While stuck at home during lockdown, a Russian woman living in L.A. ponders how to stay busy and convince herself everything’s okay. “Stay At Home Movie,” made by Sasha Lebedeva — she writes, shoots, edits, color grades, and stars — is a simple but stylish self-portrait of boredom and restlessnes...

A reflection on the intimacy of being seen and our perception of time. Shereen Lani Younes’ “no one has seen me naked in a long time” is an audio-visual journal made of existential realizations and peculiar scenes from her everyday life. We hear the filmmaker’s train-of-thought as a sequence of s...

High school senior Nancy Fisher finds herself at the center of a baseless rumor as she struggles with expectations of the future. Directed by Justin Zuckerman, "A Future of Success," is a teen comedy about young adult pressures and having different priorities than parents and peers. While Nancy i...

When two friends accept an invitation to see the new couch of an up-and-coming comedian/actor, it turns into an evening of heavy drinking and idiosyncratic self-expression. Kailee McGee directs “The Idea of a You,” a self-referential portrait of the lives and romantic inclinations of three L.A. a...

Longing for a touch the casual encounters section can not satisfy, Tristan, an outsider among outsiders, is captivated by the appearance of a new man. Directed by Tristan Scott-Behrends, “Only Trumpets,” is a lavish glimpse into sex and love in the digital age, part cynical thesis, part experimen...

A young man, on-edge, tries cycling as a way to make friends. Noah Kentis directs “Pedestrian,” an expressionistic character study of a highly volatile call center employee. Working at United Auto Loan Trust, Kehlani gets aggressive on phone calls with people short on cash. A coworker tells Kehla...

A father in rural Pakistan comes to a realization during the morning routine with his family. Maazin Kamal directs “Morning Without Light,” a black and white observational narrative of a small family living in isolation from the modern world. The father starts his day early by rinsing off at a cr...

Wandering the dappled grounds of an old farmhouse, Henry plays schoolmaster at an open-air painting retreat, where his instructional duties seem to involve holding forth at candlelit dinners in the garden and sucking down endless cans of Budweiser on the lawn while the work of painting and posing...

A young woman begins to have doubts while waiting to meet the adoptive parents of her unborn child. This expressive short directed by Anamari Mesa and Kevin Rios creates an instant atmosphere and lingers on well after the credits roll. The pregnant woman (played by Mesa) is on a train to meet the...

A sensual advertisement for the lofty high-rise buildings in an ambiguous metropolis. “The High Rise Beckons,” directed by Matt Barats, is a satirical commercial real estate ad where we’re tempted by an oddly erotic narrator and slow punch-in shots of various properties. Building to building, we ...

An unexpected visit from her super sends an anxious woman scrambling to hide evidence of her cat. “No Pets,” directed by and starring Billie Michael, takes a simple conceit and finds plenty of tension, awkwardness, and humor. Arriving to her apartment, the woman discovers that her building’s supe...

A lonely weed dealer spirals when she tries to make conversation with an uninterested client. “Sativa,” directed by Kelly Cooper and Johnny Frohman, is an absurd sketch film built around a loopy performance from Cooper and a pointless query. Tynan DeLong plays a musician working on a dog food com...

Two aspiring writers in L.A. are secretly writing novels about each other as they spend their first evening together. Jens Josephs directs “Based on a True Story,” a sharp comedy exploring the personalities and inner monologues of a couple of egotistical dreamers, mutually repulsed by each other ...

Two men in bloody shirts watch a French film and chat about Cheese-Wiz as a shell-shocked woman tries to make sense of it all. “Be Leaving,” directed by Brandon Wilson, is a surreal avant-garde film oozing with uncertainty as it reveals surprising doses of humor. Via deadpan banter, the two men d...

Born into a life of opulence, Anna finds herself stuck in a plagued dream state. Horace Martins directs “The Duchess of Zion,” a striking experimental film capturing a life of beauty and decay, a mix of the haunted and the ethereal. Soon after her birth, Anna’s wealthy parents split, her dad ditc...

A lonely woman with boundary issues steals a dog. India Donaldson directs “If Found,” a minimalist drama set at an off-season beach town that’s built with striking wintry visuals and a tone swaying between lightly comedic and disturbing. She lives on a boat with a friend who seems alarmed by her ...

Rachel seeks comfort in her partner while dealing with uncertainty and a death in the family.

After revealing something new to her long-term partner, a young couple has an emotionally fraught conversation at the grocery store. “Chores,” directed by Christina Tucker, is a dramatic vignette on the subject of poor communication and hitting personal limits. In the vegetable aisle, Samantha br...