2017 San Diego International Kids Film Festival--Short Films

4 TO 5 USA | 5 min Short | Drama Director/Producer Craig Knowles Writer/Cast Arran Knowles On the eve of his 5th birthday, a young boy discusses his last day of being 4.     ADDY'S ODYSSEY USA | 3 min Short | Comedy Director/Writer Kenneth Carnes Cast Kale Clauson, Adam Carnes A depressed puppet seeks life advice from a philosophical surfer dude.   AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN UK | 6 min Short | Animation| Educational Director/Writer/Producer Alex Amelines Cast David Gant This is an introduction to autism that aims to raise awareness among young non-autistic audiences, to stimulate understanding and acceptance in future generations.     ANTHEMS: A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD Canada | 40 min Short | Documentary Director Stephanie Dieter Producers/Writers Stephanie Dieter, Travis Daniel Brown 10-year old Canadian singer and Guinness World Record-holder Capri Everitt embarks on a unique journey with her family to 80 countries where she sings the national anthem of each country in the national language in an effort to raise money and awareness for orphaned and abandoned children around the world.   AUGUST USA | 14 min Short | Drama | Music Director/Producer/Writer Xueying Ren Cast Joaquin A newly immigrated boy meets a deaf old man. They help each other, making their hearts grow closer.     BEAUTY SCHOOL USA | 11 min Short | Drama Director/Writer Samantha Shada Producer Sorina Sambula Cast Zoe Staig, Samara Weisberg A young girl learns what it takes to behave like a woman with a little help from her older cousin and the beauty industry.   BIBI LAND Switzerland | 8 min Short | Animation | Adventure | Comedy Director/Writer/Producer Joel Stutz Bibi land is an educational cartoon designed to teach young kids basic words and numbers. To make the learning process as fun and entertaining as possible, the animation is rich of wonderful fairy tale music and adventurous explorations.     BIRPURUSH - THE HERO WITHIN India | 16 min Short | Drama| Action Director/Writer Saurabh Chatterjee A kid wants to live Tagore's dream of being a hero. The modern world brings in new challenges in the dream. Will the kid be successful? Are Tagore's thought still valid in the modern world?     BUMAZHKI Russia | 6 min Short | Animation Director Alexey Mironov Writers Vadim Volya, Evgeny Golovin, Leonid Kaganov This is episode 35 of Paper Tales, the creative journeys of the paper cut-out duo, the moose Aristotle and woodpecker Knock-Knock, in the origami wonderland.     BRAND NEW DAY USA | 4 min Short | Animation | Fantasy | Adventure | Comedy Director Patricia Beckmann Wells Music Big D and the Kid's Table We are all stardust. For small creatures like us, the vastness is bearable only through love. The story is based on Brad's solo in Rocky Horror Picture Show.   BUMAZHKI Russia | 6 min Short | Animation Director Alexey Mironov Writers Vadim Volya, Evgeny Golovin, Leonid Kaganov This is episode 35 of Paper Tales, the creative journeys of the paper cut-out duo, the moose Aristotle and woodpecker Knock-Knock, in the origami wonderland.     CHASING RABBITS USA | 13 min Short | Drama | Adventure Director Jacob Smith Producers/Writers Jacob Smith, Julia Myers Cast Carolani Bartell, Isabella Kaze Ericka, a 13-years-old girl, suspects that her mom might be a spy and launches her own espionage effort with her best friend to find out what's really going on.   CICADA USA | 4 min Short | Animation Director/Writer Gabriela Borregales Producer John McIntosh This is a story about a sweet cicada that learns being yourself is the most beautiful song of all.     COLOURS! Norway | 7 min Short | Family Director/Producer Ann Holmgren A colorful man finds a robot that loves fruits. He feeds the robot with different colorful fruits and then a robot baby appears!   CORKY USA | 6 min Short | Animation | Fantasy | Adventure | Musical Director Ty Primosch A corkscrew with a screw loose battles a giant glass bottle to uncork seven magical lightning bugs.     DANCE WITH THE COCKCROW China | 14 min Short | Drama Director/Producer Yuanbao Zhang Writers Dengjian Wang, Yixue Cao Cast Huachen Xu, Yongle Li, San Men, Yufang Tu In Jin Dynasty, Zu Ti and Liu Kun became the students of an old man who fed chickens. They got up early every dawn when the cock crows and practiced sword playing.   DEAR CONGRESS USA | 3 min Short | Documentary Director/Producer Annie O'Neil This is a very short visual letter to Congress from some children of America. Understanding that there are problems in Congress, they share what they have been told about how to get along.     DEAR HENRI USA | 13 min Short | Drama | Fantasy | Family Director Matthew Sandager Producers Matthew Sandager, Matthew Burgess Writer Matthew Burgess Cast Shondra Floyd, K. Lamonte Jones, Kemari Joy McClary An imaginative young girl searches for ways to communicate with her grandfather after he's gone.   DOCTOR OF MONSTER Brazil | 11 min Short | Horror | Fantasy Director Gustavo Teixeira Writers Gustavo Teixeira, Rodrigo Estravini Producer Daniel Mascarenhas Cast Nábia Villela, Marielle Cecconello Dudu has already chosen his future profession. Now he'll have to face his fears to become a doctor of monsters.     DREW'S DANCING DRUM USA | 5 min Short | Animation Director Brandon Chappell Cast Chance Chappell, Adwoa Dora, Joseph Del Ponte, Charter Road Drew loves playing his drum for people until he is bullied by a boy named Malcolm. His dad encourages Drew to go on drumming and befriend the very boy that bullied him.   FLOWERS China | 15 min Short | Drama Director Bin Chen Producer Chengli Ma Writer Min Zhu Cast Zien Han, Yitao Lu, Li Gong, Yu Wang Meng Hao is running a florist. One day, a little girl shows up at his shop and orders the carnations for her mom for the next 70 years.     GEEZ LOUISE USA | 19 min Short | Comedy | Musical Director/Producer/Writer Mary Kerrigan Cast Hannah Wieczorek Louise, a 9-year-old rollerblading girl, has a knack for creative danger. Her kooky Grandma and brothers spend the day searching for the family’s escaped pet bird but Louise has other plans inside the neighborhood construction site   GEMMA USA | 6 min Short | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi Director Cristopher Stauffer Cast Isabella Margolin, Anya Margolin A restless night for two sisters prompts a bedtime tale involving Gemma, an other-worldly being whose crash landing and discovery on Earth changes a family forever.      I HAVEN'T SAID GOODBYE YET Taiwan | 4 min Short | Animation Director Tu Hao-Chin Writer Wang Rou-Ting Producer Shu Yi-Chi Animators Chen Sheng-pei, Tu Jie-en, Lai Wei-ni Little Tadpole, a 9-year-old girl, experienced the death of her younger sister a year ago. Facing the unbearable sadness and feeling of loss, she despises the Chinese people’s habit of “not to look at, not to listen to and not to talk about” death and bravely relates her own story.   INSIGHT USA | 15 min Short | Documentary Director/Producer Nicolas Lopez This documentary sheds light on the stunning extra-sensory abilities manifest in children who practice a groundbreaking meditation technique taught at a holistic medical center in Bogotá, Colombia.     INTREPID USA | 18 min Short | Fantasy | Adventure | Family Director Alexa Tuttle Producer Bryce Cyrier Writers Bryce Cyrier, Alexa Tuttle Cast Valeria Rose Lohman, Austin Dammann, Daz Byard In an effort to make her senior thesis unforgettable, a brilliant and overly ambitious witch named Hazel attempts to steal the ancient book of Merlin from her magical university's enchanted library.   JINGLIKS Russia | 11 min Short | Animation Director Anton Vereschagin Producer Oleg Roy Writers Oleg Roy, Amina Vereschagina, Anastasia Zubkova, Ekaterina Nevolina This is about the adventures of little merry people called Jingliks and their animal-friend Bedokur, who is the master of mischief. His curiosity continually draws the friends in different situations, from which they make amazing discoveries.     KITTEN WITCH New Zealand | 9 min Short | Fantasy | Adventure | Animation Director James Cunningham A precocious kitten wants to be a witch’s familiar and must pass a test or she will forever be just a simple cat, but the witch sees something in the kitten she does not expect.   KIZUNA USA | 4 min Short | Animation | Drama | Fantasy Director Emily Lin Cast ShoDoMe, Maty Cisse, Emily Lin When a young boy’s pride hurts his older brother, a lonely ghost tries to save him, but only makes matters worse for the two.     KOYAA - NAUGHTY TOY CAR Slovenia | 3 min Short | Animation Director/Producer Kolja Saksida Writers Kolja Saksida, Marko Bratus Cast Frano Maskovic, Ziga Saksida It's a rainy day, and Koyaa decides to tidy up his room. When he is done cleaning, he proudly looks around, stepping on a toy car he overlooked. He takes a crazy ride, zig-zagging around the place like a figure skater out of control!   LEO & TIG Russia | 11 min Short | Animation Directors Alexander Lutkevich, Evgeniy Golovin In a whimsical world in the Far East, where taiga, mountain range, and sea exist together, live two cubs and best friends: an Amur tiger cub named Tig and a Far Eastern leopard cub named Leo.     LILY USA | 4 min Short | Fantasy | Drama | Family Director/Writer Angela Park Cast Carissa Bazler, Anne Letscher Lily forms a bond with a plant after moving from her home. Her imaginary world takes on a life of its own that Lily’s mom dismisses.   MAGIC CONCERT TRICK USA | 4 min Short | Family | Animation Director/Producer/Writer/Animator Harvey Droke An orchestra conductor inadvertently obtains a magician's wand on the night of his big concert.     MASHA TIME! USA | 10 min Short | Family Director Allen Price Writers Ken Mann, Allen Price Cast Belle Fockler, Jack Gross, Talia Martin A clever little girl could easily conquer the world and she knows it.   MIMI & LALA Taiwan | 4 min Short | Animation | Family Director Sung-Chi Lo Writer/Producer Chiung-Fen Lin Cast Te-yi Chiang, Wan-ru Yan, Pei-yun Chiang, Pei-chia Chiang Mimi and Lala are adorable twin sisters. Their dad and mom love them very much and always prepare everything in pair: two sets of clothes, two sets of food or two bicycles. However, Grandpa and Grandma send them only one big bunny as a gift     MISS PERSONA Canada | 3 min Short | Music Directors Brandon Lane, Brandon Lane Writer Brandon Lane Producer/Cast Kimberly Persona Miss Persona sing a rainbow song to help cheer her friend Bernard up.   MY HAGGAN DREAM Northern Mariana Islands | 9 min Short | Family Directors/Writers Rob Sams, Laura Sams Cast Kaya Rasa Producers Rob Sams, Laura Sams, Stephani Gordon On the island of Saipan, a young girl's mysterious dream about a haggan, or green sea turtle, leads her to investigate the sea turtles that live around her home. Join her adventure to find turtles, which leads to a wonderful birthday wish.     NATURE CALLS USA | 8 min Short | Comedy | Animation | Family Director Darrell C. Hazelrig Writer Sam Carter Cast Casey Holloway, Patrick Fleming, Aileen Loy, Hannah Fierman, Leslie Carrera-Rudolph While out on a hike with granola boyfriend, a young woman's smart phone is snatched from her purse by a stick. The phone is then discovered by, and subsequently stolen from, various anthropomorphic animals until, finally, Mother Nature herself has to interject.   NEW TOY Brazil | 7 min Short | Animation Director Rogerio Boechat Producers Marcio Shimabukuro, Daniela Moreira Writers Rodrigo Amim, Mauricio Stal Cast Pamella Rodrigues On a boring day, a baby gets a teddy bear from his mom. The new toy becomes his best friend. Over time, it turns into a tedious object. He carries it around sadly, until destiny surprises him...     NOT ONE OF US USA | 9 min Short | Animation Director/Writer/Producer Bill Jarcho Animator Sean Burns When a brutish band of clay-morphing meanies invades and conquers a tribe of peaceful natives, their callous actions escalate to a shocking finale.   PIZZLY BEAR USA | 4 min Short | Family| Fantasy Director/Producer/Writer Cecelia Condit Music Renato Umali Unlike imaginary landscapes where trees talk and frogs turn to handsome princes, Pizzly Bears are actually a new species. They are a cross between a Grizzly and Polar Bear.     PLEASE GIVE ME TRUE LOVE China | 17 min Short | Drama Directors Luxi Zhang, Xueyong Wang Writers Yulin Zhang, Mei Wang Cast Xiaomeng Feng, Jiayi Xu, Jierui Wang Xiaohao and Xiaohe are classmates. Their dads apply different ways to love their children. Xiaohao’s dad always get gifts for him while Xiaohe’s dad always spend time with her. PRETTY FACE China | 20 min Short | Drama Director/Writer Dandan Zhang Producer Yong Zhang Cast Ziqing Wan, Letong Mayang, Xuan Wang, Zhen Zhang Jiandan burned her face when she was little. Though she grew up in the struggles and misunderstandings, she managed to earn the respect from others who regard her as a pretty face.     RUN AWAY CHILD China | 39 min Short | Family Director Feng Yang Producers Xianfeng Xu, Qiang Li Writers Feng Yang, Dianxue Wang Cast Decheng Ren Xiaomeng runs away from home as his parents are too busy at work. While his parents are desperately worried, Xiaomeng meets a father and his daughter whose love melts Xiaomeng’s heart.   POOL SHARK USA | 6 min Short | Fantasy | Adventure | Thriller Director Pat O'Malley Writers F.P. Handerson, Pat O'Malley Cast Garrett Johnson, Sicily Fontaine, Michele O'Malley-Daly A nice relaxing day at the pool turns into a nightmare for Tyler and his sister, Lisa, when a shark starts to terrorize them. They must find a way to defeat the shark, or else become its dinner.     POSSUM New Zealand | 16 min Short | Comedy | Adventure | Family Director/Writer Dave Whitehead Producers Dave Whitehead, Paul Murphy, Sadie Wilson Cast Taungaroa Emile, Duane Evans Jr., Maaka Pohatu Set in New Zealand in the 1970s, Possum is a tale of two young brothers who accompany their lumberjack father to a forest campsite. At odds with each other, the two hatch a plan to head into the woods and hunt for a notorious possum named Scar.   READING LINDSAY KEEGAN'S DIARY UK | 18 min Short | Comedy | Adventure | Romance Director/Writer Tom Hawgood Producers Tom Hawgood, Lexi Rose Cast Brooke Ramsay, Flynn Allen, Sam Campbell-Boross, Samuel Scott When three 13-year-old boys hear that Lindsay Keegan, the next door neighbor, has written the name of the one boy she likes in her diary, they decide to break into her house and stop at nothing until they read it.     SKY TAKES A BITE OUT OF CRIME USA | 32 min Short | Comedy | Suspense | Adventure Director Charles Carr Writers Charles Carr, Marsi Carr Producer Art Animates Life Films Cast Audrey Linder, Kylie Young, Mateja Schmidt, Jaden Gottfried, Andrew Janusek A children's sleepover turs to adventure and danger when kids visiting a friend’s new home in the country become unwitting witnesses to a serious crime. These young detectives set out to figure out what has happened and rescue a very special friend in danger.   SMALL USA | 5 min Short | Animation | Fantasy | Action Director/Producer/Writer Kailin Gow Smalley or 'Small' as she is called, is the smallest ant in her army ant colony, but she packs a big surprise and heart that may end up saving the colony including those who bullied her.         STRAWBERRIES USA | 7 min Short | Comedy | Romance | Drama Director Donggyun Han Writers Maggie Briggs, Donggyun Han Producer Patrick clement Cast Grace Keyt, Josie Girand, Daniel Kunningham A shy girl and her best friend accidentally gift a condom instead of candy and must retrieve it before her crush discovers their embarrassing mistake.     SUPERMOM USA | 15 min Short | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Action | Drama Director/Writer Jason Honeycutt Producers Jason Honeycutt, Nicholas Pellegrini Cast John Hensley, Justine Herron, Kaylee Dennis, A Leslie Kies, Garret Sato A daughter thinks her mother is a real life super hero. She might be right.   TANGUITO ARGENTINO Argentina | 8 min Short | Romance | Animation Director/Producer/Writer/Animator Joaquin Braga This is a story of two post lights dancing under the moonlight by the beautiful sound of tango.     THANK GOD FOR JELLY USA | 21 min Short | Family Director/Writer/Producer Marci Krown Cast Lilly Mae Stewart, Robert Charles, Carys Hay, John Kyle Ganotisi A girl's mission is to carry out her father's values on gratitude and goes on a journey with her stuffed rabbit, brother and two friends in order to do so. What she finds is clearly unexpected.   THE AUTOGRAPH India | 20 min Short | Drama Director/Writer Mohit Modi Producer Syed Sultan Ahmed Cast Vedanth Dattani, Jasleen Marwah, Gaurav Dwivedi, Chirag Lobo Shaunak bumps into his idol Animesh at a mall and takes his autograph on his palm. To prevent losing the autograph and his lucky charm, Shaunak stops washing his hands, which leads to a series of consequences that don’t leave him very happy or feeling lucky.     THE BASKET India | 15 min Short | Animation | Drama Director Suresh Eriyat Producer Nilima Eriyat Animators Mukund Bhaleghare, Adam Wyrwas, Sanjay Patkar, Swati Agarwal Two insignificant lives lost and found in time.   THE BOOTS USA | 12 min Short | Comedy Director/Writer Leah Cohen-Mays Cast Chase Benymon, Indira G. Wilson, Erik Mitchell, Paige Noel, Zenzi Moon An adorable little guy named Donovan goes on a shopping trip with his family and spots a pair of boots that he simply must have. After being told no, he throws an epic tantrum which results in him spending the summer learning a lesson he'll never forget...     THE CATCH Canada | 15 min Short | Drama Director/Writer Holly Brace-Lavoie Cast Charli Birdgenaw, Billy Iliopoulos, Joseph Napolitano, Sara Bradeen Morgan who loves fly fishing in the river near her home. She also likes a boy. But boys don’t like girls who fish. Morgan can't seem to reconcile her two interests. Will she have to choose one over the other?   THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER USA | 12 min Short | Drama| War Director Jackson Smith Writers Ryan Stratton, Jackson Smith Producer Amber Berck Cast Lilith Max, Charlene Geisler, Connie Smith, Dan Cheatham II, James Giusti In 1945 in Germany, two refugees, Maria and her mother, are working on a farm in the German countryside after they are forced out of their home by violence and political upheaval. It is there that little Maria makes an unlikely friend, an American soldier.     THE DRAGON'S SCALE New Zealand | 11 min Short | Fantasy | Drama | Adventure Director/Writer/Producer James Cunningham Cast Narelle Ahrens, Drew Cunningham, Darryl Harbraken A warrior and his son are on a quest to fix the son's stammer. But the boy must teach his father that he's all right as he is.   THE FOX Australia | 11 min Short | Family | Comedy Director/Writer Louise Turley Producer Donna Hensler Cast Arjen Goessens, Carolyn Bock, Michael Veitch, Peter Barron, Russell Williamson Winning the footy match was never going to be easy, but with a fox at full forward, it just got a lot harder.)     THE NEXT STEP USA | 16 min Short | Fantasy | Drama | Family Director/Writer Rachel Medeiros Producers Rachel Medeiros, Rosanna Medeiros Cast Jania Gomez, Rodrigo Ortega, Isabella X. Hernandez, Rogelio Hernandez Jr. Sofia and her two siblings thrive in their imaginary world, but that begins to crumble when their brother's physical limitations prevent him from fully immersing himself in that world. Sofia quickly finds herself unprepared to deal with her brother's reality.   THE PIXIE FIGHTERS USA | 15 min Short | Comedy | Drama | Family Director/Writer Dani Schoffman Producers Nick Bailey, Alexandra Savramis When David, an 8-year-old boy, learns that his father has leukemia and the prognosis is poor, he decides to find the cure himself. After misunderstanding the doctors words, "The Big C", David recruits his friends and together they become The Pixie Fighters.     THE ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS TOY STORY USA | 3 min Short | Animation | Sci-Fi | Comedy Director/Writer/Producer Raymond Montemayor Cast Edwin Frank Ortiz, Taylor Koster, Maliya Montemayor, Whitton Frank, Robert Nixon Craving the attention of her busy father, a 7-year-old Star Wars fan disobeys her father and unknowingly starts a rebellion with his Star Wars toy collection that has surprising consequences.   THE SEA-TEAM USA | 9 min Short | Animation | Comedy | Sci-Fi Director Sam Roth Producer Vincent Salvano Cast Sam Roth, Brandon Simanski, Ed McBurney Two janitors, Marty and Dino, working under a team of superheroes on their fantastic submarine base. But when given an opportunity to prove themselves as heroes in their own right, will they rise to the occasion?     TODAY? Australia | 10 min Short | Family | Drama | Fantasy Director Heather Maggs Cast William Mellor On Katie’s first day of school, she attempts to make friends but finds herself unable to talk to the other children. She must find the courage within herself to be brave.   TOGETHERNESS Taiwan | 12 min Short | Family | Drama Director/Writer Jie Lee The divorce caused Hao Lee to live with his father in weekdays and meet up his mom once a month. While today is the day for Hao’s mom to pick him up, she is late as she is concentrated on her work. Hao doesn’t have a chance to chat with her and turned out using his bad temper against her.     TRIGGA UK | 16 min Short | Family | Fantasy Director/Writer Meloni Poole Producer Deborah Aston Cast Lily Aslandogdu, Thea Barnes A girl would rather not speak and prefers to live as a horse, but the girls at school just won’t leave her alone.    Music/Songwriting     A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS DAY  USA | 19 min Short | Animation | Music  Writer Anthony Rodriguez  A semi animated children’s Christmas story is told in rhyme with 5 songs. The story begins on Christmas Eve at a zoo that is at risk of being closed because of low attendance within a populated city.  ADDY'S ODYSSEY USA | 3 min Short | Comedy Director/Writer Kenneth Carnes Cast Kale Clauson, Adam Carnes  A depressed puppet seeks life advice from a philosophical surfer dude.

@2017 San Deigo International Kids' Film Festival