Roy W. Dean Film Short Film Grant Finalists – 2022

John

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

39-year-old father of four, John, is trying to adjust to his new role as a single parent. A devout member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, John’s emotions are increasingly complex as he examines his relationship to his children, his faith, and the resort town he lives in.

Hart of the Wild Bunch

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

A Wild West gang of runaway women find themselves destitute after a chain of unsuccessful heists. Benevolent leader Cassidy Hart must leverage her authority when one of her rebel followers rallies the group around a very dangerous scheme.

Land's End

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

A closely-knit film crew begins to unravel after tragedy strikes on set.

Charlie’s Freedom

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Charlie is a sensitive teenager who doesn’t fit in. She cares for her disabled Mum but gets bullied at school. When she turns down her place at University, her Mum takes radical steps to ensure her daughter is free to complete her education.

Valle Arriba

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Valle Arriba is a film about what it was like for me and my friends to come of age in the working-class neighborhood of Valle Arriba in Puerto Rico at the turn of the twenty-first century. This is experienced through the eyes of Iker, a nine-year-old boy who spends his summer break adventuring and getting lost with his best friend, Diego, through a series of days that will forever change the course of his life and mark the end of his innocent childhood.

Awakening Georgie

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

What does It take for a half dead woman to come back to life?

The Audition

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Bryan, 2nd generation Chinese American who dreams of acting, one day auditions for the role of ‘the Chinese Guy’ in a Hollywood film. During it he encounters a radical recent Chinese immigrant Tiger, and finds himself confronted of his authenticity.

Karanfil Kız (Carnation)

Animation

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Description:
A mother tells a bedtime story to her child. In the story, a 7 years old girl named Carnation searches for her father, who suddenly disappeared from the movie theatre. No one knows what happened to the man. Neighbour’s Kid tells Carnation that an Ox swallowed her father. Although Carnation does not believe in the Neighbour’s Kid, she goes to the forest with him to find the Ox. The girl walks through the forest and reaches a waterfall. She dowses her head down the waterfall and finds herself in outer space. There, she sees the Ox which carries the Earth on its horns. Carnation discovers the truth by the guidance of the Ox.

My Sweet Sweet Child

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Logline: After abandoning his six-year-old at birth, an estranged father must confront his past or risk losing his daughter forever.

This story is a long-form poetic love letter to my daughter—an openly autobiographical apology.

Being a father to my six-year-old daughter Aubree is the most important role I have in my life, however, things were not always this way. During her mother’s pregnancy, I had severe doubts that Aubree was mine. I had recently landed a role on a tv show, and my ego had led me to believe that she was after me for my -nonexistent- money. I was wrong. The truth is, I wasn’t ready to be responsible for anyone but myself.

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Color Theories is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story set in 1994 that explores how loss and grief seed wisdom in all stages of life, but especially when experienced during the formidable years. The story unfolds within an exploration of the visible light spectrum: ROY G BIV. This serves as a visual aid to emphasize the emotional peaks and valleys of the journey 13 year old Charlotte takes the summer she gets her first period which happens right after her mother has suffered a stroke.

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Novice teacher Mike is worried his new class won't be able to see past his disability but soon realises that he too has lessons to learn.

Just Kids

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

"Just Kids" is a short film inspired by the true story of Alisha – a 7-year-old girl struggling to be accepted as the only girl in her football team - and her opponent Ben - a boy who suffers from his mother’s tough-guy expectations. After an inevitable clash, Alisha learns the other children are not where her problems are coming from...

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

After sending his little brother off to college, Finn is, for the very first time, completely alone. When he develops sleep paralysis, he forms a relationship with the sleep paralysis demon that he sees every night.

Nearly Departed

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Two sisters at odds armed with a cookie jar of their father’s ashes take one last road trip with Dad to find the perfect place to say goodbye. When one threatens to smash the urn, they realize they have to learn a new way to live with each other – or risk losing their family forever.

Without Heaven

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

When Deniz(34) has to care for her mother who has Alzheimer disease, she has to confront the abusive trauma from her past through the nightmare that has haunted her since her adolescence. That confrontation makes Deniz understand and forgive her mother, who chose to remain silent in the past.

Without Heaven, points to a social problem through the broken relationship between a mother and a daughter who share same abusive trauma. When they're trying to establish with each other through their shattered memories, will these two women finally be able to understand and forgive each other, or will their shared trauma imprison them in their inner world and continue to live with their anger?

Two Wrongs

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

In an effort to prove to his son that he’s a “real man,” a middle-aged father picks up a fight with a group of high school students.

The Ladies

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Emma scrambles to hide an affair with her grandma's best friend from her grieving grandma and nosy cousin.

The Note

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Small town boy finds love through his Church and later, as an adult, suffers the loss of a guiding figure which shows him his true self.

We Were Kids Back Then

Narrative Fiction

Image: Please upload an image CROPPED TO 500px WIDE

Emilio, a young Peruvian living in NYC, is caught off guard when Mary, a Peruvian childhood acquaintance - now turned into his cleaning woman- unexpectedly arrives with her baby to his apartment. The situation slowly begins to test Emilio’s loyalties, as he tries to avoid the conflict between satisfying his demanding partner, Andrew, and supporting a compatriot in need.