Click image to play trailer and videos
Sundance Film Festival Short Films
June 20 – 21 – 22 & 27 – 28 – 29
Program repeats Fri-Sat-Sun over two weekends
EXCLUSIVE CINCINNATI SCREENINGS
The Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St.
You will not see this program elsewhere
in the Metro area !!!
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Jury Award Winners and Nominees presented with open captions,
plus audience discussion after each screening
Our eleventh annual Sundance Short Film Program is a dynamic showcase of seven standout short films from this year’s Festival, including five Festival Award nominees and two Festival Award winners. The 100-minute curation offers an eclectic mix of storytelling highlighting bold voices and fresh concepts. 
Travel the world from your seat at the Garfield Theatre as this year’s filmmakers include four women and three men, with global perspectives from Cambodia, the Czech Republic, France, Mexico, the USA and Vietnam.
Cementing its status as the premier short film showcase, only 57 shorts were chosen from 11,153 entries submitted to Sundance 2025. After the festival, expert Sundance programmers selected the seven short films they felt best made a cohesive package.
Please join us for this special opportunity to discover a collection of fiction, documentary, and animated shorts filled with humor, emotion, inspiration, and unforgettable characters.
| Fri 6/20 7:00 | Sat 6/21 4:00 | Sat 6/21 7:00 | Sun 6/22 4:00 |
| Fri 6/27 7:00 | Sat 6/28 4:00 | Sat 6/28 7:00 | Sun 6/29 4:00 |
The Sundance program repeats Fri-Sat-Sun over two weekends, offering flexibility for busy patrons. Discount dinner options and ample parking enhance convenience. Film descriptions and event details are in the tabs below.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW MUCH ... DRINKS & DINING
| Fri 6/20 7:00 | Sat 6/21 4:00 | Sat 6/21 7:00 | Sun 6/22 4:00 |
| Fri 6/27 7:00 | Sat 6/28 4:00 | Sat 6/28 7:00 | Sun 6/29 4:00 |
DRINKS & DINING:
FILM DESCRIPTIONS:
DEBATERS
Debaters | USA | 2025 | 10 min | Written, Produced and Directed by Alex Heller | Live-Action Comedy
Nominee: 2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize
The Mock Congressional debate attracts some of the most brilliant high school students in the country, and some of the most unqualified adults as judges. This is Anubhav’s first tournament and he’s terrified of speaking. When an adversarial judge puts him on the spot about minimum wage, he must prove himself in front of a bloodthirsty chamber of debaters.
Debaters shows the growing gap in political discussion and awareness between adults and the younger “Gen Z.” The film is buoyed by an excellent cast including actress J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) and writer-director Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea, Gangs of New York) as adults seemingly in charge, but oddly less grown up than the debating teenagers.
It’s a whipsmart film with snappy dialog and a well-told story.
Sundance Meet the Artist, video with Alex Heller – 2 minutes.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Described by Variety’s Dennis Harvey as “Midwestern Sardonic,” Alex Heller is a filmmaker from the south side of Chicago, who now works between LA, Chicago, and Oslo, Norway.
Her debut feature film The Year Between, an autobiographical comedy about bipolar disorder, has received praise from The New York Times, Variety, Roger Ebert, and NPR. The film stars J. Smith-Cameron and Steve Buscemi alongside Heller. It premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, then received the Audience Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, “Best New Director’s Feature” at the Nashville Film Festival, and was acquired by Peacock.
Her most recent short film Debaters premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is a proof-of-concept for an upcoming feature film, co-starring J. Smith-Cameron and Kenneth Lonergan. Alex is a 2020 Sundance Feature Film Fellow, and a lifelong miniaturist.
SUSANA
Susana | Mexico, USA | 2025 | 15 min | Written, Produced & Directed by Gerardo Cole Escalante & Amandine Thomas | In English and Spanish with English subtitles | Live-Action Comedy
Winner: 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival Shorter is Better Award – Special Mention in Acting
Nominee: 2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize
A middle-aged American tourist, Susana, finds herself alone in Mexico City. When she encounters a group of young Americans, she jumps at the opportunity for adventure.
One of the most charming and beautiful looking films of this year’s selection, Susana is a quiet little film that becomes more quirky and heart-breaking as our main character befriends the travelers and residents of Mexico City.
While Susana stands out amongst the crowd, few things truly get her down, crafting a genuinely likable protagonist who enjoys herself and life even when the rest of the world seems to forget about her.
Sundance Meet the Artist, Gerardo Coelle Escalante & Amandine Thomas – 2 min video.
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Gerardo Coello Escalante is a Mexican writer and director. His short film Viaje de Negocios premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. He was a 2018 Sundance Institute Ignite fellow and a 2019 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive fellow. He was the first assistant director on feature films such as Shiva Baby, Bardo and Reality. He is one half of creative duo THUMPER with creative collaborator Amandine Thomas. Their short film Susana premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Amandine Thomas is a French American writer-director, editor, and the co-founder of the production company Thumper Films. Their short film Viaje de Negocios premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Previously, her first short, Cherry Cola, played at film festivals internationally.
AZI
AZI | USA | 2024 | 14 min | Written & Directed by Montana Mann | Live-Action Comedy
Winner: 2024 HollyShorts Film Festival Best SAGindie Award
Nominee: 2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize
During a weekend vacation with her best friend’s family, seventeen-year-old Azi gets caught up in an unexpected game with another guest.
AZI is at its best when it dives under the surface of awkward interactions, where the subtext of two strangers hiding their true selves turns into a clash for attention and control. Despite the high stakes, the film is low-key, a hazy vacation drama more in the vein of Call Me By Your Name where, on the surface, little seemingly happens. But between the locked eyes of the opposing leads, beautifully shot under the warm summer sun, the true flame of attraction and identity grows bright.
Sundance Meet the Artist – Montana Mann, 1.5 min video
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Montana Mann is a Persian American award-winning writer-director from Virginia. Her short Azi won the SAGIndie Award at the 2024 HollyShorts Film Festival. The feature version was accepted into the Film Independent 2024 Fast Track.
Over the past decade she has collaborated with various brands, agencies, and musical artists, including Sony, Azoff Entertainment, Disney, and Saban Music Latin. She sold an original series pitch to Universal, and Sony optioned her true crime drama series.
As part of the MENA/SWANA diaspora, her work explores the journey of finding one’s identity as a female living between two cultures.
WE WERE THE SCENERY
We Were the Scenery | Vietnam, USA | 2025 | 15 min | Directed by Christopher Radcliff | In Vietnamese with English Subtitles | Documentary
Winner: 2025 Sundance Short Film Jury Award – Nonfiction
After fleeing Vietnam by boat in 1975, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che arrived in the Philippines and were cast as extras in the filming of Apocalypse Now.
The only documentary in this year’s lineup, We Were the Scenery is a reflective hoot. Our lead couple is just wonderful to listen to and be around, with their stories of fleeing Vietnam and their experiences on the set of Apocalypse Now being both weird and insightful concerning cultural divides. Interestingly, a story about Francis Ford Coppola’s odd mango-eating habits evolves into how people in different countries view each other.
Many Americans argue that those living in certain countries are “odd” or “lesser,” but they never seem to think how those same countries view Americans as “odd themselves. It’s less of a put-down, and more an empathetic understanding of those who, as the title suggests, were just the background scenery of a film. It’s a documentary that will long make you think more about those small extras in movies and what lives those actors lead.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Christopher Radcliff is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York City. His work has screened worldwide including at Sundance, SXSW, Clermont-Ferrand, and Rotterdam film festivals, and online via Criterion, Short of the Week, Vimeo Staff Picks, and Lé Cinema Club.
His first feature film The Strange Ones was released theatrically in 2018, and was named by John Waters as one of the top ten films of the year. He is a member of the WGAE and the Motion Picture Editors Guild, and a recipient of fellowships from Oxbelly and Almanack Screenwriters. His latest project, the short film We Were the Scenery premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Short Film Jury Award for Nonfiction.
HURIKÁN
Hurikán | Czech Republic | 2024 | 13 min | Written, Animated & Directed by Jan Saska | Animated Comedy
Winner: 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival Audience Award
Nominee: 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival Best Short Cristal
Nominee: 2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize
Nominee: 2025 SXSW Animated Short Grand Jury Prize
Hurikán rushes to save his favorite beer stand from closure by fetching a new keg to impress the bartender he crushes on. In a wild Prague district, he faces robbers, cops, and his own thirst.
The only animated film in this year’s shorts slate, Hurikán is a weird, hilarious, and wonderfully animated tale of a night for a lonely pig-man that just keeps getting worse and worse. The animation style uniquely blends hand-drawn style with CGI, and told through stark black-and-white imagery, is something rarely seen within the world of animation.
The romance at the heart of this tale also sneaks up on you in the end, making every disastrous conflict all the more harrowing and our hero’s exploits all the more engaging. While reminiscent of films like Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso or Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, Hurikán is a thrilling and original piece delighting festival audiences around the world.
Sundance Meet the Artist, Jan Saska – 1.5 min video.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Jan Saska is a Czech animation director and comics author. After premiering in Directors’ Fortnight at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, his film Happy End was shortlisted for the 2017 Oscars. Hurikán (2025 Sundance Film Festival) is a short comedy based on Saska’s original comic character of the same name.
SUCH GOOD FRIENDS
Such Good Friends | USA | 2025 |11 min | Written, Produced & Directed by Bri Klaproth | Live-Action Comedy
Nominee: 2025 Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize
A truly deranged-comedy, Such Good Friends is filled with hilariously-annoying characters that you just want to say no to. The film focuses on issues concerning friendship and codependency, specifically through the lens of leaving those you know behind.
Even though it might be hard to hurt the feelings of people who want to be close to you, it’s even harder to manage a relationship with those who want to use you rather than earnestly be your friend.
Sundance Meet the Artist, video with Bri Klaproth – 2 minutes.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Bri Klaproth is a writer, director, and producer. Her producing credits include Vimeo Staff Pick for Herly and the viral short The Cowboy and the Samurai. Her debut feature, Big Fun, which she co-wrote and produced, won Best Comedy Film at the 2023 Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.
GRANDMA NAI WHO PLAYED FAVORITES
Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites | Cambodia, France | 2025 | 19 min | Written & Directed by Chheangkea | In Central Khmer with English subtitles | Live-Action Drama/Comedy
Winner: 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Short Film Special Jury Award – International Fiction
Nominee: 2025 San Francisco International Film Festival Narrative Short Golden Gate Award
During her family’s Qingming visit, dead Grandma Nai sneaks away from her afterlife after overhearing that her Queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman.
It’s easy to see why the earnest and loving Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites won the Best Short Film Jury Award for International Fiction. The premise alone is a joy, as we watch the story through the lens of the deceased Grandma Nai and her “friend,” complaining about her family arriving during Qingming (a tomb-cleaning festival to honor ancestors) and mocking family-members who weren’t her favorite.
At the heart of the film, however, is Nai’s focus on her grandson, a young man whose family is forcing him into a straight relationship which he awkwardly accepts despite Grandma Nai knowing that he likes men, not women. It’s an incredibly sweet picture, and a wonderful way to end the 2025 Sundance Short Film Tour.
Sundance Meet the Artist, video with Chheangkea – 2 minutes.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Born in Cambodia, Chheangkea is a filmmaker in Brooklyn and received his MFA from NYU’s Graduate Film Program. He is a former Marcie Bloom fellow and a Sundance TAAF scholar. Through his films, Chheangkea seeks to showcase the complexities and nuances of queer and Cambodian stories. His previous short film, SKIN CAN BREATHE, was a finalist of the 2022 HBO Max APA Visionaries competition and is now streaming on Max.
His debut feature film, LITTLE PHNOM PENH, is currently in development, having been selected for the 2024 HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab, MunichFilmUp, NYU Purple List, and the 2025 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab.
As a cinematographer, Chheangkea has worked on award-winning short films that have played at festivals worldwide. His cinematography work enables him to collaborate with other talented directors and further refine his visual language and storytelling.
