Content warning: TBD A collection of narrative short films (in the Experimental genre) in contention for official selection, nomination as Quarterfinalist for both genre and technical categories. One will win the Quarter Final and be named BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM of the 1st Quarter of 2026! Audience Choice balloting is open. Your vote counts!

A man watches an obese man consume spaghetti with unsettling desire. Each bite blurs the line between pleasure and destruction. As the man’s fascination turns to fear, the act of eating becomes a haunting metaphor for addiction—beautiful, grotesque, and impossible to look away from.

Lust

The act of eating becomes a haunting metaphor.

In a surreal and satirical world, a refugee family from Absurdistan accidentally sets their new home in the United States of Fabrica on fire, only to discover that Fabrica’s firefighters are utterly useless and don’t know how to turn off fire caused by a spice from Absurdistan. As chaos unfolds, three bumbling firefighters from Absurdistan embark on a bureaucratic and comically impossible journey to reach Fabrica and put out the flames—if they can ever get past the red tape.

Magas

Three bumbling firefighters embark on a bureaucratic and comically impossible journey

The work explores sound as an evolving system rather than a narrative or expressive medium. Music and image operate together as a single process in which rhythm, density, and temporal change generate abstract visual structures. The visual language remains entirely non-figurative, composed of geometric forms and spatial transformations synchronized with the musical architecture.Each movement represents a distinct state of the system. Instead of telling a story, the piece advances through shifts in energy, pace, and internal organization. Micro-climaxes and transitions articulate the overall structure, emphasizing continuity, repetition, and transformation across the four movements.There are no performers on screen. By removing the visual presence of musicians, the work redirects attention from performance to process, allowing sound to function as an architectural force and image as its temporal trace.Process invites the viewer to experience sound as structure in motion — a system that unfolds, transforms, and sustains itself over time. The work can be presented both as a cinematic projection and as a sound-driven visual environment.

Process Architecture of Sound

Process is an audiovisual composition structured in four movements.

Sol Andrews drives from San Diego to Tijuana to purchase memories in a dystopic future.

Border Memories

Purchasing memories in a dystopic future.

Enemy Heroes is a multi-level WWII version of ‘All Quiet on The Western Front’ in which the audience agonizes over the heart-wrenching choices the protagonists are forced to make – and in so doing clarifies their own values.It’s not a film about War. It is a film about Humanity.

Enemy Heroes

Enemy Heroes “Because... sometimes it is not easy to tell... Who is the Enemy?.. Who are the Heroes?”

SDSFF Narrative Short Films: Experimental

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Celebrating the art of storytelling through short films, showcasing the work of talented filmmakers from around the world. From thought-provoking dramas to captivating animations, the festival presents a rich tapestry of storytelling, offering a platform for emerging and established filmmakers.

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