2024 Sundance Film Festival announces Shorts Film Tour

The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour, a 110-minute program of seven short films curated from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

The short film tour will play in locations across the country and internationally throughout 2024 and into 2025. Filmgoers can enjoy this assortment of short films in over 50 theaters and independent art house venues. This specially curated selection is full of drama and thrills, including eye-opening and heartwarming indie shorts and a few jury prize winners that offer a peek into the Festival program.

For four decades, the Sundance Film Festival has supported short filmmaking, showcasing the work of many now-prominent independent feature filmmakers such as Damien Chazelle, Destin Daniel Cretton, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Dee Rees, Joey Soloway, Taika Waititi, Wes Anderson, and many others.

In 2024, the Festival received 12,098 short film submissions, the highest number on record, selecting 53 to screen. Each year The Festival selects a collection of shorts from its most recent program to go on a theatrical tour hitting dozens of cities. The tour and the Festival are programs of Sundance Institute, a leading arts nonprofit dedicated to advancing work by and opportunities for independent creators.

“Despite an industry-shifting year in filmmaking, short films continue to strengthen its art form,” says Mike Plante, Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. “This year’s showcase is a collection of shorts from the 2024 Festival that proves just how fertile the format continues to be for fresh ideas from ambitious and dynamic emerging filmmakers.”

Below are the current tour locations and dates; more locations are added on a rolling basis:

June 7

Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre

Santa Barbara, CA – Riviera

June 14

New York, NY – IFC Center with Post-Screening Q&A with Filmmakers

Akron, OH – Nightlight Cinema

Cincinnati, OH – Cincinnati World Cinema

June 15

Wilmington, DE – Theatre N

June 23

Sacramento, CA – Dreamland Cinema

Albuquerque, NM – Guild Cinema

July 4

Austin, TX – Austin Film Society

Williamstown, MA – Images Cinema

July 6

Riverside, CA – University of California Riverside

July 22

Anchorage, AK – Bear Tooth Cinema

July 26

Cleveland, OH – Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque

August 3

Hanover, NH – Hopkins Center for the Arts

August 28

Columbus, OH – Wexner Center for the Arts

August 29

Reno, NV – Nevada Museum of Art

August 30

Kansas City, MO – Screenland Armour

September 4

Stamford, CT – Avon Theatre

September 26

Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA

Featured Shorts

ALOK<> / U.S.A. (Director: Alex Hedison, Producers: Natalie Shirinian, Elizabeth Baudouin, Meggan Lennon) — A compelling portrait of Alok Vaid-Menon, acclaimed nonbinary author, poet, comedian, and public speaker. Executive-produced by Jodie Foster. Nonfiction. Biography. LGBTQ+. Cast: Alok Vaid-Menon, Dylan Mulvaney, Chani Nicholas.

Alex Hedison is an internationally acclaimed photographer, artist, and actress. She is a critical voice in both the artistic and LGBTQ+ communities. ALOK marks Hedison’s directorial debut. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Oscar-winning actor/director Jodie Foster, and their dog, Ziggy.

Bug Diner / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Phoebe Jane Hart) — A dissatisfied marriage, a secret crush, and workplace fantasies come to a head in a diner run by a mole with a hot ass. Fiction. Animated. Comedy. Cast: Jacob Levy, Phoebe Hart. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: Animation. 

Phoebe Jane Hart is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Working primarily in stop-motion animation, Hart creates films that focus on the human psyche through dark humor and surreal imagery. She graduated with an MFA in experimental animation from California Institute of the Arts. Her short JamieSonShine has screened at Slamdance and won a Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Film Festival.

Dream Creep / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Carlos A.F. Lopez, Producers: Megan Leonard, Bobby McHugh, Jonathan Caso, Zeus Kontoyannis) — A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice. Fiction. Horror. Cast: Ian Edlund, Sidney Jayne Hunt. 

Carlos A.F. Lopez is a multifaceted filmmaker with over a decade of experience in the Seattle underground/DIY scene. His short film Ghosting the Party premiered at Nashville Film Festival 2017 and won a Special Jury Prize. Previously Lopez produced The Procedure, winner of the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Essex Girls / U.K. (Director: Yero Timi-Biu, Screenwriter: Busayo Ige, Producers: Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton) — After an incident at her high school pulls her into the orbit of the only other Black girl in her year, “Essex Girl” Bisola is plunged into a journey to discover a whole new side of herself. Fiction. Drama. BIPOC. Women-Centered. Cast: Busayo Ige, Corinna Brown, Maisie Smith, Adrianna Bertola, Krysstina Frempong, Rebecca Dike. 

Yero Timi-Biu is an award-winning writer-director who recently directed on ITV drama Three Little Birds and was second unit director on BBC/Amazon thriller Chloe. Timi-Biu has also written on shows for Sky and Netflix and has original shows and adaptations in development with studios internationally. Her shorts have played in competition at festivals such as London Film Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival.

Pathological / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Alison Rich, Producers: Bridgett Greenberg, Ingrid Haas, Avtar Khalsa, Peter Principato, Todd Ruhnau) — A woman who’s a pathological liar wakes up one day to discover her lies have become true. Fiction. Comedy. Women-Centered. Cast: Alison Rich, Meaghan Rath, Luke Cook, Adam Lustick, Heather Pasternak, George Kareman. 

Alison Rich is a comedic writer, director, and actor. She’s pumped to return to Sundance with her narrative short Pathological. Her previous short Training Wheels played at the Festival in 2022. Rich currently has a feature in development with Becky Sloviter<> (Palm Springs). Her writing credits include SNL and The Goldbergs. Acting credits include The Other Two, The Goldbergs, and Drunk History.

Pisko the Crab Child is in Love / Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Makoto Nagahisa, Producer: Yasuo Suzuki) — Pisko’s father is a crab while her mother is human. Pisko falls in love with her teacher but is heartbroken when he leaves her because she is half-crab. Pisko finally finds love and companionship with her friend Kubokayo. Fiction. Comedy. International. BIPOC. Women-Centered. Cast: Aiko Kano, Saya, Maki Fukuda, Kanta Sato. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Special Jury Prize for Directing.

Makoto Nagahisa was born in Tokyo and<> became a film director after working in advertising. In 2017, he wrote and directed the short film And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool, which won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. His feature film We Are Little Zombies was part of the official selection for Berlinale and other international film festivals. Upcoming projects include directing a TV series produced by A24.

The Masterpiece / Spain (Director and Producer: Àlex Lora Cercós, Screenwriter and Producer: Lluis Quilez, Screenwriter: Alfonso Amador, Producers: Sandra Travé, Josemari Martínez, Néstor López) — Leo and Diana, a wealthy couple, meet Salif and Yousef, two scrap dealers, at a recycle center. Offering them more junk, Diana invites them to their mansion, but the immigrants actually might be the ones with something she wants. Fiction. Drama. International. Cast: Daniel Grao, Babou Cham, Melina Matthews, Adam Nourou, Guido Grao. 2024 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize.

Àlex Lora Cercós is a Spanish filmmaker, winner of seven Emmys and two Gaudí Awards, who has been nominated for a Goya and for the Student Academy Awards. The Masterpiece is his third movie at Sundance. Unicorns is his first feature. He has also co-written and edited We Are Living Things (2022) and co-directed The Fourth Kingdom (2019) and Thy Father’s Chair (2016).