Official Selections
Shorts + Interludes
A Celebration of Diverse Voices and Innovative Filmmaking

RAT!
Neal Suresh Mulani | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 16 min 48 sec
Fri May 2 8:30 PM | Die With Your Boots On
When a disgruntled music journalist accuses a global pop star of queerbaiting, the singer’s devoted fans descend on his remote cabin to seek retribution.

Be Bad
Lauren Hart | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 4 min 12 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
A new dad is forced to act when he realizes his middle finger has been up in every photo he's ever taken.

Her House
Will Lee | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 11 min 56 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
A young woman and her estranged mother are forced to reconcile their differences when they discover an evil presence lurking in the home of their recently deceased matriarch.

Nervous Ellie
David Yorke | UK • English
Short • Official Selection | 6 min 40 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
Ellie, new to dating and painfully shy, struggles to control her nerves during a date with Danni, resulting in some unexpected and shocking results.

Safe
David Yorke | UK • English
Short • Official Selection | 1 min 30 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
A young woman battles for her life against a relentless masked killer.

The Baby
Taylor Bustamante | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 15 min 58 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
A pregnant woman’s obsession with motherhood spirals when she becomes fixated on another mother and her young son.

Bush
Emma Mazurek | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 14 min 28 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
Alma is meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time—at their pool party. She is tense about their opinions of her, but once they start mentioning body hair, her anxiety about her appearance and a sudden strange hair growth force her to shave compulsively.

A Drive at Dawn
Joe D'Ovidio | UK
Short • Official Selection | 7 min 08 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
Three men drive into the desert at night to wrestle with an unspeakable evil.

3 Easy Steps
Paige Henderson | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 16 min 39 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
A woman with debilitating ADHD embarks on a self-help journey to the woods but things take a dark turn when she manifests another version of herself.

Find You Here
Jo Smyth | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 14 min 30 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
A gnarly piece of folkloric horror about what happens when a toxic couple find themselves at an abandoned scare event built on evil land. Will they survive the night?

How to Stay Awake
Vanessa Magic | Canada
Short • Official Selection | 5 min 30 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
A woman fights to stay awake, to avoid battling the terrifying realm of sleep paralysis, but as she risks everything to break free, will she be released from the grip of her nocturnal tormentor?

Les Bêtes
Michael Granberry | US
Short • Official Selection | 11 min 38 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
A mysterious rabbit with a set of magic keys summons a host of strange creatures to entertain a wicked king and his decadent court in this dark stop-motion animated fantasy inspired by the works of Ladislas Starevich.

Out of Body
Joseph Le | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 13 min 36 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
A sheltered woman, who wants to express her sexuality and freedom, finds herself haunted by a possessed vagrant, whose spirit tries to take over her body.

Pocket Princess
Olivia Loccisano | Canada • English
Short • Official Selection | 9 min 45 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
A young girl must take part in a dangerous task in order to complete her doll collection in this miniature fairytale.

Scrumptious
Paul Jacob Presley | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 8 min 10 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
A foxy thief gets more than she bargained for when a routine money drop turns to terror.

The Night Side
Sophie Whipple | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 12 min 19 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
Alone in the woods with nothing but a camera, Annie takes in the beauty of the rotting forest; but she soon realizes she may not be fully alone after all.

Turn It Off
Senda Maud Bonnet | US
Short • Official Selection | 6 mon 43 sec
Sat May 3 12:15 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
A woman races through the woods, hiding from an unseen threat. After injuring her leg, she finds refuge in a house, but we see a girl curled up on her couch, safe at home watching the same film we are. As the woman hides, the girl realizes the events on-screen are linked to her world.

Bloody Mary
Drew Underwood | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 13 min 51 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
After stuttering while ordering his favourite drink, Trevor gets more than he ordered.

Forgive Me
Cameron Fei Sun | US • English/Mandarin
Interlude • Official Selection | 19 min
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
Jessica is the only Asian girl in her American suburb. While navigating cultural expectations and casual racism, she is stalked by a menacing shadow with a tragic past.

Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave!
Andrew Bowser | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 9 min 24 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
Frankenscience and religious ideology reanimate a cohort of recently deceased fetishists to create the perfectly subservient woman only to unleash hell on the patriarchy.

Gaslighter
Virginia Powers Hendry | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 7 min 53 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
On a dark and stormy night, Anne arrives home to find the power out and her front door left unlocked. When she expresses her fear to her boyfriend Jeff on the phone that she is not alone in the house and feels unsafe, he dismisses her concerns. Unable to find an intruder, she accepts what Jeff has told her – that she is safe. But is she?

Izzy
Yfke van Berckelaer | Netherlands • English
Short • Official Selection | 4 min 50 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
Izzy is constantly stuck in the same cycle: mocked, dismissed, ignored, forgotten. But a touch of red glitter? Now that's a game-changer!

Poppy's Saturn
Nicole Tegelaar | Belgium • Dutch/English
Short • Official Selection | 14 min 35 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
When nightclub singer Poppy is confronted by a black-eyed man she is overcome by fear. The event triggers a buried sexual trauma that she has to overcome in a kaleidoscopic world of glitter, music and blood.

Unravelling
Aimie Willemse | UK • English
Short • Official Selection | 8 min 03 sec
Sat May 3 2:30 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
A woman caring for her chronically ill grandmother struggles to retain her autonomy. As her invisible illness begins to physically manifest into a malignant entity, she is forced to confront her worst fears.

The Conduit
Conor Soucy | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 15 min 25 sec
Sat May 3 8:30 PM | Die With Your Boots On
New England Premiere
A grieving father, desperate to speak to his dead son, invites a mysterious medium into his home, only to discover that some spirits have no intention of remaining silent

Dry January
C.J. Arellano | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 19 min
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
World Premiere
When Maya commits to a month of sobriety and takes up sculpting as a hobby, her crab sculptures terrorize her former drinking buddy, her brother Toby.

Feedback
Xavier Coleman | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 14 min 24 sec
Sat May 3 10:15 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
Desperate for a respite from the city and his computer screen, Evan sets out on a camping getaway. With the guidance of Sydney, the campground’s renter, the two indulge in a rare strain of psychedelic mushrooms. What begins as an escapist meet-cute slowly devolves into a visceral nightmare.

Pumpkin Guts
Bryan M. Ferguson | UK • English
Short • Official Selection | 13 min 27 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
It happens to someone every Halloween. Follow the rules. Don’t get pinched.

If Martin Clunes Wore Lip Gloss
Amy McLeish | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 12 min 35 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
A woman reflects on her first experience wearing make-up to school in a dreamlike one-person show. This revenge story inspired by early 90s cosmetics commercials is a satirical look at growing up in the world as a woman, formative adolescent trauma and an ode to British actor Martin Clunes.

The Last Thing She Saw
Anthony Cousins, Rebecca Daugherty | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 8 min 35 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere | After being attacked by two burglars, Emmy must see if she can escape her desperate situation.

Sweaty Larry
Vanessa Ionta Wright | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 6 min 40 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
Three curious young girls stumble upon an obscure urban legend and summon the infamous entity known as Sweaty Larry. They were warned...they were warned.

Bedlamer
Alexa Jane Jerrett | Canada • English
Short • Official Selection | 15 min
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men—capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant to be tamed.

My Child
Deniz Akyurek | US • Portuguese
Short • Official Selection | 11 min 23 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
A recent college graduate must confront his fear of adulthood, his childhood nostalgia, and the supernatural entities which pursue him through the halls of his old elementary school.

Spoons
Joshua Conkel | US • English
Interlude • Official Selection | 18 min 40 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
A depressed woman receives a visit from a dead loved on the Winter Solstice.

Doppelgänger
Brian Mitchell, Ian Start | US • English/Spanish
Short • Official Selection | 4 min 05 sec
Sun May 4 11:00 AM | Salem Access TV
Based on the Mandela Catalogue and the subsequent social media trend, a man wakes up to an emergency broadcast, warning him to stay away from doppelgängers.

Full Moon Glory Hole
Thom Newell | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 5 min 22 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
When Francis is beckoned to a glory hole in a dank gas station bathroom, he gets more than he bargained for. Perhaps he should have realized it was a Full Moon!

VHX
Alisa Stern, Scott Ampleford | UK/US • English
Short • Official Selection | 4 min 54 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
A collection of home movies languish on a shelf, longing to be watched again. Little do they know, there's a fate far worse than being forgotten. VHX is a stop-motion animated short made with real vintage VHS tapes.

Voyager
Pablo Pagán | Spain • Spanish
Interlude • Official Selection | 19 min 58 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
When a shy, socially anxious night janitor, cleaning up after Barcelona's affluent party crowd, discovers a mysterious drug that lets her shed the boundaries of her physical self, she breaks out of her isolation and opens herself up to the people she desires... but her newfound freedom comes at a heavy cost.

It Draws Closer
Joshua David Matthews | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 4 min 30 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
New England Premiere
A young woman discovers the creature she just sketched is in the bedroom with her.

Wake
Sean Carter | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 12 min 42 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
With a hurricane raging outside their hospital, two nurses have one last job before evacuating: stow the "dead-on-arrival" corpse of a young girl in the downstairs morgue before the building floods. But the corpse quickly reveals itself to be more than it seems.

The Seance
Hunter Burns, Jordan Spalding | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 9 min
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
Sadie, a teenage witch, helps her crush, the cutest boy in school, get in contact with his late mother, despite ample warnings from the spirit world.

Girls
Julien Hosmalin | France • French
Interlude • Official Selection | 20 min
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
Massachusetts Premiere
Romane and Ally are in love. As they run away searching for a place where they would be free, they end up kidnapped at a local gas station. Whereas they were looking for peace, vengeance will first cross their path.

Cruelty
Sam Das | US • English
Short • Official Selection | 9 min 18 sec
Sun May 4 12:45 PM | Salem Access TV
East Coast Premiere
A young trans woman is chased into a junkyard while being followed home late at night. Trapped among the heaps of scrap she must outwit her predator and summon the strength of a goddess in her desperate fight for survival.