Afterlife

In a near-future where grief can be outsourced, a bereaved artist considers a new outpatient procedure: an AI implant that can copy her mind, replace her with a digital copy, and spare her loved ones the pain of loss. But one unsettling discovery forces her to ask what, if anything, makes us truly irreplaceable. Set one product launch from today, Afterlife is a quiet sci-fi thriller about art, identity, and the slow erasure of the self in the age of artificial intelligence.

Moon

With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.

Self Portraits or: How to talk endearingly to possible victims

Quinn is a grade school teacher who is exploited by a group of memoryless individuals who reeducate his long-term partner Amy.

Smash Cuts! Super Sci-Fi Shorts Fest

Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.

it's raining wet puzzle pieces

Childhood memories continue to live inside me. Some of the most painful ones are the ones that echo the longest.

Deter & Oro

A GIRL WITH HER NEW WALL

The confusion, fatigue, and exhaustion of a twenty-year-old girl were evident when she recently moved into a new, empty house to live in.

Archive

2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI, and his latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs—being reunited with his dead wife.

Tideland

Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.

Brocolis

African American Express

African American Express is an abstract animation exploring the impact of consumerism in the Black community. Told in the style of Soviet Propaganda, this animated short dissects the pattern of excessive materialism and consumption prevalent within the Black population.

Artist at work

Two egg-shaped clown performers try out new ways to impress audiences.

Visceral

Visceral is an exploration of love and vulnerability found in new relationships. Meat and organs mix under the camera in a beautiful union to represent the intricacies of a relationship.

Losing Touch

Searching for life in daily rituals, Losing Touch undertakes a shift in perception and presents the city as an ugly yet ecologically rich landscape. The film depicts the internal dialogue on coping with the grief and fear of ecological degradation, using the local streets of Berlin as a means to materialise and confront these emotions. As both the body and mind begin to wander, encounters with the landscape over a 24 hour period are transformed into an overstimulating and emotionally charged journey. Camcorder footage, film developed in beer and cyanotype create sensational and playful depictions of the surroundings, joining the rats scurrying on the ground and fleeing the night lights with the moths. Creatures of metal and flesh interact within and between the frames, coming together as an ugly yet vibrant community. Subverting the nature-culture dichotomy, a new image of nature is formed, not only as a romantic, distant place, but rather a dirty, omnipresent force.

The Little One and the Giant

This stop-motion animated short film draws us into a post-apocalyptic world through the eyes of a solitary hamster. Wandering through the ruins of once-thriving cities, he scavenges for objects, searches for water, and tries to care for the last surviving plants. One day, he stumbles upon a pair of binoculars. Through them, he spots a strange house covered in flowers, standing in the middle of the urban desert. Intrigued, he sets off to explore and discovers the Giant, a plant-like creature trapped inside its own overgrown sanctuary. Terrified of the outside world, the Giant dares not cross the walls of its home. Petit decides to help. Together, they embark on a journey that’s as simple as it is extraordinary: to make the Earth bloom again.

Black Fish

Darkness and light, as seen by VIFF’s favourite Buddhist erotist. Part of the TOKYO LOOP animation anthology produced by ImageForum Japan.

The Red Queen

A young software engineer ventures into a vivid journey to study a newly developed A.I. interface.

Ex Machina

Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.

Genie in a Barrel

Three strangers discover a strange barrel buried underground in an abandoned field. Each of them is promised a single wish by an unseen presence inside. One asks for love, another for youth, and the third for a second chance.

The Way of Samodelkin

A mystical detective story set in the realm of Moscow art scene. Psychedelic trip through different places, characters and strategies in the search for the Author, covering mythology of Moscow art from the period of 1980-2010. The movie is based on the 'Inspection Medical Hermeneutics' group's text of the same name and on the historical research performed by the authors of the film. Production was an experiment in collective film making experience.