Nextfest Film Showcase

Imperfect Practice
Dhot & edited by Laura La France
Original song by Motorbike James remixed by Cameron O’Neill
The year I tried to film something every day. A visual diary on Super 8mm, capturing one full year in a series of clips plucked from sad and wonderful and ordinary days. It was the year I turned 30. My first year of marriage. The year my dream job became a nightmare. The year I lost an old man I really loved. A year of existential dread and experiential joy.

Welcome to Zellers!
written and edited by Mickey Neal
directed by Mickey Neal and Madeline Leblanc
A short and surreal experimental film staged as a vintage TV commercial, mourning the death of Zellers, Canada’s beloved retail relic. Through eerie nostalgia, warped consumer ritual, we experience it once again.

Looking for Michael
written and directed by Walker MacDonald
featuring Alysha Clement, Michael Coolen, and Kyle Gallagher

A man obsessed with the Halloween films travels to Illinois in search of Haddonfield, the town where it all began.

Sunny Day
created by Amy Lee
featuring Yvonne Lee and Sunny Yee

晴天 Sunny Day is an animated short film that depicts a multi-generation Chinese Canadian family. The story in my film is inspired by my own family, and culture through language and food.

Wisest Fool
directed and written by Emily Anne Corcoran
singing and song writing by Kaeyley Jade
featuring Dale Bailey, Katie Wood, Holly Wandler, Sheldon Stockdale, Connie Wiebe, and Gabriel Gagnon

We’re all fools for love. Wisest Fool is a story of the grandest love, the deepest feeling and the foolishness we feel in ourselves in the midst of it. A campy storybook telling of a tale as old as time.

Media Verdad
created by Alyssa White
Media Verdad is an experimental animated short that descends into the shadowed edges of existence, where reality unravels into half-truths. Through a blend of mixed-media stop-motion, the film probes the unseen forces that linger just beyond human perception—felt in the darkest pockets of the universe, where truth reveals itself in fragments.

Fish Face
presented by House of Gamborski
written, directed and featuring Bradley Gamborski and Vanzie Meyer
edited by Bradley Gamborski
produced by Vanzie Meyer

Two best friends, Chase and Connor, rush to film their self-tape auditions. Chase, a gay actor, struggles with body image, while Connor, despite his leading-man looks, battles a voice that feels out of place. As the clock ticks and the pressure mounts, their insecurities surface, revealing the cracks beneath their polished performances.

In Petrichor Daze
presented by Noch Productions
choreographed and performed by Shannon Lin

In Petrichor Daze tells the story of a pleasant encounter with an unmet acquaintance, an unfolding duality that explores the existence of the other only through the idea of them.
“In Petrichor Daze” was developed with the support of Mile Zero Dance Society and the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta, Edmonton Arts Council, The City of Edmonton

Featuring Bob L’Heureux, Elise Fleske, Shawn Bracke, Benjamin San Martin, Ryan Leedu, Julian Koroluk, Kevin Lin, Jeremie Gutierrez, Benjamin Caufield, Liam Shearer, Levon Vokins, and Stephen Cameron

Wicked
presented by SOS L’Amir
directed by Julieanne Burghardt

A young woman escapes her boyfriend for a night, only to be swept away by L’Amir.

featuring L’Amir Sosa, Chau Truong, Kieran Stitt, Ayeesha Serena, Hassan Sayyid, Ranu, Joe, Fiorella, Joseph, Casey Tian, Anita Le, Raffi Lin, Nathan Holt, Nishant Rathod, Ishaan Thind, Sara Gil Sanchez, Jerry Sun, Wenjia Wu, Donnalyn Dioniso, Daniel Seo, Benzi Pichandze, Risa Nareen Pathan, Afnan Bahubeshi, June, Aman, Aarron, Enoch Ajayi, Jemmy lu, and Chris Wipf

Navels I
Artist Robin Riad discusses her relationship with her belly button.

Featuring Justine Mccloskey, Victoria Long, Karly McCloskey, Robin Riad

Deus Esurit
A young man tries to decipher the meaning of a strange dream, while spending a day with his long-time friends.

Featuring Sahtu Gilday, Bergen Hamilton, Josiah Ziprick, Adam Lister, Brynlee Horn,Quinn Yerex, Casey Mingay

The sound of Dreaming Trees
What is the sound of dreaming trees? Do trees dream? What is the sound from us humans when we dream of trees? Do trees dream of us? How does the eye of the roots dream its way up inside the trees?

Featuring Tommy Dobbela, Eiri and Elise

Waldrausch
Shot over the course of an afternoon in Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, Waldrausch is an experimental short film by Nina Criswell and Jérémie Le Hénaff that emulates the experience of drunken elation in the forest. The German word Waldrausch is a poetic term that describes this phenomenon (Wald meaning forest and Rausch meaning intoxication, rapture, or ecstasy). It was this state of blissful, almost intoxicating sensory overload that inspired the film. Employing a range of digital and analog media from Super 8, film photography, to digital photo and video, we aimed to simulate the transition from the modern, technological world to a more abstract and atmospheric visual experience through the layering and interplay of these contrasting modes.

Featuring Nina Criswell, Jérémie Le Hénaff, Nina Criswell

This Is Special and I’m Never Letting Go

A film made with and about a dear friend, Kaylen. This film explores their concept of Linus, an imaginary boy turned star that brings Kaylen hope and keeps them safe when they need it.

Featuring Dennis Belopolsky, Kaylen Schumann, Broden Snyder, Kirill Sommer, Lucas Prud’Homme