Literally Short Film Festival is excited to announce its 7th edition held online during the dates of June 3-17, 2020. Representing 16 countries from around the world, we proudly present the 2020 Official Selection.
Literally Short Film Festival 2020 from Literally Short Film Festival on Vimeo.
Literally Short Film Festival gives a warm welcome to its Official Selection 2020!
The Miracle / El Milagro
Grand Jury Prize
By Daniela Lopez Lugo
Sticker
Best Picture
By Georgi Unkovski
The Size of Things / El Tamaño de las Cosas
Award of Excellence
By Carlos Felipe Montoya
Christmas Roast
Best Narrative Short Film
By Alexander Baghdasaryan
Open the Earth / Abrir la Tierra
Best Documentary Short
By Alejandro Zuno
The March of the Missing / El Desfile de los Ausentes
Best Animated Short Film
By Marcos Almada Rivero
Bloom
Best Texas Short Film
By Lucy Owens
I Did It My Way: Narrative Short Films
Christmas Roast
Alexander Baghdasaryan, Armenia
The protagonist in the “Christmas Roast” has a job in state service. He administers the letter of the law and does it in good faith. However, once the callous letter of the law appears in conflict with the so-called lex non scripta our man finds himself in a quandary.
Sometimes the law has a destructive effect on human destinies. And it is in these dramatic circumstances that he stands next to them. He has no power to do anything, being a small rivet in the overwhelming system, which, however, he gladly uses as a smokescreen, enjoying his comfort and taking delight in power.
Tomatic
Christophe Saber, France
Three best friends, Jimmy, Samy and Sofi, have the trailblazing idea: to turn a chocolate dispenser into a pot-vending machine. Also, there’s a dog in the film.
The Miracle / El Milagro
Daniela Lopez Lurgo, Chile
The Miracle tells a day of the life of “La Flaca” a young mother of two
little girls, who lives in the house of the parents of his current partner David. Flaca can not stand the terrible suspicion that David has a secret and decides to face him. The fateful outcome is a bitter drink
where Flaca faces the truth.
Rebels: Narrative Short Films
Innocence
Ben Reid, UK
When a worker falls to his death at a care home, it appears to be a terrible accident. But when a detective questions a young man with Down syndrome spotted at the scene, they uncover a crime more shocking than anyone imagined.
Sticker
Georgi Unkovski, Macedonia
After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his car registration, Dejan falls in a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father.
November 1st
Charlie Manton, UK
Traveling to witness the execution of her son’s murderer, a mother is torn between retaliation and reconnecting with her estranged daughter.
Phantom Wars: Narrative Short Films
La Hague
Mathieu Naert, France
Julien lost his job from the local factory “La Hague”. He tries to convince Louis, his friend and engineered, still employed at the factory, to join him in blackmailing the factory’s HR manager in order to find his work and his old life back. However, unforeseen events will change his plans.
Topanga
Aycil Yeltan, Turkey/USA
Hearing impaired, homeless Gala escapes from a man who continually abuses her. While her life becomes a routine in an abandoned old truck on a mountain road, she is unaware the abusive man finds out where her hiding place is.
One night, after a brutal attack, she finds the strength to stand up one last time and starts walking. She has no clue where this survival walk will end up and change her life forever.
Method
Robert Grabow, USA
A Machiavellian acting teacher pushes an aspiring actor to her
emotional breaking point with his unconventional “method.”
Displaced Currents: Narrative Short Films
Homesick
Koya Kamura, Japan
Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Murai braves danger and wanders through the no-go zone in order to spend time with Jun, his eight-year-old son.
The Size of Things/ El Tamaño de las Cosas
Carlos Felipe Montoya, Colombia
Diego lives with his father in a house without things, without furniture, without anything. One day he finds a chair deep in the woods and desire of possession arises. Diego takes the chair back home but the father disagrees and orders him to return it. At night, the father recognizes the boyʼs feeling of dearth and allows Diego to bring the chair again. Diego returns to the forest but something has happened, something really big. He canʼt bring the chair this time.
Starboy
Joëlle Bentolila, UK
A mystical young Hasidic man increasingly doubts his identity, his gender, and the nature of being as conflict between him and his pious young wife escalates with shocking consequences.
Tongues of Betrayal: Narrative Short Films
Anna
Dekel Berenson, UK/Ukraine/Israel
Living in war-torn Eastern Ukraine, Anna is an aging single mother who is desperate for a change. Lured by a radio advertisement, she goes to party with a group of American men who are touring the country, searching for love.
Yarne
Andrew Karkower, USA/Nepal
The money earned by 11-year-olds Sonam and Tashi for doing prayers is only enough to share one small Coke. Sonam is lucky to even get a sip before Tashi, the monastery bully, drinks the entire bottle. Yarne is an annual six-week period when Buddhist monks remain within the monastery grounds for focused study and practice, yet for child monks, it’s more like house arrest. Tired of wasting his money, Sonam decides to save up every rupee he earns during Yarne to buy a soccer ball, but first he will have to stand up to Tashi.
Henet Ward
Morad Mostafa, Egypt
Halima, a Sudanese henna painter goes to Basma’s, a young Egyptian bride to prepare her for her wedding: under the eyes of her daughter Ward, the encounter between the two women grows from complicity to suddenly unveiled tensions.
Dystopian Romantics: Narrative Short Films
Neapolitan Arrangement / Arreglo Napolitano
Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, Mexico
Sara, a thirty years old flight attendant, starts to believe that her obsessive ex-boyfriend could kidnap her sun; so she needs to take a desperate decision.
Blue Flower
Saadi Constantine, Switzerland/Romania
Winter 2017, Ana and Amara, a young couple from Bucharest take a radical decision. In order to finance the treatment of Leo, their 3-year-old son suffering from an under-oxygenation of the brain, Ana is going to work as a Cam-girl. In the fascinating video chat studios of Bucharest, Ana will become – for her colleagues and for the hundreds of ‘’members’’ who will follow her around the world.
In this film, the actors play their own role and all the places are authentic.
Fairyocious/Féeroce
Fabien Ara, France
SIMON: “I want to be a girl, mommy.” Alma freezes. She doesn’t know how to react. From now on, her 8-year-old son wants to dress up like a fairy to go to school. She asks for help from her neighbors. Soon the whole building is debating on Simon’s choice for gender orientation.
Brainy Wonders: Animated Short Films
Beyond Noh
Patrick Smith, USA
“Beyond Noh” rhythmically animates 3,475 individual masks from all over the world, beginning with the distinctive masks of the Japanese Noh theater and continuing on a cultural journey through ritual, performance, utility, and politics.
Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe
Jocelyn Charles, Jules BOURGÈS, Nathan HARBONN-VIAUD & Pierre ROUGEMONT, France
A brilliant scientist sees his convictions crumble during a picnic at the lake.
Eclosión
Rita Basulto, Mexico
The emergence of contemporary human, a struggle between memory, reason and conscience.
Mr. Deer
Mojtaba Mousavi, Iran
The story is narrated in an unknown time, in a ruined modern subway. People in this society have animal faces, they have forgotten humanity and ethics and they do not avoid sins. There is someone with a deer face who is trying to reform the society.
The March of the Missing / El Desfile de los Ausentes
Marcos Almada Rivero, Mexico
In a city built of iron and steel, an anthropomorphic pigeon watches a magnificent parade from his window. Another character with the face of a fox is photographing the event, focusing on its darker side. The parade consists of hooded characters carrying banners of their great leader, throwing gifts to the cheering, jubilant onlookers from their monstrous floats. The great leader himself, a monarch with the face of a donkey, watches the city along with his assistants from the height of his impressive carriage, and when a group of dissenters dares to confront them, the authorities will not hesitate to deploy their methods to eliminate any form of opposition. Fox and Pigeon become complicit witnesses of this parade of the missing.
Gravedad
Matisse Gonzalez, Germany/Bolivia
Some days are light and some days are heavy. In a world where gravity changes constantly, you have to find something to keep you grounded. The short is a lonely meditation about dreams as the only way to escape sadness and depression.
The Future's Past: Documentary Short Films
Open the Earth / Abrir la Tierra
Alejandro Zuno, Mexico
On December 11, 2013, Víctor Álvarez and nine young men were arrested amid a joint security operation led by the local police of Veracruz, Mexico. Their whereabouts remains unknown to this day. Perla, Víctor’s mother, has been looking for him since then. Open the Earth portrays her painful and tireless fight to access to the truth and justice.
Cell 346
Mathilde Babo & Zoé Rossion, France
A former Stasi prisoner revisits his cell.
Edwin
Ya'ke Smith, USA
Edwin Debrow Jr. murdered a cab driver when he was 12. He was sentenced to forty-years in prison. Today he’s walking out.
Harmony - A Zero Waste Film
Stanislava Oben, Canada
‘Harmony’ – A zero waste film invites the audience to join ‘Harmony’ on her daily quest to make the world a better place through zero-waste living.
Home Grown: Texas Shorts Films
Hipposterous
John Hill
Jack and Lovey go on a wild adventure after a flying pygmy hippo steals their pacifier and leads them on a zoo – spanning chase!
Parked
Atli Sigurjonsson
A young woman in a stagnant relationship discovers someone is sleeping in her car.
Salting the Fly
Craig Mooneyham
With a precarious fate approaching, Danny, an autistic teenager, and his older brother David perform a familiar childhood ritual to lighten the gravity of their plight. As time runs out, however, the brothers must leave their childhood behind to confront family demons, challenge futile beliefs, and transcend communication barriers to find solace amidst their crumbling world.
Spindletop: The Beginning
Jason Leal
A young Pattillo Higgins leads two Union Soldiers on a chase which culminates in a showdown outside of town. Based on the real story of the man responsible for bringing the oil industry to Texas.
Local & Fresh: Texas Short Films
Bloom
Lucy Owens
Amateur photographer Nora hires young male model Des to do a risqué photoshoot at a remote location in the Texas hill country. As strangers to each other, they are free to be whoever they want; but when they are caught trespassing on private property, reality comes crashing down.
Kids These Days
Matt Lennon
A young couple has an important conversation at an inopportune time, all while chaotically wrapped up in a world of suburban moms, ice cream and fake kidnapping.
You're the Puppet
Michael Charron
Laramie and Leonard are the hottest comedy duo in the local scene. Tired of Leonard getting all the credit, Laramie considers branching out on his own.
In accordance to the world’s current pandemic, Literally Short will refrain from holding a physical event and surge into the digital realm. Nevertheless, films will not be shown publicly, but form part of a shorts program that will be available for rent on Vimeo on Demand. The program will be visible to renters for 48 hours. The online festival will take place June 3-17, 2020.
Links coming soon!
