Norwescon Speculative Film Fest

The Norwescon Speculative Film Festival is a celebration of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative fiction films. The festival will take place on the evenings of Thursday, April 14 and Friday, April 15th, 2022.

Norwescon’s Speculative Film Fest embraces and fosters new voices in Speculative Fiction, including those of BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ creators. We have judges who represent these voices, and we waived entry fees for BIPOC directors.

• Film: Ryoko’s Qubit Summer
• Director: Yuichi Kondo
• Country of Origin: Japan
• Description: Quantum butterflies with Qubit wings, The same technology was used to create KANUMA, an experimental world of Artificial Intelligence inside a quantum computer.
  Then one day, AIs began using words unknown to man. Scientists saw this as a threat and decided to “delete” KANUMA.
  Can love exist between an AI and a human? A new outlook on the evolution of the human world.

• Film: Le Varou
• Director: Marie Heyse
• Country of Origin: France
• Description: (None given.)

• Film: What Remains of Emily
• Director: Mya Breyana Morton
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Miles, an outsider at an elite private school, finds a mysterious book that can predict the future.

• Film: Nanny
• Director: Dani Zarandieta
• Country of Origin: Spain
• Description: Lola has a last minute call to take care of Leo. The night is meant to be easy as the little one is sleeping upstairs and Lola is ready to enjoy a film. Suddenly the baby-monitor makes some weird noises… Monsters use fear. True Evil uses time.

• Film: Flour Girls
• Director: Jonathan Ozburn, Christian Wilcox
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Three girls set out to bake the perfect cake for their birthday. In order to obtain the final ingredient, they visit their neighbor – hoping he has the heart to help them out.

• Film: Subscribed
• Director: Diana Porter
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: With technology becoming increasingly intertwined in our daily lives, and our natural propensity to choose convenience over privacy, how much will we give up, without even knowing it?

• Film: The Ravin’
• Director: Ron Ford
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: A sequel to Poe’s The Raven, in verse, in which the narrator grows to question the validity of the bird’s symbolic pretensions. Stop motion puppet animation.

• Film: 10/31/85
• Director: Rene R Rivas
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: On a chilly Halloween night in 1985, 3 teenagers happen upon the unfortunate antics of a crazed serial killer named Mr. Trick.

• Film: A Journey to the Moon
• Director: Jack Getschman
• Country of Origin: (None Given)
• Description: Two little mice build a cardboard rocketship to go to the moon. Why you ask? Well for the cheese of course! However, they are captured by Moon Men and must work together to escape. It’s a light hearted and fun filled animated adventure!

• Film: Futures Within
• Director: Adolfo Ruiz
• Country of Origin: Canada
• Description: Futures Within offers a brief exploration of alternative futures using hand-rendered illustration and animation. Symbolism, along with subtle reference to social malaise and environmental issues provide the basis for this one minute piece. Reflecting on current challenges faced by humanity, the film takes the viewer on a visual journey through portals that reveal plausible worlds.

• Film: Michael!
• Director: Kevin Ackley
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: A woman longing for her missing husband is brought face to face with the reason why.

• Film: Nightmares
• Director: Deb Ethier
• Country of Origin: Canada
• Description: Ominous, terrifying and disorienting; this animated micro film is a study in the relentlessness of nightmares.

• Film: Sakuntula
• Director: Alejandra Beyron
• Country of Origin: Spain
• Description: A boy wanders and thinks about dreams, memories and life. It is a reflection of the act of filming and how we try to capture moments that we once lived.

• Film: Stray
• Director: Wanjiru Njendu
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: A spirit metes out vengeance when a young girl ignores her mother’s warning about the Pied Piper myth.

• Film: The Killdren are Coming
• Director: Dana Berry
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: An old caretaker reads a poem about the legend of the Killdren, not knowing that he is soon to become part of their grisly lore.

• Film: Time Glider
• Director: Jacob Allen Johnston
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: A time traveler follows time machine instructions.

• Film: Zombie Sharkageddon II
• Director: Suzy Sainovski
• Country of Origin: Australia
• Description: An apocalyptic story about a couple of people having a brief chat. There may be zombies.

• Film: Alder
• Director: Vanda Ladeira
• Country of Origin: United Kingdom
• Description: Alder is a guardian spirit that protects the forest and nature. It takes the shape of a female-tree form embodying the Alder tree’s inner qualities of protection against malevolent beings and humans.
  When a handsome young forager strays into Alder’s glade, it opens the possibility of changing its destiny. It longs for being loved and for the intimacy of a touch, like humans do. Very aware of the high price to pay for falling in love with a human its dilemma and vulnerability are exposed.
  Every time the forager clips a branch or steals berries, it manifests in Alder’s pain and it bleeding orange sap. Alder encounters him in the woods and seduces him, but will her heart overcome her loyalty to the forest?

• Film: The Shoes of Lady Lescaire
• Director: Markus Amadeus Sievers
• Country of Origin: Germany
• Description: A friendly old, exiled ex-movie diva is visited by two missionaries who enter her living room and try to win her over for a doomsday faith community. The whimsical lady seems helplessly at the mercy of the two whippersnappers, until they stumble through a momentous revelation…

• Film: A Change in Time
• Director: Pat Knight
• Country of Origin: United Kingdom
• Description: Seized by Time Agents, Sam discovers the action of time travellers from the future have erased his family tree. He no longer exists. With the help of his cousin Eliza, can they find a way to restore their timelines and save their family?

• Film: Kairos, Tiempo Cualitativo (Kairos, Qualitative Time)
• Director: Carlos Scasso
• Country of Origin: Spain
• Description: To curtail the spread of revolts against the System, the “Kairós Programme” has been activated. Isacaar, one of the insurgents, will find himself faced with the chance of preserving something more important than his ideals.

• Film: The Wish & The Wisp
• Director: Vashmere Valentine
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Two bickering siblings learn the true value of friendship and the magic of believing, when they find a real wish and encounter the menacing creature who wants it back!​

• Film: HOOD: A Star Wars Story
• Director: Damon Wellner
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Tells the comedically tragic backstory of the Star Wars universe’s favorite background character, Willrow Hood.

• Film: EP
• Director: Pat Campo
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: An AI robot and his owner make a living by hacking into computers and stealing important electronic files. During their usual escapade, they stumble upon a hard drive containing EP. But what is EP?

• Film: Mariposas
• Director: Adrian Carey
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Set in a universe of magical realism, a boastful father prattles on superficially about his daughter to another parent in the school pick up line, but is unable to perceive her when it matters most.

• Film: The Lord of the Woods (Kriss De Valnor)
• Director: Julia Bui
• Country of Origin: Poland
• Description: Warrior Kriss meets a young girl in the forest, Mojmira, who escaped captivity. In the ruins of a hut, where they stop overnight, Kriss finds the Urobors, a magical object of time travel properties.
  Kriss is being entangled in a tragic love story of Mojmira-Valdemena and Derwan. The characters, constantly travel through time dimensions, trying to escape the vicious cycle and, in their own little ways, reverse the course of the tragedy.

• Film: Stalled Trek: The City On the Edge of Foreclosure
• Director: Mark R Largent
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: When Captain Krok and Mr. Spott hop through a stone donut to travel back to 1930 New York City, Krok finds he can’t have his fate and Edith, too! Stalled Trek: The City On the Edge of Foreclosure is an Animated Puppet Parody of what many consider to be the greatest Trek of all time.

• Film: Eraser // The Love Project
• Director: Jamie Kassler
• Country of Origin: Japan
• Description: A fiery young schoolgirl would do anything to protect her best friend from a merciless bully – and stumbles upon a dark, mysterious ring with magical powers that just might make her problems disappear…
  The Love 愛 Project // Stories of love told without words

• Film: Painting By Numbers
• Director: Radheya Jegatheva
• Country of Origin: Australia
• Description:When we look at great art, do we realise it is looking back? With eyes that see more clearly than we do?In a mysterious gallery imbued with strange life, shadows of the past and unresolved futures collide when a child’s vision peels away the layers of what we call ‘reality’…join a journey through the masterpieces you thought you knew as their hidden souls are finally given a voice.As layers of contemporary ‘reality’ are stripped away, art’s unseen soul brings a challenge we can neither ignore nor escape. Or can we? Will their message be heard in time?The door is open. The masters’ works await us. Who will enter ?

• Film: TRUTH.exe
• Director: Ricky Townsend
• Country of Origin: New Zealand
• Description: A young hacktivist by the alias of G1ll (Felix Elliott) is given a USB drive which contains an extraordinary truth; his mission is to upload it to the internet. However there are larger forces at play that will stop at nothing to prevent this. Strange photographers with cameras of unnatural power and the haunted video broadcast of a woman (Roanna Dalziel, Shortland Street ) join forces to stop G1ll’s pursuit for truth.

• Film: Dark Before Dawn
• Director: Moon Ferguson
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: As Hurricane Lilith approaches, another brew inside the Summers’ residence. Dawn, a young girl with catastrophic gifts, is forced to calm the storm inside when her mother’s demons come knocking at the door.

• Film: SUCH AN HONOR
• Director: Nicole Pouchet
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: Set in the year 2050, SUCH AN HONOR is a short sci-fi film about an aging actress who is pressured to upgrade into a synthetic body. It’s all about growing old gracefully and who gets to choose what women do with our bodies.

• Film: I/O
• Director: Carl Hansen
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: A man struggles to reveal to his girlfriend that he’s been dating her through his robot.

• Film: Love Conquers…
• Director: Eric Bendross
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description:A conflicted young man contemplates coming out to his super religious mother, but what happens next is nothing like either of them expects.Preston (Xavier D. Elliton) suddenly finds himself between a rock and a hard place when he decides to share his authentic self with his pious mother: Sister Lee (Nikkie Bendross). Will Preston regret making his mother privy to his sexual orientation? Or will Sister Lee forever rue the day that her choosing between the love of her God and that of her son?

• Film: Creature of the Night
• Director: Kaya Tone
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: One night in 1939, Bill Finger and Bob Kane create the world’s most well-known hero, “The Batman.” Bill Finger must come face-to-face with Edgar Allan Poe, his artistic inspiration, to reckon with becoming forgotten in history and giving up his character forever.

• Film: The Sands of Time
• Director: James Hughes
• Country of Origin: United Kingdom
• Description: A Time Portal in the Sands Brings a Young Couple Together

• Film: Mijo
• Director: Mazdey Snob
• Country of Origin: Mexico
• Description: Mijo is a young dreamer, suddenly blessed with the gift of King Midas. However his ability has a unique twist: whatever and whoever he touches is stylishly pimped up.Shot in the uncharted streets of Mexico City, Mijo is a colourful and fun fashion film inspired by the pachucos fashion from the 40s. The film is a collaboration with independent local artists, showcasing traditional Mexican tailoring, fashion, music and illustrations all in one project. Channeling the city’s edgy and urban spirit, Mijo reinterprets the myth of King Midas through a modern Mexican lens.

• Film: Nova
• Director: Andréanne Germain
• Country of Origin: Canada
• Description: A teenager unwillingly deletes her best friend in this bittersweet coming of age story set in a world where augmented reality has gamified existence.

• Film: Pretty
• Director: lei wang
• Country of Origin: China
• Description: A female web anchor who loves taking selfies and retouching photos is chased by the different herself in the photos. In the end, who is the winner?

• Film: Patron
• Director: Emily Haigh, Alon Young
• Country of Origin: United Kingdom
• Description: Vickie Black is young and hungry, though working as a maid in London, she has her sights set far higher – After successfully landing an interview for a prestigious job at an age-old, unscrupulous organisation it looks like Vickie might be on the verge of hitting the big time. Vickie goes in positive, but the questions from her faceless male interviewers soon become predatory, the atmosphere growing more awkward and uncomfortable by the minute. As the interview takes its toll, Vickie reaches breaking point, if her spirit is to survive this encounter she must undergo an abstract and radical physical transformation.

• Film: Hunger
• Director: Carlos Meléndez
• Country of Origin: Mexico
• Description: A child is being tormented by a voracious well demanding food from him. But as he proves unable to satisfy its hunger, he drags himself to find another way of feeding it.

• Film: Wawel Dragon
• Director: Cameron Carr
• Country of Origin: United Kingdom
• Description: An adaptation of a classic Polish folktale, rich in history, culture and magic told with an epic cinematic lens and stunning animation puppetry!

• Film: Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox
• Director: Stimson Snead
• Country of Origin: United States
• Description: It is called the Time Travelers Paradox. In which a scientist creates a Time Machine and kills their younger self. So now a man who should not- can not- exist, somehow does. That is the Paradox, and Paradoxes are impossible.