Midnight Short Competition presented by You42
Midnight Short Program
It is opening night, the theater is crowded and Clara, the leading actress, refuses to leave her dressing room. Something inside her is keeping her from leaving, something she will have to face.
A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice.
Mya's world takes a harrowing twist when pills meant to alleviate depression unwittingly unleash a nightmarish entity that embodies her inner turmoil. Mya finds herself entangled in a relentless battle against her own psyche, fighting not just for her mental well-being but her very survival. "Inner Demons" is a chilling exploration of the human mind's darkest corners, exploring the nature of internal strife where the boundary between reality and the supernatural blurs.
A refugee is forced to confront her guilt.
A very hungry woman tells a pizza delivery guy she can't pay for the pizza she ordered. But can the sex she offers instead of currency possibly equate to the true value of a pizza? Is there anything that can be worthy of pizza, aside from what the market has decided? Together the two decide that their only option is to become the pizza object themselves, to make each other into pizza, in order to become free.
Oz, an irresponsible man baby, nearly misses his girlfriend’s Graduation because he’s too busy playing with toys. Before he can make amends, a mysterious package arrives containing a mangy old hand puppet. Despite the pressing need to be there for his girlfriend, Oz can’t resist trying on the puppet first and instantly has his soul imprisoned in its soft foam body. Oz is left to contemplate the sorry state of his life choices while his human body dies before his eyes. If he’s to have any hope of saving his relationship, and surviving, he’ll have to do the one thing he’s always avoided: grow up.
Frugal Wash, a self-service laundromat, draws a diverse, often unhappy crowd, including Rita Riat, "The Bleacher". Rita's hunt for her missing sock spirals into a crisis, suspecting either the oddball patrons or the faulty machines. Her search leads her inside a washing machine, plunging her into her subconscious. Here, she encounters a dolphin-man in a limbo of lost socks. Their surreal interaction, a mix of seduction and discovery, distorts reality, revealing the stark truth behind Rita's life and the crucial, blood-stained sock she must recover.
A woman grappling with difficulty finding sexual pleasure after childbirth falls back on an old coping habit.
Ewa is a 10-year-old girl living in a high building in a quiet town. She's an odd, lonely child and for good reason: she's convinced of being a vampire. Fascinated by Hugo, 15, she dreams of turning him into a vampire too, so that she can overcome her loneliness. When Ewa opens up to him, she gets bullied by teenagers from the neighborhood. Hurt in her body and soul, she's ready to act in the creepiest, sickest ways to prove her identity to the world.