Park City, Utah, May 29, 2024 — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour, a 110-minute program of seven short films curated from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The short film tour will play in locations across the country and internationally throughout 2024 and into 2025. Filmgoers can enjoy this assortment of short films in over 50 theaters and independent art house venues. This specially curated selection is full of drama and thrills, including eye-opening and heartwarming indie shorts and a few jury prize winners that offer a peek into the Festival program.
For four decades, the Sundance Film Festival has supported short filmmaking, showcasing the work of many now-prominent independent feature filmmakers such as Damien Chazelle, Destin Daniel Cretton, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Dee Rees, Joey Soloway, Taika Waititi, Wes Anderson, and many others.
In 2024, the Festival received 12,098 short film submissions, the highest number on record, selecting 53 to screen. Each year The Festival selects a collection of shorts from its most recent program to go on a theatrical tour hitting dozens of cities. The tour and the Festival are programs of Sundance Institute, a leading arts nonprofit dedicated to advancing work by and opportunities for independent creators.
“Despite an industry-shifting year in filmmaking, short films continue to strengthen its art form,” says Mike Plante, Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. “This year’s showcase is a collection of shorts from the 2024 Festival that proves just how fertile the format continues to be for fresh ideas from ambitious and dynamic emerging filmmakers.”
Below are the current tour locations and dates; more locations are added on a rolling basis:
June 7
Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre
Santa Barbara, CA – Riviera
June 14
New York, NY – IFC Center with Post-Screening Q&A with Filmmakers
Akron, OH – Nightlight Cinema
Cincinnati, OH – Cincinnati World Cinema
June 15
Wilmington, DE – Theatre N
June 23
Sacramento, CA – Dreamland Cinema
Albuquerque, NM – Guild Cinema
July 4
Austin, TX – Austin Film Society
Williamstown, MA – Images Cinema
July 6
Riverside, CA – University of California Riverside
July 22
Anchorage, AK – Bear Tooth Cinema
July 26
Cleveland, OH – Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
August 3
Hanover, NH – Hopkins Center for the Arts
August 28
Columbus, OH – Wexner Center for the Arts
August 29
Reno, NV – Nevada Museum of Art
August 30
Kansas City, MO – Screenland Armour
September 4
Stamford, CT – Avon Theatre
September 26
Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
For an updated list dates and theater locations, visit www.sundance.org/festivals/short-film.
Featured Shorts
ALOK / U.S.A. (Director: Alex Hedison, Producers: Natalie Shirinian, Elizabeth Baudouin, Meggan Lennon) — A compelling portrait of Alok Vaid-Menon, acclaimed nonbinary author, poet, comedian, and public speaker. Executive-produced by Jodie Foster. Nonfiction. Biography. LGBTQ+. Cast: Alok Vaid-Menon, Dylan Mulvaney, Chani Nicholas.
Alex Hedison is an internationally acclaimed photographer, artist, and actress. She is a critical voice in both the artistic and LGBTQ+ communities. ALOK marks Hedison’s directorial debut. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Oscar-winning actor/director Jodie Foster, and their dog, Ziggy.
Bug Diner / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Phoebe Jane Hart) — A dissatisfied marriage, a secret crush, and workplace fantasies come to a head in a diner run by a mole with a hot ass. Fiction. Animated. Comedy. Cast: Jacob Levy, Phoebe Hart. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: Animation.
Phoebe Jane Hart is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Working primarily in stop-motion animation, Hart creates films that focus on the human psyche through dark humor and surreal imagery. She graduated with an MFA in experimental animation from California Institute of the Arts. Her short JamieSonShine has screened at Slamdance and won a Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Film Festival.
Dream Creep / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Carlos A.F. Lopez, Producers: Megan Leonard, Bobby McHugh, Jonathan Caso, Zeus Kontoyannis) — A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice. Fiction. Horror. Cast: Ian Edlund, Sidney Jayne Hunt.
Carlos A.F. Lopez is a multifaceted filmmaker with over a decade of experience in the Seattle underground/DIY scene. His short film Ghosting the Party premiered at Nashville Film Festival 2017 and won a Special Jury Prize. Previously Lopez produced The Procedure, winner of the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Essex Girls / U.K. (Director: Yero Timi-Biu, Screenwriter: Busayo Ige, Producers: Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton) — After an incident at her high school pulls her into the orbit of the only other Black girl in her year, “Essex Girl” Bisola is plunged into a journey to discover a whole new side of herself. Fiction. Drama. BIPOC. Women-Centered. Cast: Busayo Ige, Corinna Brown, Maisie Smith, Adrianna Bertola, Krysstina Frempong, Rebecca Dike.
Yero Timi-Biu is an award-winning writer-director who recently directed on ITV drama Three Little Birds and was second unit director on BBC/Amazon thriller Chloe. Timi-Biu has also written on shows for Sky and Netflix and has original shows and adaptations in development with studios internationally. Her shorts have played in competition at festivals such as London Film Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival.
Pathological / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Alison Rich, Producers: Bridgett Greenberg, Ingrid Haas, Avtar Khalsa, Peter Principato, Todd Ruhnau) — A woman who’s a pathological liar wakes up one day to discover her lies have become true. Fiction. Comedy. Women-Centered. Cast: Alison Rich, Meaghan Rath, Luke Cook, Adam Lustick, Heather Pasternak, George Kareman.
Alison Rich is a comedic writer, director, and actor. She’s pumped to return to Sundance with her narrative short Pathological. Her previous short Training Wheels played at the Festival in 2022. Rich currently has a feature in development with Becky Sloviter (Palm Springs). Her writing credits include SNL and The Goldbergs. Acting credits include The Other Two, The Goldbergs, and Drunk History.
Pisko the Crab Child is in Love / Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Makoto Nagahisa, Producer: Yasuo Suzuki) — Pisko’s father is a crab while her mother is human. Pisko falls in love with her teacher but is heartbroken when he leaves her because she is half-crab. Pisko finally finds love and companionship with her friend Kubokayo. Fiction. Comedy. International. BIPOC. Women-Centered. Cast: Aiko Kano, Saya, Maki Fukuda, Kanta Sato. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Special Jury Prize for Directing.
Makoto Nagahisa was born in Tokyo and became a film director after working in advertising. In 2017, he wrote and directed the short film And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool, which won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. His feature film We Are Little Zombies was part of the official selection for Berlinale and other international film festivals. Upcoming projects include directing a TV series produced by A24.
The Masterpiece / Spain (Director and Producer: Àlex Lora Cercós, Screenwriter and Producer: Lluis Quilez, Screenwriter: Alfonso Amador, Producers: Sandra Travé, Josemari Martínez, Néstor López) — Leo and Diana, a wealthy couple, meet Salif and Yousef, two scrap dealers, at a recycle center. Offering them more junk, Diana invites them to their mansion, but the immigrants actually might be the ones with something she wants. Fiction. Drama. International. Cast: Daniel Grao, Babou Cham, Melina Matthews, Adam Nourou, Guido Grao. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
Àlex Lora Cercós is a Spanish filmmaker, winner of seven Emmys and two Gaudí Awards, who has been nominated for a Goya and for the Student Academy Awards. The Masterpiece is his third movie at Sundance. Unicorns is his first feature. He has also co-written and edited We Are Living Things (2022) and co-directed The Fourth Kingdom (2019) and Thy Father’s Chair (2016).
Film Stills and Headshots
Please find film stills and director headshots for each of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour films through the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/6nlgr95t2dqy5b6pb7bsy/AL4a9g7f_mQgURykYIx_R50?rlkey=ck143wzmdl6336g6oocbwp1pf&st=fq4znh62&dl=0
Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from each other and Sundance advisors and connect in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Fruitvale Station, Get Out, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, Honeyland, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, Navalny, O.J.: Made in America, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, RBG, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, The Souvenir, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, Sydney, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Walking and Talking, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.
The Sundance Film Festival®
The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, is the preeminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives. Since 1985, hundreds of films launched at the Festival have gone on to gain critical acclaim and reach new audiences worldwide. The Festival has introduced some of the most groundbreaking films and episodic works of the past three decades, including Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Fair Play, A Thousand and One, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, Rye Lane, Navalny, Fire of Love, Flee, CODA, Passing, Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Minari, Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, O.J.: Made in America, On the Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs, and sex, lies, and videotape. The program consists of fiction and nonfiction features and short films, series and episodic content, innovative storytelling, and performances, as well as conversations and other events. The Festival takes place in person in Utah, as well as online, connecting audiences to bold new artists and films. The 2025 Festival will be held January 23–February 2, 2025. Be a part of the Festival at Sundance Film Festival and follow the Festival at Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.