International Science-Fiction Short Film Showcase 2020

Join us after the screening at 7:10pm for a live Q&A with Marco Baldonado (TOTO), Chung Jae-hoon (FALL-OUT), Marc Martinez Jordan (YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH), Sofian Khan (DOPPELBANGER), Colin Levy (SKYWATCH), Anthony Webb (CARMENTIS), Hannah Welever (SWIPE UP, VIVIAN!), Addison Heimann, Adam Zimny (LIGEIA MARE)

Fantasia’s showcase of character-driven sci-fi shorts returns with eight works from six countries that will wrench emotions and captivate your imagination.

In Spanish filmmaker Marc Martínez Jordán’s darkly comic and unconventionally poignant YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH (Canadian Premiere), a man in a fox costume works with time “hacktivists” for a last glimpse of his wife on the day she was killed in a terrorist attack. An incredible film that wounds and surprises.

From South Korea, Jae-hoon Chung’s FALL-OUT (International Premiere) is white-knuckle storytelling at its most urgent. In a devastated near-future Korea, a family venture through their apartment building hoping to attain life-saving ice. By any means necessary. We’re proud to bring Chung’s powerful vision to an international audience, coming here fresh from leaving viewers gasping at the 24th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Australian writer/director Antony Webb’s striking CARMENTIS (Canadian Premiere) is an affecting mix between futuristic survival thriller and melancholic tone poem. An intergalactic miner overwhelmed by grief finds himself stranded on a quickly freezing planet. He will need to keep his personal demons at bay if he hopes to survive.

Canadian filmmaker Marco Baldonado’s TOTO is the charmingly bittersweet story of a 90-year-old grandmother being given a robot companion. Both a celebration of traditions passed down through generations and a gentle warning about the risk of losing them, starring Baldonado’s own Nonna in the lead, TOTO was initially slated to launch at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

The USA is represented by an eclectic trio of works this year: A virtual dating app opens unique windows of possibility for two agoraphobic women in SWIPE UP, VIVIAN! (World Premiere). A lighthearted yet pertinent comedic science-fiction romance, directed by Hannah Welever and scripted by Addison Heimann, returning to this showcase following last year’s AVA IN THE END.

Sofian Khan’s provocative DOPPELBÄNGER (International Premiere) is a smart tale of sex work and the singularity, set in a future world where people have robotic doubles of themselves.

In SKYWATCH (Canadian Premiere), two young teens devise a way to hack into the system of an Amazon-like shopping empire, tricking its drone delivery system into swapping people’s orders for fun. The system tracks them… and all hell break loose. An utterly jaw-dropping futuristic thriller, directed with intensity and imagination by the award-winning Colin Levy (MY GRANDFATHER’S MEMORY BOOK), who formerly worked at Pixar and contributed animation and layouts to a number of their works, including INSIDE OUT and FINDING DORY.

Germany graces us with Adam Zimny’s compelling LIGEIA MARE (World Premiere), a visually sumptuous futuristic drama set on one of the deadliest places in the solar system, where artificial intelligence is used to mine resources away from Earth. – Mitch Davis