2026 Shorts #3
Saturday, March 28
Scotiabank Toronto Screening: 1:15 pm
PORTRAITS
8min | Documentary | World Premiere
Director: Quan Luong
Producer: Quan Luong
DOP: Quan Luong
Editor: Nathalie Massaroni
Music: Justin Delorme
Cast:
Hoang Viet Hung
Film Synopsis:
Portraits is an intimate window into the life of Hung, a sketch artist in the middle of a bustling night market of Da Nang, Vietnam. With 2 charcoal pencils and masterful skills, Hung captures the essence of his subjects in minutes. In a world increasingly obsessed with the speed and precision of Artificial Intelligence, Hung offers a quiet, profound meditation on what it means to create.
V.I.N.C.E. (VOICE INTELLIGENT NARRATIVE CREATIVE ENGINE)
10min | Comedy | Toronto Premiere
Director: Adam Greydon Reid
Writer: Cole Rosenberg-Pach , Lindsay Eady
Executive Producer: Adam Damelin , Nicola Treadgold
Producer: Adam Greydon Reid, Cole Rosenberg-Pach, Lindsay Eady
DOP: Samy Inayeh
Production Designer: Jessica Grunenberg
Editor: Adam Greydon Reid
Music: Adam Damelin
Cast:
Tricia Black, Ennis Esmer, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Jennifer Robertson & Colin Mochrie
Film Synopsis:
V.I.N.C.E. (Voice Intelligent Narrative Creation Engine) is a semi-nonfictional short film about an AI program that takes complete creative control of an ad agency's ill-fated audio session.
PIDIKWE
10min | Documentary, Drama
Director: Caroline Monnet
Writer: Caroline Monnet
Producer: Karine Bélanger, Hany Ouichou, Caroline Monnet
DOP: Nicolas Canniccioni
Production Designer: Caroline Monnet
Editor: Marc Boucrot
Music: Alessandro Cortini
Cast:
Joséphine Bacon, Aïcha Bastien N'Diaye, Catherine Boivin, Catherine Dagenais-Savard, Emilie Monnet, Caroline Monnet
Film Synopsis:
Featuring indigenous women of various generations, Pidikwe integrates traditional and contemporary dance in an audiovisual whirlwind that straddles the border between film and performance, somewhere between the past and the future.
NUUHKUUM UUMICHIWAAPIM (MY GRANDMOTHER’S TIPI)
5min | Documentary | Ontario Premiere
Director: Lindsay Chewanish
Writer: Lindsay Chewanish
Executive Producer: Wapikoni Mobile
Producer: Wapikoni Mobile
DOP: Lindsay Chewanish
Editor: Lindsay Chewanish and Wapikoni Mobile
Cast:
Violet Bates
Film Synopsis:
This work is a sensory and tactile immersion in a grandmother’s tipi. Through her memories of living in a tipi, this film captures the sweetness of everyday life, the joy of cooking and the passage of time.
SEA STAR
12min | Drama
Director: Tyler Mckenzie Evans
Writer: Tyler Mckenzie Evans
Producer: Malachi Ellis, Claire Desmarais
DOP: Evan Ciniello
Production Designer: Chelsea Attong
Editor: Anna Catley
Music: Kalaisan Kalaichelvan
Cast:
John Phillips, Andrea Pavlovic, Joshua Obasi, Andrea Davis
Film Synopsis:
A middle-aged black man partakes in his first swimming lesson while battling with his own hardships beneath the surface.
WINTER AFTER WINTER
11min | Drama | Canadian Premiere
Director: Brandon Kaufman
Writer: Brandon Kaufman
Producer: Luke Gallagher
DOP: Colin Cameron
Production Designer: Cam Thomson
Editor: Arielle Skolnik
Music: Rafa Aslan
Cast:
Sofia Banzhaf, Nina Kiri, Nico Del Rio
Film Synopsis:
Returning home to Toronto after years away, Nell runs into her old friend Jackie. They spend the day together, confronting the space that’s grown between them, reckoning with pasts they left behind.
ROCCO
8min | Drama | Toronto Premiere
Director: Luke Gallagher
Writer: Luke Gallagher
Executive Producer:
Producer: Luke Gallagher
DOP: Paul Duck
Production Designer: Emma Clayton Jones
Editor: Bee Pethick
Music: Cole Sefton
Cast:
Rocco the Goldendoodle, Maggie the Wire-Haired Pointer, Emma Clayton Jones, Luke Gallagher, Laura Gallagher-Doucette, Margot Clayton, Matthew Green, Derek Cassidy, Lee Evans, Julia Gilmore
Film Synopsis:
Rocco is a spirited 1-year-old rescue dog navigating the sensory overload of the big city. Brief glimpses into the daily rhythm of his life reveal an ailment, and the growing concerns of his new owners.
