Category: ARRF Paris 2023

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The Cows Came Home – dir. Haley Ahern

Original Film Title: The Cows Came Home

Director’s Name: Haley Ahern

Writer’s Name: Haley Ahern

Producer: Haley Ahern

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 11 seconds

Film Description:

This music video follows the work of 65 year old Margaret who paints backings for movie studios in the 1940s. Each backdrop Margaret paints brings her flashbacks of when she was a young woman in the early 1900s, where she first met her husband William. Sometimes the most simplest things in life can be the hardest to believe and the most powerful. This video indulges in those heartwarming moments, inspired by old idioms, to bring a lifetime worth of memories into one single song.

All the animals featured in this film have been rescued from abusive homes and abandonment. A portion of this film’s budget has been directly donated to Barber Family Farms, a charity that uses 100% of its profit to giving these animals a better life.

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Cut a Dash Brand // Harmony Ecosystem – dir. Artem Ganzha

Original Film Title: Cut a Dash Brand // Harmony Ecosystem

Director’s Name: Artem Ganzha

Writer’s Name: Artem Ganzha

Producer: Vital Ganzha

Country of Origin: Kyrgyzstan

Country of Filming: Kyrgyzstan

Runtime: 3 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

The new project is dedicated to sore questions about our modern life. A story about the system of the interpenetration of the anthropogenic and the primordial, the technogenic and the natural, and the non-living and the living. About achieving harmony with nature, which is possible under certain, difficult-to-achieve conditions. Nature is like a home, which many of us, forced to leave Russia, lost. The film asks what is home and where to find it now.

Formed in collaboration between enterprising Russian exiles and hospitable Kyrgyz people, the project can rightly be considered a collaboration of two cultures colliding in unfamiliar circumstances. Filmed in Kyrgyzstan, the film was simultaneously created in other countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Cambodia, and Lao. The internationality and flexibility of the project instill faith in a world without state borders, ridiculous restrictions, and without war.

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The Ghost Under My Bed – dir. Sara Caldwell

Original Film Title: The Ghost Under My Bed

Director’s Name: Sara Caldwell

Writer’s Name: Sara Caldwell

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 13 minutes 28 seconds

Film Description:

On the brink of the civil war, a lonely young girl moves to a southern plantation. She befriends a ghost under her bed, only to discover there are much greater human horrors in store.

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ROBO99 – dir. Sung Cheol Kim

Original Film Title: 로보99

Director’s Name: Sung Cheol Kim

Producer: Sung Cheol Kim

Country of Origin: Korea, Republic of

Country of Filming: Korea, Republic of

Language: Korean

Runtime: 11 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

Robo99, who lost his heart while helping the red bird Dodo, travels to a heart factory where no one has been to get a heart and achieve his dream. The story is the first episode Robo99 experiences on a trip.

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و إذا؟ / Wa Iza? – dir. Ali Halawi

Original Film Title: و إذا؟ / Wa Iza?

Director’s Name: Ali Halawi

Writer’s Name: Ali Halawi

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 3 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

Ismael and his mother Nadia are arab immigrants living in Germany. A lot of expectations are put on Ismael. Maybe too many.

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The Last Plaque – dir. Balázs Simon

Original Film Title: The Last Plaque

Director’s Name: Balázs Simon

Writer’s Name: Ron Larson, Diana Krulik-Bentzen, Sara Blank

Producer: British Randle, Donat Aron Ertsey

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Hungary

Language: English

Runtime: 2 minutes 15 seconds

Film Description:

Launching on World Psoriasis Day, The Last Plaque is an animated short film that takes viewers into a utopian future where plaque psoriasis no longer exists. With a glimpse into what a world without psoriasis looks like, we can start to fully understand the emotional toll of the disease, empathize with sufferers, and grasp the importance of finding a cure.

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JOY – dir. Chongjia Zhang, Yining Dang, Shan Dora Huang

Original Film Title: JOY

Director’s Name: Chongjia Zhang, Yining Dang, Shan Dora Huang

Producer: Chongjia Zhang, Yining Dang, Shan Dora Huang

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 4 minutes 44 seconds

Film Description:

Joy is a four-minutes 3D animated short about coping with losing a pet. The story follows a young photographer named Ann, who is grief-stricken after the loss of her beloved cat, Joy. Then she is transported into a magical world inside her camera, where she reunites with Joy and re-experiences the memories they shared. We hope this story will comfort those who have lost their pets and will provide the hope that death is never the end of the memories.

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TSU – dir. Ü Inose

Original Film Title: つ。

Director’s Name: Ü Inose

Writer’s Name: Ü Inose

Producer: Toru Kasahara, Morio Amagi, Seigo Furuta, Toko Kumamoto, Brian Masato Kobo

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes 13 seconds

Film Description:

“TSU”is a coming-of-age story centered on Yuki, a high school student living in rural Japan.

As his graduation date looms, expectations transform into frustrations. As the pressure from his challenging university entrance exams and complicated relationship with his family reaches a breaking point, he runs away from it all into the mountains where he finds an independent
collective of people who have been living off of the grid for years.

As Yuki sheds the trappings of his old life and gains wild new experiences, he learns a valuable lesson: it is only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything. By emptying himself of the expectations others have placed upon him, Yuki is able to take his first steps into a new life.

Unlike similar stories, Yuki doesn’t win anything. He doesn’t have a magnificent triumph. He runs away, gets hurt, and loses more and more until there is nothing left to lose. It is at that moment that he finds true independence. It is at his lowest point that he opens himself up to the greatest change. He can do anything and become anyone.

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Phoenix Incident – dir. Keith Arem

Original Film Title: Phoenix Incident

Director’s Name: Keith Arem

Writer’s Name: Keith Arem

Producer: Adam Lawson

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes

Film Description:

From Keith Arem (Award Winning Talent Director of Call of Duty & Titanfall), an investigation into the March 13th, 1997 disappearance of four Arizona men exposes a military cover-up of the largest UFO sighting in North America.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS.
Thursday March 13th, 1997 marks the date of the Phoenix Lights, the largest mass UFO sighting in US History. The night of the incident, four Phoenix residents vanished in the Estrella Mountain National Park, south of Phoenix, becoming the longest unresolved missing person’s case in Arizona history.