Program 26
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 13, 2:00PM

Mission Accomp*****d
United States / Animation / 6 mins
Director: Yihe Tao, Dexter Chuang
Producer: Yihe Tao
A sci-fi action short that plays with the grand themes of time and space, Mission Accomp*****d follows space agent Klive as he enters the multidimensional interior of a black hole to rescue the missing Moon for the earth. Upon encountering him, however, the Moon runs away. Through a series of unexpected spatial encounters, the film unfolds as an absurd adventure about time that gradually slips out of control.

Laacos
United States / Animation / 3 mins
Director/Writer: Rachele Santini
Producer: Pietro Polentes, Riccardo Galimberti
Stuck at a tram stop in the August heat, a creative's overactive mind does what it always does: it won't shut up. A weed becomes alien flora, a fallen bike leads to underground root conspiracies, dust particles develop consciousness. When the tram finally comes, he's too far gone to notice.

StarCure
United States / Animation / 7 mins
Director/Writer: Blair Kang
Producer: Blair Kang
Love not just fill what's missing, it gives the strength to hold it. StarCure is a CG student short film, direct and produced by Blair Kang, focused on the emotion of love.

The Reverie Train
United States / Animation / 8 mins
Director: Kyle Hamilton
Eliea discovers upon saying the magic words before she goes to sleep. that she has access to a mysterious dream train full of weird passengers, where she will have to make the choice whether she wants to believe the dream is real or not.

Half Baked
United States / Animation / 2 mins
Director/Writer: Stephen Paul Rivas
“Half-Baked” is an animated series of vignettes that depict a young adult making humorous mistakes on his journey learning how to cook. After every failure, he orders a pizza, resulting in a mountain of pizza boxes piling up in his apartment. After a lot of practice, maybe he will cook something appetizing!

Boredom is a Beast
United States / Animation / 4 mins
Director/Writer: Giorgio Paleologo, Alesia Brovtcyna
Producer: Giorgio Paleologo
Cast: Alesia Brovtcyna, LaKira Porter, Fritz Espinoza
Boredom is a Beast follows Alyona, a 12-year-old aspiring enchantress studying emotional magic under her eccentric mentor, Kashey, alongside her classmates Dasha and Garrick. When a lesson goes awry, Alyona's bottled-up boredom manifests as a destructive monster that tears through the classroom. To stop it, she must confront the feelings she's been avoiding and discover that true growth comes not from becoming extraordinary, but from being herself.

I'm About To <3
United States / Animation / 2 mins
Director: Kevin Alexander Santana
Cast: Audrey Santolini
The intergalactic hero “Heartthrob” is facing his toughest battle yet against his arch-nemesis, “Blue Ball.” Just as the fight reaches a critical juncture, Heartthrob is interrupted by a call from his husband, “Beloved,” who is furious that he left during their intimate moment to save the galaxy. Heartthrob insists on his dedication to his responsibilities as a hero, but his resolve begins to waver when he sees the special gift Beloved has prepared for him: a seductive lingerie set.

Layers
United States / Animation / 10 mins
Director/Writer: Logan Yalovitser
Producer: Logan Yalovitser
Cast: Logan Yalovitser
A man is turned into an onion-human hybrid after attacking someone on a train. He goes on to confront himself, and his past.

Lights Out
United States / Animation / 2 mins
Director/Writer: Dave Barnis
Producer: Dave Barnis
A lonely street lamp begins a soulful journey of exploration and transformation, trading its grounded existence for an enriching quest to achieve a state of luminous belonging.

Fate
United States / Animation / 4 mins
Director/Writer: Aanya Gupta
Cast: Gabriel M Henry
Fate is an emotional and philosophical exploration through the story of Sisyphus. Instead of focusing on his endless labor, my film begins when he loses the boulder. Suddenly, he is free - but also empty. Without his task, he no longer knows who he is. The film enters his mental landscape, allowing us to move with him through confusion, grief, anger, and eventual acceptance. It asks whether fate truly exists, or whether repetition only feels inevitable because we are afraid of imagining otherwise.

The Coal Miner
United States / Animation / 4 mins
Director: Mitch Workman
A man lives a simple life atop a mountain by himself, venturing out everyday for a necessary resource.

Cartoon Physics
France, Netherlands, Switzerland / Animation / 11 mins
Director: Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter
Producer: Miyu Productions, Ka-Ching Cartoons, Hélium Films
A mother confronts her child’s first encounter with death by retreating into the impossible logic of old cartoons.

Pigeons
Switzerland / Animation / 12 mins
Director: Amos Sussigan
Writer: Julien M. Wagner, Timo von Gunten, Amos Sussigan
Producer: Timo von Gunten, Samira Sahli, Dan Lund
Cast: Andy Serkis
In a world that keeps changing, "PIGEONS" follows a carrier pigeon who loses his job the day a telephone is installed in his owner’s home. Searching for food, shelter, and purpose, the film explores freedom, progress, and what gets lost along the way. https://www.pigeonsshort.com

Pomelo
United States / Animation / 9 mins
Director/Writer: Eric Zhu
Producer: Eric Zhu
Cast: Harry McNulty, Serena Zhu
In a war-torn countryside, a lonely boy named Stephen crosses paths with Kayli, a girl from a wealthy family. While the two travel together in search of their parents, they form a friendship amid the destruction surrounding them.
