"Give my children sunny smile. Give them moon and cloudless sky. I demand a better future." That’s exactly what the kids (or animals) are all striving for in these family-friendly shorts. The future of the neighborhood lemonade stand is what’s at stake in Anya Adams’ Lemonade Mafia (US 2016, 9 min). In Ned Wenlock’s Spring Jam (New Zealand 2016, 6 min), a young stag lacking big antlers uses some musical improvisation to make an impression during mating season. When his grandson challenges him on the soccer field, an elderly man looks to his past for new inspiration in Hannes Thor Arason’s Footsteps (Iceland 2017, 15 min). Hedgehog’s love for his cozy home sparks an unexpected standoff with his forest neighbors in Eva Cvijanovic’s animated Hedgehog’s Home (Canada 2016, 10 min). In Godelieve Eijsink’s poignant documentary Jesser and the Sugarcane (Netherlands 2016, 15 min), a Nicaraguan boy dreams of becoming a farmer in hopes of avoiding the

“To the far side of town where the thin men stalk the streets while the sane stay underground.” Assembled here is an unforgettable collection of the fantastical and disturbing. Sophie Linnenbaum’s Pix (Germany 2017, 9 min) breaks down the fourth wall in our nostalgia-fueled photo-obsessed culture. Cameo Wood’s Real Artists (US 2017, 12 min) takes us into a job interview of the future. A daughter’s return home is not all that it seems in Natalie Erika James’ creepy Creswick (Australia 2016, 10 min). Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell star in the b&w film noir The Dark of Night (US 2017, 10 min) from director Robin Wright (House of Cards). The sensual and sinister history of the bathtub in movie culture gets an incisive exploration in Jennifer Proctor’s Nothing a Little Soap and Water Can’t Fix (US 2017, 9 min). Oscar’s allegorical Napalm Mayhem (Netherlands 2016, 4 min) is pro

“Words of strength and care and sympathy-I opened doors that would have blocked their way, I braved their cause to guide.” Films about human connection, in all its tender and tenuous forms, ground this special group of shorts. Annabelle Attanasio (TV’s Bull) directs and stars in Frankie Keeps Talking (US 2016, 7 min) about how liberating a bad date can be. A birthday greeting to their daughter opens old wounds for a couple in Arian Vazirdaftair’s Not Yet (Iran 2016, 15 min). A young Latin-American girl caught in refugee limbo must adjust to a new life and uncertain future in Monica Santis’s moving Towards the Sun (UK 2017, 20 min). Economic difficulty and industry in transition in the Louisiana bayou force some hard decisions for a family in Nailah Jefferson’s atmospheric Plaquemines (US 2016, 20 min). And the charming complexity of father-daughter love is perfectly encapsulated in J.R. Heffelfinger’s Seconds (Puerto Ri

Highlights from the MVFF40 shorts programming

Today’s youth filmmakers are tomorrow’s future film legends, and this eclectic and inspired collection showcases some true up-and-coming talent. In a dazzling array of almost two dozen short films, young artists from around the Bay Area and the country (and Turkey!) share their original stories and singular views of the world. The program is the result of a unique peer jury process that takes place each summer during CFI’s Summerfilm series, in which teen participants in the Behind the Scenes program graduate into the Young Curators program, where they view, discuss, and curate from more than 100 films submitted from around the globe, all produced by young filmmakers ages 18 and under. Their selections include nearly every genre of filmmaking, from deeply personal narratives to fun fantasies, musical explorations, poetic visual essays, social commentary, and more: One 12-year-old student filmmaker pays loving tribute to her own grandmother in a story of a young woman coping with her gr

“Look at that sky, life's begun. Nights are warm and the days are young.” Come celebrate the history of MVFF in this marvelous retrospective of rarely screened short films. You know Barry Jenkins from his Moonlight (MVFF 2016) triumph, but he first came to MVFF with My Josephine (US 2003, 9 min), a paean to cultural integration and love in a laundromat. Filmmaking legend Agnès Varda has had a long history with MVFF (including this year’s Faces, Places) and her documentary Oncle Yanco (US/France 1967, 18 min) is a tribute to her Sausalito-based artist relative and also a love poem to Marin. And we’re proud to showcase a brand-new 16mm restoration of the avant-garde classic The Bed (US 1968, 20 min), shot on Mt. Tamalpais by James Broughton, one of the honorees at the first MVFF in 1978. Don’t miss it!

“Silhouettes and shadows watch the revolution. No more free steps to heaven. It's no game.” The stakes are often high as sports and physical expression dominate this eclectic set of timely shorts. Jeannie Donohoe’s Game (US 2016, 15 min) depicts a new high school student’s uphill battle in trying out for the varsity basketball team. Mari Walker explores why a secret midnight Swim (US 2016, 11 min) is a liberating moment for one shy teen. Racial tension in a tennis match spills over into an unlikely confrontation in Daniel Lee’s Fault (US 2017, 10 min). One hard-driving Bay Area mom and her quiet son learn some lessons on the competitive yoga circuit in Dan Damman’s Awarewolf (US 2017, 9 min). The beautifully dynamic choreography is just one marvelous element in Max Sachar and Natasha Dorlee Johnson’s slipstream dance piece Take Your Time (US 2017, 5 min). And a highly anticipated soccer playoff match converges with one an

“Now she walks through her sunken dream to the seat with the clearest view, and she's hooked to the silver screen.” Four different countries and four remarkable cinematic stories unified by characters finding courage in the face of life’s unexpected hardships. Based on the haunting Stephen King short story, Tom Barbor-Might’s All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (UK 2017, 20 min) explores the inner life of a woman mourning the loss of her son. In Tom Teller’s spectacular Icarus (US 2016, 20 min), an astronaut team on Mars goes into action when one of their members gets into a perilous jam. Santosh Sopan Davakhar’s visually stunning Adnyat (India 2017, 15 min) is like a fever dream of the magical and macabre as a young child faces some bitter truths about his place in society. And finally, the heartbreaking errand a young high school girl must undertake is the central premise of Alireza Ghasemi’s Lunch Time (Iran 2017, 15 min). 

“Here are we, one magical moment. Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven.” Join a twisted group of stop-motion, 2D, and multimedia animation spinning yarns of devious angst, alien and monster cosmos, and many appendages. In José Luis González and Dano Johnson’s The History of Magic: Ensueño (US 2016, 6 min), a young girl cycles through multiple fantastical deaths to a timely tune. Two films by masterful stop-motion director Brett Foxwell exemplify meticulous craft through detailed log shaving in WoodSwimmer (US 2017, 3 min) and his gorgeous machinery and armature creatures in Fabricated (US 2017, 3 min). Matt Reynolds’ Hot Dog Hands (US 2017, 6 min) is a hilarious and disturbing tube-steak journey into another dimension, followed by Stéphanie Cadoret’s My Man (Octopus) (France 2016, 9 min), where a woman is pulled into the depths by her needy mollusk mate. Quadrant Part 2 (US 2017, 2 min), by David Lauer and Woodrow White, is the second

“Another day, but even in springtime, it’s a rich slice of life." In this shorts program we present a collection of true-life tales about extraordinary individuals. In Nicholas Coles’ Isis Hair Salon (US 2016, 5 min), hair stylist Carrie Banks has unwittingly been thrust into the war on terror, and she’s fighting back one braid, weave, and extension at a time. Marian Hubler’s Bread & Roses Presents (US 2017, 9 min) profiles the iconic 43-year-old organization that brings hope and healing through live music and the performing arts to isolated audiences in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Fire & Light (US 2017, 10 min), director Dana Johnson introduces us to four young siblings with autism who find an unusual path to healing: fire dancing. In John Picklap’s Between the Sand (US 2016, 10 min), artist Jean-Paul Bourdier travels into cover