Program Description

Dive into darkness and sink deeper into strangeness with these seven wickedly delightful horror and genre shorts. The filmmakers bring forth new and visionary ways of examining the terrifying realities of the external world, as well as the frightful and irrepressible things that grow inside our own bodies. Bitingly clever social critique and excavation of social taboos emerge through a dizzying array of visual styles that exemplify boundless craft and imagination. Matching the more terrifying moments of this block are monstrously humorous ways that the absurdities of the everyday creep into our waking lives. —Jordan Klein

Films are in alphabetical order rather than order of play. Total runtime 88 min. All of the films below are in competition.

Filmmakers from /HAAW/, A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers, Chow, How Was Your Weekend?, and She Raised Me are expected to attend for a post-screening Q&A.

PLEASE NOTE: Stomach Bug contains strobe light effects

/HAAW/
Bay Area Premiere
Joey Scoma (USA 2024, 12 min)
A gondola ride at a ski resort takes an unexpected turn when a xenophobic man encounters an otherworldly family.

A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers
Bay Area Premiere

Birdy Wei-Ting Hung (Taiwan, USA 2024, 12 min)
A girl's senses are aroused amidst the sweltering heat of a Taipei summer when she enters a cinema with a bag of crushed watermelon juice.

Chow
Bay Area Premiere
Kevin Armento, Jaki Bradley (USA 2024, 15 min)
On a trip abroad, a man develops an unsettling obsession with a particularly delicious dish, becoming hellbent on replicating the flavor back home.

How Was Your Weekend?
Bay Area Premiere
Cam Banfield (USA 2025, 9 min)
On a Monday morning, a man disrupts the established order of his corporate office when he responds honestly to an age-old perfunctory question.

MANGO
Bay Area Premiere
Joan Iyiola (UK, France 2025, 11 min)
Zadie wants nothing more than to take her career to new heights, but persistent pain threatens to bring her to darker places.

She Raised Me
California Premiere
Ben Lewis (USA, Canada 2025, 13 min)
A playwright plans to break up with his boyfriend, until he discovers that his paramour’s mother is a colorful icon from his childhood.

Stomach Bug
Bay Area Premiere
Matty Crawford (UK 2024, 15 min)
While struggling to maintain a connection with his absent daughter, a lonely empty-nester allows his inner turmoil and grief to grow into something gruesome.

Short Film Print Sources

Accessibility Information

Closed Captions are not currently confirmed for this program
Audio Descriptions are not currently confirmed for this program
American Sign Language Interpretation is not currently scheduled for this program
PLEASE NOTE: Stomach Bug contains strobe light effects