The New York Sci-Fi Film Festival has announced the full program for its fourth event, with a lineup of films, discussions, virtual reality, and screenplay and graphic novel competitions. The festival is slated for Saturday, September 14, 2024 at Stuart City Cinema and Cafe, with all shorts streamed online the following day. Passes are available at the link.
As a lifelong admirer of science fiction, Daniel Abella established the festival to showcase the importance of the genre. “As our world becomes progressively technological, we need to find ways to protect our humanity, and the best way is through storytelling,” he said. “What was regarded as speculative years ago has now become fact, and this is the perfect medium to address the plethora of the issues we face.” In addition to film and virtual reality screenings, the festival will hold screenplay and graphic novel competitions. “The festival serves as a platform for rising talent, and writing is the beating heart of any good movie,” said Abella.
[Based on a press release.]
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2024
Stuart City Cinema and Cafe (79 West St, Brooklyn, NY 11222)
Block 1: The Dark Side of Eden
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm EST
Wisper (2018; Trailer)
Director: Russ Emanuel
1 minute, USA
In June 2016, a loving family was found shot to death at their suburban home in Northern New Jersey.
Mercury (2023)
Director: Clara Dubau
11 minutes, USA
Elio volunteers for a filmed experiment to help him reconnect with a repressed memory.
Everything Dies Out Here (2023)
Director: Cian + Sean Mallers
10 minutes, USA
In a barren, oil-soaked wasteland after a global catastrophe, a man clings to the last flower on Earth. As danger mounts from unforeseen forces, his connection to the flower proves a window to the past.
You, Forever (2024)
Director: Brenda Kovrig
14 minutes, Canada
A short hybrid film that incorporates documentary and dark comedy fantasy fiction. Robert Ettinger, ‘the father of cryonics,’ speaks of his life’s work while his ‘patients’ experience an unnatural existence in suspended animation.
LifeQuest (2023)
Director: Richard Lounello
25 minutes, USA
A young physicist lives out his life in search of his greatest scientific discovery and finds one extraordinary truth.
The BiodiverCity (2024)
Director: Masataka Ishizaki
11 minutes, USA
In 2035, people live in one big area due to the biodiversity program in which humanity must stay away from nature for the environmental treatment. Nora thinks about Tree because she never saw it. So she decides to go outside to see it with Eric.
Source Code (2021)
Director: Mark Kiefer
17 minutes, USA
The year is 2065. Captain John Galatin’s loss of focus cost lives on a remote-controlled battlefield. He has been ordered to see the compound’s psychiatrist who will assess his continued fitness for duty.
Jackpot (2023)
Director: Chance Thomas Garcia
9 minutes, USA
A father, mother and son gather in front of the television set to cast their votes and watch the Society for Population Control’s nightly lottery.
The Elsewhere Machine (2023)
Director: Jay Yeomans
12 minutes, UK
A filmmaker travels to ‘the underneath’ where he begins to contemplate a sci-fi movie; leaving for New Tokyo he meets a woman who claims to have met him before, and who gifts him a device to restore memories; he returns to his homeland where revelations ensue.
Dear Elf on the Shelf (2024)
Director: Tor Martin Norvik
2 minutes, Norway
A captivating tale of a young girl’s emotional journey, intertwining reality with the magical lore of the Elf on the Shelf. As the holiday season envelops her home in joy and cheer, nine-year-old Emily encounters her family’s Elf on the Shelf in an unexpected light, sparking a series of mysterious events.
Conversion of the Atheist (2023)
Michael Ambrosino
10 minutes, USA
Two Mormon boys with a dark secret knock on an atheist woman’s door.
The Space Between Us (2023)
Director: Tim Holmes
6 minutes, USA
An animated short film tells the story of a forlorn astronaut heading into space after losing the great love of his life; on a journey in which nothing goes as ground control would have wished.
Q&A with filmmakers to follow.
Block 2: Future Shock
Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm EST
Magical Doomsday Horsegirls of the Apocalypse (2024)
Director: Abbie Bacilla, Andrea Schmitz
2 minutes, USA
Fed up with the state of the world, these magical girls decide to take things into their own hands.
Moonskin Fever (2022)
Director: Hannah Bisewski, Tara Elliott
17 minutes, USA
A near-future winter on a remote New England Island: as the economy and population wanes and locals grow desperate to survive, lovers Josette and Anna discover an intoxicating substance that could mean their salvation, and hatch a plan of escape.
Neon Vowels (2023)
Director: Sergio Caballero
11 minutes, USA
A service robot operating a taco stand learns, with the help of a Navajo elder, that it is mucho más more than just a dumbwaiter.
Powerline (2024)
Director: Roman Caspain
2 minutes, USA
“Powerline” invites viewers on an exploration into the depths of the human psyche through the perspective of its physical carrier—electricity, as the universal energy that binds us all.
Reformat (2022)
Director: Jesse Pickett
16 minutes, Canada
After the body of an AI student is found on school grounds, an investigation into the last 7 people who interacted with the student takes place.
Gum Garden (2023)
Director: Adriana Guevara
8 minutes, USA
Dedicating his life to researching and discovering the oddities in his dental profession, Dr. Agrait stumbles upon a patient with a peculiar gum disorder.
JINX (2023)
Director: Maya Zaleski
20 minutes, USA
A young woman’s descent down a path of obsession and paranoia. When Jordan’s estranged grandmother dies, she is haunted by visions of the occult practices that stained her childhood.
Chaska (2024)
Director: Liz Guarraccino
16 minutes, USA
A girl curious about her family innocently submits her DNA to Lineage Industries, the leading Ancestral Investigators in the World. Her blood type, on a secret watch list since the 40’s, is red flagged, and soon she will find herself imprisoned and experimented on for reasons she is unaware.
Sileo (2023)
Director: Demeter Lorant
8 minutes, Hungary
A robot after working for years in a factory and being repaired and replaced bit by bit realizes that he doesn’t want to loose his identity and sets out to find his creator.
ADA (2023)
Director: Anaïs Vachez
16 minutes, France
Ada, an eight-year-old girl, witnesses the ongoing tensions between her parents. One evening, a particularly heated argument breaks out.
In Your Dreams (2022)
Director: Mike Krohn
4 minutes, USA
In the future, a sentient robot finds that his dreams intrude on his waking life.
Operators (2023)
Director: Andy Zou
6 minutes, USA
Two-night shift 911 operators try their best to hold things together during an alien invasion.
The Panharmonion Chronicles: Times of London (2022)
Director: Henry Chebaane
3 minutes, UK
The video was written and shot as a short film teaser, introducing the creator of the story as a character inside his own fictional universe, which happens to exist also in our own reality. Here, the author-protagonist appears as a time-travel engineer who got lost into the dreamlike world of his own creation.
Q&A with filmmakers to follow.
Block 3: Feature Presentation
Time: 7:00 – 8:30pm EST
The Coldness (2024) — NY PREMIERE
Director: Gustavo Sampaio
75 minutes, USA
Nick Polito, a retired Jersey City homicide detective with a haunted past, comes to Los Angeles in search of answers to a recent gruesome death that is shockingly like a case that has been an obsession for him since 1999. Determined to find out what happened, Nick connects with his former partner and encounters a cast of characters that lead him steadily down a disturbing path into lethal occult darkness.
Q&A will follow.
Block 4: Feature Presentation
Time: 8:30 – 10:00pm EST
Red Earth (2022)
Director: Georg Adrian Koszulinski
66 minutes, USA
Red Earth imagines a world in the late Anthropocene, where large parts of Earth have become inhospitable to life. The story follows three generations of Martians, from the first colonists to the first expedition to return to an Earth decimated by interplanetary war.
Q&A will follow.
Screenplays, Graphic Novels, and Virtual Reality
Coke and A Smoke (Best Short Screenplay)
Writer: Charli Brown
United States
Lotus (Best Short Screenplay)
Writer: Kyle Hatley
United States
I/O (Input-Output) (Best Short Screenplay)
Writer: Molly J Vernon
United States
Final Timefall (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Ivanhoe Flighter
Serbia
Robot Asteroid (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Paul May
Canada
The Age of Revenge (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Jason H. White
United States
Light Years (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Jaroslaw Gogolin
United Kingdom
Pocketful of Mondays (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Lindsey Morrison Grant
United States
Alpha Chase (Best Sci-Fi Screenplay)
Writer: Chuck Gordon
United States
Inversion (Best World Building Sci-Fi Prototyping Screenplay)
Writer: Suzy Stein, Fernando Perez
United States
Song of the Shadows (Best Supernatural/Horror Feature)
Writer: Les Zig
Australia
Sight Specific (Best Supernatural Screenplay)
Writer: Peter Hardy
United States
If November Ends (Best Supernatural Screenplay)
Writer: Michael Yurinko
United States
Restoration (Best Supernatural Screenplay)
Writer: Don Stroud, Winter Mead
United States
Donavan Emery, The Android & Himself (Best Supernatural Screenplay)
Writer: Jesse Dorian
United States
The Panharmonion Chronicles (Best Graphic Novel or Manga)
Writer: Henry Chebaane
United Kingdom
MASTIFF #1 (Best Graphic Novel or Manga)
Writer: Big Tim Stiles
Australia
A Little Favor (Best Graphic Novel or Manga)
Writer: Russ Meyer
United States
Halloween Girl Book One: Promises to Keep (Best Graphic Novel or Manga)
Writer: Richard T. Wilson
United States
Asteroid Quest (Best Virtual Reality/Immersive Experience)
Director: Bertrand Jack Daniel Loyer
France
Festival Lineup and Passes: The festival will be held on Saturday, September 14, 2024 at Stuart City Cinema and Cafe, located at 79 West St, Brooklyn, NY 11222. All shorts will be streamed online on Sunday, September 15. Event lineup subject to change. For more information on the full schedule and passes, visit https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com.
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