International Science-Fiction Short Film Showcase 2022

Fantasia’s annual showcase of provocative sci-fi shorts returns with eight works from six countries that will flood your emotions.

From the USA, Farbod Ardebili brings us a touching cut of tragedy with THE GIFT, in which a father and his son confront an extraterrestrial visitor with unknown intentions. Kryzz Gautier’s poignant KEEP/DELETE envisions a future where memories are stored like files, allowing broken couples the ability to wipe every trace of a relationship from their minds—provided that both consent to the procedure. Icelandic filmmaker Haukur Björgvinsson’s HEARTLESS imagines a future society where citizens are assigned new romantic partners by lottery every seven years. A young couple in love watch their calendars with devastation, anticipating the day when they will be broken up and forced to live with a stranger. A phenomenal film.

Germany delivers Marc Philip Ginolas’ haunting TILL. In a near future time, people who are deemed to have lost their value to society, be it through aging, frailty or a lonely existence, are encouraged to upload their memories into an AI and let their bodies perish. From France, Sarah Hafner’s stylish and hilarious S.O.S. sees a senior couple hoping to contact alien life for helpful advice that might save the planet from global warming and pollution. They get their wish. Sort of. Britain’s Nichola Wong brings us the lightning bolt that is STRUCK, in which a young woman has a harrowing out-of-body experience in a vast countryside space. A man struggles with his robotic spacesuit in Soren Bendt and Paul Arion’s FIELDTRIP, an epically mounted, darkly comedic look at our ability (or not) to work with the technology we create. Hong Kong filmmaker Wai Mo Chan’s ANIMA POSSESSION is a gorgeously executed romance where a woman’s relationship with her android girlfriend is destabilized after the lover develops feelings for a robot and realizes how little she has in common with her owner. A smart and edgy discourse on romantic possessiveness and the intangible nature of love. – Mitch Davis