Raymond, a lounge-singing darts champion, finds his prayers are answered when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts. The catch is that the one woman he loves—Kelly, a drummer in his band, is already in love with Ray’s best friend Fozzie, the guitarist in the band. But when Ray uses the darts in a loony scheme to resolve this strange romantic triangle, he learns a surprising lesson about unrequited love and discovers his own place in the universe. Romance is in the air in this bohemian romantic comedy. Winner of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Short Film: Live Action and the 2010 Student Academy Award in the live action category.

Quiet and sincere nine-year-old Sam is worried about making his first confession at church. His conscience is clear, therefore he cannot hope for any relief from the experience. He and his friend Jacob decide to remedy that situation by committing a sin so that Sam has one to confess, but their initially innocent prank turns unexpectedly tragic. Winner of the Student Academy Award in the foreign film category in 2010 and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film: Live Action. [adult content]

By 2036, data loss has become a thing of the past. All digital media is instantly uploaded to the internet and permanently stored in the cloud, safely backed-up on servers scattered around the world. Only a handful of small businesses in the world have the expertise to recover data from pre-cloud devices. On a hot summer day, a young man named Kai visits Digital Antiquities, a store in eastern Pennsylvania specializing in data recovery and sales of vintage electronics. He shows Cat, the store’s only employee, an old compact disc left to him from his deceased mother and asks her to recover its contents. Kai is desperate to retrieve the information in order to unearth a long-lost secret and is at
the mercy of Cat for her help.

Jim Teece Audience Award Best Short Film: Narrative

When Michael, a shy American tourist, meets Geneviève, the Parisian girl of his dreams, at the Louvre museum, he is determined not to let her get away. But when a misplaced cellphone threatens to upend Michael’s chance to see Geneviève again, he must undertake a journey through the streets of Paris, aided by the mysterious Maestro, an old street poet.  A sweet, funny meditation on life and the pace at which it is lived, the film looks at love and how much one’s life can change in a wink of the eye. Featuring Michael Gladis from the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning show, Mad Men.

Juried Best Narrative Short

A young boy awakens from a nightmare on a dark and stormy night. His cries wake his father who comes to his bedside. The father proceeds to regale the boy with a dark and epic bedtime story that is one part history, one part autobiography, two parts make believe and riddled through and through with the honest-to-goodness truth. This haunting, allegorical story leaves us with plenty to interpret. Featuring Will Oldham from Wendy and Lucy (2009 AIFF). [adult content]

On a cold winter in northern Missouri a gun rests on a pregnant belly, rising and falling with the quivering breaths of June Allman, 24. Through the frosted windows of her car, June glares at a lone house across the road. She summons the courage and storms inside, where she confronts Robert Crogan—the man who raped her. The father of her unborn child. With a gun to Robert’s chest, June demands an admission of guilt, but June soon finds, as with all matters of life and death, that nothing can be so simple. Featuring Jeannine Kaspar who was awarded a Special Jury Mention for Acting in Paper Covers Rock at the 2009 AIFF. [adult content, language, violence]