change her life forever. The problem is, taking it means cutting the cord with everyone. In this family drama of manipulation and greed, second chances come with strings attached. Each player is pulling hard to get what they want. But blind faith and self-delusion might lead them down a path of losing everything.
Directed by Ariano Trevino Angelone (USA)

“The Blue of Salt” is the journey of a young woman bruised by mourning who tries to find peace in her memory.
The train on which we embark with her is a night crossing until dawn, between dream and reality.
She finds there the desire to live and be present in the world.
Directed by Alice Bohl (France)