HOLLYSHORTS 2026 REVIEW! Nik Sysuev’s short film Creators is a cautionary tale about the ugliest part of chasing social media clout. It’s about turning someone else’s worst day into your best content. It’s a setup built for disaster, and boy, disastrous it is.
Kieran (Matthew Garry) is a content creator who desperately needs to go viral on his video channel. He’s stalled out, and his numbers suck. While doomscrolling, he saw a video of a young man saving a guy from jumping off a bridge. That video took off. He lives near a bridge. The answer is simple.
That night, he gets his shot. While waiting at the bridge, Kieran spots a stranger (Joshuah Arizmendi) standing on the rail and makes his move. Now the pair is sitting in Kieran’s car, and he doesn’t know what to do next.
Kieran (Matthew Garry) walks through a crowd filming him on their phones in Creators.
“Kieran is a content creator who desperately needs to go viral on his video channel.”
Sysuev says the idea started with a real news interview he stumbled across — a guy talking about the time he pulled someone off a bridge, without ever mentioning the person he saved. That’s the whole movie in one sentence: heroism as a story you tell about yourself, with the actual victim reduced to a prop.
Tell a story that spotlights humanity and insecurity, and you’ve won me over. Creators is a fascinating exploration of social media influencers’ need to hit the jackpot and find that viral moment that puts them on the map. Like all good tales about the fragility of the influencer, things don’t go as Kieran expected, with a dark twist to tie it all together.
The film’s tone is what wins out here. It’s creepy as hell, and Matthew Garry plays him brilliantly as a pathetic sad sack who’s worth rooting for. Again, that ending is worth the price of admission.
Creators screened at the 2026 Hollyshorts Film Festival.
"…It's a setup built for disaster, and boy, disastrous it is"
