Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival

SFFSFF

Opens June 1, 2024

Presented by SIFF and the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), SFFSFF celebrates out-of-this-world short cinema and the daring filmmakers who make it happen. Films screened at SFFSFF have gone on to be nominated for Academy Awards, featured in museum exhibitions, internationally distributed, and more.

June 1 - SIFF Cinema Egyptian
Tickets: $23.50 | $21.50 SIFF and MoPOP Members

June 2 - SIFF Cinema Uptown
Tickets on sale for the June 2 encore screening closer to the event date.

SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.

Tickets

Select showtime for pricing and tickets.

Saturday, June 1, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

3:00 PM

It started with film makers: artists from around the world with stories to tell. Artists you’ve never heard of. Artists you should hear of. They took from their surroundings what was needed and made of it something more. MoPOP and SIFF channeled their work to the screen, and now you get to see it.

SFFSFF is a one-of-a-kind festival celebrating out-of-this-world cinema and the daring filmmakers that make it possible. Now in its 19th year, SFFSFF brings the work of short film creators from around the globe to Seattle for one night only. We’re talking world premieres. We’re talking soon-to-be cult movies that aren’t streaming anywhere. We’re talking the origin story for the cutting edge of short film cinema, the stellar nursery for next year’s SciFi and Fantasy storytelling superstars.

It started in the hearts and minds of a global family of filmmakers. It comes to life this June 1 at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. All it needs is you.

DAY 1 (BLOCK 1)

AIKĀNE

Daniel Sousa, Dean Hamer, & Joe Wilson; USA; 14 min.

A valiant island warrior, wounded in battle against foreign invaders, falls into a mysterious underwater world. When the octopus who rescued him transforms into a handsome young man, they fall in love and an epic adventure begins.

A Capsule for Robin

Lalithra Fernando; USA; 13 min.

An optimistic host's dinner party goes awry when her husband reveals he doesn't want to have kids in the face of humanity's impending extinction.

Zeke's Magic Plant Shop

Lucas Marchi & Keaton Hanna; USA; 4 min.

When a cute customer, Tommy, comes to Zeke's Magic Plant Shop, Zeke messes up his potion and turns them both into little plants guys! Now they have to traverse the dangerous plant shop to get the magic B-gone potion and undo the spell while working together and falling in love.

Dragon Saga

Kent Nelson; USA; 8 min.

A young Norse woman, offered as a sacrifice to a dragon, must use her wits to survive. A Viking Age thriller!

Bisected

Danny Pineros; USA; 8 min.

A couple witnesses a paranormal event that separates them into two distinct dimensions.

THE SPRAYER

Farnoosh Abedi; Iran; 9 min.

In a world where all plants are outlawed, one soldier’s unexpected discovery becomes the seed of something extraordinary and ultimately revolutionary.

ExpoZure

Kimson Albert; USA; 8 min.

After the world experiences an atmospheric collapse, a determined scientist races against time to save humanity from self-destruction.

Routine Delivery

Elizabeth Cox, Kirill Yeretsky; USA; 10 min.

22-year-old Ada doesn’t know whether she wants kids, but she definitely doesn’t want to be pregnant and thinks the physical ordeal of childbirth is clearly not suitable for civilians. At her job as a library assistant, she discovers plans for an artificial womb in the private archives and imagines a life where she could have children without giving birth, but soon must confront the unintended consequences of this technology–and of her off-limits research.

Lost in the Sky

Simon Öster; Sweden; 12 min.

A lone rescue robot locates a surviving astronaut about to be consumed by a looming black hole in this live-action space adventure made entirely with practical effects over the course of six years.

IN THE SHADOWS

Nico Isaque Barrett; USA; 11 min.

It was supposed to be a simple mission! A quick pit stop for the spacecraft. But when Nate's shadow comes to life, electronics start going haywire. Now he's stuck out in the middle of space with Cosmo, a robot he doesn't get along with.

CONTENT WARNINGS: FANTASY VIOLENCE/GORE, INTENSE ADVENTURE SEQUENCES

DAY 1 (BLOCK 2)

Fred the Super Computer

Sam Kimbrell; USA; 7 min.

A man looking for answers befriends a supercomputer with control issues in this tech-comedy exploration of why we’re here and how much technology truly means to our existence.

Soulmate

Richard Fenwick; United Kingdom; 15 min.

Anna, a lonely computer coder, has been nurturing an illegal romance with an AI in a computer simulation for the past six months. When her company uncovers the affair, she’s forced into a desperate battle to save her precious relationship.

Future Flowers

Hao Zhou; China; 10 min.

A lesbian and a gay man in a sham marriage ambivalently follow a propagandistic program that nudges them toward a single goal: procreation.

Donut Time

Morning M. Wu; USA; 4 min.

The world is ending, so Harold decides this is the perfect time to eat a donut. However, the Donut is alive and tries to convince Harold to fulfill one last salacious request before the world’s end. Harold refuses, and soon their argument escalates into a fight to the death, leading to an emotional reveal of the Donut’s inner struggle that makes Harold reconsider.

GMAN: a qixia in space

Yuchen Liu; China; 9 min.

The battle between good and evil gets turned on its head in this space adventure short that asks: Who is the hero? And what do arch-enemies truly want?

Las Muertas

Lindsay Philippa Heatley; USA; 7 min.

A group of women channel the supernatural power of La Santa Muerte to avenge themselves against their abusers.

Subject

Fraser whitehead; Australia; 15 min.

The subject of an inhumane scientific experiment is freed from their sensory confinement and allowed to experience the novel environment beyond.

God and the Human Experiment

Julia Yu Ley Pai; USA; 14 min.

When an AI is brought into consciousness, it holds all the answers to the world’s most sought-after questions--that is, all but one: Why don’t straight men want to get pegged?

Death in Training

Miguel Angel Duran; USA; 14 min.

A comedic take on the origin story of the Grim Reaper, with Death as a clumsy trainee who must collect one soul in order to become the next Soul Collector. When he mistakenly takes the soul of the wrong patient, he embarks on a wild journey with Nurse Mariela to return the soul and fulfill his destiny.

Interdimensional Pizza Portal

Aron Kantor; USA; 4 min.

When Grover summons a slice of pizza through an interdimensional portal, his best friend Aliee's concerns about the potential unintended consequences lead them both down a dark path.

CONTENT WARNINGS: BLOOD/GORE, NON-EXPLICIT SEXUAL SITUATIONS, EXPLICIT LANGUAGE, FANTASY VIOLENCE

DAY 2 - Youth Track

Back to Mama!

Caz Weng; Australia; 3 min.

A scientist returns an alien egg back to its mama.

Plica Polonica

Agata Tracevič; Lithuania; 8 min.

People once believed in a disease called plica polonica that would make your hair uncombable. This is the story of one severely tangled girl on the search for a “cure,” seeking answers from the most tangled of them all: the infamous Baba Yaga.

A Shadow’s Glow

Josh Mizrahi & Cole Fourqurean; USA; 5 min.

In a world where light and shadow are personified, a creature of shadow must journey across his dark homeland to return a young spirit of light back to his home battling the elements, his own people, and his instincts as a creature of shadow along the way

Out of Order

Ellen Chee Shao Wei; Singapore; 16 min.

Four kids discover a mysterious, phenomenon in the form of a wish-granting claw machine and start to play around with it, unaware that everything comes with a price.

My Dog’s Leg

Ashton Polak; US; 4 min.

A father creates a monster-driven fantasy story to explain to his daughter how their dog lost her leg—and how he and the dog tried to get it back.

Cohesion

Sara Magdalena Sawicka; Poland; 5 min.

A woman journeys through the depths of her subconscious, where events unfold as surrealistic interpretations of hidden fears.

Enter Your Name

Aubrey Scott; USA; 3 min.

A surreal fantasy film serving as an allegory to the experiences of a pre-transition trans person, with horror elements to allude to the complex emotions and inner turmoil that one can go through.

Wednesday

J. Vega Brando; Spain; 16 min.

33-year-old Luis Miguel is unemployed, lonely, and bored with life—until he realizes that his Wednesdays are disappearing. Turns out a shadowy association is stealing them, and Luis Miguel must turn his sad life upside down to fight back.

Shuck

Emerson New; UK; 5 min.

In a purgatory that looks like the Norfolk Broads, dying souls wander through the tall grasses to find their afterlives. Among them is Murph, a woman on her deathbed, and Shuck, the Grim Reaper in the form of a dog. Together they will attempt to overcome Murph's fear of death and Shuck's loneliness.

Nix’s Symphony

Karina Xiao Loerchner; Canada; 6 min.

Libelle, Nix's mother, possessed exceptional abilities,not only excelling in science and engineering, but also gaining fame as a distinguished inventor and composer. Nix, a young aspiring musician and inventor in her own right, is now burdened with the responsibility of upholding this remarkable legacy.

Ant Hotel

Yu-Hsuan Teng; Taiwan; 9 min.

Somewhere amidst this rain-pouring city, there is a tiny hotel with one counter staff. On this day three sets of guests came by, along with some annoying ants that never go away.

ORR

Jakob Vyzina; Germany; 4 min.

After a fatal accident, Martin copes with the strange requirements of the Office of Rebirth and Reincarnation (ORR) and its administrator, Beate, while trying to find a suitable life for himself.

NAUT

Christopher Powers; USA; 9 min.

Henry and Mel sail the open seas in their minivan. When a storm separates them, Henry is deserted and hopeless until a little bird guides him home.

CONTENT WARNINGS: FANTASY VIOLENCE/GORE, INTENSE ADVENTURE SEQUENCES

AWARD WINNER BLOCK

Our Award Winners Block will be announced on June 1st at our Main Track screening!

TBA CONTENT WARNINGS