• UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

Whether for the camera or for an audience, for family, friends, or complete strangers, this collection of films digs into what it takes to mount a memorable performance.

Showtimes

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Festival Theaters 1

Short Films

DORMILÓN

In a quest to become the performer of his dreams, Dormilón, a starry-eyed and middle-aged janitor living in an abandoned theater, must confront his nightmares face-to-face.

CLEAN SLATE

Two Asian nonbinary best friends and actors must make some sacrifices when they go up for the same breakout role.

LITTLE REBELS CINEMA CLUB

In 2008, 14-year-old Doddy sets out to recreate an iconic scene from a zombie film with three of his best friends, using a handycam belonging to Anji, his sad and angry emo brother.

SAMRA’S DOLLHOUSE

Heartbroken director Samra casts Hedi as the perfect male lead for her romance film. During rehearsals, Hedi begins to suspect his role eerily mirrors reality. As tensions rise, the lines between truth and fiction begin to blur.

BRIEF SOMEBODIES

During rehearsal, a filmmaker and the actor hired to sexually assault him on screen form a bond they'll soon be forced to reconfigure.

MAIN MAN

A German tourist who gained fame in the 1970s after becoming lost in America and a washed-up one-hit-wonder indie rocker are connected across history by feelings of having already peaked.

BURNING INSIDE

Raised in a neo-Pentecostal evangelical family at the heart of Brazil's rising religious movement, Samuel’s world is upended when his father forbids him from dancing in church as he begins to embrace his queer identity.

ShortFest 2025