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Midwest Sci-Fi Short Film Festival 2022

Lara, Viki, Crow and Durd, four loners who hunt paranormal phenomena go to an isolated place, where the year before some backpackers disappeared. For different reasons, each of them knows the legend of the Krampus, an evil creature that has appeared over centuries on one particular night of the year and then disappears, sometimes for generations. The hunt almost costs them their lives, before Durd is successful securing the Krampus in a box, without any witnesses. The four hunters, now, find each other around the box in the countryhouse. They should be happy to be alive, having something worth millions to split, but mistrust and greed take over, finding themselves pitted against one another.
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Lara, Viki, Crow und Durd, vier Einzelgänger, die paranormale Phänomene jagen, treffen an einen abgelegenen Ort aufeinander, an dem im Jahr zuvor einige Rucksacktouristen verschwanden. Jeder von ihnen kennt aus unterschiedlichen Gründen die Legende vom Krampus, einer blutrünstigen Kreatur, die über Jahrhunderte gewütet hat aber seit einigen Generationen verschwunden schien. Die Jagd kostet sie fast das Leben, bis Durd den Krampus alleine in einer Kiste sichert. Die vier Jäger finden sich nun um die Kiste im Landhaus wieder, könnten froh erfolgreich und am Leben zu sein, aber Misstrauen und Gier überwiegen und die 4 Jäger stellen sich, jeder gegen jeden.

4 HUNTERS

A darkness descends and changes the lives of a series of people living in a decaying tower block.

Annelida

A mother desperately yearns to escape an oppressive dystopian society where humans have merged with machines and life is automated by artificial intelligence, but her family would rather live in technological comfort than escape with her into the unforgiving wilderness.

Artificial Existence

In their workshop on top of a wooden tower, Power and Media manufacture and animate automatons.Once animated, the automatons become workers with the purpose of raising the tower. When Power crushes an automaton between his fingers, Media and the automatons turn against him and try to overthrow him

The Automaton Factory

Axmo Deus is an anthology series composed of 1-Minute films that run the spectrum from paranormal horror, gore, and every bloodcurdling thing in between. There is safety in fear.

Axmo Deus

After a freak accident in space, a mechanic crash lands on a barren ice planet unaware his ordeal is only just beginning.

Beacon

A stop motion adaptation of the novel by E. A. Poe 'The Black Cat'.

THE BLACK reCAT

A man seeks help to save himself from a mysterious and Northern entity.

The Bogadai

A young woman wakes up in the middle of an apocalyptic, deserted world. As she meanders through the abandoned remains, she encounters a looming presence.

Bygone

When a space captain (Carolynn Stouder) damages the navigation system after taking control of her ship from her AI companion, C.H.A.R.L.I.E. (Adam Rebora), she must overcome her fears and make repairs before it's too late.

Captain

CHAPS AWAY is a revolutionary new product. One that will get rid of your chapped lips immediately. But there's a catch. When a man finds a mysterious bottle of Chaps Away, things are looking up...until the side effects start...

Chaps-Away

Nothing is ever really perfect, except the reviews for this 5-star secluded getaway under the stars.

Cicada

In the depths of an underground parking garage, a woman realises she may not be the only one down there.

Clap

Curtis, a gleefully sadistic serial killer who preys on young women, follows Leslie home one night and terrorizes her only to discover he may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Compulsion

Inside a curiosity cabinet, a failed taxidermy journeys through the night to rebuild itself. During its travelling, it will meet another taxidermy that will changes its perception of beauty.

Crappy Taxidermy

A teenage cutter in recovery and her overbearing mother are haunted by a ghost who seeks to keep them at odds.

Cutter

An girl arrives in India, carrying her luggage off a rickshaw. She looks around and notices a booth where people are lighting diyas (oil lanterns). Awkwardly, she waits for the people at the booth to leave, and then excitedly approaches. Taking a deep breath, she goes through the ritual of lighting a diya, only for her flame to light blue instead of yellow. Surprised, she looks around, noticing that everyone else has yellow flames. She tries to cover her flame, only for it to come to life! It tries to show off and shine bright, but the girl is distracted by some aunties approaching. She quickly hides the flame behind her back as she gets bombarded by the aunties aggressive affection. The flame tries to get the girls attention, but is unsuccessful and turns around to sulk. It then notices the large bonfire and escapes from the girl's diya while she is distracted. The girl sees the flame heading towards the bonfire and panics! She excuses herself from the aunties, who shake their heads disapprovingly, to chase the flame. The girl awkwardly fumbles her way through a street and follows the flame into a sari store. She admires the space as she walks through, but she trips and spills fabric all over the place. As she cleans up, she tries on one of the saris, only for it to fall off her. At that moment, the flame appears from behind the mirror and runs behind some curtains. The girl hurriedly cleans up and runs after the flame. She chases the flame through people dancing, however she is too slow and the flame jumps into the bonfire. The girl is horrified as the bonfire turns from yellow to blue, and the crowd stares on in shock. As the girl sobs, someone from the crowd helps her up and shows her that she is not the only one with different coloured flames. Reassured that she is not alone, the girl approaches the bonfire and asks for her flame to return to her. It does, and she is surrounded by others who are just like her, with unusual coloured flames, and she is not alone.

Diya

An avenging piñata is fighting back against the brutality of birthday party piñata murder on a mission to save his fellow brethren.

Fiesta Blood

A struggling film writer seeks inspiration at the bar. But the bartender is more than he appears...

Genres

No one knows why the aliens came or why they never made contact. But when their true intentions are revealed, unspeakable tragedy unfolds.

The Gift

In order to stay tethered to the Earth, Zoe wears bricks and blocks to weigh her down. Why? Gravity doesn't affect her. While she tries her best to live a normal life, she constantly feels like an outcast. Then, she decides to open herself up to the world and celebrate her different-ness!

A Grievance With Gravity

A short neo-noire thriller centered around a mysterious druggist visited by Sangstrom, a seemingly ordinary man in search of an undetectable poison. Yet, Sangstrom winds up getting more than he bargained for from the sagacious alchemist.

The Hobbyist

A young father withdraws to a remote cabin to face his curse alone, but he's not the only one with a dark past in the woods tonight.

Hunter's Cabin

Layla decides to confront her noisy neighbor after one too many inconsiderate nights. On entering his flat she makes the grave discovery that there is far more going on than loud music. Now trapped inside, she must fight for survival from the threats of a haunted boombox and a terrifyingly possessed dancer in this family friendly horror-comedy.

The Internet Remains Undefeated

A powerful shadow organization offers its agents ‘eternal life’ in exchange for their brain matter, in order to create a super intelligence that could spell an end to war and conflict.

Launch at Paradise

In a dystopian society where human emotions have almost been abolished the meeting between a woman and an agent will light a spark in this cold world. 2084, an inspector interrogates a suspect about an incident that happened at the Etherium station on the Line 21.

Line21

Sexuality and gender norms are explored when a chronically ill teen meets her new A.I. nurse, LEM.

Maeve in the Dark

The story of a man who does not want to grow, but being a "child" carries its risks.

The man who played too much

A noise awakens a woman who finds something sinister looking for a MIDNIGHT SNACK.

Midnight Snack

A failed engineer seeking multiversal travel encounters his younger self from an alternate timeline — a successful inventor with secret intentions.

Miller

A serial killer works in his studio. Until he's disturbed by the visit of his biggest fan. The killer wants to kill him but changes his mind by discovering his admiration. Flattered, the killer offers him to see his studio. The fan finds himself doomed to admire the killer for eternity.

My psycho Fan

An ordinary day of an office worker changes dramatically when an unknown force picks her up and takes through space and time, and she no longer understands who is playing the game.

Oneiros

A thin line separates life from death. Today, Gotzon, between shots of whiskey and surrounded by the particular fauna of his usual bar, travels through the sinister passages that connect them, guided by the magical skills of Ixabel and her crossword puzzle.

Pasaia

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

Rain

A kid creates space adventures with his toys.As summer break arrives,he travels with his parents to the Scottish highlands,but a storm puts his imagination to the test,and his fate will depend on it.

S.A.D - The Movie

It’s the future, Norman’s wife is dying. In these final moments, he calls for guidance - but it’s not what he asked for.

Saint Android

A little scarecrow lives his days between the sun and the ears of corn. The visit of evil ravens reveal the true nature of the place.

The Scarecrow

In this fun horror-comedy, an awkward first date at the movies takes a horrific turn when the cinema turns out to be owned and operated by demons.

Slurp

While housesitting, Tom encounters a supernatural sourdough that takes hold. A 90 sec. comedic thriller.

Sourdough

Just as an astronaut successfully lands on the moon and prepares to plant his flag, the astronaut discovers that a rival astronaut has the same goal in mind.

Space Race

In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private.
So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how dose a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary

THE SPRAYER

A lonesome truck driver picks up a mysterious hitchhiker who may be more than he appears.

Strangers in the Night

To save his dying wife from the curse, Luke must train himself and go back in time to kill his wife's past self, a deadly assassin.

String of Fate

Randall, flat broke and in debt, discovers golden treasure in an ancient strong box. The treasure can be his...if he grants one small request.

The Strong Box

Sophia, a fearful young woman, accidentally lets a demonic entity loose while moving to her new house. She has to face the entity who reflects her personal struggle with insecurity.

Stuck

An astrophysicist discovers infinite zooming capabilities in his telescope which diverts his research into a completely new direction.

SUPERSCOPE

Natural selection says that only those who adapt will survive. What if humans have become stupid?

Survivers

Abuse, excess, overconsumption; the rise and fall of life.

Tab ur et

A survivor without modern education, a military robot born for war, they met in the ruins after the destruction of civilization, but became the starting point of a new civilization.
Human beings created poetry in the most difficult times of survival. Poetry has no meaning for survival. But what is the meaning of survival itself? Taking the doomsday wasteland as the cloak, exploring the meaning of life and civilization, is the soul of this story.

Teacher

📖 Josh, a 6 y.o. kid living with his mother and sister, discovers that for each tooth lost he receives five dollars. He makes a quick calculation and understands that an entire bike is sitting in his mouth.
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🏆 With 50+ festival selections and 8 awards in United States, Romania, Colombia, Iran and Poland, THANK YOU FOR YOUR TEETH! is proving to be a festival favourite.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TEETH!

Oskar Salomonowitz, the 12-year-old son of filmmakers Anja Salomonowitz and Virgil Widrich, had drawn 206 frames of a flip book when he died in an accident. Using the remaining blank sheets, his father continued drawing the film.
Winner of 32 international film awards!

There is exactly enough time

When Kiara, an AI satellite, is sent to observe a blackhole, she forms a friendship with Noelle back on Earth. Despite the growing distance, the two sprout an unlikely dialogue that examines humanity's greatest question.

To Err

Two kids play with their imagination while living around automation.
A Surrealist journey of kids through colors, textures, shapes and Blue Line mixed with their playful sounds and the rhythm of automation.

This film is an allegorical representation of animation and automation.

TOYING BOX

Twins Lake and Lucas hate each others’ guts. One day after school, their sibling rivalry gets out of hand.

The Twins

Enya is preparing to meet up with a new friend. He wants to make a good impression, but his buddy Jonesy complicates things in a major way

Un-Portalable!

A woman is haunted by a presence. Every night it comes back. But is it real, or just her imagination?

The Witch

A woman is haunted during the night by a spirit in her home.

The Witching Hour
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Midwest Sci-Fi Film Festival 2021

A man alone in his high rise apartment hears something outside his window. Despite its impossibility, he makes sure there's no one outside. Believing he's alone, the man lets go of his paranoia. Unfortunately for him, he is mistaken.

30th Story

ACID
The film presents an electronic music genre, which was born in the early ‘90s.
It was the musical and cultural boom of our youth, and it had a great impact on our peers.
This fake documentary is trying to give the robots’ perspective on the so called ‘machine music’.
Compressed into a few minutes we gain insight to the transience and cyclical nature of musical genres, and

ACID

A lonely alien is unable to come to terms with the loss of a loved one and goes to extreme lengths to avoid accepting reality. He puts on a smile and pretends everything is fine, but until he learns to move on, he will be stuck in a peculiar endless loop, his life dominated and defined by the loss he suffered.

Alienated

A Fly frozen frozen inside of a piece of amber is brought back to life after it is struck by lightning. The Fly mutates into a larger Fly with a crystalized amber exoskeleton. A Spider ambushes the Fly and attempts to eat it, but the Spider fails to penetrate the Fly's armor. The Spider then hatches a plan to turn the Fly's new strength to the Spider's advantage...

The Amber Thief

What looks like an ordinary day turns out to be anything but as we follow two friends sitting together during their nature time slots they discuss how they will celebrate their upcoming appointments. What seems like an average interaction soon takes a sinister turn as another friend joins them.

The Appointment

After a cataclysmic event on Earth, 2 strangers wake up on a deep space vessel headed to a new habitable world. Soon they have to make a choice that could determine their survival.

Arbitrium

A widow employs the dark arts to see her husband once more.

BILL

A wife tries to rekindle her dying marriage with her husband when she learns a life changing secret.

Black Box

A short story about a struggling high school senior who comes across an amazing item with a glaring drawback. Will he be able to resist using it, or will he be blinded by temptation?

Blind With Temptation

The Box Fort

The Box Fort

SAM wanders around dark, grey woods when he runs into a big man who turns out to be SANTA CLAUS. Sam is not too convinced the man in the woods is Santa and Santa does not like not to be believed in. After a little discussion this escalates.

The Christmas Horror Story

An office worker's lunch break becomes a struggle for survival in the subterranean depths of a futuristic city.

Clarence of Tomorrow

A young Navy pilot’s life is shattered after being shot down by a UFO in World War II. Consumed by obsessive fear and hatred, he sets out on a quest to find and kill the creature that put him burning into the sea.

Colossus

A seemingly gigantic spaceship crashes towards earth, but things are not always as they seem.

The Crash

Dash McCabe vs. The Evil
Devil Woman From the Moon is a parody of the cliffhanger shorts of the 1940's and 50's. It involves a powerful moon alien invading the earth while a team of adventurers attempt to stop her

Dash McCabe vs. The Evil Devil Woman From the Moon

The film tells the story of Sidney, a failed pianist who comes into the possession of a pair of enchanted gloves. Upon wearing them he soon finds himself playing the piano like a maestro and all his dreams are quickly realised! However just when he thinks he has everything he has ever wanted fate deals him a cruel hand...

The Dead Hands of Dublin

James is on his own for the night, as his girlfriend is away. He orders pizza, which is delivered by a cheery delivery man named Gee. When a delivery mix-up means Gee gets fired, James takes pity on him and invites him in. But when James asks Gee what his real name actually is, he gets a response he really wasn't expecting...

Deliver Us From Gee

The film about Mieczysław Bekker is the story of a man who managed to fulfill his childhood dream. As a child, observing the moon, he did not guess that in his adult life he would become one of the designers of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Dream Vehicle

Jeremy, a down on his luck cinematographer, takes on a craigslist gig to film an eccentric man named Eddie as he "exits the stratosphere".

Eddie Goes to Space

Ori, the eternally vexed keeper of a living lighthouse, struggles through his daily chores in order to maintain himself, his home, and his best friend -- a chipper cat named Clam.

Fáros

Out for a run, Gary's night takes an unexpected twist when he comes face to face with a garden gnome.

The Gnome

The crew of a haunted house try to find a teenage trouble making ghost, even though they're not sure if she'll talk their ears off or rip their limbs off.

Haunting the Haunted

A music video about an alien sent to infiltrate Earth, but accidentally becomes a film professor with a cult following instead

Hugh Manon

Life gets lonely in a post-apocalyptic world. Is there anybody out there? Holding onto her hopes with unflinching optimism, Katie keeps posting on her vlog, eager to get some response that will prove she's not the last person still alive. Can the near-extinction of our species reveal what makes us human? Stay tuned to Katie's Post-Apocalyptic Vlog and find out the answer.

Katie's Post-Apocalyptic Vlog


In a madcap musical, a catstronaut travels around the galaxy in search of the meaning of life. On one planet, she meets a space pup who'd like to help her, but instead gets her involved in a chain of catastrophes that include tasting hallucinogenic weed and meeting with a tribe of marshmallows!

Meow or Never

A young superheroine must make a great sacrifice to protect her secret identity when a caring educator takes note of her mysterious injuries and becomes suspicious.

Midnight Rose

In a room closed off from the world, a climber prepares to scale mountains through VR simulations. When they take on the final assessment of their training, a glitch in the system forces them to push their limits and grapple with their doubts, both in and out of the simulated world.

Mountain Climber

The substitute janitor figures out a fun way to keep his mind off of the spooky rumors he's heard about this creepy factory as he cleans it at night when no one is there but him.

Mr. Mops

When professor of entomology, Dr. West, is confronted by the Dean of his school over a missing colleague and possible embezzlement, he takes it upon himself to seek out the professor in question. Arriving at the remote research cabin of Dr. Rhodes, West uncovers haunting clues that slowly reveal the true nature of Rhodes' latest research venture.

Nesting Grounds

While driving late at night, a young woman mistakenly hits a dog with her car. Terrified, she quickly puts the injured dog in her car and sets out to take him to the vet. Unbeknownst to her, the creature begins a gruesome transformation in her backseat. Chaos ensues as the girl's concerns become split between the wild road and the beast behind her.

New Tricks

Mentally disabled driver and tired stewardess traveling with bus on the road of life. The affection of a loving mother to fulfill her disabled son's dream by playing a game that gives him the opportunity to live in the world of fantasy in where he is so happy, also fulfills the goal of surviving and preserving peace in the family. How far can they drive?

The Next Stop

1957, New York. A Tibetan monk rents an automatic sequence computer. The monk seek to list all of the names of God. They hire two Westerners to install and program the machine in Tibet...

The Nine Billion Names of God

A young girl gets so scared by the horror movie her older brother watches that she can’t sleep at night. Worse, the creatures from the film torment her, and she has to find a way to get through the night in this dialogue-free stop-motion film.

No Monsters Allowed

An old vinyl record torments a young woman.

Nonnina

"Once in a Lifetime"

"Once in a Lifetime"

Pimento! Follows a tiny goblin’s misadventures as she’s sent out on a special errand: stealing from the sprawling human-populated metropolis Ballyhoo! Only time will tell if she’s enough of a monster to commit heinous crimes—or if her moral compass will stand in her way!

Pimento!

How can a reverse mermaid compare to a beautiful mermaid? Long answer short: she definitely can't. Saddened by the Mermaid Queen's rejection, the reverse mermaid swims off and finds an old sea witch with a promise she can't turn down.

Dedicated to my older sister, Melody Miller.

Queen of the Sea

In a crowded, yet lonely suburban neighborhood, Jacob (Benjamin Ainsworth - "Haunting of Bly Manor"), a boy immobilized in a wheelchair, fights boredom by spying on his neighbors across the courtyard. Sarah, a girl of the same age, spots him out and says hello with a piece of paper. The new friendship is suddenly interrupted when a menacing man approaches the girl and attacks her from behind with a screwdriver. Jacob, even though he is stuck in his chair, will try everything to help the little girl. But is the boy really witnessing a murder with his binoculars, or is he just not seeing the whole picture?

The Recycling Man

He wants to keep the room in blue color

RGB

Michael, an alcoholic in recovery, is working a twilight shift as a ride share driver. He picks up Angie, a mysterious nurse. Unbeknownst to Michael, Angie has sinister plans for the ride.

The Ride of a Lifetime

This girl has special powers and it seems like she may be the only one that doesn’t see the problem with it. Maybe she’s right, maybe that’s part of the problem. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Riled Child

There is a war between two tribes on claiming the sun in the sky. As a result to that war, sun annihilates and the volcano erupts. Those two tribes now are dead and a new sun is made, both by that lava. Several century will pass and the humans are still in a war to claim the sun in the sky.

The Rotation

After unwittingly unleashing an ancient horror, a timid, hungry cave dweller's only hope is his greatest fear– the surface.

The Sky Below

SPiN is a surreal sci-fi story about a kid who explores and plays in an ancient biome. His world encounters a strange, spinning artifact that sparks his curiosity.

SPiN

Two roommates discover they have a magical microwave.

Spud

After investigating an Elder cult's meeting place, a professor wakes to find himself in an interrogation room with a grotesquely scarred hand.

The Statement

This space themed stop motion film uses vintage tin toys along with clay puppets. "Television Spaceman" features the music of Detroit garage rock band, Rock 'n' Roll Monkey & the Robots.

Television Spaceman

An inventor sends a man through space and time with unplanned results

Vacation

Iris, torn out of her idyllic digital world and uploaded into a stolen synthetic body by her grieving mother, must face her body's objectification and violent potential in a dark future.

Venus

Sea level rise has ravaged the city which is still achingly recognisable. Nature has reclaimed the city, with life teeming in the urban ruins. The Sundarbans forest, a massive mangrove ecosystem to the south of the city has been submerged too. From this point on, a film that began as a prerecorded elegy to the city turns into a breakneck race for survival.

Wade

While scavenging around an empty city after a water-borne virus has killed off most of the Earth’s population, a lone survivor finds a sliver of hope when she encounters a young Mandarin girl who may be able to chemically manufacture clean water.

Watershed
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