The Last Houseboat, 31min., USA
Directed by Colin D’Amelio
The Last Houseboat is a heartfelt short documentary that delves into the history of a unique wooden vessel, lovingly crafted by a family patriarch in 1970. Anchored on the Rhode Island coast for over 50 years, the houseboat became more than a structure—it was a landmark, a cherished family tradition, and a symbol of connection across three generations. When unforeseen circumstances force the family to dismantle the beloved vessel, they confront a profound sense of loss while celebrating its enduring legacy. A poignant tale of resilience, memory, and the ties that bind, The Last Houseboat invites viewers to reflect on the traditions and stories that shape their own families.

https://www.instagram.com/cdproducshins/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I’ve been in love with the Houseboat and everything it represents since I first set foot on it as a child. It felt like a true escape from the world—an experience unlike any other. From the start, I believed this vessel had a beautiful story that deserved to be told. Having always been close to the Sola family, who own this beloved houseboat, my initial goal was simply to create a short piece as a keepsake for them—a tribute to their tradition. But that idea quickly evolved, growing into The Last Houseboat, a deeply personal short documentary spanning over 30 minutes.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

This film was truly a labor of love. Some of the earliest footage dates back to 2016, originally shot for a different project before being archived. Over nearly a decade, this documentary took shape—built through years of gathering resources, footage, and stories to bring it to life.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Family Traditions

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

CD Productions is based on the West Coast, while this film primarily takes place on the East Coast, where most of its subjects live. The greatest challenge was navigating the distance and coordinating with four or five different family members to gather assets—whether photos, videos, texts, or phone calls. Managing logistics across time zones and locations added an extra layer of complexity to the process.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Hearing that feedback was incredibly rewarding. It brought a smile to our faces to know that people truly understood what we set out to achieve with this film—that at its core, it’s a story about family, even more than it is about the boat itself.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I’ve been obsessed with films since I was a kid. My dad would introduce me to classics on TCM, and I would create short films for school projects—whether or not that was what the assignment called for. While my passion truly took shape in college, where I honed my skills, filmmaking has always been a constant in my life and a driving force behind everything I do.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

That’s a hard one. The Blues Brothers is up there. Grease. But it’s most likely a Christmas movie, The Muppet’s Christmas Carol or Home Alone are probably tied.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

I think you offer a lot for filmmakers, and I appreciate everything you do. I think first and foremost it’s always important to have in-person events to be able to meet and collaborate with our fellow filmmakers.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

FilmFreeway is a great site. Everything is centrally located and easily accessible.

10. What is your favorite meal?

I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

So many things! I’m always writing and collaborating on new projects. Our next big venture is a narrative short film about a Deacon who begins to question his faith following the death of his wife. We plan to launch a crowdfunding campaign soon, with hopes of starting production by the end of this year or early next year.

CROSSING, 3min., Italy
Directed by Alessia Ambrosini
Late evening in Tokyo. A man is on his way home on the subway after a day’s work, lost in his daily routine. Suddenly there is an explosion. The man is catapulted into another dimension.

https://filmitalia.org/en/film/324/207005/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

This short film came about almost by chance. I was in Japan to promote a feature documentary about the connections between Japan and Abruzzo (an Italian region) when I was struck by the country’s colors and beauty—where everything is in harmony. Crossing was born from the spontaneous organization of images I captured with my smartphone during my journey, which later shaped a story. A story that prompts reflection and offers multiple interpretations.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

It was a very fast process—less than a month from concept to completion.

3. How would you describe your film in two words?

Psychedelic, spiritual. It’s a short film that invites reflection on the afterlife and on God—metaphorically represented by the old man in the film who flies and then retrieves the kites, symbolizing souls.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

None, fortunately.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I was fascinated by the different interpretations and nuances that each person perceived in the film.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I’ve always loved storytelling, ever since I was a child. Cinema became my means of doing so. In 2017, following a corporate restructuring, the company I was consulting for did not renew my contract. I took that as an opportunity to pursue my passions and train professionally in filmmaking.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Dangerous Liaisons by Stephen Frears.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

This festival is already perfect as it is!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

A very positive experience! FilmFreeway is extremely user-friendly.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Pizza!

11. What is next for you? A new film?

I am currently working on a short film that is almost entirely created using digital technologies, both in scene creation and soundtrack composition.

Bug Eye, 4min., USA
Directed by Clint Green
A marriage is tested by a man’s obsession with bugs.

https://www.youtube.com/@imjstudiosproductions
https://www.instagram.com/clintjgreen

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I’ve always had a profound love for bugs and my wife. It seemed like a win, win.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

We only had 5 days to shoot. I was stuck in the editing room for a few months until I was challenged to shorten “Bug Eye” to under 5 minutes. That helped me get out of my own way and just tell the story the best I could in that amount of time.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Love Bug!

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Falling in Love with every little moment I shot, and not trusting that less is more most of the time.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I loved it!! Film making, especially editing can be very lonely sometimes. Validation from an audience makes me want to get out there and make our next short.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I’ve been making short films on and off since high-school. About 10 years ago we rented an old house on 50 acres close to where I grew up in upstate New York. It was the perfect setting for my imagination to thrive. The house has become a central character for my last 5 short films produced by IMJ Studios.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Great question. I’m really not sure but I know every Christmas it’s a tradition to watch Elf followed by Bad Santa.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

I think you are off to a great start! This has been of the best experiences I’ve had as a film maker. I would love to meet you all in person at a screening on day!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Pretty good! Early on I took a lot of moon-shots and applied to everything like Cannes, Sundance, etc. Now, I’m much more discerning and use Film Freeway to research festivals that truly fit my genre.

10. What is your favorite meal?

My wife Mary’s tofu/chicken enchiladas!!

11. What is next for you? A new film?

I hope to return to upstate New York to film a new short this summer. We have a great community of family and friends there who, for simply the love of film, help us out. I can’t thank them enough!

CATABASE FIRST PART: AD LOVE. 97min., France
Directed by Nicolas Pereira
Two lovers fall into madness.

https://www.instagram.com/nicolaspereiratheater/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

Honestly, I can’t say exactly why. By 2021, it had been four years since I had last directed a fiction film. In the meantime, I had worked as a screenwriter, script doctor, producer, cinematographer, and even as a content creator for Fashion Week. Yet, despite these experiences, all my personal projects had ended in failure.

2020 and 2021 had been particularly difficult years, both professionally and personally. Everything I tried to build seemed to collapse before it could even take shape. I had reached a point where waiting no longer made sense. If I wanted to make a film, I had to do it now, with whatever means I had.

It all started in November 2021, almost by accident. After a night of working in a nightclub, I was driving home when I got stuck in traffic. On a whim, I took out my iPhone and filmed a few shots inside my car, by pure instinct. Once home, I edited the footage to a piece of music by Wojciech Kilar and color-graded it in the style of a film noir. It wasn’t a calculated decision, but a spontaneous urge—as if I were finally allowing myself to do something I had always been told to avoid by client or the global industry.

And then, without fully realizing it at the time, something happened. These images were already telling a story I had yet to write.

Bit by bit, the film took shape in my mind: the story of a couple who love each other deeply but, despite everything, should not be together. As they struggle, they wear themselves out, burn out, and inevitably age—metaphorically.

Driven by this intuition, I kept filming, alone: a hand hovering over a lit stovetop, a snow globe in the shadows, a flickering lightbulb, an empty room where I smoke a cigarette. Then, I edited a teaser and sent it to Olivia Rose, a fellow acting student whose talent had always left me in awe. I asked her if she wanted to turn this into a film—a short, maybe a medium-length, perhaps even a feature. Less than five minutes later, she agreed to join me.

From that moment on, there was no turning back. Tired of waiting for a project to finally materialize, I decided to do everything myself: film alone with my iPhone, with no budget, no crew, and most importantly, no creative restrictions.

Filming began in January 2022 and spanned eight months—forty days of shooting filled with doubt, setbacks, and improvisation.

But above all, without intending it, this film became a catharsis. A raw, unfiltered reflection of my state of mind at that time. It wasn’t planned, yet perhaps that’s what makes it beautiful. Because it was born out of a deep, personal, and artistic necessity—out of urgency.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

I started shooting the first scene in December 2021, wrapped up the shooting in August 2022, and completed the final edit in December 2024. So, the entire process took about three years.

3. How would you describe your film in two words?

That’s a tough one! Hmm, I would say “Love and Self-Destruction.”

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

First, it was filming with an iPhone and no other equipment. Then, the biggest challenge became shooting and acting at the same time. Doing both without a crew was extremely difficult. I’m meticulous, and I struggle with perfectionism. If something doesn’t look right or doesn’t belong in the frame, I can become very anxious. And when it was my turn to be in front of the camera—and even worse, when Olivia Rose and I both had to be in front of it—it was pure chaos in my mind. The framing was almost done blindly. I had no idea if I was in the shot, if the focus was correct, or if my performance was on point. We had to act, then watch the footage, then make sure we repositioned ourselves in the right spot, over and over again. Sometimes, a single shot could take hours to complete.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It was great! It’s always interesting to get feedback on this film because everyone has different interpretations of the story, but never of its core or main theme. This makes me very happy because, in my opinion, a film should have a clear subject but allow for many interpretations and different readings.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

It was clear from a very young age that I wanted to make films, but the moment I truly realized it was when I watched The Godfather Part II at 15 years old. I was stunned. My heart was broken by the story, by John Cazale and Al Pacino (who instantly became my favorite actor).

This film became my favorite, and at that point in my life, I was out of school, so I had the time to watch it every day, on loop, for three full weeks—day and night. The acting, the drama, the script, the directing, the set design, the sound, the photography—I was completely obsessed with it.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Hmmmm, I can’t tell you just one, but maybe eleven:

• The Godfather Part II and III, equally.

• Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

• Spider-Man 2 by Sam Raimi.

• Aliens by James Cameron.

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

• Hellraiser by Clive Barker.

• Jurassic Park 2.

• Die Hard 3.

• Rocky 6.

• Signs and Unbreakable by M. Night Shyamalan.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Hmmmm. It’s a complicated question.

You are a great festival, and I have nothing negative to say about you. My concern is more with festivals in general, which are not really designed for independent filmmakers. To give your film a chance, you often need to pay, again and again, depending on the category. And when you don’t have the resources, it becomes very complicated.

Let me explain better : many indie filmmakers don’t have the financial support to submit to several festivals, so paying for each category becomes a barrier. It’s hard enough to get the film made in the first place, so being constantly required to pay just to be considered can be discouraging.

This needs to change for indie filmmakers!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experience been working on the festival platform site?

It was simple, smooth, and professional.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Even if it’s not considered by many as a meal, I have to be honest: Ice cream.

In one word, mesmerizing…

11. What is next for you? A new film?

Right now, I’m finishing the editing of part 2 of Catabase, which I shot in 2023.

Alongside that, I’m working on the preproduction of my third feature, a science fiction / horror film , and I’m writing/finishing two other feature scripts that I hope to shoot in the next few years.

Zero Sum Game, 8min., USA
Directed by Scott Cook, Liz Dibble
A rumination on the break down of civil discourse in society, the damaging nature of contention, and the profound importance of peace making.

www.instagram.com/dibbledance1

Get to know director Liz Dibble:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I choreographed the dance this film is based on in 2020/2021. Contention seemed to be ever present in my life and community. Differing political views and opinions surrounding how to handle the global Covid19 pandemic were tearing apart my family, my friends, my neighborhood, and even my faith community. No one around me seemed interested in actually learning, understanding, giving space for others, it all felt like a giant yelling match that was amplified by social media. I started to ponder on how we could do this better? Was there a different way that could lead to connection and empathy rather than isolation and anger.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

From the conception of the dance to the finished film, 4 years. From film concept to finished product, 1 year.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Sincere, hopeful

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Constraints on time. We had a very limited budget, so it forced us to consolidate shooting in 3 different locations into one day. Also one of the featured dancers was pregnant and grappling with terrible morning sickness. She is my hero, and was incredible all during the shoot. But we were trying to fit so much into one day and trying not to completely exhaust her and wear her down.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It was a joy. I was happy that the message of the film seemed clear and that the audience picked up on the nuance and detail we tried to incorporate.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Dance is an ephemeral art form. The product you work on for months or years is often performed only a handful of times and then that live experience is gone forever. I became interested in making dance films about 8 years ago. Having a tangible artifact of a creative act is powerful.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Dead Poets Society and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Truly opposite ends of the spectrum. Maybe “Big Fish” is a close 3rd.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

This festival is truly like nothing else I have ever been a part of. I appreciate your intention with building community and working to promote the films shown.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Film Freeway is easy to use, accessible to all. I have had nothing but positive experiences using the site.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Sushi, specifically hamachi nigiri. Yum.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

I am taking a piece of choreography to a college dance festival in a few weeks. More films to come, definitely.

longing/belonging, 3min,. Canada
Directed by Rachael Withers, Niamh Wilson
longing/belonging follows a queer femme struggling to break out of the mold of their straight relationship and their journey to discovering identity and community.

https://instagram.com/longingbelonging.film

Get to know director Rachael Withers:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

Last year I was feeling discouraged about my dance & acting career as the industry was quite slow, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and create something instead of always waiting for the next thing to happen. longing/belonging was born out of conversations between myself and my co-director Niamh Wilson, about the the fact that we were both craving to work together again, and our similar feelings as queer people in the world.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

I would say from listening to the song in my headphones walking around on the street, to seeing the final product, around 6 months.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Whimsical & Gay

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

The biggest obstacle was the time period when I was trying to produce the film myself. Thank god I was able to find my lovely producer Erin Purghart who took on the project and made everything so much better. I learned the hard way from a failed initial shoot that you have to let go of some control and trust other creatives to take your film to the next level

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Initially I was scared to watch the feedback as I wasn’t sure what to expect. It felt so nice to be validated by other industry professionals, I want to thank each and every one of them for taking the time to share their thoughts about our film. My initial worries have definitely been put to rest!

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

From a super young age I’ve always been interested in film, specifically dance films, and music videos. When I was 16 I was so bored with school, I decided to make my own film series where I posted a dance video with a mini concept every single day for a year on Instagram.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Across the Universe will always be so special to me.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Honestly, this is my first time being in film festivals so I don’t have a ton of expectation based on previous experience. I just want people to see the film, as I owe that to all the amazing cast and crew who dedicated their time and energy to the project.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Amazing, 10/10 platform. I love how integrated everything is.

10. What is your favorite meal?

It changes depending on my mood. Right now, I’m really craving lobster linguine

11. What is next for you? A new film?

As an actor/dancer I’m looking to keep working and hustling in this industry. My big goal is to choreograph and direct music videos for high-level artists. I want to keep working towards that goal.