Midnight Shorts Competition presented by IMDbPro
Midnight Shorts Program
Bite-sized bits for all your sex, gore, and hilarity cravings.
Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.
Program Includes:
Ikenna is a fifteen-year-old asylum seeker living at a Direct Provision centre on the outskirts of Limerick, Ireland where an ominous mould has inexplicably surfaced in the room he shares with his older brother, Chima. Navigating the much controversial challenges of poor treatment in such centres, these brothers choose not to report it for fear of facing deportation. However, after Ikenna witnesses a series of disturbing events, he is prompted to request new accommodation; a demand that would only reveal something much more sinister.
"Pennies from Heaven" is a short comedy about two eccentric twin sisters who work at a convenience store and stumble upon a pickup truck full of pennies. It’s an absurdist farce in the middle of the desert and the twins follow the adventure wherever it takes them - only to end up right back where they started.
Cool Cat invites you! To join the world of "Pussy Love." Enjoy a show of lust and laziness! Let’s have fun with tits and dicks. The claws are sharp, the soda is sparkling and the fur is getting wet. Romance is kitsch. But even the most jaded cat can still be lost for love.
Get to know the Mundanes, a faceless suburban family with an unusual appetite. This "Guide to the Happy Family" is a surreal daymare homage to classic PSAs of mid-century America.
Two dudes think they found the cure for zombie bites.
An isolated young woman uses her vibrator compulsively — until it starts deforming her body in disturbing ways. To regain control and change the way she masturbates, she goes on a journey through a lurid underground of corporate neurologists and orgasm gurus, none of whom seem to have her best interests in mind. Ultimately, there’s little she can do to withstand her vibrator’s eerie influence.
Disaffected, young gas-station clerk Maya doesn't care about much besides messing with her manager and getting her beer discount at the end of the midnight shift. But after a sinister race of mind controlling parasites are set loose by irresponsible oil drillers, Maya realizes that there might be more to life than spending all your waking hours stacking shelves for a corporate overlord.
After a young Arthur stumbles into the spirit world, Hiro, his father, and captain of an elite SWAT Samurai team, rescues him from a terrifying Yokai Spirit, solidifying Arthur's unrealistic admiration for his savior. Years later, Arthur prepares to enter the spirit world again with a squadron SWAT Samurai to recover Hiro and his team from another Yokai spirit, the Kodama. After battling their way through a swarm of Tengu, the team find Hiro. Unbeknownst to them, he is actually a Fox Spirit disguised as Arthur's father. It will take Arthur's discernment of who he wants his father to be verses who is father actually is in order to beat this shape-shifting Fox Spirit.
The realtor told them the house was haunted. That doesn't stop long-term millennial couple, Maya and Danny, from moving in anyway. It has great bones, and in this market... After years of compromise, and losing track of what she wants, Maya finds part of herself that’s been missing in the spirits that occupy their new house.
After a harrowing break up, Dan moves in with his best buds for a change in tempo. Things take a dissonant turn when one of his new roommates steals a nude of his ex. While retrieving his precious keepsake, Dan uncovers a dark secret about his band of friends that will change his tune forever. And that’s just the tip…
Directly responding to a period of cultural ambivalence and uncertainties, "Run" urgently examines the collective will to exist and explores the opportunities for empathy, participation, and the absurd present in everyday life.
Ikenna is a fifteen-year-old asylum seeker living at a Direct Provision centre on the outskirts of Limerick, Ireland where an ominous mould has inexplicably surfaced in the room he shares with his older brother, Chima. Navigating the much controversial challenges of poor treatment in such centres, these brothers choose not to report it for fear of facing deportation. However, after Ikenna witnesses a series of disturbing events, he is prompted to request new accommodation; a demand that would only reveal something much more sinister.
"Pennies from Heaven" is a short comedy about two eccentric twin sisters who work at a convenience store and stumble upon a pickup truck full of pennies. It’s an absurdist farce in the middle of the desert and the twins follow the adventure wherever it takes them - only to end up right back where they started.
Cool Cat invites you! To join the world of "Pussy Love." Enjoy a show of lust and laziness! Let’s have fun with tits and dicks. The claws are sharp, the soda is sparkling and the fur is getting wet. Romance is kitsch. But even the most jaded cat can still be lost for love.
Get to know the Mundanes, a faceless suburban family with an unusual appetite. This "Guide to the Happy Family" is a surreal daymare homage to classic PSAs of mid-century America.
Two dudes think they found the cure for zombie bites.
An isolated young woman uses her vibrator compulsively — until it starts deforming her body in disturbing ways. To regain control and change the way she masturbates, she goes on a journey through a lurid underground of corporate neurologists and orgasm gurus, none of whom seem to have her best interests in mind. Ultimately, there’s little she can do to withstand her vibrator’s eerie influence.
Disaffected, young gas-station clerk Maya doesn't care about much besides messing with her manager and getting her beer discount at the end of the midnight shift. But after a sinister race of mind controlling parasites are set loose by irresponsible oil drillers, Maya realizes that there might be more to life than spending all your waking hours stacking shelves for a corporate overlord.
After a young Arthur stumbles into the spirit world, Hiro, his father, and captain of an elite SWAT Samurai team, rescues him from a terrifying Yokai Spirit, solidifying Arthur's unrealistic admiration for his savior. Years later, Arthur prepares to enter the spirit world again with a squadron SWAT Samurai to recover Hiro and his team from another Yokai spirit, the Kodama. After battling their way through a swarm of Tengu, the team find Hiro. Unbeknownst to them, he is actually a Fox Spirit disguised as Arthur's father. It will take Arthur's discernment of who he wants his father to be verses who is father actually is in order to beat this shape-shifting Fox Spirit.
The realtor told them the house was haunted. That doesn't stop long-term millennial couple, Maya and Danny, from moving in anyway. It has great bones, and in this market... After years of compromise, and losing track of what she wants, Maya finds part of herself that’s been missing in the spirits that occupy their new house.
After a harrowing break up, Dan moves in with his best buds for a change in tempo. Things take a dissonant turn when one of his new roommates steals a nude of his ex. While retrieving his precious keepsake, Dan uncovers a dark secret about his band of friends that will change his tune forever. And that’s just the tip…
Directly responding to a period of cultural ambivalence and uncertainties, "Run" urgently examines the collective will to exist and explores the opportunities for empathy, participation, and the absurd present in everyday life.