A Better Life
"A Better Life" follows single mother Kathy and her son Martin as they navigate unexpected guests and buried secrets, pushing their lives to the edge. As tensions rise and violence erupts, they grapple with sacrifice, resilience, and the true meaning of family in a night filled with turmoil and desperation.
0:11:57
 

Another Chance
A young woman happens upon an elderly lady stuck in a serious car wreck in a remote location. After multiple attempts to save her, she eventually accepts that the best he can do is comfort her in her final moments. By the end of the film, the young woman is able to symbolically indemnify the faulty relationship with her own deceased mother.

This film was written and directed by Ian Odermatt (22) while attending DePaul University and was crewed entirely by student filmmakers.
0:09:40
 

Aporia
Before the altering birth of Christ, before van Gogh's peculiar death, before the grand revolution of France, before the catasrophic invention of the guillotine, even before Adam bit the forbidden fruit, a man punched another, leaving an irremediable ancient wound that hurts no less than before.0:13:30

Dreamy Fragrance of Spring BlossomsA dead family lives in a house for a long time. A mother, a father, and a son. War's taken the son, the heart of this family.
0:12:48
 

Elosy
On the day of her college graduation -a moment dedicated to joy and celebration- Marie sits back at home during her ceremony in a sorrowful trance over her mother’s death. She fears what’s to come, but -more so- she is upset that her mother can’t be there with her. She holds onto her only source of comfort in this time -her mother’s necklace. Startled by her father, she rips the necklace from her neck, causing the chain to break. Her father encourages her to go, and now -even more upset by his interruption- she refuses to see why she should. Soon enough, an aggressive knocking at her door breaks her from her thoughts -and from reality. She shoves the necklace in her pocket and rips the door open in annoyance, only to be greeted by something much different than she expected: a dark void between reality and fantasy. Out of curiosity for what it has in store, she steps inside.

Finding herself reborn into the alternate world of eerie bounce houses and liminal halls reminiscent of an earlier time, Marie takes her first steps into the unknown with caution. A silhouette in the distance evokes a memory of her late mother, and she runs to her -for sanity, for comfort, for just one loving hug. The voices of children playing take over the atmosphere in her desperate hope to relive a time that once was; however, this hope is all but deflated once her mother vanishes. Those times are over, and those once happy voices now turn into overbearing wails and screams, sending Marie to flee the scene.

On the other side of this door lies a vacant but vibrant arcade. Confused, lost, and scared, she grabs for her necklace only to find it gone from her pocket. She stumbles as she searches, and in her search she finds the Ticketmaster, a strange and intimidating man who speaks in riddles. He coaxes her to play a game of air hockey with him -one wherein she will unwittingly learn the hard truths of life’s ups and downs. She will learn that, despite even our biggest setbacks, there are silver linings, things to be learned and gained from every single one of them -even if we might not see them now. Each round poses a great challenge for her as the crashing puck evokes the trauma of her mother’s death. The Ticketmaster relentlessly mocks her, as she fails to give herself the agency to get back up and fight back. Each score on her becomes another lump of salt to the wound until enough is enough. Reliving the tragedy of her mother’s death in full, she lashes out and finally strikes a score against him. Instead of continuing however, she blows up, telling him she doesn’t want to play games in fantasyland, but that she actually just wants her mother to still be with her. She then slumps down in defeat, and the Ticketmaster comes to her side. She explains how her heavy feelings of loneliness and longing weigh her down every day. He then gives her the opportunity to changes these circumstances in a final game. Skeptic once more, she follows him to a prize wheel. He explains to her that by spinning this wheel, she takes a slim chance at getting to live her life as it is or the much larger chance of ending her life to join her mother. Finally seeing that her life is worth enjoying -even without her mother- she refuses to play, saying that she can’t let her down.

Satisfied, the Ticketmaster sends her back to the void, where she is granted one final moment with her mother. They embrace one last time, and her mother hands her a now fixed version of her necklace. Knowing she must continue life on her own, she passes through another door leading back to the present. In this moment, she looks back to her mother not with sorrow but with a bittersweet hope for the future. She then follows after her father to attend her graduation.
0:13:57
 

Every Loss A Hurricane
A group of college students dealing with the loss of a friend find the only way to endure the grief is to face it together.
0:21:57

(Q&A)
 

Everybody Plays the Fool
After a devastating break-up, an in-denial romantic is given a night to remember by her relationship-guru of a best friend, in an attempt to keep her from reaching out to her questionable ex-boyfriend.
0:30:52
 

Express Delivery
0:04:56
 

Fragrances
Reut runs a pastry shop thet emits the sweet fragrances which broun back a childhood memories she experienced a sexually abuse by her father. But now, When her teenaged daughter receives an invitation for a trip to Paris with her grandfather, It's clearly that she needs to act quickly to protect her daughter from the abuser grandfather and break the wall of silence.
0:20:00
 

GOLD DOGMA
Kasim Brown, the President of the prestigious Alpha Beta Gamma, a historically Black fraternity, welcomes his younger brother, Nasir Brown, into the organization. Amidst celebration, an anonymous tweet alluding to Nasir being gay creates division among the brotherhood as not all of the members are accepting of it. It further damages the organization's reputation as students who were once interested in joining distance themselves from the opportunity during a time where the fraternity must bring in new members or it will lose university recognition. Kasim, burdened with his responsibilities of the presidency, seeks the advice of different members and navigates tough conversations with his younger brother to ease this dilemma. In doing so he ends up confronting his own ignorance and the authenticity of the values the fraternity upholds.
0:17:55
 

Lola of the Light
Shot on 16mm using a Bolex, Lola of the Light is a story of girl goes to the beach to spend time alone with the world she adores. As her two selves communicate, she finds a simple love for skipping rocks.0:05:15

My Relationship with Red YarnA short experimental film that incorporates poems and dance in three chapters. The film is essentially about trauma, love, life, healing, breaking, accepting, anger, and looking back on it all afterwards.

0:03:26

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Nalb Noum

An arcane massacre on the Black community is unfolding as a black teen and his friends journey to discover the truth behind an old folklore.

0:10:00

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Pancit

In this coming of age story, a ragtag group of four teenagers in the busy and bustling, semi-conservative, super Adventist area of the DMV explore their last year of high school together before one of them has to move away, and they learn what growing up really means.
0:32:52
 

Radio Silence
0:04:56
 

Reaper
Grim Reaper attempts to capture a lost soul.
0:03:44
 

Red Yellow Blue
A girl gets haunted by her own demons as we follow her through her colorful, surreal, bizarre descent into insanity.

0:18:32

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Resurrection under the Ocean

"Resurrection under the Ocean" is about the resurrection of a man who was helplessly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, after falling to the bottom of the ocean, with a symbolic narrative.
0:02:57
 

Scorching Summer
The middle-aged father Zhao Liang wanted to take care of the mentally handicapped eldest daughter for a lifetime, but family pressure and life accidents forced him to make a difficult and extreme decision-take the eldest daughter to die together, so that his wife and youngest daughter can live without burden. But on the day when everything was ready, he suddenly found something unexpected.
0:29:56
 

Shark Week
Ivy, a confident and meticulous high school student, faces a sudden twist when her period arrives unexpectedly on the day of a crucial math quiz. Frantically rushing to the bathroom, she discovers the pad dispenser is empty, forcing her to improvise with a makeshift toilet paper pad. Ivy's world turns into a whirlwind of paranoia as she struggles to preserve her flawless image among her classmates, all the while concealing the challenges of "shark week."
0:06:09

(Q&A)
 

Split Ends
Fed up with her stale hairstyle, Carol's journey to the salon takes a comically unexpected turn when a unique hairstylist, Liam, hijacks her makeover. What starts as a hilarious gum-chewing showdown transforms into a heartwarming journey of friendship and transformation. As Carol's once-rigid beliefs unravel, she forms an unlikely connection with Liam, ultimately asserting her newfound independence through a bold makeover decision.0:10:05

SundownSundown is a coming-of-age thriller short about Mikey, a young boy from Baltimore, and the lifelong consequences of disobeying his mother and staying out too late one night.

One night, while Mikey and his mother are moving out of their Baltimore home, they get into an argument regarding their family's past. After the dispute, Mikey's mother leaves the apartment, but not before warning him not to stay out past sunset. Mikey ultimately ignores her and returns home to a visit from a Creature that haunts him through his young adulthood.

As a child, Mikey has his whole life ahead of him. As an adult, Mikey lives in fear after his encounter with the Creature in his childhood. His mother has since passed, leaving him without an immediate family. Mikey lives alone in Baltimore City and clearly struggles with his mental health, having succumbed to a destructive lifestyle. Mikey eventually reaches out for help and finds another opportunity to encounter the Creature. Mikey must make a choice to take back his life… will he make the right one?
0:17:00

The Ally
Jan Snyder is energetic, helpful, and in love with black culture and hip-hop. She works her dream job at a record label as the Director of A&R’s assistant. Jan knows music, but she can sometimes get too comfortable with her co-workers, especially when it comes to her black co-workers. Jan crosses the line on accident with her new boss Makeba and is at risk of losing her new promotion.
0:11:08
 

The Librarian
Mazhar, who works in a library and is so fond of books and languages that he knows the location of all the books in the library by heart, lives alone with his parrot, but cannot be at work on time the next morning because he reads until late.

Determined to read even the poet Federico Garcia Lorca in Spanish, Mazhar feels “stuck” by the arabesque culture around him and the discomford created by the Arabic signs and another lanquage that has entered his life. There is another person who will listen to the character of Mazhar, who cannot tell his troubles to anyone and is alienated, and who is shaken by the tragic news of the refugees he encounters in the media, and that is the other Mazhar who often comes across him. After losing his job, he will not only look for a new job, but will make an inner journey that he will not say ‘yes’ to the result, but that he must accept involuntarily.

0:20:43

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The Murk

After her mother falls mysteriously ill, an ambitious, young lawyer must work to discover the root of her mother’s illness before an ominous presence in the water threatens her life.

0:14:10

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THE SPRAYER

In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private.
So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how dose a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary
0:08:45
 

The Stranger
A young professor is visited by a man who knows more than he appears.
0:12:00

(Q&A)
 

Vestiges
A woman prays near a fire, trying to cope with her loss.
0:03:42

Viola and the Painter
Viola visits an old friend at an exclusive art gallery event.
0:07:00
 

Wren's World
Wren, fourteen, insecure, and tasked with watching her sister for the summer, is forced to spend her days at the community pool. Plagued by bikini-clad bodies surrounding her, Wren is sick of feeling inadequate and is intrigued when presented with the opportunity to finally become perfect.
0:08:40