Davey Fest 2026 • Film Info
Born Secret
Directed by Riley FitchpatrickA filmmaker returns to his hometown Oak Ridge, the secret city that built the atomic bomb. There he meets the workers who created humanity's greatest weapon, while their grandchildren inherit a world on the brink of nuclear catastrophe.
︎ @applehousepictures
︎ @rileyfitch
︎ @grantconversano
︎ @adam.conversano
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Can I Put You On Hold
Directed by James Cutler
DAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
A man struggles with the crushing bureaucracy of immigration as he waits on hold with his immigration lawyer, trying to keep hope alive for his future with his fiancée, only to face a devastating setback that forces him to reconsider everything.
︎ @coolonesplease
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Fiesta No Mas
Directed by Amy PopeWORLD PREMIERE
Max's birthday party is in full swing as Joe and his daughter Lily arrive late. Max's dad Dave is grilling as he remembers the best part of any child's birthday party, the pinata. The kids come running, Max spins, he swings, and misses! The party takes a dark turn and Dave realizes it's up to him to save his son.
︎ @amykateism
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Gracie Buckshot and the Kiddo
Directed by Blade SabovcikWhen two rival gangs clash over a bounty, things take an explosive turn as Gracie and Kiddo try to outgun Hutch and his henchmen.
︎ @jester_film_studios
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Grima
Directed by Richie HarringtonWhen Jen’s guilt starts to catch up to her, she begins to experience grima, the sensation you get from nails on a chalkboard. She must choose to confront the past or be consumed by her guilt.
︎ @richieharringtonfilms
︎ @grimashortfilm
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Hello My Friend
Directed by Melissa PuenteWhen a young girl is awakened by mysterious whispers seeping from the images on her wallpaper, she encounters a malicious creature intent on stealing her soul. Fairytale meets horror in this intimate, poetic meditation on the unnamed fears that haunt our innermost selves.
︎ @melisspuente
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Hermano Hermana
Directed by Rodrigo, Jonathan, and Michael CuartasPart stop-motion animation, part photographic memoir, Hermano Hermana follows two siblings who reconnect in a Gothic cemetery fifty years later, after sister unburies brother.
︎ @joncuartas
︎ @michaelcuartasdop
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How the Lonely Keep
Directed by Nathan SellersWORLD PREMIERE
Weeks after her disappearance, a local teen returns to the places she knew best, while an unseen hand holds the secret of why she may never be found.
︎ @nbensellers
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Imperfect Offerings
Directed by Ella WarnickA queer, bi-racial artist embodies the spirit of birds and brine shrimp as she reflects on her relationship with Utah’s Great Salt Lake. In the face of ecological collapse, she shows us that resistance is most powerful when it’s shaped by love.
︎ @ellawarnick
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Jean Jacket
Directed by Lucy Arango Nebeker and Maxim NebekerDAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
Jean Jacket is a down-on-her-luck cowgirl who’s trying to get it all back: her ranch, her dead husband and the good old days. With no real hope of success, Jean turns to the ultimate American Dream maker, the lottery. This short follows Jean and her companions as they discuss their own rituals for choosing lotto numbers and speculate on the ambivalent nature of hope and dreams in the American West.
︎ @castorpolluxstudios
︎ @lucynebs
︎ @maximnebeker
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Leaky Faucet
Directed by Lucas VilicichWORLD PREMIERE
A tenant grieving a breakup, comes home to find his landlord in the apartment for no reason... When the landlord refuses to leave, he must navigate how to get his unhinged landlord out of his apartment without losing his lease. Could this day get any worse?
︎ @lucasvilicich
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Long’s Long Lost and Mini Mart
Directed by Julian DoanIn the seedy back rooms of a Little Saigon convenience store, a young customer seeking closure reanimates his dead father for one last conversation... awakening phantoms of unspoken grief.
︎ @heyitsjulian
︎ @longslonglost_film
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Orson Welles in Salt Lake City
Directed by Max BennionThe canceling of a test screening drags a young and paranoid Orson Welles into a unique nightmare on the streets of Salt Lake City.
︎ @mxwbmedia
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Porphyria
Directed by Daxon GeldmacherHutter, a religious zealot, is plagued by a mysterious illness. He locks himself inside his home trying to pray the illness away, but soon discovers the sinister origin of his sickness.
︎ @daxgeldmacher
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Remembrance
Directed by Mariana Andrade and Mariana BorgesDulce and Carl share a life together on the coast of Bahia, Brazil. When they choose to relocate to a senior home, they embark on a mental journey. Plunging into the unknown, they revisit cherished memories, confront lingering ghosts, and contemplate the inevitable limitations life imposes
︎ @olada_filmes
︎ @marianaborges___
︎ @mari_mari_andrade
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Scissors
Directed by Hannah AllineFollows a slasher with a grudge who meets his match when a group of queer friends on a weekend getaway turns his killing spree into a bloody night he never saw coming.
︎ @thejuiceboxfilms
︎ @hannahalline
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Second Bedroom
Directed by Beatrix ChuDAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
Precocious 12-year-old Agnes reluctantly sets off with her scattered dad Peter to help him search for apartments because her parents are getting divorced. Over the course of three Brooklyn apartment visits and the vulnerable moments in between, the reality of the situation starts to sink in. As Agnes struggles to cope with the separation, she gradually comes to see her father as his own complicated person. They both fumble to support each other in a fragile transition.
︎ @beatrix.ping
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September, All Over
Directed by Kali KahnDAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
It’s September 2017. Hurricane Irma has just passed through Miami, causing widespread power outages for over a week. 23-year-old Talia has been cooped up with her widowed father, clinging desperately to her sanity as the heat and unspoken grief weigh heavy between them. One night, she seeks respite in a nearby condominium pool, where she meets Charlie, a charming resident in the building who’s 42 going on 25. She holes up in his apartment for two sweltering, avoidant days until their romantic charade inevitably comes crumbling down, and she’s forced to return home and contend with her mother’s absence.
︎ @kaliyuga
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The Curfew
Directed by Shehrezad MaherDAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
When Ayaan becomes a temporary caregiver for his grandmother, they find themselves adrift in the gulf of a language barrier. In the silence, specters of a colonial past shift how he sees strangers and himself.
︎ @shehrezadmaher
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The Rebirth
Directed by Connie ShiAn overworked waitress takes a black market abortion pill that gives her an unexpected side effect.
︎ @therebirthfilm
︎ @iamconnieshi
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We Live Here Now
Directed by Justin SenkbileAbandoned by the roommate she’d been expecting to live with, Caroline finds herself stuck in a new city alone, in an apartment and neighborhood she can’t afford.
︎ @jmsenkbile
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White Italian Truffles in Brine
Directed by Paavo HanninenDAVEY GRANT RECIPIENT
Camille cooks a special meal for an old friend who has come to LA for an important meeting.
︎ @paavohanninen
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Whitch
Directed by Hoku UchiyamaAfter putting her daughter to bed, Aura discovers an intruder in her house: an elderly lady who acts strangely familiar, and is hell-bent on performing a bloody ritual before midnight.
︎ @hoku_chan
︎ @trecolorifilms
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Whoopin’
Directed by Justin ArnoldWhoopin' begins with two estranged brothers meeting upon the death of their abusive father and the pulsing question amid the room is: "Did they bury daddy with his belt?" The older brother waxes poetic about the beatings they endured that made them the men they are today. The younger brother recounts a story about his wife catching their young son trying to drown the family cat in the kiddie pool out back. Enraged that the boy has escaped the kind of punishment their daddy would have laid on them, the older brother insists they teach this boy his lesson before he fails to learn it and the dispute explodes into an all-out kitchen brawl, cutting into their childhood to see which side of the line of spanking a kid they now stand on.
︎ @filmjustinarnold
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Willow and Wu
Directed by Kathy MengOn her day off and fresh off a breakup, Willow, a young assistant, is assigned to help her high-powered boss’s husband with a bizarre task.
︎ @kathy_meng
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