THE NEW YORK SCIENCE FICTION FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES LIVE AND VIRTUAL SCREENINGS FOR MAY 2022
Festival Spotlights Importance of Asian Sci-Fi Cinema
Sci-Fi and Supernatural Screenplay Competition Introduced
(NEW YORK) April 13, 2022 — The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the full program for its second event, with a creative lineup of film screenings, discussions, and a screenplay competition. Featuring a total of 90 official selections, the festival will be held virtually on Friday, May 13th and Sunday, May 15th, and in person on Saturday, May 14th. Passes are available at https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com.
A lifelong admirer of science fiction, Daniel Abella established the event as a center for filmmakers to display their work as part of the city’s diverse filmmaking community. He noted that, “New York City has always been the perfect place to bring audiences cutting edge films that have an impact on our lives.” This year’s lineup consists of seven features, 74 shorts, nine screenplay entries, and spans 16 countries. Highlights include the East Coast Premieres of Exegesis: Lovecraft directed by Qais Pasha, who takes viewers on a cathartic journey through the life of author H.P. Lovecraft, and Guilhem Bertrand and Quentin Bruet-Ferréol’s Extasium – A Doorway to Paradise, about an artist who builds a machine invoking the power of God.
The festival will also present several films produced in Asia with stories of the paranormal, advancements in technology, and the uncertainty of reality. “Our programming reflects many cultures and lifestyles, with a specific focus on the importance of Asian sci-fi,” said Abella. “We are proud to screen films that exemplify this smartly developed form of cinema.” The festival opens with The Spiral directed by Peter Wong, a feature from Malaysia about a university lecturer overcome by a deadly supernatural force. Further screenings include the East Coast Premiere of the Japanese film 12 Months of KAI directed by Mutsumi Kameyama, about the relationship between a human and a personal care humanoid, and the U.S. Premiere of Victor Villanueva’s Lucid from the Philippines, which traces the impact of a woman’s dreams on her waking reality. In addition, the festival will hold a science fiction and supernatural screenplay competition as a means of showing the precision and accuracy necessary to the craft of screenwriting. “The screenplay has always been the most fundamental part of the filmmaking process,” said Abella. “This competition shines a light on the significance of good storytelling.”
By offering a wide range of science fiction entertainment, the festival hopes attendees will grasp the full effect of the innovative genre. “Science fiction expresses the wisdom of our blended cultures, and teaches us how to build relationships with each other,” said Abella. “As we confront the issues that test us on a daily basis, we must not forget about our humanity and ability to resolve issues peacefully.”
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022:
Virtual Screening (https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com)
Block 1: Feature Presentation
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm EST
The Spiral (2021 Director’s Cut)
Director: Peter Wong
Run Time/Country: 90 minutes, Malaysia
Synopsis: Jon Caine, a respected lecturer in a university, is missing. Three months later he resurfaces and massacres a group of civilians and police at a cafe. After being apprehended by Detective Inspector Aleana, he is sent to an asylum to be interrogated by a criminal psychologist, Dr. Melanie Surya. Dr. Surya soon discovers a secret that Jon has kept inside him – The Spiral, a supernatural realm that transcends time, space, and reality.
Block 2: Fantasy Sci-Fi Shorts
Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm EST
Orbital Christmas (2021)
Director: Mitsuyasu Sakai
Run Time/Country: 17 min, Japan
Synopsis: In near future, ALI, a Muslim space pilot, is working alone on a space station during the Christmas season, because all other crew is back on the Earth for holidays. One day, TAKAKO, a Japanese girl who lives in the city on the Moon, stows away in an unmanned cargo ship and gets onboard the space station.
Nighthawks (2021)
Director: Jon Frier
Run Time/Country: 2 min, USA
Synopsis: A strange night out.
Rojas and Retribution (2020)
Director: Daniel Koenig Porter
Run Time/Country: 24 min, USA
Synopsis: A young shepherd living on the outskirts of time is attacked, awakening to find his goats murdered, his camp destroyed, and his mother’s gun stolen. Dying of blood loss and thirst, he must now cross the desert to find the thing responsible.
Banquet On The Beagle (2021)
Director: Joel Van Dyk
Run Time/Country: 8 min, Canada
Synopsis: The mostly true story of Charles Darwin’s historic voyage to the Galapagos Islands, and the culinary delights that followed aboard the HMS Beagle.
First Time (2021)
Director: Timothy Hawthorne
Run Time/Country: 15 min, New Zealand
Synopsis: A computer genius from a broken home living in the future returns to the East End London Pub where his deceased mother held her 21st birthday party in 1973. The dramatic events of that evening, which lead to the tragedy of their shared history, are played out before him.
The Terror Adaptors! – Blast Off! (2021)
Director: Peter Renzullo
Run Time/Country: 4 min, Australia
Synopsis: The debut video clip from the nerdcore rockers of Perth, Western Australia – six lunatics find themselves strapped inside a rocket, battling a mad scientist and its robot crew, with only three minutes to spare!
mi-fi (2018)
Director: David Mair
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A very lazy man invents a teleportation device in order to maintain his sedentary lifestyle.
Fulgidusen (2020)
Director: Alexander Feichter
Run Time/Country: 23 min, Germany
Synopsis: Felix has first met his paper friends: He has discovered them on the pages of some of the old books on the bookshelf. Uncle Armin calls them the Fulgiduses. As Felix is browsing through the books again, he discovers something new: Tentacled beings called Skures.
Coming Home (2020)
Director: Tatiana Samano
Run Time/Country: 9 min, USA
Synopsis: Two sisters uncover a secret dimension in their household attic.
Fish Hole (2017)
Director: Simon Beaupre
Run Time/Country: 8 min, Canada
Synopsis: When a giant hole appears at the edge of the Arctic, fish find themselves faced with a difficult choice. Fight the unknown or dive into a new life.
Odius Savor Sweet (2021)
Director: Fritz Master
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: Fish, Bird, Saint Saens.
Block 3: Sci-Fi Feature Presentation
Time: 9:30pm – 11:00pm EST
12 Months of KAI (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Mutsumi Kameyama
Run Time/Country: 83 min, Japan
Synopsis: What would you do if an “impossible thing” was born between humanoids and humans? Kyoka, who works as a web director in Tokyo, gets a personal care humanoid (PCH) Kai. Kai learns various things about the owner. Kyoka gradually invites Kai to “more emotions as a thing.”
SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2022:
Producers Club Theaters (358 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036)
Block 1: Best of International Sci-Fi
Time: 10:30am – 12:15pm EST
Enthusiasm Abounds (2019)
Director: Anthony Burkhalter
Run Time/Country: 2 min, USA
Synopsis: Teaser trailer for the feature film based on the award-winning science fiction short, Enthusiasm Abounds.
Ryoko’s Qubit Summer (2018)
Director: Yuichi Kondo
Run Time/Country: 1718min, Japan
Synopsis: Quantum butterflies with Qubit wings, The same technology was used to create KANUMA, an experimental world of Artificial Intelligence inside a quantum computer. Then one day, AIs began using words unknown to man. Scientists saw this as a threat and decided to “delete” KANUMA.
June (2021)
Director: Dwayne Cameron
Run Time/Country: 15 min, New Zealand
Synopsis: Willow and David receive a serious diagnosis from their doctor and attempt to deal with the mundane as their world disintegrates in the following 24 hours. This one day in June for the couple holds raw despair, unleashing carnal natures but a transcendent occurrence offers them the hope of new life.
Birth of the EMs (2020)
Director: Samuel Clemens
Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
Synopsis: The last of the human resistance needs your help: Here’s how you defeat the EMs!
The Forgetting Device (2021)
Director: Chris Remerowski
Run Time/Country: 11 min, Canada
Synopsis: A man begins to suspect that something strange and sinister is responsible for his recent memory loss. Starring Jarod Joseph (The 100) and Anand Rajaram (Odd Squad).
Memory of Man (2021)
Director: Henri de Trogoff
Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
Synopsis: As Mankind went extinct, artificial Intelligence loads videos from the witnesses of the Apocalypse.
The Desert (2021)
Director: Michael Dockery
Run Time/Country: 5 min, Australia
Synopsis: Earth in a post-human age, where our creations are left to wander in desolation.
El Camino (2021)
Director: Fernando Campos, Jaime Jasso
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Mexico
Synopsis: In order to sustain his family, a troubled pilot accepts one last crooked deal to transport a dangerous cargo inside his spaceship.
Space Chaser – Remnants of Technology (2021)
Director: Lucas Fiederling
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Germany
Synopsis: A German thrash metal band gets teleported into a cantina bar in a distant galaxy and has to show all the alien creatures what they are about.
Kairos, tiempo cualitativo (2021)
Director: Carlos Scasso
Run Time/Country: 17 min, Spain
Synopsis: To curtail the spread of revolts against the System, the “Kairos Programme” has been activated. Issachar, one of the insurgents, will find himself faced with the chance of preserving something more important than his ideals.
Block 2: Technology vs. Humanity
Time: 12:15pm – 1:45pm EST
Jurassic Incident
Director: Jack Hussey
Run Time/Country: 3 min, USA
Synopsis: Two young men go to the lost world, Isla Sorna, to take some Herbivore dinosaurs to use for World War 3. But all hell breaks loose when the velociraptor virus starts infecting humans.
Welcome to Forever (2021)
Director: John Gray
Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
Synopsis: The brilliant designer of smart houses leaves a posthumous surprise for his widow.
Ulom: The Primary Experiment (2019)
Director: Jon D.A.
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A secret government film from the 1960s reveals a scientist desperate to work with a mysterious AI to uncover the secrets of a fictional reality invading our own.
Kaiju Decode (2021)
Director: S/N
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Japan
Synopsis: The catastrophe “Skyfall” was brought by the collapsed orbital space colony that crashed into the Earth. Inside the crater at the crash site now inhabit Kaiju born by a gene mutation. Ray, an avatar, comes to the area to collect the scattered “seeds”, not knowing what really is going on there, He soon meets Mil, a mysterious girl. Is she a human, or a Kaiju. A secret government film from the 1960s reveals a scientist desperate to work a mysterious AI to uncover the secrets of a fictional reality invading our own.
Antenna (2016)
Director: Carsten Wolke
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Germany
Synopsis: A lonely 11-year-old-boy gets in contact with an alien via his old radio-device system. Or is the alien only a lonely old man?
The Unconscious and the Reflective Nemesis (2021)
Director: Adrian Stanley Thomas
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: A film that explores the ramifications of repressed trauma. Frederick, the film’s main character, has been tormented by a childhood of neglect and violence.
Moore’s Void (2020)
Director: Brad Bangsboll
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Canada
Synopsis: A grieving mother attempts to speak with her deceased son.
The Assistant (2021)
Director: Guil Parreiras
Run Time/Country: 7 min, USA
Synopsis: A theatre assistant (a human-like robot) dreams of becoming an actress, but when her work condition presents her with an ugly reality, she must fight to escape from it.
Pick Me Up! (2021)
Director: Alex Cherney
Run Time/Country: 12 min, USA
Synopsis: Heartbroken over a recent breakup, a young man gets more than what he bargains for when looks to gain his confidence back with the help of a friend.
Block 3: Best of Supernatural Sci-Fi
Time: 1:45pm – 3:45pm EST
Claws: A Telephonic Thriller For One (2020)
Director: Evan Neiden, John Ertman, Daniel Hendon, Jacob Leaf
Run Time/Country: 2 min, USA
Synopsis: Ring ring. You get a call from a young man named Danny. There’s a monster in his closet, and he needs your help. But as you go deeper into this telephone play, a simple ghost story reveals something altogether more sinister.
Melchior Strasse (2020)
Director: Peter Mason
Run Time/Country: 5 min, UK
Synopsis: The back streets of Weimar Berlin, madness is afoot.
Solstice (2019)
Director: Lisandro- Perez Rey
Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA
Synopsis: During a brutal winter storm, a bartender befriends a homeless man and brings him home for a warm meal and an ancient ritual.
We Are Nowhere (2021)
Director: J. Cody Spellman
Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
Synopsis: After aliens abduct her husband, Minnie receives a visit from a mysterious man in black.
The Bus Ride (2021)
Director: Nathan Block
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A young girl with dreams of a better life boards a bus where she meets a mysterious stranger.
There’s Something in the Silence (2020)
Director: Mike Castro
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: Erin’s new hearing aids have been picking up voices and sounds she’s unable to explain. In an attempt to quiet the voices, she confronts them head-on only to find there may be something more sinister lurking in the depths of silence.
Cold Caller (2020)
Director: Darren J. Perry
Run Time/Country: 10 min, UK
Synopsis: Deep within an English garden under a dark canopy of trees, other-worldly powers are at work which soon become a theatre for a malevolent puppeteer.
First Lesson (2020)
Director: Mathieu Di Muro
Run Time/Country: 14 min, USA
Synopsis: The human race has lost individual integrity. As forced accountability they wear their actions, their crimes, as marks on their skin, to act as reminders and as warnings to others.
Sereget (2018)
Director: Dempsey Tillman
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: An emotionally detached husband (with a child on the way) gets a rude awakening when aliens invade his home and target his family.
ZAP! (2020)
Director: Philip C. Sedgwick
Run Time/Country: 6 min, USA
Synopsis: An astronomer sharing online backyard observations of the center of our galaxy has a run-in with mosquitoes and a not-so-trusty bug zapper.
Block 4: Documentary Feature
Time: 3:45pm – 6:00pm EST
Exegesis: Lovecraft (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Qais Pasha
Run Time/Country: 120 min, Canada
Synopsis: A cathartic journey that Qais Pasha, a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker embarks on as he traces the life of cult author H.P. Lovecraft, from woodland cemeteries in Rhode Island, to the docks of New York and on to the cobbled stone streets of Quebec City.
Block 5: Sci-Fi Feature Presentation
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm EST
Lucid (2019) — U.S. PREMIERE
Director: Victor Villanueva
Run Time/Country: 90 min, Philippines
Synopsis: Anne’s dreams are the exact opposite of her routine life. In one of her dreams, she meets a mysterious man who challenges her to make her dreams more adventurous. As she crosses paths with another lucid dreamer, Ann realizes her dreams are far more alive than her reality, making her question if it is worth staying there or not.
Block 6: Humanity Prevails
Time: 7:30pm – 9:45pm EST
In Search of Hawaiian Bigfoot (2021 Trailer)
Director: MarQ Morrison
Run Time/Country: 1 min, USA
Synopsis: This award-winning experimental, hybrid, cinematic, vlog film follows “marQ,” an award-winning micro-documentary filmmaker turned Cine-Vlogger as he searches for the Maui Skunk Ape a.k.a. Hawaiian Bigfoot in the jungles of Maui.
Looking Glass (2020)
Director: Ginew Benton
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: After his father was murdered Benjamin Looking Glass II, a young Native American man builds a time machine using modern science and ancient knowledge in an attempt to bring his father back but ultimately discovers his true purpose in creation.
Cognition (2020)
Director: Ravi Ajit Chopra
Run Time/Country: 25 min, UK
Synopsis: An emotionally engaging father & son story. Starring Andrew Scott (Fleabag) and Jeremy Irvine (Green Lantern).
I Don’t Want to Be Alone Tonight (2021)
Director: Michael Cho
Run Time/Country: 7 min, USA
Synopsis: Paranormal activity prompts a sleepover between Caly and her gay best friend Rodger.
Low Down Larry Conquers The Moon Men (2019)
Director: Sammy Verni
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: At the height of the Space Race in July 1969, Larry Johnson and his trusty sidekick Spike, endeavor to be the first man (and dog) to set foot (and paw) on the Moon.
Solitary (2021)
Director: Daniel Farmer
Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
Synopsis: The Demeter was supposed to carry the first crew to land on a habitable exoplanet. But after an accident en route, the ship is lost with a single survivor in an escape pod, pushing forward, determined to complete the mission.Alone in unexplored space, the Astronaut drifts, hoping to find humanity’s future.
Cosmic Playtester (2020)
Director: Arthur Vincie
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: Two board game play testers get together after the death of their best friend, to figure out what it all means. Oh, and one of them is an alien.
One-Hit Wonder (2021)
Director: Amanda Dow
Run Time/Country: 11 min, USA
Synopsis: A cab driver takes a former pop star on a one-way Twilight Zone-like ride.
Extasium – A Doorway to Paradise (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Guilhem Bertrand, Quentin Bruet-Ferréol
Run Time/Country: 36 min, France
Synopsis: In the secrecy of a Parisian building, for half a century, an outsider artist has built a machine that has the alleged power of invoking God at will. Every night, his creation plunges him into a powerful ecstasy. A religious and sexual trance.
Block 7: Sci-Fi Feature Presentation
Time: 9:45pm – 11:30pm EST
Tales of Tomorrow (2020)
Director: Pedro de Lima Marques
Run Time/Country: 85 min, Brazil
Synopsis: In 2165, the kidnapping of a young girl puts the last stronghold of human civilization at war! The problem is that, in order to save humanity, it will be necessary to rely on the help of an adolescent who lives in 1999.
SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2022:
Virtual Screening (https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com)
Block 1: Our Brave New World
Time: 11:00am – 1:15pm EST
Lockdown: The Doctor Who Fans’ Survival Guide (2020)
Director: Roger Christopher Stevens
Run Time/Country: 46 min, UK
Synopsis: During the COVID19 pandemic, a call went out to fans of the BBC TV science fiction series ‘Doctor Who’ to film personal videos of how they coped with being confined in their homes for months on end. Shot on mobile phones, laptops, tablets and cameras…anything they could lay their hands on…the following film is the result.
Remote Viewing (2021)
Director: Jordu Schell
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: A genetic experiment goes wrong, potentially creating a disaster for humankind.
Populace (2015)
Director: Aaron Bevan Bailey
Run Time/Country: 14 min, UK
Synopsis: This film follows a day in the life of John, a clone, who works for the sinister Orwellian Populace corporation. His world is turned upside down when he is forced to choose between the reason he was created and the woman he loves.
Beta Test (2016)
Director: Joel Makar, Kenton Evenson
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Canada
Synopsis: A science fiction thriller that takes Eric Holt into a simulated world in order to relieve him of the stresses of his everyday life. When Eric enters the simulation, he relives some of his favorite memories from the past. However, complications in the program occur and Eric must face a memory he has been trying to bury.
i.am.real (2018)
Director: Eddie Frente
Run Time/Country: 9 min, USA
Synopsis: In the not-so-distant future a newly designed AI living among humans questions the very idea of what is real.
Zero One Zero (2021)
Director: Graham High
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: Looking to boost his confidence, Chuck tries a new meditation technique and manifests a night he won’t forget.
Invasion (2021)
Director: Joann Perez-Moya
Run Time/Country: 6 min, USA
Synopsis: A film noir horror. An Alien Detective hunts down a suspected Scientist trying to prove Aliens exist and possibly reveal their impending plan to invade earth.
Atlas – Chapter One (2021)
Director: Ayman Chaudhry
Run Time/Country: 10 min, UK
Synopsis: Technology has replaced currency. Wealth has replaced humanity. When a rebel cell interrogates a corrupt politician, they uncover a secret more terrifying than anything they could have imagined
Block 2: Technology vs. Humanity
Time: 1:15pm – 3:00pm EST
The Dark Odyssey (2021)
Director: Michael Lavine
Run Time/Country: 9 min, USA
Synopsis: A brave captain and his faithful mate transport a captive warrior, who holds The Inventory of The Mind, across the interstellar line. When their ship is forced to navigate an asteroid field, their mission is jeopardized.
Stream (2021)
Director: Britt Couch
Run Time/Country: 12 min, USA
Synopsis: A heartbroken man pays a washed up doctor to insert him into the dangerous illegal virtual reality system called streaming.
Immortal Game (2021)
Director: John Freeman
Run Time/Country: 11 min, USA
Synopsis: Early in the 21st Century, Man has developed the technology to create humanoid androids with short, fixed lifespans. Ema returns to Earth with the hope of extending her lifespan. After discovering her creator has been murdered, she meets a new visionary poised to continue the fateful experiments.
EP (2021)
Director: Pat Campo
Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
Synopsis: Pilot Episode. An AI robot and its owner make a living by hacking into computers and stealing important electronic files. During their usual escapade, they stumble upon a hard drive containing EP. But what is EP?
G-Rail (2021)
Director: Javier Merono
Run Time/Country: 10 min, Spain
Synopsis: G-Rail is a modern adaptation of the Arthurian myth of the Grail. Perceval Gallois attends a meeting where Gawain Hawk introduces him to a plan to save Arthur’s life. This leads him on an extreme and fantastic trip to endure G-forces, transcend the limits of human knowledge and discover the secret of the Grail.
The Stamp Collector (2020)
Director: Luke Momo
Run Time/Country: 9 min, USA
Synopsis: A high-tech thief comes home from the scene of a crime, reeling with guilt and misbegotten plans. How will his artificially-intelligent assistant, designed to help commit crimes, respond to his programmer’s sudden change of heart? An interactive thriller performed live, just for you, over the course of a phone call.
Transfert (2020)
Director: Jonathan Degrelle
Run Time/Country: 14 min, France
Synopsis: 1967: IV Reich. The Germans won the war. ISAAC, a survivor of the concentration camps, is sent by Max, a Nazi officer, in the middle of the Second World War to recover a strange mechanism. But during his quest, he will be facing his worst nightmare.
The Prospector (2020)
Director: Wade Chitwood
Run Time/Country: 14 min, USA
Synopsis: A lone man searches for his place in the Universe. This journey takes the prospector to a place where he has to look directly at his soul and decide what he is willing to sacrifice to achieve his ambitions.
Block 3: Sci-Fi Feature Presentation
Time: 3:15pm – 5:45pm EST
The Stars My Destination (2018)
Director: Keishi Suenaga
Run Time/Country: 135 min, Japan
Synopsis: A retired Russian-Japanese soldier, Eiji Onodera, was going to his hometown in Japan. But on his way, he was caught and given a new mission by his ex-colleague Captain Vadim Dadikov. Onodera and his father would never be free unless he completes the secret mission. He and the Master Sergeant Zinaida Zasyekina go to Hokkaido to monitor an ex-officer of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, Toshio Honda. Honda has killed 27 people including his colleagues and is hiding in a mountain with a mysterious beauty, Risa.
Block 4: Best of Visionary and Supernatural Sci-Fi
Time: 5:45pm – 7:45pm EST
The Penny Dropped (2016)
Director: A D Cooper
Run Time/Country: 6 min, UK
Synopsis: A desperate woman seeks help from an unlikely source in a dark place. Neither of them realize that their futures will be decided by the flip of a coin.
Mother’s Day (2018)
Director: Elizabeth Tabish
Run Time/Country: 22 min, USA
Synopsis: California, 1968. Jane has a perfect life. A loving husband, a darling daughter, and -hands down- the grooviest home in the neighborhood. But all that is no match for the painful memories of Jane’s childhood as they emerge on the eve of Mother’s Day.
The Cabin (2021)
Director: Bartosz Tobola
Run Time/Country: 20 min, Poland
Synopsis: Julka and Marek visit a mountain cabin to rest, but at the beginning of their journey, things get complicated as the violin, the forest, Venus and Schrodinger’s Cat come to the fore. The cabin has its secrets and so do the characters as the tension grows the deeper they walk into the forest.
Adam In Aeternum (2020)
Director: Pedro Jaen R.
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Spain
Synopsis: An exhausted traveler reaches the border of the world chasing his destiny: to face the demon that caused his misfortune.
Parallelism (2021)
Director: Marco Bolognesi
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Italy
Synopsis: In terms of Mind Philosophy, Parallelism is a mind-body interaction dualist theory affirming that mental and physical events take place on a parallel course of existence, and interact with each other in a not casual way.
Mercury XX (2021)
Director: Miriam Kuhlmann
Run Time/Country: 7 min, Germany
Synopsis: Mercury XX is a science fiction short Film which tells the story of an all-female space mission to draw the first breath on another planet. After an astronauts decade-long journey across the stars accompanied only by her spaceship’s AI she becomes conflicted with the realization of having to leave her sole friend behind or taking this next breath for humankind.
Retreat (2020)
Director: Joeri Verbesselt
Run Time/Country: 5 min, Belgium
Synopsis: A futuristic vision of a world on the brink of environmental meltdown, where a violent confrontation between the police and demonstrators, pollution and nature, is performed in a parallel reality.
Pale Blue Dot: A Tale of Two Stargazers (2021)
Director: Matteo Scarfeo
Run Time/Country: 18 min, Italy
Synopsis: A female form is sent to investigate a planet to see if it can be inhabitable, and upon crash landing, her directive is revealed as being a sacrifice for the exploration against her will. She is discovered by a robotic presence who explains that she is on Earth and that humans have been here before. Two lost souls, a direct result of human interference, make their own destiny against all odds.
Obsolete Model (2019)
Director: Warren DiFranco Hsu
Run Time/Country: 12 min, USA
Synopsis: A sentient artificial intelligence awakens to a world in dystopian ruin and charges two androids, INJUN and ISEE to seek a model-borg named SARA.H, who can save it by altering her past.
Block 5: Sci-Fi Feature Presentation (Out of Competition)
Time: 8:00pm – 9:15pm EST
The Final Equation (2021 Remastered/Director’s Cut)
Director: DUA
Run Time/Country: 70 min, USA
Synopsis: Through a series of String equations, physicist Jack Smith begins to realize Einstein’s Dream of a Unified Field Theory. When his calculations accidentally unlock a door between realities and start to unravel the fabric of his existence, Jack is forced to make a choice between science and faith.
Awards Ceremony
Time: 9:15pm – 9:30pm
Awards are presented to the category winners of The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival.
Screenplay Competition:
Official Selections
The Hallowe’en House
Writer: Stuart Creque (USA)
Category: Best Supernatural Screenplay
Escape to Hollow Earth
Writer: Colin K. Stewart (USA)
Category: Best Sci-Fi Screenplay
The Cheating Vaccine
Writer: Duncan B. Putney (USA)
Category: Best Sci-Fi Screenplay
The Bad Ones
Writer: Dempsey James Tillman, Ted Dewberry (USA)
Category: Best Sci-Fi Screenplay
The Blue Blood Moon
Writer: David Sabbath (USA)
Category: Best Sci-Fi Screenplay
Reverie
Writer: Kelli Horan (USA)
Category: Best Short Screenplay
The Past Comes Back
Writer: Fran Sisco (USA)
Category: Best Short Screenplay
Savior
Writer: Cynthia Crofoot (Canada)
Category: Best Short Screenplay
Transistor
Writer: Brendan P Lee (USA)
Category: Best Short Screenplay
Festival Passes:
Passes are available at https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com. For virtual short film screenings, there will be a 7-day video on demand pass
