2024 Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference

Shorts Program 4: The Ties That Bind
TRT 97 MIN

Bright Forests
(USA, 15 MIN)

Writer/Director: Chadwick Harman
Cast: Jeffrey Larson, Victoria Kelleher, Jim Meskimen, Matty Cardarople

An astronomer sends a message to a distant Alien intelligence, while his daughter waits forty years for the reply.

Enjoyment
(USA, 16 MIN)

Writer/Director: Ifeanyi Osarodion Dike
Cast: Ifeanyi Osarodion Dike, Blaine Kern III, Steve Olson

Chinua is a Nigerian immigrant struggling to make it in LA. Without a green card, he turns to unconventional work to get by.

guts
(USA, 11 MIN)

Writer: Jan Rosenberg
Director: Margaux Susi
Cast: Kate Burton, Angela Giarratana

Desperate for help, a woman in recovery asks an unlikely stranger on a dinner date.

Hi, Friends!
(USA, 8 MIN)

Writer/Director: Wheaton Simis
Cast: Chris Myers, Molly Camp, Madeline Wise, Ethan Dubin

Hi, Friends! is a cringe-inducing short film that takes place in the all-too-familiar present day of New York City. The world is closing in around us, and it’s a battle of wills for who can go the longest before the obvious is proclaimed: we are not OK.

In Our Own Way
(USA, 6 MIN)

Writer/Director: Jason Headley
Cast: Matt Jones, Michael Mosley, Kevin McCorkle, Jan McGuire

A man misses his chance to say goodbye to his dying brother.

Lice
(India, 13 MIN)

Writer/Director: Vindhya Gupta
Cast: Perry Chhabra, Priyanshi Sharma, Vashnavi Trivedi, and Rishika Yadav.

12-year-old Roshni forges a bond with the class outcast, Chakor, to keep her lice infestation a secret. The malicious lie looms large over Roshni as a real friendship blossoms between them.

Something Borrowed, Something Pink
(USA, 9 MIN)

Writer: Nadia Johnson
Director: Nadia Johnson, Ben Snyder
Cast: Samora la Perdida, Yadira Guevara, Mackenzie Lansing, Allie Vazquez

A trans woman attends the bachelorette party of her best friend's fiancée, leading to a night of social tension, vulnerability, and self actualization.

Thirteen
(USA, 19 MIN)

Writer: Allison Norlian
Director: Allison Norlian, Jean Li
Cast: Naomi Rubin, Rena Strober, David Pevsner, Lee Shorten

Confronting her disabled daughter's terminal diagnosis, a mother fights to have her become a Bat Mitzvah in their synagogue, which refuses to break from tradition.