In 2018, Cape Town, South Africa was headed for a catastrophic water crisis. The area is known as one of the driest in the world and had no rainfall in over three years. The city was facing running out of water. However, Cape Town averted disaster due to the cooperative efforts of residents to conserve water and drastic restrictions enacted by the municipal government. Still, the crisis was so impactful that a group of Cape Town filmmakers decided to produce a sci-fi short film to speak to the city’s experience. The result is the stunning and compelling short film OASIS. OASIS is set on world ..read more

The Schwarzschild Radius is the radius of the event horizon surrounding a non-rotating black hole. Sci-fi short film The Schwarzschild Radius finds a spaceship named Titan 2 caught in the gravitational pull of a black hole. With only three minutes remaining, astronaut Scott Cooper (Govinda Roser) records a poignant final message for his young son back on earth. As a result of the ship getting inexorably closer to the black hole, Scott begins to experience a temporal phenomenon caused by the powerful gravitational forces at work. Watch The Schwarzschild Radius in its entirety here… The film ..read more

The atmospheric sci-fi short DECOMMISSIONED is set aboard the International Space Station (ISS). While on monitor duty while the rest of his crew is sleeping, Commander Diaz (Joey Vieira) is conducting a routine communications check-in with ground control. He is also enjoying the spectacular view of the earth from space. Suddenly, Commander Diaz spots what he thinks is a bit of space debris headed on a collision course with the station. He alerts ground control who informs him nothing is showing on their readings. As the debris gets within visual range, the commander is shocked by what he see ..read more

What if our reality really is a computer simulation? This possibility is explored in the sci-fi comedy short film UNTITLED EARTH SIM 64. In the film, Marie (Karen Olrich-White), a young British woman, copes with the mother of all existential crisis when she discovers life as we know it is a computer simulation. While questioning her sanity after noticing “glitches” occurring in our reality, Marie begins hearing the voice of “the researcher” responsible for maintaining the operational integrity of our simulation. And oh boy, does she have questions for him! Watch UNTITLED EARTH SIM 64 in its e ..read more

Award-winning sci-fi short film THE BOOGEYS takes place in a future in which enigmatic aliens are now occupying the earth. The world is now filled with cities possessing strange dichotomies of futuristic skyscrapers looming over boroughs of shantytowns where humans eke out a meager existence.. In one such city, viewers are introduced to Dawkins (Andrew Troy), a former, down-on-his-luck, law enforcement officer who reluctantly agrees to help a desperate father (Trip Hope) track down his missing son. After interrogating some of the eccentric inhabitants of his city’s borough, Dawkins’ investiga ..read more

Frankly, I try to avoid fantasies set in Medieval Europe or analogs of it, because it is such a tired cliché of the genre. Still, if the story and characters are compelling enough, I am willing give almost any fantasy a look. The German fantasy short, JAGON, is a sterling example. Set in Europe in the 15th century, a saracen princess and her royal guard are being pursued through a mist-filled forest. During her flight, the princess drops a precious relic that is tied to an ancient force. When a hunter finds the relic and princess, he runs afoul of her sinister pursuers - and headlong into a c ..read more

Sci-Fi short CERA opens on a chilling note: during a fog-filled twilight, a woman (Maria Elena Laas) lies injured on the kitchen floor of a house on a lake. The woman’s young daughter, Hailey (Cali DeCapo), and her husband John (Jason Isaacs) frantically attend to her, all while something is banging on their door, trying to get in to the house. The culprit responsible for the attack is CERA - but who or what is CERA? CERA is a gripping proof-of-concept short written by John Irwin for a potential feature. Though its runtime is just shy of eight minutes, this atmospheric film gives you an intri ..read more

The short film 501 DAYS is a Mars space drama unique from all other onscreen stories about the red planet. Directed by Thomas Hockey from a screenplay by Laurence Patrick (who also stars as the male lead in the short), 501 DAYS is based on an actual 2013 proposal by a nonprofit to send a crewed mission to Mars in 2018. The non-defunct Inspiration Mars Foundation, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Denis Tito, was one of several highly-publicized initiatives by private entities to fund and plan a crewed mission to Mars. The foundation’s original mandate was to launch their mission in 2018, bu ..read more

Sci-fi short POINT ZERO kicks off with an act of brutality signaling the extreme level of violence and danger ever-present in the devastating future it depicts. The film opens on a young man searching though the ruins of a once large city. He is on a desperate mission to obtain precious supplies. His quest takes him deep into the enemy territory of feral humans who will kill him on sight. After he breaches the enemy’s compound, he is forced to resort to murder in order to avoid discovery and abscond with the supplies he needs. Unfortunately, he is soon spotted and a life-or-death struggle beg ..read more

Becoming estranged from a close friend can be devastating. The pain, sorrow, and anger arising from a failed friendship is explored in the haunting sci-fi short DEAD LANGUAGES. The film opens with two men sitting together on an unspecified beach, soaking in the majestic beauty of the ocean and the horizon illuminated by the glory of the setting sun. The two men are reflecting on their lives and ruminating on the roles they played in ruining their friendship. It soon becomes evident their emotional scars remain too raw, the relationship too damaged for them to reconcile… before it is too late ..read more