2022 Film Guide
Feature Films
Backwards Faces
Chris Aresco | US
Writer: Chris Aresco
After waking from a meaningless one night stand, the quick-to-exit theoretical physicist Sydney cannot help but stay when her mysterious and aloof hookup Ken claims he is from a different universe. Theoretical physics becomes a lot less theoretical when Ken tells her the solution to all life’s problems exists within the alleged traversable wormhole through space and time in his bathroom.
Sun Dec 4, 5pm
BETWEEN BEFORE
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Sutton McKee | US
Writer: Sutton McKee
WORLD PREMIERE
On the eve of her and her husband’s divorce, a failed quantum physicist successfully teleports an object for the first time, having no idea her husband has seen what she’s done. Endings are always messy, especially when the government catches wind of technology that may change the balance of power in the world.
Sun Dec 4, 7:45pm
BEYOND TOMORROW
Brett Ryan Bonowicz | US
5x Alumni (!!!) and Screenwriting Director Brett Ryan Bonowicz
In 1964, a GE space artist illustrated a book called Beyond Tomorrow: The Next 50 Years in Space. The unforgettable images in that book shaped how Americans imagined their own futures in space, inspired generations of space artists, and influenced films from FUTURE SHOCK (1972) to INTERSTELLAR (2014).
Sun Dec 4, 2:30pm
BRIGHTWOOD
Dane Elcar | US
Writer: Dane Elcar
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Love comes while on a run around a pond. A perfect metaphor for a marriage, one member chasing the other, always behind, but trapped on the same journey, going round and round, never reaching a destination, and the ultimate horror of being unable to break the repetition of that. But this is not a metaphor. Its a terrifying claustrophobic tale set in the wilderness.
Sun Dec 4, 5:15pm
The Butterfly Queen
Liam O’Connor-Genereaux | US
Writer: Liam O’Connor-Genereaux
Five years ago, ‘best friends’ Casey and Robin parted ways. Casey wanted to draw cartoons and take over their grandparents sheep farm, Robin wanted to leave town and never look back. Now, Casey and Robin find themselves chasing a teenager through a magical, monster-infested forest, struggling to regain Casey’s stolen sketchbook so that they can get the hell back home. Trouble is, The Butterfly Queen wants the sketchbook as well, and she makes the rules.
Sun 12/4, 12pm
CULT HERO
Jesse Thomas Cook | US
Writers: Tony Burgess, Liv Collins, Jesse Thomas Cook
Karen-clone control freak Kallie Jones attempts to rescue her husband from a “wellness center” for vigor-less men with the help of a washed-up expert Cult Buster Dale Domazar whose reality show was pulled when he failed to stop (or possibly caused) a group suicide.
Sat 12/3, 11am
DARK NATURE
Berkley Brady | Canada
Writers: Berkley Brady
US PREMIERE
A domestic abuse survivor invites her friend on a women’s weekend retreat in the Canadian wilderness. The therapy shatters the border between reality and delusion when one of them suspects they are being stalked by her abuser; in truth, all six women will be forced to confront a threat even more terrifying than the demons of their past.
Winner of the Future of Film Award, sponsored by CPC London, this film will be shown for the first time on 35mm on a print made especially for this screening.
Sat 12/3, 4pm
ECHELON
Crash Buist | US
Writers: Crash Buist, Lauren Senechal
US PREMIERE
When infected terrorists from Earth aim to dismantle a space-faring corporate empire, a hacker-for-hire infiltrates the CEO’s daughter’s virtual reality feed. Working her for proprietary information, he realizes that she’s more than just an innocent caught in the crossfire, she may just be the key to the world’s survival.
Sat 12/3, 6:30pm
GIVE ME AN A
An anthology response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade that expands the importance of bodily autonomy and addresses the issues of a democracy that does not protect the needs of the majority of the population.
Directors:
Hannah Alline (“Hold Please”)
Avital Ash (“God’s Plan”)
Bonnie Discepolo (“DTF”)
Loren Escandon (“The Last Store”)
Valerie Finkel (“Crucible Island”)
Natasha Halevi (“Abigail, The Cheerleaders”)
Caitlin Josephine Hargraves (“Sweetie”)
Danin Jacquay (“Good Girl”)
Sarah Kopkin (“The Walk”)
Francesca Maldonado (“Traditional”)
Kelly Nygaard (“Vasectopia”)
Megan Rosati (“Plan C”)
Mary C. Russell (“Crone”)
Monica Suriyage (“mediEVIL”)
Megan Swertlow (“The Voiceless”)
Erica Mary Wright (“Our Precious Babies”)
Fri 12/2, 7pm
HAVE HOLD TAKE
D.C. Hamilton | US
Writer: Brinna Kelly
OW alum: THE FARE (2018)
On their wedding night, Vincent brings his wife Erica to the home he built for them, tailored to perfection for the couple and ideal to begin a new life together. However, Erica quickly learns that the husband she thinks she married is not who he seems and has a different definition of “a perfect life together.” But while Vincent is scheming a sadist ever after for poor little Erica, she has been weaving her own web as surprise. This Black widow knows a thing or two about psychopathic behavior… and about how to kill the one she loves.
Fri 12/2, 9:30pm
INFLUENCER
Kurtis David Harder | Canada
Writer: Kurtis David Harder, Tesh Guttikonda
OW alum: SPIRAL (2019)
While struggling on a solo backpacking trip in Thailand, social media influencer Madison meets CW, who travels with ease and shows her a more uninhibited way of living. Setting off to discover the country together, Madison soon discovers that CW has distinctly offbeat ideas of roughing it. And every step of their trip is hidden in plain site in the posts on Madison’s feed, leaving a trail for a spurned ex to follow to CW’s door.
Sun 12/4, 2:45pm
Isaac Asimov: A Message to the Future
Mathias Théry | France
Thirty years after his death, Isaac Asimov is back (thanks to the artificial intelligence that he had so cleverly imagined) to address humans to pass on the lesson of a lifetime: a method to anticipate the future of our world and especially to invent it.
Sat 12/3, 10am
MAD HEIDI
LAUNCH FILM
Johannes Hartmann, Sandro Klopfstein | Switzerland
Writers: Sandro Klopfstein, Johannes Hartmann, Gregory D. Widmer, Trent Haaga
In a dystopian Switzerland that has fallen under the fascist rule of an evil cheese tyrant, Heidi lives the pure and simple life in the Swiss Alps. Grandfather does his best to protect Heidi, but her yearning for freedom soon gets her into trouble with the dictator’s henchmen. The innocent girl transforms herself into a kick-ass female fighting force who sets out to liberate the country from the cheese fascists.
Thurs 12/1, 7:42pm
Mother, May I?
Laurence Vannicelli | US
Writer: Laurence Vannicelli
Emmett unexpectedly inherits his estranged mother’s house after her passing. But when his wife Anya starts behaving like Emmett’s mother with unsettling accuracy, he begins to question whether she is playing a therapy game gone-too-far, or if something uncanny is happening in the house.
Sun 12/4, 7:30pm
POLARIS
KC Carthew | Canada
Writer: KC Carthew
Orphan Sumi and her adoptive polar-bear mother live in a snow-laden, post-apocalyptic world. Guiding them is the north star Polaris as they travel to where it shines the brightest, but their journey is interrupted by roving bands of warrior women. Captured and separated from her mother, Sumi uses her wits and magical powers to attack and stage a bloody escape.
Sat 12/3, 4:15pm
SCARE PACKAGE 2: RAD CHAD’s REVENGE
Aaron B. Koontz | US
Segment Directors: Alexandra Barreto (“Welcome to the 90s”), Anthony Cousins (“The Night He Came Back Again! Part VI: The Night She Came Back”), Jed Shepherd (“Special Edition”), Rachele Wiggins (“We’re So Dead”)
OW alum: SCARE PACKAGE (2019)
When horror guru Rad Chad Buckley’s funeral turns into an elaborate series of hilarious death traps, the guests must band together and use the rules of horror to survive the bloody game.
Sat 12/3, 9:15pm
SNATCHERS
John Kingman | US
Writer: Guy Patton
THEATRICAL PREMIERE
A rough-hewn Mennonite witnesses a meteor rip apart the skies on his farm, leaving behind a smoking crater filled with glowing corn husks. A lesbian couple unknowingly distributes the corn to unsuspecting Brooklynites through their food truck. An FDA agent with FBI dreams tries to track down a mysterious pod he’s only seen on Instagram. A woman in the midst of a late-20’s crisis is cleaning toilets when she starts noticing her co-workers changing. Each of them has a key to the puzzle. But can they figure out a way to stop an alien invasion before it’s too late?
Sat 12/3, 11:45pm
SORRY ABOUT THE DEMON
Emily Hagins | US
Writer: Emily Hagins
OW alum: SCARE PACKAGE (2019)
After being dumped by his girlfriend Amy, broken-hearted Will is offered a massive house at very low rent. What’s the catch? The restless spirit haunting the place needs a human sacrifice and the prior owners must find one or else the demon will be content to take their daughter.
Sat 12/3, 6:45pm
TIMESCAPE
Aristomenis Tsirbas | Canada
Writer: Aristomenis Tsirbas
US PREMIERE
After discovering a mysterious spaceship crashed in a nearby forest, a boy and a girl are propelled back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, just before the moment when the asteroid hits the Earth and changes the course of existence forever. With the help of the ship’s mobile assistant, the adventurers race to repair the ship before it’s too late.
Sat 12/3, 1:45pm
THE TOMORROW JOB
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Bruce Wemple | US
Writer: Bruce Wemple
WORLD PREMIERE
Lee and his team are in the business of stealing secrets before they exist. The pill, Z + , allows the user to trade their consciousness with their tomorrow-self for one hour. To operate effectively and safely, the team uses a strict set of time travel rules to make little to no temporal impact. Maybe the first ever SciFi Heist film, its one last job as to break even or break the time-continuum.
Fri 12/2, 7:15pm
RETROSPECTIVE
SCREENINGS:
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
RARE 35MM SCREENING
Peter Hyams | US
Writer: Peter Hyams
In 2001, the spaceship Discovery appears to have never completed its mission; to find out the source of the mysterious radio beacon which eminated from the monolith found buried on the moon. Now, in 2010, Dr. Heywood Floyd, the man held responsible for Discovery’s failure, is going to Jupiter. He and his crewmates must reactivate the H.A.L. 9000 computer, so they may learn what happened, and the meaning of Dave Bowman’s last transmission; “my God, it’s full of stars.”
Sat 12/3, 1:30pm
THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982)
FOUNDER’S CHOICE & 40TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING
Don Bluth | US
Writers: Robert C. O’Brien, Don Bluth, John Pomeroy
Mrs. Brisby, a widowed mouse living on a farm with her four children, is forced to find a new home. Seeking the help of Nicodemus, the king of the rat colony, she ventures underground to discovers an entire civilization of intelligent rats who revere her late husband Jonathan. Nicodemus explains that Jonathan helped them escape from NIMH (the National Institute of Mental Health) when he was a fellow prisoner there and where they were experimented on with super-intelligence drugs.
Sat 12/3, 11:15am
short FilmS
AIR
Brian Wilcox | US | 10 min
In a polluted future metropolis, one young girl holds onto hope for a brighter future.
Sun 12/4, 11:30pm, 12:15pm (…And I Feel Fine)
ANIMA POSSESSION
Wai Mo Chan | Hong Kong | 25 min
Humanoid “soulmate” Tammy begins to question her existence and her relationship after meeting a fellow machine named Anima.
In Cantonese.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
APOTHEOSIS
Max Pearce | US | 20 min
Selene is a naturally-born human living alongside the first generation of genetically-engineered humans. As such, she must work extra hard to prove herself worthy of her dream job on a space colony.
Sat 12/3, 9pm (Faceoffs From the Future)
ARCHIVE & THE STORYTELLER
Natasha Marie Rivera | US | 19 min
On the brink of human extinction, a young couple struggles to secure a spot on the ‘Archive.’
Sun 12/4, 11:30pm, 12:15pm (…And I Feel Fine)
ARGUS
Ethan Barrett | US | 9 min
A man’s mundane new job forces him to face existential horrors while desperately grasping for a sense of purpose.
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
CHATSWORTH
Joseph Junod | YS | 11 min
Still coming to terms with his wife’s recent disappearance, a park ranger’s workday is about to take a startling turn.
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
CONVERGENCE
Zechariah Thormodsgaard | US | 15 min
On a mission to save humanity at the edge of a black hole, an astronaut discovers something that will change his decisions, past and future, forever.
Sun 12/4, 5pm (w/ BACKWARDS FACES)
DISTANCE - ACT I: THE PEACOCK & THE SPHINX
Eddy Loukil | Canada | 7 min
The King and Queen of the Oxidized Realm find their longtime partnership fractured in this choreographed meditation on communication, alienation, and discord.
Sat 12/3, 9pm (Faceoffs From the Future)
Dystopia
Laura Ugolini | Norway | 7 min
How to make the perfect man? Allow this gang of women to show you, one limb at a time.
In Norwegian
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
Hibernation
Joel Benjamin | US | 20 min
On a damaged interstellar science vessel, an aging woman watches over her cryogenically frozen son and husband as she waits and hopes for an improbable rescue.
Sat 12/3, 9pm (Faceoffs From the Future)
LA GOON
Kurt Ravenwood | Spain | 10 min
A mysterious green lagoon stirs up an irresistible curiosity in a scientist studying on an alien planet.
In Spanish.
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
MEMENTO MORI
Izzy Lee | US | 1 min
In 1983, a scientist in isolation resurrects a dead colleague.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
Message from the Future (Machine)
Kyle Jutkiewicz, Keith Schneider | US | 9 min
While babysitting the US military’s top-secret time machine, three deeply under-qualified scientists face ethical and scientific quandaries when the machine unexpectedly works for the very first time.
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
Mom Vs. Machine
Tesh Guttikonda | Canada | 14 min
Kamal feels threatened by her adult son’s new 3D food printer, forcing her to reexamine her connection with him and fight for what really matters.
Sat 12/3, 9pm (Faceoffs From the Future)
NEOSHIN - Episode 1: Cold Blood
Sebastian Selg, Ramon Schauer | Germany | 5 min
In a bleak near-future, users cryogenically freeze their bodies while escaping to a VR utopia. But this virtual world isn’t without its real-life dangers.
Fri 12/2, 7:15pm (w/ THE TOMORROW JOB)
NESTING
Nora Tennessen | Canada | 14 min
A woman’s new pregnancy coincides with a strange new invasive species of plant blowing into town.
Sun 12/4, 11:30pm, 12:15pm (…And I Feel Fine)
OLDTIMERS
Brian Quintero | Canada | 15 min
A merry holiday reunion is in order for two associates who share a mysterious past.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
THE OPERATOR
Matt Riley | UK | 20 min
During a routine day of connecting long-distance intergalactic calls, Michael suddenly finds himself on the receiving end of a distress signal and must race to send help in time.
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
OUT OF THIS WORLD
Elia Petridis | US | 17 min
In this short rock opera, teen alien Nebby is starstruck upon meeting Ariana, their favorite singer-turned-waitress. This new friendship inspires each to rediscover how wonderful it is to be truly unique.
Sat 12/3, 9pm (Faceoffs From the Future)
PETUNIA
Miriam Olken | US | 6 min
A new house on the market seems too good to be true.
Sun 12/4, 12pm (w/ THE BUTTERFLY QUEEN)
PILLOW STALK
Jorge Lucas | US | 8 min
Ryan is trying hard to forget about his ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately, her old pillow won't let that happen.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
RECOVERY OF THE FALLEN
Curtis Matzke | Spain | 7 min
On a strange new planet, salvaging items from bodies that have fallen to the surface, a lone wanderer maintains a cautious optimism for the future.
In Spanish.
Sun 12/4, 2:30pm (w/ BEYOND TOMORROW)
SAMARITAN
John Poliquin | US | 8 min
A neighborhood crime-tracking app may not be enough to save a paranoid woman whose past suddenly comes back to haunt her.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
STANDING WOMAN
Tony Hipwell | UK | 15 min
Under an eco-fascist government, a man struggles to cope as his wife becomes the latest dissident to be “planted.”
Fri 12/2, 4:45pm (Another Shitty Day at Work)
SUBMITTAN
Susumu Kimura | US | 148min
To combat overpopulation, a future city sends its elderly into a forced “retirement” in the mountains. An immigrant artist faces an ethical crisis when tasked with creating a propaganda poster for the program.
In English and Japanese.
Sun 12/4, 11:30pm, 12:15pm (…And I Feel Fine)
SUCKER
Alix Austin | UK | 8 min
Sam and Caitlin have a complicated bond, and the giant, mind-controlling leech newly attached to one of the sisters is not going to make things any easier.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
TIM TRAVERS & THE TIME TRAVELERS PARADOX
Stimson Snead | US | 19 min
Tim has a time machine. Now he’s got to outsmart the other versions of himself within the temporal mess he’s created.
Sun 12/4, 11:30pm, 12:15pm (…And I Feel Fine)
TIME TOURISTS
Ian Sweeney | New Zealand | 6 min
Fred and Sally’s meet-cute on a breathtakingly beautiful hike is cut short when the impermanence of their surroundings kicks in.
Sun 12/4, 7:45pm (w/ BETWEEN BEFORE)
VLad & Nick
Taylor Morden | US | 7 min
On Christmas Eve, an aging vampire recounts his adventures with a familiar old friend.
Fri 12/2, 9:45pm (Dark Nights Between Lovers and Friends)
WITCHY
Liz Manashil | US | 11 min
Reeling from a recent breakup, teen Winter goes trick-or-treating with her dad and learns a strange lesson on love and family from a witch. Or maybe it was all just an immersive Halloween trick…
Sat 12/3, 6:45pm (w/ SORRY ABOUT THE DEMON)