26th Annual deadCenter Film Festival

Virtual Live Action Shorts

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53 films in package
ABSOLUTION
A minister visits a grieving family in the midst of a missing mother and finds evil lurking in their home.
The Actor
An actress, a dog, an audition, and the worst birthday ever..
Closed captions available
All the Real Boys
A group of young incarcerated men are tested during an inmate litter pickup day.
The Arrangements
Three Micronesian boys in Hawaii have a day to prepare for a funeral and find their friend’s hidden treasure.
Balloon Animals
Two grocery store employees have an unexpected, helium-fueled encounter with a late-night customer.
Closed captions available
Basic Bandits
SOMETIMES people matter more than the job.
Blondi
Can a dog still be man’s best friend if that man is the Führer?
Caught in the Frame
At the transit hub, every waiting soul carries an untold saga. The voiceover narrates each commuter's tale—only to reveal reality inverted.
Clay
Crack of dawn, little one crawls out craving form.
Damsel in Geekstress (Geekete en Détresse)
When a limited-edition figurine drops online, a reclusive geek spirals into a series of increasingly absurd and violent mishaps while trying to complete her purchase at any cost.
dude. where is my lighter?
When Zane loses his lighter, he searches Shawnee to find it.
Every Time I See A Yellow Car
EVERY TIME I SEE A YELLOW CAR follows Olly (Ty Tennant), brother of Liam (Sam Buchanan), After his brother takes revenge on the perpetrator of his assault, Olly must decide whether to stay silent or speak out, forcing him to confront the cycles of guilt and shame embedded in his family.
First Death
Dead and down-bad, Margot makes one last play for eternal love with the avoidant woman she loved on earth.
Gynoid (Ginoide)
The experiment begins.
Closed captions available
HAND
A heartbroken college student ignores a grotesque hand infection as she develops an obsession with stains on her carpet.
A Hand to Hold
An elderly woman struggles to move on after her husband’s death when he refuses to let go.
Hatchlings
A resentful teenager is forced to babysit her turtle-obsessed half-brother; meanwhile, he dives into a vivid fantasy world where he is a sea turtle and she is a tortoise.
Closed captions available
He Brings the News (Il apporte la nouvelle)
An isolated, eccentric couple develops an unhealthy fascination with their mailman. Violence and absurdity follow as they plunge into a world of phantasmagoric delusion.
Closed captions available
Headphones
A mysterious voice crackles through the headphones of an old Walkman, instructing a young shift worker what he must do to keep his crush alive.
Closed captions available
Heirlooms
153 Fern Avenue
Inside These Walls
An incarcerated father reunites with his wife and daughter for twenty-four hours and attempts to navigate an uncertain future.
The Intimacy Coordinator
Kate is an intimacy coordinator. She is also a sex addict.
Jealous People Are Ugly People
Consumed by his jealousy of his best friend’s sudden career success, Vasilly’s resentment festers, feeding a dark, supernatural force within him.
Julie Takes a Walk
When Julie shows up dishelved to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere, her connection with the bartender is a nice surprise.
The Knight of the Sorrowful Figure
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza set forth on their quest in search of honor, chivalry, and legacy.
KPOP Smoothie
A broke Korean American student walks into a KPOP-themed smoothie store and unknowingly orders an overpriced smoothie.
LATERZ
An aspiring Melbourne rapper and her two best friends want to get her track on the radio and secure the clout that comes with the airtime. Over one afternoon in the suburbs, their dreams start to collide with reality.
Learning to Eat Cake
A young woman reframes a strange and coercive date as a comical tale to her friends in order to make light of the experience.
Closed captions available
Little Bug
In 1957, the Soviet Union sends a dog into space. The night before, a scientist takes her home to meet his daughter, and hopefully help repair their fractured relationship.
Long Time, No See
A dark and uncomfortable comedy in which a heart-warming dinner party reunion turns into a violent nightmare as the host and the guest revisit their traumatic shared history to extreme ends.
Long's Long Lost & Mini Mart
In the seedy back rooms of a Little Saigon convenience store, a young customer seeking closure reanimates his dead father for one last conversation... awakening phantoms of unspoken grief.
Closed captions available
Loud and Cleo ! (Cléo se fait des films)
When life gets boring, get loud.
MAGID / ZAFAR
Tensions arise amidst the heat of a busy British Pakistani takeaway.
Meet the Friends
A commitment-phobic womanizer faces her ultimate test when the one woman she can't resist asks her to break her most sacred rule: meeting the friends.
Moti
One day my dog Moti turned into a boy.
Nervous Energy
On the cusp of success/failure, two unhinged female filmmakers decide to break up with their boyfriends, and for once, make a bold decision with their lives.
Nightfall
Haunted by guilt, a young man seeks forgiveness from a grieving mother—only to be sucked into a nightmarish night of chilling truths.
Ñuuyii (Earth)
A Space Wanderer lands on an unknown planet and recognises glimpses of a forgotten past.
Pinky
Mommy needs some me time.
Pleasure-Seeking
Suffering a pervasive sense of loneliness, Sasha spends her days chasing a constant stream of dopamine—until a bizarre physical malady and a persistent neighbour unearth her unravelling mental state.
Closed captions available
Ramón Who Speaks to Ghosts
After a volcanic eruption, Ramón walks the island of La Palma with his microphone, looking for ghosts.
See Me
When his father refuses to stop reaching out, a young man groomed online at twelve must decide whether to finally let someone see what was left behind.
Sofia
A quick waxing session turns into a nightmare when a Brazilian accidentally gets a brazilian.
Squall Mouth
A teenaged girl seeks to prove herself within the world of Southern hunting dog breeders while navigating the boundary between adolescence and adulthood.
Stutterbug
A stutterer’s attempt to conceal his disability backfires when he bumps into his college crush and her also-stammering brother.
Closed captions available
Taga
Vivi, a third-culture Filipina-American, travels to the Philippines to reconnect with her roots but falls in with a group of Western eco-volunteers. When they scorn the customs of a remote mountain village, an ancient evil comes knocking.
Them That's Not
A sudden prison furlough unexpectedly bonds an estranged father with his emotionally avoidant daughter at their matriarch’s repass.
This Blows
An 11-year-old girl’s misunderstanding of a "blow job” sets her babysitter on a chaotic mission to save her at a birthday party.
Tomorrow
Eric and Oliver develop an unexpected bond after a hug that lasts longer than usual.
Closed captions available
Wall Udder
A dissatisfied woman confronts repressed feelings of malaise after her partner comes home smelling like milk.
Closed captions available
XOLO
A hungry pup searches his home for food and his missing owner, Maria. He finds her lying motionless on the couch just as the Aztec god of death, Xolotl, arrives.
yer smackin
In this nostalgic and heartfelt comedy, an exasperated older brother celebrates his birthday with the person he loves the most: his whiny, obnoxious little sister.
Your Tomorrow Will Be My Song (Tu Mañana Será Mi Canto)
After years of living in Chicago, a Quechua couple envisions their return to their homeland in the Andes.
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Eric and his friend Oliver start hanging out one-on-one outside their male friend group when they realize they have a shared love of movies. In the glow of rolling credits following an art film they watched in Oliver's bedroom, they have a passionate, deep, bonding conversation, and Oliver asks for an embrace that Eric reciprocates, but they end up holding each other longer than a typical hug. Oliver proposes that they hug again for an even longer time, triggering a physically and emotionally affectionate friendship that is both comforting and confusing to Eric.


Oliver has always longed for a best friend he can feel unfiltered with and express physical and emotional intimacy, but Eric is apprehensive about how their relationship feels, and how it will read to their guy friends, Jake and Jaime, and avoids Oliver.


After time apart, Eric realizes how special this connection is and embraces the new type of friendship Oliver offers, leading to the two boys developing a bond that transcends definitions of sexuality, masculinity, and conventional notions of male friendship.

  • Year
    2025
  • Runtime
    27 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Genre
    Drama, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age
  • Social Media
  • Director
    Christian Meola
  • Screenwriter
    Christian Meola
  • Producer
    Kat Barnette
  • Cast
    Oliver Aaro, Eric Ramos, Jake Wilson, Jaime Leal
  • Cinematographer
    Nicola Newton
  • Editor
    Jake Hammond
  • Production Design
    Sarah O'Malley Graham
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