2024 Carole Dorothy Joyce Grant for Student Filmmakers – Finalists 

Lost In Love is a short film about a couple that has been in a long-term relationship is growing apart due to differing needs and expectations, and must ultimately decide whether to continue or part ways. So far, this film has been nominated for Best Short Film and Best Student film in International Film Festivals.

'It feels like home' is a poetic reflection on premature death and lost dreams.

Yue is re-living one of her 11-year-old Summer days with her adventurous friend Moira, knowing that in fifteen years from that day, Moira will pass away. She just wants to spend one last day with her best friend; to play, to laugh, to say goodbye.

My uncle died in 1997 from AIDS. His death led directly to my birth. This is the story of the uncle who I have never met but the ripples of whose legacy live on in every breath I take.

Part thank-you note and part memorial, Doug + Me is a short animated documentary film centered around my search to get to know Doug as he was; a look into a life and an ultimate reflection on the emotional impact of the AIDS crisis and on the enduring ripples of legacies we all leave behind.

In a world plagued with fatal natural disasters, a rebellious “Junior Weatherman” escapes Eunoia, the only city of refuge, discovering the haunting truth about what lies beyond its borders.

Tell me about a complicated woman... A sister, a dance, and a chaotic euthanasia to the rhythm of a sexy cumbia.

Hometown Homeless is a poetic investigation of land and home. The film follows Momma Shannan (Shannan Vudmaska), an unhoused poet as she explores her own definition of home, the Potrero district of Santa Cruz, and the changing landscape of the encampments within the Potrero. The story centers on the experiences of unhoused women and highlights the harm and displacement that encampment sweeps cause and the need for sanctioned community spaces.

An astronaut growing up obsessed with music crashed in a mission. In his last moment
of life, he steps into a whimsical journey in a space opera theater, where he meets a
ghost who’s eager to perform a song with him. Together they carry out a melody at the
last minute.

Desperate for work, a struggling migrant worker takes on a job as a farm guard dog on a strawberry farm, where survival will come at the cost of submission.

The story of Bitter Fruits is born out of a deeply personal desire to capture the absurdity of survival in dehumanizing systems where humanity itself becomes a luxury and submission becomes a means to endure. We want to reflect on the cruel mechanics of survival, not through overt polemics, but through a dark, intimate tale of submission and resistance.

Degree of Certainty is a thesis-level short film by Simon Schneider (writer/director), an award-winning 2nd year Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

The short is a corporate drama that tells - for the first time as a live-action film - the story of how 50 years ago, the biggest US oil corporations learned about the impact of climate change and decided to use all of their power to deny it, leading to the climate crisis we live in today. It was also selected as a Finalist for the 2024 Roy W Dean Short Film Grant.

"The Riffs Between Us" is about two teenage musicians hiking up a mountain to play their final jam together before they part ways for college. This film will explore the complexities of childhood friendships and interpret them through music, conveying the feelings of regret, loss, unrealized love, and how intense these emotions are for young adults - and that despite the intensity, things will be ok.

After losing his house, a businessman meets an undocumented fisherman, who lives in a palm hut on the beach. The fisherman takes him in and helps him out, but when the businessman contemplates to invest the fisherman's savings to get them out of there, they both get a chance to reevaluate their life path.

The leader of a queer garage band is offered a chance at representation at a battle-of-the-bands competition and is forced to choose between a chance at mainstream success or his band's image and their identities.

With an opportunity of a lifetime, Ben is on the verge of joining the elite class of wealth. This opportunity is the solidified redemption for the hard past he once came from. But his prize is far from attainable as physical and moral obstacles continue to stand in his way.

Although Ben is caring and thoughtful, his devotion to escape his past life of poverty exposes his selfish side. For Ben must decide if his devotion to never suffer again, justifies the suffering of another.

Family, pressure, obligation. A Filipino-American college baseball pitcher pushes his body to the limit in order to live up to his father's high expectations.

Scattered and Drifting is a thesis-level short film directed and written by Yupeng He, a 4th year directing student in the Film MFA program at Columbia University in the city of New York. Yupeng's works were selected for the 76th Cannes Film Festival and the 74th Berlin Film Festival. Recently, the short film 'A Summer's End Poem' written by Yupeng won the Academy Awards (OSCARS) Qualifying Beirut Shorts Film Festival 2024 and will now be eligible for 2026 OSCARS consideration.

Scattered and Drifting is a short film about a man who has worked as a cleaner in a big city for many years and confronts his memories when he returns to his hometown.

In a Pennsylvania town, a reserved teenager, Kitty, attends a forced double date with her best friend, amid the pressures of senior year.

When a soccer game between two twelve-year-old boys on opposite sides of a cultural divide escalates into violence, they must confront the hidden prejudices that shaped them, and the unexpected bond that might bridge their divide.