2024 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Tour (Open Captioning)

Program
Essex Girls / U.K. (Director: Yero Timi-Biu, Screenwriter: Busayo Ige, Producers: Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton) — After an incident at her high school pulls her into the orbit of the only other Black girl in her year, “Essex Girl” Bisola is plunged into a journey to discover a whole new side of herself. Fiction. Drama. BIPOC. Women-Centered. Cast: Busayo Ige, Corinna Brown, Maisie Smith, Adrianna Bertola, Krysstina Frempong, Rebecca Dike.

Yero Timi-Biu is an award-winning writer-director who recently directed on ITV drama Three Little Birds and was second unit director on BBC/Amazon thriller Chloe. Timi-Biu has also written on shows for Sky and Netflix and has original shows and adaptations in development with studios internationally. Her shorts have played in competition at festivals such as London Film Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival.

Bug Diner / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Phoebe Jane Hart) — A dissatisfied marriage, a secret crush, and workplace fantasies come to a head in a diner run by a mole with a hot ass. Fiction. Animated. Comedy. Cast: Jacob Levy, Phoebe Hart. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: Animation.

Phoebe Jane Hart is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Working primarily in stop-motion animation, Hart creates films that focus on the human psyche through dark humor and surreal imagery. She graduated with an MFA in experimental animation from California Institute of the Arts. Her short JamieSonShine has screened at Slamdance and won a Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Film Festival.

The Masterpiece / Spain (Director and Producer: Àlex Lora Cercós, Screenwriter and Producer: Lluis Quilez, Screenwriter: Alfonso Amador, Producers: Sandra Travé, Josemari Martínez, Néstor López) — Leo and Diana, a wealthy couple, meet Salif and Yousef, two scrap dealers, at a recycle center. Offering them more junk, Diana invites them to their mansion, but the immigrants actually might be the ones with something she wants. Fiction. Drama. International. Cast: Daniel Grao, Babou Cham, Melina Matthews, Adam Nourou, Guido Grao. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize.

Àlex Lora Cercós is a Spanish filmmaker, winner of seven Emmys and two Gaudí Awards, who has been nominated for a Goya and for the Student Academy Awards. The Masterpiece is his third movie at Sundance. Unicorns is his first feature. He has also co-written and edited We Are Living Things (2022) and co-directed The Fourth Kingdom (2019) and Thy Father’s Chair (2016).

ALOK / U.S.A. (Director: Alex Hedison) — A compelling portrait of Alok Vaid-Menon, acclaimed nonbinary author, poet, comedian, and public speaker. Executive-produced by Jodie Foster. Nonfiction. Biography. LGBTQ+. Cast: Alok Vaid-Menon, Dylan Mulvaney, Chani Nicholas. Produced by Natalie Shirinian, Elizabeth Baudouin, and Meggan Lennon.

Dream Creep / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Carlos A.F. Lopez, Producers: Megan Leonard, Bobby McHugh, Jonathan Caso, Zeus Kontoyannis) — A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice. Fiction. Horror. Cast: Ian Edlund, Sidney Jayne Hunt.
Carlos A.F. Lopez is a multifaceted filmmaker with over a decade of experience in the Seattle underground/DIY scene. His short film Ghosting the Party premiered at Nashville Film Festival 2017 and won a Special Jury Prize. Previously Lopez produced The Procedure, winner of the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Alison Rich is a comedic writer, director, and actor. She’s pumped to return to Sundance with her narrative short Pathological. Her previous short Training Wheels played at the Festival in 2022. Rich currently has a feature in development with Becky Sloviter (Palm Springs). Her writing credits include SNL and The Goldbergs. Acting credits include The Other Two, The Goldbergs, and Drunk History.