Join CFF as we take a journey into the longer side of short cinema. One of the many joys of presenting our festival in a hybrid format is that it allows us to include so many amazing films that our time limitations during our in-person days wouldn’t allow, and it also gives us the freedom to program more short work with running times 15 minutes and above. It can be challenging for festivals to make longer short films work when space in blocks is limited, and we’re grateful that our two-volume Fun Size Epics block gives us a chance to share an exceptional group of films that pack more world-building and storytelling in their run times than some features can manage.

Dark Mommy (2023): Based on an episode of the Please Leave podcast, this is all about Ben, the only night shift 911 operator in his small town, which mainly means that he deals with prank callers and drunks. However, this is the night that Dark Mommy has arrived and has plans for everyone in town. It all starts with a frightening phone call and gets even more intense.

Directed by Courtney Eck, who wrote this film with James Gannon, this looks stellar. My main issue was the end, as it seems like it jumps from the night of the Dark Mommy rising and then jumps right to the aftermath. It moves so quickly that I had to go back a few times as I was sure I missed something.

Madame Hattori’s Izakaya (2022): Directed and written by Shanna Fujii, this thriller is about a chef and those who are permitted to attend her very private dinners. Shot in Arizona, this film was a collaboration between restaurants, chefs, filmmakers and the Asian community. Featuring food made by chefs Nobuo Fukuda, Paulo Im,  Justin Park, Kevin Rosales and Tyka Chheng and shot at Nanaya Japanese Kitchen, this also has nails from Slain Studios and was sponsored by Sapporo and Crescent Crown Distributing.

Fujii had over thirty artists all collaborating on this film and all of the info above wouldn’t mean much if it wasn’t so interesting. And it is. It answers an intriguing question: How can a chef become so well known when she has never eaten food in her life?

The Garden of Edette (2023): In this Creole Southern gothic, Edette (Gwendolyn Fuller Mukes) may be an elderly woman, but she will live forever as long she keeps luring in victims for her flesh-eating garden. Her next victim will be a young girl named Perri (Mandysa Brock), except that Edette finds herself growing closer to her, feeling a kinship. Now, she must choose between betraying her friend and dying alongside her garden. Directed by Guinevere Fey Thomas, who wrote it with Chiara Campelli and Melisande McLaughlin, this looks incredible and tells a unique story that you don’t find all that often in horror. You can learn more at the official site.

Eyes Like Yours (2023): A hospice nurse remembers her long dead mother when she sees the eyes of one of her patients. She becomes devoted to the patient and starts to use her to recreate her mother, at least in her own mind. Directed and written by Gabrielle Chapman, this has excellent acting by Penelope Grover as Dawn, Lex Helgerson as Alison, Lynnsey Lewis as Isla and Ashlee Weber as the idealized version of the mother that the film keeps returning to. So many of the films that I watched this week at CFF dealt with the loss of a parent or trying to recapture their love. Each went in their own direction and this one has an intriguing physical direction.

Volition (2023): After getting kidnapped and taken to a sex trafficking house, Emma (writer Emily James) brings together all the victims of the house, as well as past people who lives have been harmed, to create an escape plan and get revenge. Directed by Ashley George, this film’s villain Christoph (Zachary Grant) is the kind of horrible human being that you can’t wait to see get what they deserve. Good news. This is a short so you don’t have to wait long. For the budget and the running time, this pulls off tension and action well.

INKED (2023): Directed and written by Kelsey Bollig — who also made another short I enjoyed, Kickstart My Heart — INKED is about Dylan (Kaikane, Night of the Bastard), whose father has just died in prison. His friends were angry that she didn’t have a priest at the funeral, but from what she knew of him, she figured he wouldn’t want that. Instead. she honors him with a new tattoo from her friend Bruno (Chris Cortez) using his ashes. Yet that ink sears into her skin, keeping her awake at night and asleep during the day, bathing her dreams in violent red hues and letting something evil loose. The end of this comes suddenly, but I loved this short and it would make for an even better long form feature.

Floater (2023): When their abusive father (Jeffrey Nordling) dies in the bathroom, Phillip (Jacob Wysocki) and Melanie (Darcy Rose Byrnes) both deal with the loss in very different ways. While his sister and mother (Christine Elliott) do their best to deal with their grief, he preserves the last thing that he has of his father, his last bowel movement which is able to speak to him, telling him that he wants to fix things. Phillip locks himself into the bathroom and refuses to allow anyone else in. The first project by director and writer D.M. Harring, this may have some disgusting moments, but its heart understands the pain of grief.

You’ll probably never see another movie where a son builds a memorial to his father and creates a doll out of his feces. That may not sound like a strong review, but it is. This has real emotion inside every second.

Mort (2023): A mortician named Mr. Underwood (Andy Farmer) and his timid new assistant Lane (Josh Bernstein) have to stop the Lancasters, a family that nearly everyone hates and for good reason, from freaking out when their patriarch Mort (Les Lannom) becomes a zombie and walks away. From Pastor Tim (T Brown) farting in people’s faces to the way the entire family behaves, this feels like my hometown. Except for the zombies, but I did grow up next to Evans City Cemetery where Barbara had them coming to get her. Directed and written by Charlie Queen, this is a fun take on the zombie film. Mort even knows how to do the neck bite from Dawn of the Dead.

Up On the Housetop (2023): The Holloway kids — Olivia (Kayla Anderson), Dylan (Samantha Holland), Donnie (Michael Fischer) and Todd (Dakota Millett) — weren’t looking forward to the holidays after the death of their parents. They’re going to hate the season even more now because — spoiler warning — they accidentally murder Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, thinking that he’s a robber. Now, they’re going to be lucky if they survive this Silent Night with deadly reindeer demanding revenge.

Directed by Dakota Millett and Michael Fischer, who wrote it with Laura Herring, this really does have it all. By all, I mean killer reindeer POV camera, baseball bats covered with holiday lights, a Mario Bava-esque image of a roof filled with reindeer and…this really needs to be a full length film. I don’t think I can ask Santa for that.

Robbie Ain’t Right No More (2023): Sarah (Madeleine McGraw, The Black Phone) used to be close to her brother Robbie (Jadon Cal, Last of the Grads). Over dinner and dealing with the loudmouth Andy (Walker Trull), he reveals the scars all over his body from warfare. What no one can see are the scars that exist in his psyche.

Directed and written by Kyle Perritt, who served as a Marine, this soon has the family discussing what’s wrong with Robbie, from his father Vernon (Jason Davis) saying that his son isn’t right no more and his mother Peggy (Emily Deal) feels useless. As for Robbie, he tells his sister that he feels like someone else is driving him now.

This feels like Deathdream and The Guest, which are high compliments. While this short seems to tell the complete story, this has enough power to be its own full-length film. Perritt has plenty of talent and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I did see some reviews of this that criticized the short for starting in the middle of the story and not explaining what Robbie was like before. To me, that’s what’s thrilling here. We’re thrust in the middle of the story and must figure it out just as Sarah must.

Good Girls Get Fed (2023): Rose (Kelly Lou Dennis), Daffodil (Kayla Klein) and Iris (Paula Velasquez) are trapped inside a windowless room, given silent commands that are written on a wall. If they answer these challenges, they get the food that they need to survive.

The time in captivity may feel like it’s driven them against one another, but they know that if they work together, they can escape. Yet is there something even worse waiting?

Directed by Kelly Lou Dennis, who wrote this short with Kayla Klein and Sarah Rebottaro, this finds whoever is giving the commands to often just be fixated on the male gaze. At other times, it is using what the women have the most trauma with and playing it against them. Even how they’re dressed is a man’s fantasy.

I don’t want to spoil this but the end is total nihilism. Wow.

Lost Boys Pizza (2023): On Halloween, two theater kids head off to dance. As you can tell by the title, they find vampires there. One, a turned enemy from high school distracted with a bloody tampon and then Dracula himself on the dance floor. Directed by Cassie Llanas and written by Tatjana Vujovic, this looks beautiful and would probably be a ton of fun to watch with an audience. As it was, I can only dance so much in my living room before the neighbors start to notice.

The Kindness of Strangers (2023): Stacy (Nell Nakkan) and Anna (Angela Jaymes) are out driving around on a night back home from college. A woman (Tammie Baird) seems to be in shock and they agreed to take her to a hospital. Yet there’s something horribly wrong with her that will change this night for both of them. It’ll also make you question if there is such a thing as a helpful person. Directed by Stu Silverman, who wrote this short with Kathryn Douglas, this is a mean movie that refuses to protect its characters. Well worth watching.

Vespa (2023): When Luiza comes to visit her mother Celia at her new home, something immediately seems off. Could it be V, the new caretaker, the woman who Celia now believes is her daughter? Does it upset Luiza that her mother has always been so cold to her and yet now is so loving to a stranger? Or could V be quite literally be planting seeds that will keep Luiza trapped at home forever and always under loving care that she never wanted? Directed and written by Olívia Ramos, this was an intriguing watch with gorgeous tones and visuals.

The Lonely Portrait (2023): This is a perfect short. An AirBnB guest (Andrew Weir, who wrote the script with director Marc Marashi) guest finds a blank spot on the wall that he soon fills with a strange painting. Every time he steps away, that portrait changes and begins to take things from our world. It’s a gorgeous creation, as it’s a digital painting that was motion tracked into each scene. This is filled with some incredible angles, including one inside the world of the painting. You know where it’s going each step of the way yet when it gets there, it’s so well made that you’ll want to cheer. A triumph.

Carnivora (2024): Ana (Gigi Zumbado) comes home to take care of her grandmother Yaya (Julia Vera), along with Maribel (Carmela Zumbado), who never leaves home and is her caregiver. This leads to the natural argument over Ana being a prodigal sibling or Mari being a martyr for remaining. Their mother has disappeared and no one knows what happened. And that’s because — spoiler warning — Yaya eats people whole and keeps them alive inside her. I feel this movie more than I would like to admit and director Felipe Vargas has created an amazing way to reflect what it’s like to watch a loved one disappear.

Too Slow (2023): An insecure man has fallen for the oldest trick in the book: up high, down low, too slow. This sends him off the deep end, obsessed with getting an apology. Instead, he gets fooled again with the stain on your shirt scam. That’s too much. Now, he loses everything he had and starts becoming the man he hates, buying a Tesla, wearing a wool suit and acting like a complete cryptobro. Everything comes to a head at a birthday party and blood will be spilled. Danielle McRae Spisso and Stephen Vanderpool have crafted something amazing here, a story that we may have all lived yet in a place that goes further than we expect.

You can watch so many of the films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. I’ll be be posting reviews and articles over the next few days, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watches.