Official 2026 Selections
Top 100. All winners. One weekend.
These films and scripts were hand-selected by our judges from submissions across the globe — and every single one is an official award winner. This is your guide to festival weekend.
Browse the full lineup, bookmark this page, and we'll see you on the big screen.
October 15–18 · WME Theater Village 8 · Show Low, AZ
A Second Chance
Director: Kyra Crespin
Faith - Short 11:30 Minutes
Logline:
A Song of Sorrow
Director : Jorrit Van Der Kooi
Faith - Drama Short 15;30 Min
After losing her young daughter, a grieving mother struggles with faith, purpose, and the weight of memory—until an unexpected new beginning forces her to confront whether life still holds meaning, love, and hope.
BACKGROUND
Writer : Joe Leone
Short Script Drama 11 Pages
A soft-spoken man who spends his life unheard and overlooked discovers, only after his death, that his quiet presence meant more than anyone realized, forcing those he left behind, and himself, to confront the weight of what was never said
SCRIPT
Bawdy Count
Writer : John Kestner
Feature Script 103 Pages
A broken romantic joins a divorce recovery group and realizes he's the only sane person when they reveal their plan to kill their exes.
SCRIPT
Behind Silent Eyes
Directors : William Collinson & Ian Goehring
Documentary - Short 13:16 Min
SynThe True story of Ianu Tebetru - his life and journey, Raised in a Romanian orphanage where he suffered termatic abuse, he believed his dreams had come true when at seven years old, Ianu was adopted by an American couple. But his adolescent years were disrupted by his attachment disorder and delinquent behavior until at age twelve, his adopted parents gave him up to the state and into the care of social services.
Birthday
Director: Jorrit Van Der Kooi
Family Short 5:44 Min
SLydia, a birthday clown in her 60s, just wants to go home after a long party—but an eavesdropping grandpa, who overheard something meant for his grandchild, follows her to her car. Is Grandpa Ken just another awkward customer or does he see something in Lydia that she may not even see in herself?
Blood Will Have Blood
Director: John Kestner
Dark Humor Short 14:55 Min
An actress returns to the stage to play Lady Macbeth in a local production just as she discovers that her husband is having an affair with one of her best friends, and Lady Macbeth has advice about what she should do next.
EMERGENCY
Director: Jorrit Van Der Kooi
Drama Micro Short 1:40 min
A 911 dispatcher named Lydia receives a distressing call from a confused elderly woman who believes she has been kidnapped and doesn’t know where she is. As Lydia tries to calm her and gather information, the situation becomes tense and unclear, with another voice entering the scene. As the call unfolds, a surprising connection between past and present begins to emerge, forcing Lydia to interpret what’s really happening
EVERY STEP COUNTS
Director: Lori Lyle
Documentary Short 28:21 Min
A 68 year old man tries to finish 100 ultramarathons to honor the memory of his mother.
From Pharm to Table
Writer: Yvette Noel
Horror Short Scrip 7 Pages
We get a look into the all-American family of the late 80s: The Atkins. A time when families were plugged into each other and not a screen. Susan is the heart of the house, and it never skips a beat with her. She is the wife of Steve Atkins and a devoted mother to two teenagers: Billy and Maddy Atkins. Susan runs a tight ship, and with the ever-changing times, she does her best to keep their home a place of peace and safety. She gets a little assistance from the family doctor. What seemed like a miracle pill turned into a tragedy. Her family will never be the same.
SCRIPT
Hog Heaven : The Pigz Brotherz Story
Director: Scott Simerly Jr
Documentary Short 10:50 Min
For 40 years, the Pigz Brotherz have been a staple of Raleigh's music scene at the iconic Berkeley Cafe, but as the city changes, what happens to the art that built it?
Through the eyes of Danny Squires, the band's charismatic lead singer, we witness a journey of resilience, nostalgia, and transformation, both personal and in the city at large.
IN MONSTER’S HANDS
Writer: Darren W Burch
True Crime Feature Script 120 Pages
A true-crime horror story of a broken police detective searching for a homicidal sexual predator targeting elderly couples in violent home invasions across the country and hiding among Romani Gypsy conmen who prey upon damaged property owners of epic-level natural disasters.
SCRIPT
LAST MINUTE SUBSTITUTION
Writer: Joe Leone
Action-Thriller Feature Script 118 pages
A conflicted Iranian captain, FBI Intelligence Analyst, and a US soccer star must stop a global terror network using a World Cup siege to trigger international war and bury a world-changing energy secret.
SCRIPT
LIFE
Director: Jorrit Van Der Kooi
Inspirational Micro Short 1:40 Min
Two teenagers stand at the edge of a forest as an older man signals the start of a race. As they run, the path repeatedly splits, marked by signs like Acceptance, Compassion, Rewards, Past, and Future. Each choice leads them in different directions, shaping their journey in unexpected ways.
MAKING UNQUIET
Director: Michelle Bauer Carpenter
Documentary Short 25:00 Min
Making Unquiet is a powerful new film that explores the emotional landscape of bipolar disorder—and the profound gaps in understanding that often leave it undiagnosed for years. Through a moving blend of interviews, original music, and visual storytelling, the film invites audiences into a deeply human experience shaped by both struggle and resilience.
Meals That Matter
Director: Stjepan Alaupovic
Documentary Short 22:00 Min
Meals That Matter is an intimate documentary that follows The Joy Bus, a nonprofit delivering chef-prepared, nutritious meals to people navigating cancer. Through reflective, heartfelt commentary from Joy Bus clients, the film offers a glimpse into what nourishment really means.
Measured in Thread
Director : Brian O’Connor
Horror Short 14:44
A victim awakens from a peaceful dream and enters a sterile nightmare as she is forced to listen to her captor recite classic lines of verse while enduring unspeakable cruelty.
Moi, Fabienne
Director: Hamon Keven & Cathelineau Renaud
Drama Short 14:29 Min INTERNATIONAL
Fabienne grew up amidst domestic violence and confinement
in a religious boarding school. At 18, she endured a series of
assaults and kidnappings, but refused to disappear.
On camera, she recounts with dignity her journey of
survival and her rebirth through speaking out. Now a renowned casting director,she bears witness for all those who were unable to escape
My Mom the Mouse
Writer: Brian Weilert
Stop Motion script Drama Series
In this poignant stop-motion mini-series, a middle-aged man's late-night kitchen encounter with a mysterious mouse sparks a whimsical, emotional journey through his family history. Blending sharp humor with profound grief, he revisits eccentric childhood memories and unresolved goodbyes to his late mother, navigating a beautifully handcrafted, tactile landscape toward healing, reconciliation, and long-overdue emotional closure.
SCRIPT
Necessary Betrayals: The Lector
Writer: Brian Weilert
Historical Drama Feature Script 111 Pages
Against the backdrop of 1929 Havana, a newly unemployed schoolteacher becomes the "voice" of a restless cigar factory, unwittingly stepping into the crosshairs of an underground revolution and a devastating web of political intrigue, love, and betrayal. Necessary Betrayals is a sweeping historical drama exploring the power of the human voice, the heavy cost of idealism, and the blurred lines between loyalty and survival. It captures a poignant collision between labor, literature, and revolution, exploring how ideas remain the one thing no tyrant can truly tax.
SCRIPT
PROMISE OF PROTECTION
Writer: Diane Dresback
Medical Mystery Feature Script 109 Pages
A medical mystery thriller. What secrets could drive a father to reach out to his son after 25 years of silence? Joe wants closure—instead, he stumbles into a conspiracy threatening thousands of lives. When he uncovers his father's involvement in hidden experiments, he's thrust into a dangerous world of covert operations and lethal secrets
SCRIPT
RE-CARRY YOUR BURDENS
Writer: Patrick Trejo Jr.
Mystery Drama Script 65 Pages
Trauma needs to be forgotten, or that's what Jeremey Jones thinks, trying to reclaim his life by taking the bait for a dangerous security job, leading him into a scandal that will burn away all that was meant to be forgotten
SCRIPT
THE APOLOGIST
Writer: Joe Leone
Dramedy Short Script 13 Pages
A professional “Apologist” paid to deliver life’s hardest truths is hired by his ex-wife to apologize for his own betrayal. When control replaces sincerity, he faces the one conversation he can’t script.
SCRIPT
Terminal
Director: Diane M. Dresback
Drama Short 11:22 min
Attending a regular support group for the terminally ill is difficult enough, but when one member goes above and beyond for another, it shows how selfless humans can be.
The Ghost’s Father
Writer: Delrey Pearson
Supernatural Thriller Feature Script 99 Pages
The Ghost’s Father is a prestige supernatural thriller that fuses practical engineering logic with haunting, character-driven horror. Designed as a 2-hour pilot event, it plays like a contained feature film while seeding a serialized season arc. Think Haunting of Hill House meets MythBusters with the emotional weight of Manchester by the Sea
SCRIPT
The Thousand Year Old Woman
Writer: Delrey Pearson
Mystery Drama Episode 8 Script 52 Pages
After surviving a fatal incident, Hong Seol becomes the host of Jung Bogo, a thousand-year-old soul, drawing the attention of Detective Ha, who soon dies and is reborn as Princess Min, revealing a parallel cycle of reincarnation. As memories, artifacts, and identities from past lives begin bleeding into the present, Seol/Bogo demonstrates growing power while uncovering a hidden system manipulating events across lifetimes—hinted at through attacks, forged evidence, and tarot warnings about a larger force known as the Boss Banker.
SCRIPT
The Last Train
Director : Jeff Lane
Period Noir Fantasy Short 7:54 Min
At a desolate train station Grace waits for someone she loves on a train that may never arrive. The train she longs for is no ordinary ride—it’s a haunting journey into a time loop from which no passenger returns. Torn between hope and reality, Grace must choose whether love is worth the cost of never moving forward.
The Thrift Store Dress
Director: Suresh Cedrick Pereira
Romane Musical Feature 1 hr 20 min INTERNATIONAL
In the impoverished Oklahoma Panhandle of the 1930s, a young girl receives an unexpected gift—a second-hand dress that becomes a symbol of hope amid hardship. As relentless dust storms ravage the land and families struggle to survive, an innocent friendship blossoms between the girl and a boy in her classroom
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