Sherman Oaks Film Festival

2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama

A young adopted woman meets her biological mother for the first time.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): John Liang
• Writer(s): John Liang, Anna Jaller
• Producer(s): Diana Cody, John Liang
• Key Cast: Anna Jaller, Kathryn Kelley
• Editor(s): Joe Carugati
• Cinematographer(s): Carolyn Morgan Glassman
• Production Designer(s): Samantha Robles
• Sound Designer(s): Nando Costa

Language: English

Runtime: 13m

Country: United States

Synopsis: A young adopted woman meets her biological mother for the first time.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – SciFi

A young mother’s fleeting wish to abandon her family comes true in an instant that ends up being the rest of her life.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): AJ Lambert
• Writer(s): AJ Lambert
• Producer(s): Rebekah Sherman-Myntti, Briana Bursten
• Key Cast: Serena Mello, Michael Neeson, Hilary Dennis
• Editor(s): Katherine Horak
• Cinematographer(s): Matt P Jones
• Production Designer(s): Grace Lees
• Sound Designer(s): Andrew Smetek

Language: English

Runtime: 16m

Country: United States

Synopsis: Cerulea is a science fiction micro-epic about the traumas that get passed down to us, the guilt around having complicated feelings about motherhood, and the bonds of love that we as mothers are nonetheless so desperate to forge with our children – even when we feel at our most incapable and unworthy.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama

In 1924 Ireland, a 17-year-old illustrator risks everything to expose abuse inside a convent for unmarried girls through her drawings before authorities silence her.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Lusha Li
• Writer(s): Lusha Li
• Producer(s): Valentina Chang
• Key Cast: Mackenna Shults, IX Mendoza, Patrick Sprague, Coco Blignaut, Shey Bogumil, Alistair David Herz, Caleb Noel
• Editor(s): Ailin Huang
• Cinematographer(s): Yucong Li, Lusha Li,
• Production Designer(s): Nya Patrinos
• Sound Designer(s): Shannon O’Shea
• Composer(s): Lusha Li

Language: English

Runtime: 11m

Country: China

Synopsis: In 1924 Ireland, as the Church moves to confine unmarried girls, 17-year-old Margaret’s father secretly plans the family’s escape. But Margaret’s growing awareness of the hidden suffering around her—and an unexpected encounter that reveals the system’s true brutality—pulls her into a world far more dangerous than she realizes. The forces tightening around the family challenge their bonds, their freedom, and Margaret’s understanding of her own place in a collapsing world.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama

Only the curtain stands between them.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Jet Harris
• Writer(s): Antonio L. Rodriguez
• Producer(s): Jet Harris
• Key Cast: Antonio L. Rodriguez, Matthew Martinez Hannon
• Editor(s): Jet Harris
• Cinematographer(s): Emma Pillsbury
• Production Designer(s): Saskia Bakker
• Sound Designer(s): Yiran Chen
• Composer(s): Eliya Gwetta

Language: English

Runtime: 10m

Country: United States

Synopsis: THE GUY frequents THE HOLE’S apartment for anonymous sex.
THE GUY wouldn’t mind losing the curtain. THE HOLE would. Is he running away from a connection worth pursuing?

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2026 Official Selection: Feature Film – Drama

A dying contract killer takes on a young female protégé to carry on his work.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Zaki Rubenstein
• Writer(s): Robert Alan Dilts
• Producer(s): Tommy Nash
• Key Cast: Tommy Nash, Sara Noah
• Editor(s): Joe Fraley
• Cinematographer(s): Lars Struck
• Production Designer(s): Tommy Nash
• Sound Designer(s): Julian Schuller
• Composer(s): Julian Schuller

Language: English

Runtime: 1h 41m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: George is a professional hitman. A contract assassin who works out of the back of a limo office. He is a shadow of the man he once was. Frail and weak, he is dying of cancer, but agrees to honor three final contracts before he retires.
Kate is new to the world she thinks she wants to become a part of.
George agrees to take Kate under his wing for his final assignments, teaching her a professional killer’s tools of the trade.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Drama

On the night before he leaves for college, a teenager takes his little brother away from their alcoholic mother for one last night in the city…the only goodbye they may ever get.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Michael Guillod
• Writer(s): Howard Campbell
• Producer(s): Jean-Marie Gindraux, Floriane Anderson, Yessi Sanchez, Michael Guillod
• Key Cast: Howard Campbell, Jaden Carson Baker, K.Steele
• Editor(s): Mykyta Kryvosheiev
• Cinematographer(s): Pietro Zuercher
• Production Designer(s): Linda Dahlem Espinoza
• Sound Designer(s): Allan Mantilleri
• Composer(s): Kevin Queille

Language: English

Runtime: 19m

Country: Switzerland, United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: On the eve of leaving for college, Braden Hall once again finds his mother lost in drunken chaos. Determined to protect his younger brother from the turmoil at home, he takes him out into the city for one final night together, a bittersweet journey of laughter, connection, and lasting memories amid the fractures of their family.

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2026 Official Selection: Screenplay – Screenplay – Short Film

Screenplay Awards Ceremony · Sun, Dec 6, 2026 · 2:00 PM — Get Tickets →

Three pot-heads. One nursing home. Whole bunch of weed.

• Writer(s): Richard D. Chandler

Country: Not Specified

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When three friends get given community service in an elderly care home for growing their own supply, it quickly turns into a new venture rather than a punishment as they use the grounds to grow a new crop of extra strength pot.

2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Documentary

Life is about figuring it out, whatever ‘it’ is, and making it work.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Clarissa Jacobson, Shayna Weber
• Writer(s): Kent Rodricks
• Producer(s): Clarissa Jacobson, Shayna Weber, Joe Bratcher, Kent Rodricks, Shawna Chance
• Key Cast: Kent Rodricks, Lulu Miller, Jaquay Lamar Thomas
• Editor(s): Geno Marx
• Cinematographer(s): Chris Ekstein and Angela Wong
• Production Designer(s): Alicia Ho
• Sound Designer(s): Matt Festle
• Composer(s): Antoni Mairata

Language: English

Runtime: 10m

Country: United States

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: Butts is an autobiographical piece about Kent’s day-to-day life as a 3’11” man navigating able-bodied surroundings, creatively overcoming all those human-made hurdles and obstacles and giving the proverbial middle finger to death and mortality. Sure, he might be small in stature, but Kent’s big in heart and always puts an entertaining and positive spin on everything.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Documentary

After eight years of caring for his mother with severe dementia, a son struggles through their daily care routine.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): James Pellerito
• Writer(s): James Pellerito
• Producer(s): David Barba
• Key Cast: Mary Pellerito, James Pellerito
• Editor(s): James Pellerito, David Barba
• Cinematographer(s): Rodrigo Sandoval Vega Gil
• Sound Designer(s): Matt Schultz

Runtime: 12m

Country: United States

Synopsis: After eight years of caring for his mother with severe dementia, a son struggles through their daily care routine. Recorded voicemails serve to show the progression of the disease, underscoring the frustration, isolation and burnout that comes with intensive caregiving.

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2026 Official Selection: Short Film – Animation

One Boy. One Dream. One Destiny.

Screening date & tickets — to be announced

• Director(s): Nicolas P. Villarreal
• Writer(s): Nicolas P. Villarreal
• Producer(s): Nicolas P. Villarreal
• Key Cast: Tony Goldwyn, Victorio Dalessandro
• Editor(s): Alessandro Squitti,
• Cinematographer(s): Nicolas P. Villarreal
• Production Designer(s): Nelson Luty
• Sound Designer(s): Andrew Vernon
• Composer(s): Fabrizio Mancinelli, Santiago Walsh

Language: English, Spanish

Runtime: 15m

Country: Argentina

Los Angeles Premiere

Synopsis: "Fangio: Courage or Destiny" follows a young boy as he is confronted with his future and the decisions he must make to fulfill his destiny. Inspired by the 1955 Formula 1 Grand Prix in Argentina, where Juan Manuel Fangio had to suffer third-degree burns on his leg in order to win the race.

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