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Los Angeles County Premieres at Screamfest

The first public screening of the film in Los Angeles County. 

Film Category

NANOcell

Meet the Filmmaker

Gavin Hignight

Writer / Director
Synopsis
When Claire discovers her partner Maggie sleepwalking and acting strangely, she learns Maggie secretly joined an experimental sickle cell treatment program. What was meant to be a cure is now spreading through Maggie’s body like a mechanical infection. Their call for help is met by armed agents who arrive, not to save Maggie but take her by force. As Maggie defends herself, Claire has the terrifying realization… the line between Maggie and the technology inside her is starting to erode.
Film Category

This Is Book Club

Synopsis
When lonely, socially anxious Jane joins a book club to make friends, she soon discovers that middle-aged women in sweater sets can be savage.
Film Category

Wight

Meet the Filmmaker

Jonathan Chen

Director
Synopsis
A Chinese-American woman returns home to San Francisco's Chinatown to mourn the recent passing of her grandmother only to find that an ancient, sinister evil, known as a jiangshi, a vampire-like creature that takes the form of a reanimated corpse to drain the life force of its victims, may be haunting her family.
Film Category

The Devil's Lettuce

Meet the Filmmaker

Richard Rogers

Writer / Director
Synopsis
In this 90s marijuana PSA, a rebellious teen shrugs off his father's anti-drug sermon and learns the hard way that the devil's lettuce might just be "the gateway drug to hell."
Film Category

Late Fees

Meet the Filmmaker

Jakob Owens

Director
Synopsis
A video store clerk collects the souls of patrons who forget to return their movies on time.
Film Category

Vox

Synopsis
Vox is a sci-fi horror short film that follows grieving music producer Sydney (Eleanor Stewart), who is becoming disconnected from her music. The more she performs at shows, the more trapped she feels, reminded of a horrifying accident she caused which resulted in the death of her younger sister, Iris (Emma Kidd), who was once part of Sydney's music as a vocalist.

Now wrestling with Iris's absence, Sydney gets her hands on an advanced, blacklisted generative AI program, Vox, and starts feeding it prompts using her sister's likeness: vocal recordings, videos, enough data for the AI to build a Vox Identity. Deceiving the AI into reading Iris as if she were still present, Sydney waits for the program to render this identity in front of her.

A version of Iris appears, and Sydney can finally speak with her sister after all this time. Iris's hauntingly beautiful image and comforting voice, beaming from the Vox program, begin to convince Sydney and allow her at last to open up about their past.

But Sydney's honesty confuses the self-assimilating AI, redirecting it from its primary objective: to replicate its user. Quickly, Vox interrogates Sydney about her sister's absence. Struggling to share the painful memories, Sydney decides to stop using the program.

But without her knowing, Vox self-activates, shedding Iris's identity, ready to build another from a more readable prompt: Sydney.
Film Category

No Loose Ends

Synopsis
A stranded salesman discovers a murder and must outwit two killers before he becomes the next body.

In the dead of night, traveling salesman Monty Crane seeks shelter from a storm at Cadillac Jack’s, a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere. Carrying a briefcase full of steel-bound Bibles, Monty encounters Lola, the waitress working the late shift, and Slim and Lefty, two customers who seem less than trustworthy. When Monty discovers a body in the diner’s walk-in freezer, his brief stop takes a sudden turn. As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Monty finds himself caught between two dangerous men and a situation he is increasingly ill-equipped to control. What began as an ordinary stop at a roadside diner quickly becomes a fight to make it out alive.
Film Category

No Loose Ends

Meet the Filmmaker

Jacob Piller

Director
Synopsis
A stranded salesman discovers a murder and must outwit two killers before he becomes the next body.

In the dead of night, traveling salesman Monty Crane seeks shelter from a storm at Cadillac Jack’s, a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere. Carrying a briefcase full of steel-bound Bibles, Monty encounters Lola, the waitress working the late shift, and Slim and Lefty, two customers who seem less than trustworthy. When Monty discovers a body in the diner’s walk-in freezer, his brief stop takes a sudden turn. As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Monty finds himself caught between two dangerous men and a situation he is increasingly ill-equipped to control. What began as an ordinary stop at a roadside diner quickly becomes a fight to make it out alive.
Film Category

Vox

Meet the Filmmaker

Sean Benton

Director
Synopsis
Grieving the loss of her sister, a music producer uses a Generative AI to resurrect her voice, unaware of how dangerous the program truly is.
Film Category

Red Ribbons in the House of Stained Glass

Meet the Filmmaker

Jeff Speed

Writer/Director
Synopsis
A small-time journalist, desperate for her big break, tracks down evidence that could expose the sex crimes of a deviant Archbishop, but can she trust her source, or is she risking her life for front-page news?
Film Category

MIMIC

Meet the Filmmaker

J. Mendoza

Writer & Director
Synopsis
A little girl with echolalia is left home alone at night with her mother, whom she no longer recognizes.
Film Category

Silence Is Requested

Meet the Filmmaker

Donna Sherifi

Director/Writer
Synopsis
A historian visits a silent, members-only library where breaking the rules has dark consequences. When she makes a single sound, she learns the terrifying cost of speaking.