Running the gamut of subject matter and style, the professional short films are selected based on their merits in storytelling and execution, which include Ambassadors of Hope (Directors Cassidy Friedman and Amber Allen-Peirson), Don’t Touch My Hair (Director Matthew Law), I Bet You’re Wondering How I Got Here (Director Ryan Polly), If Dreams were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis (Director Ramin Bahrani), Lucas Needs an Agent (Director Lucas Grabeel), The ABCs of Book Banning (Directors Nazenet Habtezghi and Trish Adlesic), The Anne Frank Gift Shop (Director Mickey Rapkin), The Old Young Crow (Director Liam LoPinto), Panda (Director Sasha Briggs), and Young Hot Bloods (Director Jade Ang-Jackman).
Filmmakers explore art, history, politics, and personal profiles in a mesmerizing collection of documentary shorts to offer a captivating panorama of our world. This year’s films are presented in memory of noted producer Katie Spikes, including God’s Love Split (Director Paloma Holub), Good Boy (Director Russell Chadwick), Mayan Softball Revolution (Director Michael Zimbalist), Seeds of Change (Director Maximilian Armstrong), Strong Grandma (Directors Cecilia Brown and Winslow Crane-Murdoch), The Volunteer (Director David Brodie), The Reconnaissance Painter (Director Matthew Corolis), Trenton: To The Moon & Back (Director Josh Leong), and Unexpected (Director Zeberiah Newman).
Animated films represent the diversity of the craft, from simple, hand-drawn figures to stop-motion and digital rendering, showcasing unique storytelling at its finest; this year’s selections include A Grain of Sand in the Universe (Director Suki), Astoria (Director Franck Dion), Feather (Director Sadegh Javadi), Four Chambers to the Heart (Directors Kostas Ioannidis and Johan Grimonprez), Holy Men (Director David Lovric), Menagerie (Director Jack Gray), and Slow Light (Directors Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski).
With solid storytelling and emerging vision, student short films represent a broad range of categories, including live-action, narrative, documentary, and animation. Shorts from student filmmakers at SCAD and universities in France, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. are part of the competition of 30 films. In addition, the Global Shorts Forum, a curated collection of international shorts across multiple genres that focus on world issues, includes Beyond Identity, a nuanced selection of short films exploring the heights and depths of personal and collective identity, and Rocking the Cradle of Civilization, a modern collection of short films highlighting the unique challenges people of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian origin face. Also part of this year’s festival art Shorts Spotlight with themes including A Kaleidoscope of Connections, which is a curious collection of sweet, quirky, and sometimes heartbreaking shorts encompassing the highs and lows of interpersonal relationships, Family Fun, a delightful collection of short films and animation for film lovers of all ages, and Horrors in Plain Sight, which is part of the festival’s After Dark series, revel in this collection of darker shorts begging the question: What exactly are you afraid of?
SCAD Savannah Film Festival and competitions provide SCAD students with opportunities as unique as the selected films. This year, the festival received more than 2,100 submissions for the competition series. During the festival, students from every academic discipline connect with leaders from the entertainment industry through master classes, coffee talks, lectures, workshops, and panel discussions. Presented each year in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.
For tickets and additional information on SCAD Savannah Film Festival films, screenings, guests, and events, visit filmfest.scad.edu and follow SCAD on Facebook and Instagram @savfilmfest and TikTok @scaddotedu.
