Sherman Oaks Film Festival

2026 Official Selection: Featurette – Documentary

Turn Off the Machines follows Ethan Hughes, a radical homesteader in mid-coast Maine who lives entirely without electricity, global supply chains, or modern technological comforts.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Joseph El-Khoury, Muhammad Yusuf Khattak
• Producer(s): Joseph El-Khoury, Muhammad Yusuf Khattak, Jack Ruefli
• Key Cast: Ethan Hughes

Language: English

Runtime: 42m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Turn Off the Machines follows Ethan Hughes, a radical homesteader in mid-coast Maine who lives entirely without electricity, global supply chains, or modern technological comforts. Raised in Gloucester to working class parents, an early tragedy shattered a happy childhood and set him on a path of radical resistance. Living deliberately below the poverty line, Ethan’s life is not a retreat but a protest against capitalism, war, and ecological collapse. The film explores his convictions, his family’s daily rhythms, and the tensions that arise when belief meets the demands of life.

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2026 Official Selection: Featurette – Drama

Some decisions don’t arrive as a single moment – they arrive as a flood of everything you’ve ever been.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Grace Sims
• Writer(s): Grace Sims
• Producer(s): Grace Sims, Don Ohmer, Jonathan Bowles
• Key Cast: Sydney Cole Alexander, Bates Wilder, Jerah Milligan, Taylor Rose, Dee Freeman, Jake Ryan, Savannah Rose Wells
• Editor(s): Natalie Hill
• Cinematographer(s): Riede Dervay
• Production Designer(s): Brittany Ingram
• Sound Designer(s): Alex Bologna
• Composer(s): Lilliana Villines

Runtime: 20m

Country: United States

Synopsis: In a kaleidoscope of memories Maxine (Sydney Cole Alexander; Severance, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning) must navigate the surreal and transformative decision of terminating a pregnancy; questioning the very fabric of her identity and future.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

Ceremony date & tickets — to be announced

It takes a village — or at least one very questionable hockey team.

• Writer(s): Lesley Hoyt-Croft

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

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A hockey-playing single mom is threatened with having her daughter taken away by her sister and her sleazy filmmaker boyfriend, She must enlist the aid of her lesbian teammates, a church choir and some “Angry Coochies” to try and stop them.

2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Horror

Don’t break the routine.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Brenden Hubbard
• Writer(s): Brian Barnes
• Producer(s): Mylissa Fitzsimmons, Parth Marathe, Damon Russell, Brenden Hubbard, Bennett Krishock, Bryan Matthews, Shawn Christensen, Brian Barnes
• Key Cast: Ionie Nieves, Alejandro Rose-Garcia
• Editor(s): Josh Earl
• Cinematographer(s): Jack Mannion
• Production Designer(s): Christina Coleman
• Sound Designer(s): Nick Messitte
• Composer(s): Darren Morze

Language: English

Runtime: 16m

Country: United States

Synopsis: From the Academy Award winning team behind "Curfew." Still reeling from an incredible loss, a father (Shakey Graves) and daughter cling to a bedtime routine keeping them safe in a town where an unfathomable horror visits its inhabitants night after night.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

Ceremony date & tickets — to be announced

Make America taste great again!

• Writer(s): David Dylan Thomas

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

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True story, beneath Washington Square, an urban park in Philadelphia, lie buried the bodies of hundreds of enslaved people. What if, one night, they all came back as zombies, but they only ate white people?

2026 Official Selection: Featurette – Arthouse/Experimental

A 70’s love-child endures a piercing life lesson during a rare weekend visitation with her addicted, estranged father recently released from prison.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Roxanna Lewis
• Writer(s): Roxanna Lewis
• Producer(s): Roxanna Lewis, Rachel Stander, Tracy A. Martin, Karine Mauffrey, Kimberly Seilhamer
• Key Cast: Jophielle Love, Eric Palmer, Lidiya Korotko, Sally Struthers, Jonny Walker
• Editor(s): Matt Westlake
• Cinematographer(s): Kate Ketcham
• Production Designer(s): Linda Dahlem
• Sound Designer(s): Matt Broadfoot
• Composer(s): Dave Eggar and Phil Faconti

Language: Arabic, English

Runtime: 21m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Rayla, an eight-year-old love child from a violently broken home, is torn between adoring and fearing her estranged alcoholic father, Taz. When the obligatory weekend visitation finally transpires, Rayla finds herself forced into a terrifying task in the desert.

In English and Arabic with subtitles.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

Ceremony date & tickets — to be announced

In 1890s Whitby, a dying stranger brings a creeping sickness to a remote abbey, forcing Benedictine monks to confront an ancient terror that warps flesh and tests faith.

• Writer(s): Michael Consiglio, Alex Klein

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

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In 1890s Whitby, a devastating storm delivers a dying stranger to a remote abbey, where a brotherhood of Benedictine monks soon discovers a creeping sickness—one that warps flesh, tests faith, and threatens to unravel them from within. As isolation deepens and the darkness spreads, the monks must confront an ancient terror before it consumes them all.

2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama

Is healing from addiction or a first love truly possible?

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Viveka Garza Gómez
• Writer(s): Viveka Garza Gómez
• Producer(s): Viveka Garza Gómez, Amirah Adem
• Key Cast: Viveka Garza Gómez, Alexander Faeron
• Editor(s): Jewells Santos, Nicole Russell
• Cinematographer(s): Ziqi Yang
• Production Designer(s): Emma Pine
• Sound Designer(s): Ben Kruse
• Composer(s): Alexander Hansson

Language: English

Runtime: 11m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: After receiving a crushing email from her first love, Renata retreats into the woods to avoid slipping into old habits. Obsessing on how to reply she quickly spirals into a violent night with what once threatened to destroy her.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Feature Film

Ceremony date & tickets — to be announced

Let the culture clashes and love affairs begin.

• Writer(s): Bren Bennington Dahl

Language: English

Country: Not Specified

An adventure seeking college grad girl who wants to see the world, joins the Peace Corps and gets posted in the African Congo. There she takes a wild ride juggling language challenges and culture clashes while falling in love with two very different fellow volunteers, who end up changing her life forever.

2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Comedy

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Richard Rogers
• Writer(s): Richard Rogers
• Producer(s): Ryan Bedsaul
• Key Cast: Ryker Baloun, Corey Landis
• Cinematographer(s): Matthew Roveto
• Composer(s): Rock Burwell

Language: English

Runtime: 12m

Country: United States

Synopsis: In this 90s PSA, a rebellious teen shrugs off his father’s anti-drug sermon and learns the hard way that marijuana might just be "the gateway drug to hell."

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