Day One: September 18, 2020
Women Filmmakers Panel - 11 AM PST
Panel moderated by Women Documentary Filmmakers founder founder Sue Vicory, and will feature panelists, award-winning filmmakers Francesca Andre, Eeva Mägi and writer/filmmaker/entrepreneur Tracy Vicory-Rosenquest. (additional speakers to be announced)
* Festival Pass (includes Day 1 and Day 2 screenings).
Screenings will be available to view until Saturday, September 26, 2020, 11:59 PM PST
Day 1
Day 2
Festival Pass*
Finalists - Day One Beginning 1 PM PST
Out of Competition Screening
Characters: Comedy short by director Kevin Asch (Holy Rollers) and starring Danny A. Abeckaser (The Irishman), Lukas Haas (The Revenant) and Sara Foster (Barely Famous).
A psychologically troubled sporting goods store clerk (Abeckaser), obsessed with Al Pacino’s gangster characters is set-off into his old pattern of acting out like them when he hears about his ex returning to Long Island to get married. At the same time, his current love (Foster) is giving him an ultimatum to leave with her to California at the end of the summer, all the while pushing his relationships, including his mother and best friend (Haas) to the limits with his Pacino impressions. [Director: Kevin Asch, Country: USA, Duration: 11:35]
Comedy
From Russia with Motive: Pilot: Two sisters flee their small Russian village to find freedom and rich husbands in Los Angeles. Rich men are a girl's best friend in this comedy.
[Director: Colin Costello, Country: USA, Duration: 8:58]
Ira and the King of Kings: The End of Days is here as Jesus returns to start the Second Coming, but is mistaken for a homeless person. In order to survive, the Son of God must shack up with a struggling Jewish writer.
[Director: Jeff Dingler, Country: USA, Duration: 27:42]
Oddly Popular: Four fortuneless females already have a hard time navigating daily life; however, their lives take an unexpected turn when an accidental text lands them their own reality show.
[Director: Fred Gallo, Country: USA, Duration: 27:27]
Open House 1-4: Every Sunday, realtors fan out across the country planting Open House signs, inviting prospective buyers into private residences, but when a snooty Realtor suspects a Latino couple is there to rob her, all hell breaks loose.
[Director: Brad Holloway, Country: USA, Duration: 9:04]
The Original: Two guys from southern Italy are held in custody, but to get out of trouble, they are forced to foil their plans concerning the exhibition of the famous artist Tobias Daskalakis.
[Director: Giacomo Capra, Country: Italy, Duration: 35:46]
Documentary
The Power of Beauty: The Power of Beauty - part of the feature-length documentary Tomorrow and the Butterfly - follows two students, their tears and resilience on the days leading up to their graduation from the Kate Korpi Academy, a high end salon in Cambodia educating sex traffic survivors and the country’s underprivileged youth.
[Director: Alessandro Soetje, Producer: Davines, Country: Italy, Duration: 20:46]
VILLA EMPAIN: A story of survival about Louis Empain and his creation of how an artist’s fixed dream disappears in favor of living architecture.
[Director: Katharina Kastner, Country: Belgium, Duration: 24:30]
#WeLaGente:Tackling the hostile political environment towards Hispanic and Latino immigrants, we are given the opportunity to hear their emotional stories and contributions to the diverse fabric of America.
[Director: John X. Carey, Country: USA, Duration: 4:49]
Animation
A Brief History of The Eyeroll: A love for optical illusions spirals into an ironic fictional storyline about the history of eyerolls and how they combat violence making the world a more passive-aggressive place.
[Director: Kristyna Archer, Country: USA, Duration: 2:30]
Forest: Small, yellow-bellied forest spirits cultivate a discovery that threatens the balance of their world.
[Director: Sasha Vinogradova, Country: USA, Duration: 1:25]
The Bird & the Whale: A young whale struggling to find his voice strays from his family to explore a shipwreck. Meeting its sole survivor, a caged songbird, together they struggle to survive lost at sea.
[Director: Carol Freeman, Country: Ireland, Duration: 7:03]
Experimental
Huo Zhe: “HuoZhe" translates to the word "living" in Mandarin. We watch our existence from afar as the hands represent us and the water is how life treats its people.
[Director: Kino Lee, Country: Taiwan, Duration: 3:06]
Inferno: from the Ashes: Dante who is accompanied by his guide Virgil journeys through “Inferno” or the dimension known as Hell itself .
[Director: Amir Zargara, Country: Canada, Duration: 9:00]
Japantrip: Embarking on a scenic sight, we travel through literary eyes wandering across Japan.
[Director: Daniel THÜRLER, Country: Switzerland, Duration: 10:46]
Music Video
anpu - ZOEA:Two mitten crabs escape the hands of a vendor and make their way into the Taiwan’s dark underbelly of water ways.
[Director: POWEI SU, Country: Taiwan, Duration: 5:35]
Childhood: When natural and artificial wealth mingle as the pursuit of happiness is a never-ending process, Director Guilhem Coulibaly reveals a story of childhood through the illusion of time and a life’s perspective.
[Director: Guilhem Coulibaly, Country: France, Duration: 4:34]
Shaken Not Stirred: Bond and Q trek through the City of Angels to a pulsating beat and a killer riff as they target a love pure as gold.
[Director: Medi eM, Country: USA, Duration: 3:06]
SHE'S IN MY HEAD: Told through the lens of a man’s iPhone, what appears to be a crush develops into a social media obsession.
[Director: Lukas Haas, Country: USA, Duration: 4:00]
The Taste of Me "Sabor a Mi": A recreation of one of the most famous bolero Spanish songs originally composed by the legendary Los Panchos, David Lawrence makes his singing debut in this cover as a tribute to his mother and the original vocalist, Eydie.
[Director: Carlos A. Hurtado, Country: USA, Duration: 4:57]
* Festival Pass (includes Day 1 and Day 2 screenings).
Screenings will be available to view until Saturday, September 26, 2020, 11:59 PM PST
Day 1
Day 2
Festival Pass*
Day Two: September 19, 2020
Finalists- Day Two Beginning 1 PM PST
Drama
Me También: Two women from polar opposite spheres of society are brought together by one unfortunate common denominator,sexual harassment.
[Director: Valeria Vallejos, Country: USA, Duration: 16:00]
Milk Tea: An 11-year-old girlsuffocated by her dysfunctional family,decides to lighten the mood at home but steps back when her actions cause circumstances to grow worse.
[Director: Chien-Ni Yang, Country: Taiwan, Duration: 12:42]
No Dominion: Three travelers, an American and a French couple,destined to cross paths unexpectedly meet at a themed boutique hotel and findcomfort in their lives of sorrow.
[Director: Georgios Dimitropoulos, Country: UK, Duration: 13:48]
Refugee: A Syrian doctor and her young daughter flee in an attempt to escape their war-torn homeland.
[Director: Brandt Andersen, Country: USA, Duration: 23:00]
Scarlet: After an attack inside her apartment, a young woman wakes up alone in a hospital bed only to suspect her own family’s involvement in the intrusion.
[Director: Olga Nikulina, Country: Russia, Duration: 12:38]
The tears' thing: In preparation for her debut role, an actress is challenged in ways she could never have seen coming.
[Director: Clémence Poésy, Country: France, Duration: 25:00]
Wavering: As her Parkinson’s disease intensifies, a national park ranger struggles to accept her new limitations.
[Director: Jordan Gustafson, Country: USA, Duration: 11:05]
ZOO: A misunderstanding between three juveniles and a troubled man escalates to a point of no return.
[Director: Will Niava, Country: Canada, Duration: 10:00]
Fashion
Behind the Curtain: The National Chamber of Italian Fashion and the Milan-based Factory The Blink Fish celebrate Milan Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2020/2021.
[Directors: Giacomo Boeri, Matteo Grimaldi, Country: Italy, Duration: 1:37]
FILM ME: Four scenes matching a time and mood pay homage to the different periods of cinema through the spectrum of beauty.
[Director: Ed Picard, Country: France/UK, Duration: 3:15]
SCREENTEST L.A.: A diverse community of creators showcase their 8th Collection inspired by the format of Hollywood Wardrobe and Screen Tests.
[Director: Sandro Suppnig, Country: USA, Duration: 1:16]
The Dreamer: Driving through the incredible vistas of the Lesotho mountains in Southern Africa, a man daydreams he is a powerful African warrior charging through the wilderness.
[Director: Robert dos Santos, Country: South Africa, Duration: 3:59]
Sci-Fi/Horror
Bliss Burger: An immigrant’s tangled story of assimilation into America’s national religion of consumerism and his search for God’s warm embrace through cheeseburgers.
[Director: Adam K. Wright, Country: USA, Duration: 20:11]
Claws Out: Treachery brews in a mother’s home when she forces her unwilling daughter to inherit her legacy. A bloody battle arises to preserve the rituals of this family’s traditions.
[Director: Dalya Guerin, Country: USA, Duration: 11:20]
Just A Moment: A Chinese hand cream promoter’s life turns upside down when a passerby demands he be given back the minute wasted listening to the worthless advertisement.
[Director: ZheShe, Country: Russia, Duration: 10:00]
The After Party - The Director's Cut: Reality Show Star and Social Media Queen, Skye Monroe faces Judgement Day when she is put on trial for her blood spilling deeds.
[Director: Colin Francis Costello, Country: USA, Duration: 17:49]
The Bureaucrat: When a member of the afterlife committee tampers with documents to save a pregnant woman’s life, he risks the consequences of partaking in this strictly forbidden action.
[Director: Dimitrios Karas, Country: Greece, Duration: 19:13]
Special Mention
Chuck Wonderland: The mystery of two lovers' obsession with one another unfolds like a dream as their chemistry pushes them toward their doom.
[Director: Hervé Humbert, Country: France, Duration: 3:00]
Hailstorm: Dark jazz in a difficult sociopolitical climate puts forth a call to action for a better and brighter future.
[Directors: Carolyn Downie, Neels Britz, Country: USA, Duration: 5:00]
Life Maybe: The pinnacle of human civilization driven by rage and fury seeks revenge on not just the bodies, but their souls.
[Director: Anahita Eghbalnejad, Country: Iran, Duration: 3:30]
Rocket: In the heart of the city, a toy attracts thousands of people and brings different generations together.
[Director: Pedro Henrique Chaves, Country: Brazil, Duration: 15:10]
Ruby Baby: This dark comedy follows Catherine, a determined and curious woman, who delves into her past childhood to make sense of unsolved happenings.
[Director: Lee McQueen, Country: UK, Duration: 23:31]
She: Set in the 1950's when a strong-willed woman seeks advice about her abusive marriage, she is left questioning her trusted therapist’s own intentions.
[Director: Sébastien Esther, Country: France, Duration: 5:16]
Silvàn: A man’s attempt to travel with a very large suitcase.
[Director: Hervé Humbert, Country: France, Duration: 2:50]
The Blank Page: A young writer who has met success with his previous novel is paralyzed in the pressure to write another book.
[Director: Pierre Ballat, Country: France, Duration: 15:00]
Welcome To Eden: Eve waits at Eden for the arrival of Adam, but is left baffled when she finds two Adams standing in front of her.
[Director: Amir Zargara, Country: Cape Verde, Duration: 1:00]
Virtual Gala Awards Ceremony 5 PM PST | The Beverly Hills Hotel
Live from the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel, awards ceremony to feature live and pre-recorded segments. EverTalk TV’s Jezlan Moyet will host the event, along with presenters Tony and Shalini Potts and Emmy-winning actor Vincent DePaul. Special musical performances by DJ Gotta, Marina V. and Grammy-winner Paulina Aguirre, and some surprises are planned.