Sea Child

Director: Minha Kim

Year: 2024

An injured boy in the woods. An eccentric groundsman. They’re mortal enemies. They just don’t know it yet. Set over one long night in the English countryside, injured animal rights activist Cameron is tended to by the kind, if bizarre, farmhand Paul – who, he is about to learn, is the local Terrier Man. The encroaching reveal about who each other are unwittingly sets them deep into a paranoid spiral with a grisly end. Official Selection HollyShorts Film Festival 2024

Director: Gemma Rigg

Year: 2026

A feral child befriends a stray dog in a lonely post-apocalyptic world, but at what cost? A stop motion animation set in a post-apocalyptic abandoned village where survivors forage for food through rubble and ruins. Amongst them is Lola, a lonely feral orphan. Her life is changed forever when she detangles a starving stray dog from a plastic bag. Her new friend fills her world with fleeting warmth and she shares what little food she has. But it’s not for a dog, even a starved one. His his tummy rumbles as he sleeps by her side. The dog is gone by morning, leaving a broken-hearted Lola to search all day for her new friend. She finally discovers the disloyal lurcher munching eagerly on a rival survivor's fresh meaty finds. Lola's sweet revenge is served warm, on a silver platter, to the grateful mutt. But what is the true price of this loyalty?

Director: Puzhen Zhang

Year: 2026

One summer in early 2000s China, a shy preteen girl confronts her fear of water — and human connection — when she forms an unexpected, magical bond in the deep end of the pool.