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.