An aspiring musician tries to handle his relationships with co-workers and family obligations while preparing for an upcoming show. A deadpan drama-comedy by Eric Peterson, “Big Things” authentically portrays the world of an upstart musician in a small city. Working at a sports apparel company as...

An aspiring teenage comedian joins a community theater and is cast to play a school shooter. “Itchy Fingers,” directed by Anna Nilles and Marco Jake, is a transfixing exploration of identity that encircles themes of gun violence, mental health, storytelling, creative process, and others. It’s a p...

An aspiring actress tries to make it to her first audition after getting in a fight with her best friend. This raw student film directed by Michael .T (the period goes before the T!) is endearingly ‘of its age,’ a rough-around-the-edges snapshot of a young woman and her messy relationships and as...

A young man is haunted by the music of someone he once knew. “Matilda CD,” directed by Joe Dye, a student project made at Sarah Lawrence College, is a heart-on-its-sleeve drama about a mystical romantic connection. Cal is a college student reeling from the upsetting news about a former student, M...

A romantic evening between colleagues takes a bizarre twist after the discovery of a secret hobby. “Johnny,” directed by Danny Scharar, is a WTF comedy that begins as a parody of boring date conversations and then becomes something very different. After we learn she considers herself shy (“I’m sh...

An audacious drama about betrayal and gossip revolving around a college Halloween party gone wrong. A girlfriend cheats on her boyfriend with a man named Goatee Ralph, which sends her boyfriend, Jimmy, spiraling across campus in a rage. The next day, two classmates recount the incident in increas...

When Nina fails to meet her goal in the final week of weight loss camp, she considers drastic alternatives. “Bye Bye Body,” directed by Charlotte Benbeniste, is a tender snapshot about body image and self-esteem delivered with wonderfully natural performances and lovely 35mm images. At a weigh-in...

Though the big city may appear to be endless concrete and steel, it is teeming with hidden life underneath. So proposes the new film by Luke Strickler, “Scenes From the City,” an absurdist 3D animation that illustrates the behavior and thoughts of a series of sentient buildings, stop signs, and t...

In the future, a data limit is reached causing the internet to spill out into the real world. Luke Strickler directs and animates “2064,” an absurdist art video using stock 3D models of common American products and brands to paint a ridiculous future. A giant floating Mario becomes the Earth’s ne...

The sequel to Luke Strickler's "2064" imagines a future where our dying brains are uploaded to an online infinity full of big horses, hot gods, and french Pikachus. “2064: Cloud 9.2,” uses a cheap print-out aesthetic to continue exploring an absurd future with mind-expanding projections. In“2064,...

An entrepreneur pivots with the market. “Trash Scab,” directed by Philip Steiger, is a scarily plausible, bitingly funny vision of a dystopian nightmare. The circumstances have been exaggerated from our current reality but not by much: a pandemic rages on, a citywide curfew in place, police have ...

The only remaining episode of Sad Kidz TV, a Canadian after-school cartoon block with the fun-loving host Shane, exploring the deep melancholy it takes to be a kid. Directed by Alexander Laird and Alexander Swift, “Sad Kids,” mocks up a zany kids show, and it would be a near perfect replica if no...

A young woman drifts through a series of wintry adventures after leaving her backyard and heading into the woods. A lovely stop-motion animation by Evie Metz and Nick Daly, “Snow Angel” envisions a magical place where you can ride a reindeer, or ice skate on a pond encircled by giant sunflowers. ...

A young chonga in Miami stands up to the baddest girl gang at her high school, setting off a dangerous chain of events - all told with characters portrayed as talking feet, given personality with toenails, jewelry, tiny bandanas, etc. “Toe Hoes,” directed by Kat Toledo, is inventive and strange, ...

A struggling actor abandons all logic when she finds a stranger unconscious in her laundry room. Sophie Jarvis directs “Medical Drama,” a character study at turns surreal and darkly funny about a young woman going through a rough couple of days. Doing whatever she can for work, she finds herself ...

While recuperating from cosmetic surgery, an actress stops in a small town expecting peace and quiet, but instead finds herself absorbed in a local legend. “Pure Immersion,” directed by Dave Biddle and Dave Ehrenreich, is a strangely engrossing tale of a young woman covered in face bandages makin...

An upstart drone racing competition attracts a smattering of enthusiasts trying to qualify for a national race. David Ehrenreich directs “Drone Pilot Has a Crisis of Conscience,” which takes a futuristic sporting event and creates an art film around it, surreal, experimental, and shot on Super 16...

Chris invites an online date to his Brooklyn apartment where it gets off to a rocky start and ends suddenly (kind of). “Lucy in the Morning,” directed by Isaac Cole, is both an admission of the awkwardness and unromantic standards of modern “dating,” and an increasingly tender portrait of two str...

Two meandering friends ponder their life choices when they meet a corporate buddy for lunch. “Jeanette is the Dog” is an Australian short directed by Pat Mooney — a casual vignette about home ownership and wealth imbalance (and a dog named Jeanette). Standing on a high-rise rooftop making up name...

An aspiring entrepreneur hires two interns to help him start his online business, if only they could figure out what the company does. “Good Idea,” directed by Marissa Losoya, is a deadpan satire on start-up culture, and a slow-burn character study of a delusional, wannabe boss. The one-man busin...

A group of Alaskan fishermen do everything it takes to stay awake and not crash their boat. “Cold Bull,” directed by Ben Gordon, is a deranged commercial for Red Bull (not really), or a loopy experimental documentary about “living the sweet life” (also not really). It’s the summer and the fishing...

Local teens of Denver, Colorado lead viewers through a guide to all things Denver, Colorado. Written by and starring the comedy troupe, Phantasmagoria LLC, “Denver Tourism Tapes” is a hilariously far-out grab bag of tropes, parodies, existential comedy, lo-fi psychedelia, kids playtime, and light...

During a routine smog check, an eastern European mechanic discusses racism in a very uncomfortable way with a black man. A dry comedy set in L.A., “Smog,” directed by Derek Milton, tackles an awkward exchange about skin color and the term African American in wry, understated fashion. The chatty m...

A wannabe Zumba instructor has an encounter with an alien while driving through the desert. “Planet Fitness,” directed by Paul Emerson, is a lo-fi, lighthearted comedy carried by the awkward charm of Katy Fullan, who writes and stars as Jessie, a hopelessly unemployed woman. As she drives, she st...