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| COMING TO LONDON THIS AUGUST |
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| THURSDAY 22ND AUGUST – MONDAY 26TH AUGUST |
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| ODEON LUXE LEICESTER SQUARE
MAIN SCREEN FILMS
THURSDAY 22 AUGUST
BROKEN BIRD (World Premiere) OPENING FILM
Director: Joanne Mitchell. With: Rebecca Calder, James Fleet, Jay Taylor, Sacharissa Claxton. UK 2024. 96 mins.
TEST SCREENING (World Premiere)
Director: Clark Baker. With: Chloë Kerwin, Drew Scheid, Johnny Berchtold and Rain Spencer. USA, 2024, 92 mins.
THE INVISIBLE RAPTOR (English Premiere)
Director: Mike Hermosa. With: Mike Capes, Sean Astin, Sandy Martin, Chad Bullard. USA 2023. 112 mins. |
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| FRIDAY 23 AUGUST
AN TAIBHSE (The Ghost) (International Premiere)
Director: John Farrelly. With: Tom Kerrisk, Livvy Hill, Tony Murray. Ireland 2024. 93 mins.
BOOKWORM (European Premiere)
Director: Ant Timpson. With: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley, Morganna O’Reilly. New Zealand 2024. 103 mins.
GHOST GAME (International Premiere)
Director: Jill Gevargizian. With: Emily Bennett, Kia Dorsey, Zaen Haidar, Vienna Maas. USA 2024. 90 minutes.
SHELBY OAKS (UK Premiere)
Director: Chris Stuckmann. With: Camille Sullivan, Keith David, Michael Beach, Sarah Durn. USA 2024. 99 mins.
THE HITCHER (World Premiere Restoration)
Director: Robert Harmon. With: C. Thomas Howell, Rutger Hauer, Jennnifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn. USA 1986. 98 mins.
HAUNTOLOGY (International Premiere)
Director: Parker Brennon. With: Nancy Loomis, Samantha Robinson, Naomi Grossman, Zoey Luna. USA 2024. 103 mins.
SATURDAY 24 AUGUST
SURVIVE (UK Premiere)
Director: Frederic Jardin. With: Emilie Dequenne, Andreas Pietschmann, Lisa Delmar, Lucas Ebel. France 2024. 90 mins.
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (UK Premiere)
Director: André Øvredal. With: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian. USA 2023. 118 mins.
DEAD MAIL (International Premiere)
Director: Joe de Boer. With: Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck, Tomas Boykin, Micki Jackson. USA 2024. 105 mins.
TRAUMATIKA (World Premiere)
Director: Pierre Tsigaridis. With: Rebekah Kennedy, Ranen Navat, Emily Goss. Susan Gayle Watts. USA 2024. 87 mins.
STRANGE DARLING (International Premiere)
Director: JT Mollner. With: Willa Fitzgerald, Ed Begley Jr., Robert Craighead, Kyle Gallner. USA 2023. 96 mins
MEMBERS CLUB (World Premiere)
Director: Marc Coleman. With: Dean Kilbey, Perry Benson, Steve Oram, Peter Andre. UK 2024. 90 mins |
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| SUNDAY 25 AUGUST
THE LAST ASHES (UK Premiere)
Director: Loic Tanson. With: Sophie Mousel, Timo Wagner, Jules Werner, Luc Schiltz. Luxembourg 2023. 120 mins.
THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE (World Premiere)
Director: Jon Spira. With: Peter Serafinowicz, Harriet Walter, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante. UK 2024. 104 mins
AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH (UK Premiere)
Director: E.L. Katz. With: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. USA 2024. 85 mins.
SAINT CLARE (UK Premiere)
Director: Mitzi Peirone. With: Bella Thorne, Rebecca De Mornay, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley. USA 2024. 92 mins.
INVADER (International Premiere)
Director: Mickey Keating. With: Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta, Ruby Vallejo. USA 2024. 70 mins.
MONDAY 26 AUGUST
THE DEAD THING (International Premiere)
Director: Elric Kane. With: Blu Hunt, Ben Smith-Petersen, John Karna, Katherine Hughes. USA 2024. 94 mins.
A DESERT (European Premiere)
Director: Joshua Erkman. With: David Yow. Kai Lennox, Sarah Lind, Zacary Ray Sherman. USA 2024. 100 mins.
LADYBUG (World Premiere)
Director: Tim Cruz. With: Anthony Del Negro, Zachary Roozen, Scout Taylor-Compton, Charlene Tilton. USA 2024. 107 mins.
COLD WALLET (European Premiere)
Director: Cutler Hodieme. With: Raul Castillo, Josh Brener, Melonie Diaz, Tony Cavalero. USA 2024. 84 mins.
THE SUBSTANCE (English Premiere) CLOSING FILM
Director: Coralie Fargeat. With: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia. USA/France/UK 2024. 140 mins. |
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| ODEON LUXE LEICESTER SQUARE
DISCOVERY SCREEN ONE FILMS
THURSDAY AUGUST 22
CINDERELLA’S CURSE (UK Premiere)
Director: Louisa Warren. With: Kelly Ryan Sanson, Chrissie Wunna, Lauren Budd, Natasha Tosini. UK 2024. 78 mins.
CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS (European Premiere)
Director: Alice Maio Mackay. With: Jeremy Moineau, Olivia Deeble, Yassica Switakowski, Dominique Booth. Australia 2024. 70 mins.
FRIDAY AUGUST 23
THE DAEMON (World Premiere)
Director: David Yohe, Matt Devino. With: Adriana Isabel, Tyler Q Rosen, Sara Fletcher, Oscar Wilson. USA 2024. 87 mins.
THE LONELY MAN WITH THE GHOST MACHINE (European Premiere)
Director: Graham Skipper. With: Graham Skipper, Paul Guyet, Christina Bennett Lind. USA 2024. 85 mins
SCARLET BLUE (UK Premiere)
Director: Aurélia Mengin. With: Stefano Cassetti, Patricia Barzyk, Emmanuel Bonami, Amélie Daure, Anne-Sophie Charron. France 2024. 106 mins.
THE BUNKER (International Premiere) Trieste Science+Fiction Presentation
Director: Brian Hanson. With: Chelsea Edmundson, Chad Michael Collins, Tobin Bell, Tony Todd. USA 2024. 92 mins.
CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN (World Premiere)
Directors: Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy, Chris Nunn. UK 2024. 86 mins
MUTILATOR 2 (International Premiere)
Director: Buddy Cooper. With: Terry Kiser, Eva Hamilton, Chaney Morrow, Cody Renee Cameron. USA 2024. 81 mins. |
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| SATURDAY AUGUST 24
TOUCHDOWN (First Blood, World Premiere)
Director: Josephine Rose. With: Clinton Liberty, Will Attenborough, Cressida Bonas, Kai Luke Brummer, Jason Flemyng. UK 2024. 78 mins.
SCOPOPHOBIA (First Blood, World Premiere)
Director: Aled Owen. With: Catrin Jones, Emma Stacey, Ellen Jane-Thomas, Bethany Williams-Potter. UK 2024. 102 mins.
YEAR 10 (First Blood, World Premiere)
Director: Benjamin Goodger. With: Toby Goodger, Hannah Khalique-Brown, Duncan Lacroix. UK 2024. 96 mins.
PROTEIN (First Blood, World Premiere)
Director: Tony Burke. With: Craig Russell, Andrea Hall, Charles Dale, Ross O’Hennessy. UK 2024. 100 mins.
7 KEYS (First Blood, UK Premiere)
Director: Joy Wilkinson. With: Emma McDonald, Billy Postlethwaite, Amit Shah, Kaylen Luke. UK 2024. 94 mins
SUNDAY AUGUST 25
THE A FRAME (European Premiere)
Director: Calvin Lee Reeder. With: Johnny Whitworth, Nik Dodani, Dana Namrode, Laketa Caston. USA 2024. 82 mins.
SHORT FILM SHOWCASE 2
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Director: Wes Craven. With: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, Ronee Blakely. USA 1984. 91 mins.
NEVER HAVE I EVER (World Premiere)
Director: Damon Rickard. With: Andrew Lee Potts, Beatrice Fletcher, Johnny Vivash, Amber Doig Thorne, Graham Skipper. UK 2024. 97 mins.
BOGIEVILLE (World Premiere)
Director: Sean Patrick Cronin. With: Arifin Putra, Eloise Lovell Anderson, Jonathan Hansler, Sean Cronin. UK 2024. 108 mins.
MONDAY AUGUST 26
SHORT FILM SHOWCASE 3
CHARLOTTE (World Premiere)
Director: Georgia Conlan. With Georgia Conlan, Dean Kilbey, Liam Conlan. UK 2024. 86 mins.
AGATHA (World Premiere)
Director: Roland Becerra, Kelly Bigelow. With the voices of Emily Joyce-Dial, Ryan Whiting, Erin McDonough, Lauren Mascali. USA 2024. 60 mins.
SCARED SHITLESS (International Premiere)
Director: Vivieno Caldinelli. With: Steven Ogg, Daniel Doheny, Chelsea Clark, Mark McKinney. Canada 2024. 76 mins. |
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| ODEON LUXE LEICESTER SQUARE
DISCOVERY SCREEN TWO FILMS
THURSDAY AUGUST 22
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE (International Premiere)
Director: DW Medoff. With: Ken Trujillo, Katerina Eichenberger, Emma Anne Wedemeyer, Chris Genovese. USA 2023. 95 mins.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN (UK Premiere)
Director: Brittney Greer. With: Emma Reinagel, Aline O’Neill, Graham Weldin, Cameron Mabie. USA 2024. 96 mins.
FRIDAY AUGUST 23
DRIVE BACK (UK Premiere)
Director: Cody Ashford. With: Whit Kunschik, Zack Gold, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Tammy Kaitz. USA 2024. 94 mins.
SHORT FILM SHOWCASE 1
SO UNREAL (European Premiere)
Director: Amanda Kramer. With: Debbie Harry. USA 2023. 98 mins.
THE FREAKS OF FANCY (World Premiere)
Director: Elliott Léon. With: Rachel Brownstein, Gordon Lawson, Holly Lovelady, Matthew Jackman. UK 2024. 96 mins.
CURSED IN BAJA (World Premiere)
Director: Jeff Daniel Phillips. With: Jeff Daniel Phillips, Jose Conejo Martin, Finnegan Seeker Bell, Barbara Crampton, Mark Fite, Robbyn Leigh. USA 2024. 80 mins.
SATURDAY AUGUST 24
DELERIUM (International Premiere)
Director: Arró Stefánsson. With: Hjörtur Jóhann Jónsson, Heiddis Chadwick Hlynsdottir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson. Iceland 2023. 83 mins.
PANEL – FROM FIGMENT TO FINANCE
IN THE NAME OF GOD (European Premiere)
Director: Ludvig Gür. With: Linus Wahlgren, Lisa Henni, Vilhelm Blomgren,Thomas Hanzon. Sweden 2024. 89 mins.
BOUTIQUE: TO PRESERVE AND COLLECT (World Premiere)
Director: Ry Levey. With: Chris Alexander, David Gregory, Joe Rubin, Peter Kuplowsky. USA 2024. 75 mins.
VIDEO VISION (International Premiere)
Director: Michael Turney. With: Andrea Figliomeni, Chrystal Peterson, Shelley Valfer, Hunter Kohl. USA 2024. 83 mins.
THE MONSTER BENEATH US (First Blood, World Premiere)
Director: Sophie Osbourne. With: Becca Hirani, Jack Forsyth-Noble, Nicola Wright, Jennifer Lim. UK 2024. 103 mins
SUNDAY AUGUST 25
DARK MATCH (International Premiere)
Director: Lowell Dean. With: Chris Jericho, Steve Ogg, Ayisha Issa, Michael Eklund. Canada 2024. 94 mins.
PANEL – AI: FOR YOU
CARA (World Premiere)
Director: Hayden Hewitt. With: Elle O’Hara, Michaela Longden, Donna Louise Bryan, Johnny Vivash. UK 2024. 96 mins.
DERELICT (World Premiere)
Director: Jonathan Zaurin. With: Suzanne Fulton, Michael Coombes, Pete Bird, Dean Kilbey. UK 2024. 122 mins.
RAZOR BLADE SMILE (World Restoration Premiere)
Director: Jake West. With: Eileen Daly, Christopher Adamson, Kevin Howarth, David Warbeck. UK 1998. 102 mins.
MONDAY AUGUST 26
SCHLITTER: EVIL IN THE WOODS (UK Premiere)
Director: Pierre Mouchet. With: Louka Meliava, Léna Laprés, Gilles David, Cóme Levin. France 2023. 70 mins.
FRIGHT (World Premiere)
Director: Warren Dudley. With: Gwyneth Evans, Jill Priest, Daniel Tuite. UK 2024. 81 mins.
GENERATION TERROR (World Premiere)
Directors: Phillip Escott, Sarah Appleton. With: Adam Wingard, James Wong, Joe Lynch, Rob Zombie. UK 2024. 91 mins |
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| ODEON LUXE LEICESTER SQUARE
DISCOVERY SCREEN 3
FRIDAY AUGUST 23
THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT (UK Premiere)
Director: Michael Felker. With: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Justin Benson, Sarah Bolger. USA 2024. 102 mins.
THE LAST PODCAST (World Premiere)
Director: Dean Alioto. With: Eric Tabach, Kaikane, David Foley, Charlie Saxton, Mick Garris, Gabriel Rush. USA 2024. 98 mins.
SATURDAY AUGUST 24
FROM DARKNESS (UK Premiere)
Director: Philip Da Silva. With: Oscar Skagerberg, Rakel Benér Gajdusek, Peter Mörlin, Lars Adsten. Sweden 2024. 95 mins.
MERMAID LEGEND – 40th Anniversary (UK Premiere)
Director: Toshiharu Ikeda. With: Mari Shirato , Kentarô Shimizu, Jun Etô, Seiji Miyaguchi. Japan 1984. 110 mins.
A SAMURAI IN TIME (European Premiere)
Director: Junichi Yasuda. With: Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura, Rantaro Mine. Japan 2024. 131 mins. |
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| Image: THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT |
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| SUNDAY AUGUST 25
A SAMURAI IN TIME
Second Screening
MERMAID LEGEND
Second Screening
FROM DARKNESS
Second Screening
MONDAY AUGUST 26
THE LAST PODCAST
Second Screening
THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT
Second Screening |
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For additional information, please contact:
Keir Waller: keir |
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| Joanne Mitchell’s BROKEN BIRD and Coralie Fargeat’s THE SUBSTANCE to open and close 25th edition |
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| Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, will, for the first time, present its five-day extravaganza at The ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, London, taking over all seven screens, including the two ODEON Luxe West End screens.
Running from Thursday August 22 – Monday 26 August, Pigeon Shrine FrightFest will showcase sixty-nine features from across the world, including twenty-five main screen premieres and forty-five Discovery Screen titles, embracing the famed ‘First Blood’ strand, the latest genre documentaries, and some exciting restorations and retrospectives. Plus, there’s the regular short-film showcase (to be announced later), panels, and some surprise 25th edition extras. This year there are twenty-eight world premieres, with eleven countries represented, spanning four continents.
Co-director Alan Jones comments: “FrightFest, the Dark Heart of Cinema, has been beating loud and proud now for an amazing 25 years. An incredible quarter of a century that has seen major challenges and transformations to the global film industry that FrightFest has embodied, embraced and emblazoned. Our past 25 glorious years have shown FrightFest in a state of continuous evolution, something we are determined will never, ever stop. So let the 25th Anniversary FrightFest begin”.
The festival opens with the World premiere of BROKEN BIRD, the directorial debut feature from actress/filmmaker Joanne Mitchell. Based on an original story by Tracey Sheals and Mitchell’s subsequent award-winning short Sybil, this is an absorbing and disturbing tale about a mortician (played brilliantly by Rebecca Calder), whose dark desires are becoming more insatiable and progressively out of control.
The closing night film is the English premiere of THE SUBSTANCE, the second thrilling shocker (after Revenge) from French writer/director Coralie Fargeat. The Cannes 2024 award-winning sensation is a Visionary Feminist Body Horror, starring a fearless Demi Moore as fading celebrity Elizabeth Sparkle who uses a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
Also putting in a fearless performance is actress and singer Bella Thorne, who shines as the serial-killing teenager in the UK premiere of SAINT CLARE. FrightFest will also be showing the UK premiere of Bella’s short film UNSETTLED, her directorial debut.
This year FrightFest celebrates a host of our past alumni and showcases their latest offerings. In the main screen we have BOOKWORM, which gloriously reunites the Come To Daddy team of star Elijah Wood and director Ant Timpson, AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH, the wordless flesh-eating creature feature from E.L. Katz, the director of Cheap Thrills; the lean, mean jolt of true crime horror INVADER from director Mickey Keating (Psychopaths), haunted house thriller GHOST GAME, the latest from Jill Gervargizian, director of The Stylist and André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) brings us his stunning Dracula adaptation, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, never shown in the UK before.
Other main screen attractions include the International premieres of AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST), the first Irish Language horror film ever made, and THE DEAD THING, a stunning neo-realist take on ‘The Invisible Man’ for the online dating era. Then there are European premieres for JT Mollner’s twisty serial-killer chiller STRANGE DARLING, A DESERT, the powerful feature debut from Joshua Erkman and COLD WALLET, a witty, cyber suspense thriller presented by Steven Soderbergh. Plus, there is a World premiere for sci-fi high of the year TEST SCREENING, and UK premieres for the twisty, engrossing DEAD MAIL, gripping Luxembourgish drama THE LAST ASHES and post-apocalyptic thriller SURVIVE.
Tales of supernatural terror are given contemporary twists this year with the dread-filled TRAUMATIKA, the hilarious male stripper caper MEMBER’S CLUB, with Steve Oram and Peter Andre, queer ghost story anthology HAUNTOLOGY, the visually haunting paranormal thriller SHELBY OAKS and LADYBUG, where a gay artist (Anthony Del Negro) is haunted by a homophobic serial-killer. Then there is DW Medoff’s I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE which explores personal mental health themes, and DARK MATCH, where wrestling champion Chris Jericho, comes up against some pretty hefty demons in the latest from Wolfcop director Lowell Dean.
The main screen also plays host to THE INVISIBLE RAPTOR, the monster hit of this year’s FrightFest Glasgow event and genre icon Christopher Lee is intimately brought back to life in the World premiere of innovative documentary THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE.
This year’s Discovery strand once again reflects the festival’s legacy in championing emerging and established voices from across the world and sees the return of many talented filmmakers discovered over the years. Graham Skipper is back with his heart-felt post-apocalyptic tale THE LONELY MAN WITH THE GHOST MACHINE, which he directs and stars in. CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS is another signature fun, gory shocker from 19-year-old, transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, who brought us T Blockers and Brian Hanson, director of The Black String, returns with THE BUNKER, an alien invasion shocker, which stars horror icons Tobin Bell and Tony Todd
The UK is richly represented this year with seventeen Discovery screen gems, including the World premieres of Jonathan Zaurin’s unflinching crime thriller DERELICT, CINDERELLA’S CURSE, Louisa Warren’s blood-spiling twist on a familiar fairytale, pitch-black female avenging psycho-dramas CARA and CHARLOTTE, vampire road movie BOGIEVILLE, Damon Rickard’s cat-and-mouse horror NEVER HAVE I EVER, Elliott Léon’s eerie adult fairytale THE FLIGHTS OF FANCY and Warren Dudley’s unsettling terror tale FRIGHT. Also showing, twenty-five years after its release, is a 4K restoration of Jake West’s playfully subversive vampire gore-fest RAZORBLADE SMILE.
Then there is FrightFest’s First Blood strand, which continues to shine the spotlight on emerging British talent and this year there are six World firsts – Sophie Osbourn’s THE MONSTER BENEATH US, Aled Owen’s SCOPOPHOBIA, Joy Wilkinson’s 7 KEYS, Tony Burke’s PROTEIN, Benjamin Goodger’s YEAR 10 and Josephine Rose’s TOUCHDOWN.
The range of documentaries on show further proves how important to film historians the genre strand has become with subjects such as exploration of tech-centric genre cinema (SO UNREAL), the rise of boutique specialty collector labels (BOUTIQUE: TO PRESERVE AND COLLECT), and the huge wealth of early Millennial genre films (GENERATION TERROR). Then there is CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN, where Robin Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic journey through the complex nature of independent filmmaking and fatherhood.
There are three Discovery screens this year and the range of films on offer truly displays the rich vein of emerging global talent within the genre. From the USA we have, evil rising THE DAEMON. traumatic time-bending THE A-FRAME and THINGS WLL BE DIFFERENT, the grisly HAPPY HALLOWEEN, Dean Alioto’s THE LAST PODCAST, the unique and experimental AGATHA, Jeff Daniel Phillips trippy CURSED IN BAJA, scary Retrotech romance VIDEO VISION, hellish road movie DRIVE BACK, and the slasher maniac is back in MUTILATOR 2.
Then, from Canada, there is wild creature feature SCARED SHITLESS, from Iceland the mythical haunter FROM DARKNESS, from Sweden the unholy IN THE NAME OF GOD and the tormenting DELIRIUM, and from France there is avenging thriller SCHLITTER: EVIL IN THE WOODS and Aurélia Mengin’s shocking visual extravaganza SCARLET BLUE.
From Japan we have the kiss-ass, time-altering A SAMURAI IN TIME and, to celebrate its 40th Anniversary, there is a screening of MERMAID LEGEND, a rare exploitation cult movie that has never played any film festival outside of its native Japan
Finally, FrightFest has once again teamed up with Warner Bros to celebrate the 40th anniversary of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Wes Craven’s classic shocker that re-energised the teens-in-terror stalk-and-slash cycle and proved getting a good night’s sleep can severely damage your health.
The festival guest line-up and full details for the Short Film Showcases and other events will be revealed soon. |
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