2020 Film Festival
2020 Awards
"Untitled, 1977"
Festival Guest of Honor
Karen Allen
Award-winning actor, director, and screenwriter, and 2020 Independent Spirit Award nominee. Karen Allen screened her short film A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud, based on a short story by Carson McCullers. Afterwards, Karen taught a masterclass on directing actors.
An American film and stage actress. After making her film debut in Animal House(1978), she became best known for her portrayal of Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), a role she later reprised for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).[1] She also co-starred in Starman (1984) and Scrooged (1988). Her stage work has included performances on Broadway, and she has directed both for stage and film.
2020 Films
Feature Films
Accept the Call
Directed by: Eunice Lau
Running Time: 1h 24m
Country: USA
A father seeks to understand why his son is accused of terrorism, as they journey to repair their relationship after breaking each other's hearts.
What Lies West
Directed by: Jessica Ellis
Running Time: 1h 22m
Country: USA
When new college graduate Nicolette takes a summer job babysitting sheltered teen Chloe, the two must overcome a wide personality gap to set off on a summer adventure to change both their lives.
Once Upon A River
Directed by: Haroula Rose
Running Time: 1h 30m
Country: USA
After her father’s violent death, Native American teenager Margo Crane flees down Michigan’s Stark River in search of her estranged mother. On the way, she encounters allies, enemies, danger, and the beauty of nature, all while coming to grips with her past and her own identity.
Short Films
Made Public
Directed by: Foster Wilson
Running Time: 14m
Country: USA
On the eve of his wedding day, a groom’s cold feet go viral, forcing him and his bride to rely on the court of public opinion to save (or destroy) their marriage.
Strangers' Reunion
Directed by: Liz Sargent
Running Time: 13m
Country: Hong Kong
A Korean-American adoptee travels to meet her birth mother for the first time in this powerful family drama. Miscommunication and misunderstandings threaten their attempts to connect – until an emotional breakthrough leads to hope for them both.
The Gift
Directed by: Jacintha Charles
Running Time: 13m
Country: USA
A girl with uncommonly large ears is bullied at school, but finds solace in her friendship with a crow in the woods. She feeds the bird everyday and in exchange it presents her with gifts, until a violent encounter at school causes their ritual to take an unsettling turn.
Sweet Sweet Kink:
A Collection of BDSM Stories
Directed by: Maggie M. Bailey
Running Time: 13m
Country: USA
Sweet sweet kink takes a sweet, sweet peek into the kinky world of bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism.
Me También
Directed by: Valeria Vallejos
Running Time: 16m
Country: USA
Two women in polar opposite spheres of society are brought together by one unfortunate common denominator, sexual harassment, but when everything seems lost, destiny will have the last word.
A Normal Girl
Directed by: Aubree Bernier-Clarke
Running Time: 14m
Country: USA
A NORMAL GIRL brings the widely unknown struggles of intersex people to light through the story of intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis.
Gemini
Directed by: Mily Mumford
Running Time: 13m
Country: Canada
In a very near future two VR gamers coincidentally meet in real life and through their interactions expose the dark side of virtual reality and gaming
Marisol
Directed by: Zoe Salicrup Junco
Running Time: 15m
Country: USA
When a young mother takes a risk to provide for her daughter, a stranger turns her transgression into a nightmare.
Desaturated
Directed by: Marina Stepanska
Running Time: 11m
Country: Ukraine
A typical morning in a Lviv household – the family is getting ready to have breakfast. Suddenly, something terrible happens – the eldest daughter appears on the screen with a different colour correction, and is tragicall y mismatched with her perfectly saturated environment: she is desaturated.
Farta
Directed by: Silvia Cannarozzi
Running Time: 10m
Country: Germany
Theresa has documented all of her daughter Marta’s childhood on social media without considering the full consequences.
La Llorona
Directed by: Rosana Cuellar
Running Time: 29m
Country: Germany and Mexico
"La Llorona" is a surrealistic film about a group of children who feel haunted by the ghost of the Llorona - the legendary Mexican ghost of a woman who murdered her children. Their powerful fantasy and their fear unleash a chain of events that leads them to become a part of this legend themselves.
Lego
Directed by: Faryarsadat Hosseini
Running Time: 19m
Country: Iran
When a couple comes back to wife’s abandoned childhood house, the woman disappears and among the ruins of the house, the man finds a baby girl who seems to be his wife.
Play/Ground
Directed by: Hanna Sköld
Running Time: 15m
Country: Sweden
Dad fights to get grandma out of bed. But grandma can’t, she just sleeps. Love just wants to play – to be part of things and be close. This childhood portrayal blends feature film with animations to create an unforgettable experience repeatedly blackened.
The Boogeywoman
Directed by: Erica Scoggins
Running Time: 17m
Country: USA
In the fever of her first period, a curious teenager is drawn to her small town’s local legend, only to find that the “Boogeywoman” is flesh and blood--the mother she
never had.
We Waited Until Nightfall
Directed by: Wendy V. Muñiz and Guillermo Zouain
Running Time: 17m
Country: Dominican Republic
We waited until nightfall revisits repurposed cinemas through hunting images and sounds that trace the practices of belonging still embodied in the theaters’ remains.
Lola
Directed by: Julie Cohen and Mariah Hoffman
Running Time: 8m
Country: USA
A young woman builds her own tiny home.
Moving
Directed by: Adinah Dancyger
Running Time: 8m
Country: USA
One young woman's Sisyphean quest to get a mattress up a staircase and into her walk-up apartment.
Quarantine Film Challenge
Tortillas
Directed by: Shelby Moore and Allie Levy
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
Two women engage in a domestic dispute that escalates after a bag of tortillas is left open.
Jenny
Directed by: Megan Swertlow
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
A woman in isolation discovers what is truly horrifying about being alone.
MA-5
Directed by: Anastasia Deloret
Running Time: 3m
Country: UK
When humans believe making progress with AI, machines are already a step ahead.
Dear Sunshine
Directed by: Nicole Lehman
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
A young girl in groomed towards happiness by her worried mother.
The Echo
Directed by: Laura Drago and Samantha Macher
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
Two snails contemplate existence.
Last Night
Directed by: Rachel Handler
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
Ready to eat cold pizza for breakfast *again* a disabled woman finds a hammer in her fridge and must figure out how it got there last night.
You Are Not Alone
Directed by: Meytar Zehavi
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
An abused woman hides in the closet while listening to her husband looking for her outside.
(Untitled), 1977
Directed by: Anna Castelaz
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
From her apartment littered with traces of our past, my mother reflects on the painting practice she abandoned in the 1970s.
Box Mix
Directed by: Andee Kinzy
Running Time: 3m
Country: USA
A baking misadventure.
Breakfast
Directed by: Marlene Ginader
Running Time: 3m
Country: Canada
A woman finds a note in her cereal with a phone number to call, when she calls it, the person doesn't seem to know why she called, just as she's hanging up, the person identifies her, is someone watching?